A Writer's Life

The Verdict is In

There's no question about it.  Paul Brownstein is the best producer of DVD boxed sets in the industry and he's proved it once again with PERRY MASON: THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION, which includes twelve episodes (featuring future stars like Ryan O'Neal, Robert Redford, James Coburn, and Burt Reynolds) and is loaded with special features that, on their own, are well worth the purchase price. The extras include the original audition/screen tests for Hamilton Burger and Perry Mason, two Charlie Rose interviews with Raymond Burr, and a late 1950s episode of "Person to Person" in which Burr gives viewers a tour of his L.A. home. As if that wasn't enough, they've also got interviews, featurettes, and the "Perry Mason Returns" TV movie. I wish they'd included an episode of  THE NEW PERRY MASON, starring Monte Markham, for the hell of it.  If you you're a TV geek like me, you're going to love this boxed set.  I also strongly recommend Brownstein's amazing GUNSMOKE, DICK VAN DYKE SHOW and WILD WILD WEST sets.

STINGRAY: THE COMPLETE SERIES, the Steve Cannell series that starred Nick Mancuso, arrived in my mailbox today from Amazon in Canada, which sells it for half as much as Amazon stateside ($22 vs $44!). It's a quirky series that I loved when it aired and that is probably not as good as I remember it, but I'll let you know.

MANNIX Extras

TVShowsonDVD reports that the extras on the  MANNIX first season box set will include clips from "Hardboiled Murder," the DIAGNOSIS MURDER episode that Bill Rabkin & I wrote that brought Joe Mannix out of retirement...

Mannix comes to DVD

Back in November, the Washington Post wrote about MANNIX and efforts by fans to get the iconic private eye show on DVD. Well, I guess the publicity paid off. TVShowsonDVD reports that the first season of MANNIX is coming to DVD in June. But that first year of the show was about an "old school" detective Joe Mannix (Mike Connors) working for a "high-tech" computerized detective agency run by Joseph Campanella. The ratings weren't great so, for year two, it became a straight-forward, old-fashioned, PI show with Joe Mannix on his own, aided only by his secretary (Gail Fisher) and his various friends on the police force. The ratings rebounded and the show ran for seven more years. It was canceled while it was still a hit, making a baffled Connors wonder if then CBS-boss Fred Silverman was simply tired of the show...

I know both sides of the story (I worked with Connors and Silverman), but I'm not telling. Maybe Connors will tell you more about it in the interview that comes as one of the DVD extras.

Cobra

TVShowsonDVD.com is reporting that the syndicated series COBRA, which lasted only a season, is coming to DVD  in February, but only up  in Canada, which was where the show was shot. Bill Rabkin & I wrote nine or ten episodes of COBRA,  so I'll be buying one of the boxed sets through Amazon.

Hasselhoffed

My boxed set of the real first season episodes of BAYWATCH arrived from the UK this weekend. I'd forgotten how good the production values were and how truly awful the writing was (and yes, I am talking about my own scripts). The theme song from the first season was Peter Cetera's "Save Me," and the title sequence was carefully cut to match the song. Cetera's song is gone and some awful crap by Kim Carnes has been slapped on in its place.  The problem isn't so much the song, but the fact that the moves in the song don't match the edits in the main title sequence so it feels out-of-sync, like dubbed dialgoue that doesn't follow the movements of the actors' lips. What I don't get is why they couldn't substitute "Save Me" with the "I'll Be There" theme from the syndicated seasons...

Baywatch Confusion

All 22 episodes of the original, first season of BAYWATCH, which aired on NBC, is coming out on DVD on Monday  in England. A first season boxed set of BAYWATCH episodes is also coming out on the same day on these shores... only they are entirely different episodes. Confused? I know I was.

The first season that's coming out on DVD here is actually season two, the first syndicated season of the show. The U.S. boxed set reportedly has two episodes from the real first season, which they are calling "the lost pilot season." If that wasn't bad enough, the episodes in the U.S. are also missing the original score. What were they thinking? The only reason I care at all about this debacle is because I wrote a bunch of first season BAYWATCH episodes on NBC and, as bad as they were, I wouldn't mind having them on DVD... so I had to shell out $65 to get the Brit version which, by the way, will only work on a multi-standard player or on your computer.

Maverick DVD

MAVERICK was an incredible TV series that was way, way ahead of its time. This DVD sampler is nice... but it's no substitute for a feature-packed DVD boxed set produced by someone like Paul Brownstein (who did the amazing GUNSMOKE, WILD WILD WEST and DICK VAN DYKE boxed sets). But if Warner Brothers ever wants to do another MAVERICK sampler, let's see one that includes the "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres" episode from the original MAVERICK, the unsold ABC pilot THE NEW MAVERICK, the pilot from the CBS series YOUNG MAVERICK, and the first and last episodes of the NBC series BRET MAVERICK. Seeing "Shady Deal" and the last episode of BRET MAVERICK (in which Jack Kelly makes a surprise appearance as Bart) would make nice bookends to the entire MAVERICK saga.

Simon and Simon

TVShowsonDVD reports that the first season of SIMON AND SIMON is coming out on DVD in October. I wonder if it will include the original, unaired pilot. Some footage from that pilot was later incorporated into another episode.  That's the kind of stuff that makes the difference between a great DVD set and once that's only okay.  I also wonder if the first season shows will have the original theme which, like the MAGNUM PI theme, was dropped in favor of a new one for the second season.

This is a great time to be alive if you are a TV Geek Like me

TVShowsOnDVD reports that the complete series of the 70s sitcom BRIDGET LOVES BIRNEY is being released on DVD in September for $29.95. Then again, the complete series of ROAR, BOOK OF DANIEL, and COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF are coming out, too... so it's clear this whole TV Shows on DVD business makes no sense at all. But it gives me hope that such forgotten classics as, ahem, SHE-WOLF OF LONDON and MURPHY'S LAW will some day show up on the shelves at Best Buy.

Baywatch coming to DVD

TVShowsonDVD reports that BAYWATCH is coming to DVD...beginning with seasons two and season three. What happened to season one?

The first season of the show, which I worked on as a story editor, aired on NBC (and had a different theme song -- Peter Cetera's "Save Me"). After the show was cancelled, the series was revived in first-run syndication and became the most popular show in the world.

When the series went into reruns, those NBC episodes weren't part of the package (so much for my dreams of big BAYWATCH residuals) and haven't been seen in years. Now those first season shows are being billed as "lost episodes," and instead of being released as a set, will be doled out one or two at a time as "bonus features" on the boxed sets of the nine syndicated seasons (I wonder if they will go the cheap route and replace the Peter Cetera theme with the syndicated series theme to avoid paying for licensing). So the only way to get the complete first season is to buy all the other sets. There's no way in hell I'm going to do that...