Television's Lost Classics Volume Two: Rare Pilots Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Television's Lost Classics Volume Two: Rare Pilots Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 29, 2018

One of the more peculiar niches of my often obsessive collecting habits has been pilots of shows that never saw the light of day. Going back to the VHS era, I managed to track down and secure a number of really rare shows, and I still scout for oddities, some of which at least have become more widely obtainable with the advent of the internet (I’m still on the hunt for wacky enterprises like 1966’s Sedgewick Hawk-Styles: Prince of Danger, starring Paul Lynde). Perhaps for that reason, I was more positively inclined toward this second volume of Television’s Lost Classics than I was with regard to Television's Lost Classics Volume One , as generally interesting as that release was. Three of the four pilots included on this release are at least somewhat similar in tone and content, dealing with crime and the investigators out to tamp it down. Even the outlier, an early jettisoned version of Life of Riley, has a "crime" element since Riley discovers $5 is missing from the family hiding place.

Case of the Sure Thing was supposedly originally broadcast on CBS June 7, 1951, the only offering on this set that evidently actually made it to the airwaves, ostensibly as the pilot for a three season cop show called Racket Squad, though kind of curiously (and humorously), both the IMDb and Wikipedia list this as the last episode of the show, not the pilot (another episode is shown on the IMDb for this broadcast date). That said, it looks like Racket Squad initially had a syndicated run before it matriculated to a network, so it's possible that CBS re-aired previously produced episodes under their own auspices. Racket Squad dealt with ordinary citizens coming under the sway of con men (or, and minor spoiler alert for this particular outing, con women), but jaded modern day viewers may find the show as interesting for its Philip Morris sponsorship, one which works its way into the show with almost frightening ubiquity. I'm also not sure if licensing issues meant music was replaced, but absolutely hilariously (at least to me), the "theme music" for this hard bitten cop show is a snippet from Ferde Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite, in particular (again, hilariously) the "coconut shell" moment supposedly musically depicting burros carting stuff through the geographical wonder.

Cool and Lam. In the “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” department, or at least in the “hey, the other show based on his works is a big hit, so….” department, Cool and Lam is a 1958 pilot obviously greenlit in the wake of what was then the absolutely momentous success of Perry Mason. This is another series based on the writings of one Erle Stanley Gardner, who actually appears pre-credits to hawk the show (see screenshot 11, and unless I’m seriously mistaken, that sure looks like Perry White’s office from the old Adventures of Superman series). In this case, the show focuses on “Paul Drake(s)” rather than an attorney, pairing diminutive Donald Lam (Billy Pearson) and his penny pinching boss Bertha Cool (Benay Venuta). The potentially provocative (for that era, anyway) “female in charge” aspect isn’t really that much of an issue in this opening episode, which rather incredibly was directed by Jacques Tourneur.

Television trivia nerds (and you know who you are) are probably already aware that Life of Riley was a long running hit starring William Bendix, and real data point aficionados will also know that there was a first pre-Bendix season starring some guy named Jackie Gleason or something (Bendix had other commitments keeping him from initially essaying the role, which he was already well associated with courtesy of both radio and a feature film). Even I, a dedicated television trivia hound, didn’t know there had been another 1948 pilot featuring at least some of the cast that would make it to the other version(s), but which featured Lon Chaney, Jr., in the title role. As indicated above, the episode is built around a missing $5, which of course leads to all sorts of misunderstandings. This comes with a rather interesting pre-show text crawl “signed” by producer Irving Brecher touting the technology of “film transcription” for the then nascent technology of television, something he said would minimize the errors that were “unavoidable” during live television broadcasts.

Nero Wolfe has made it to television in at least a couple of versions, but this 1959 effort was evidently another outing spawned due to the enormous success of Perry Mason. Kurt Kasznar is a properly hefty gourmand (albeit sick with a cold), and one William Shatner (who does most of the legwork here) is on hand as Archie. This is extremely well produced and features a decent mystery surrounding the mysterious death of a missile launch specialist (this was of course done in the wake of Sputnik and all that that engendered), and it’s kind of surprising that the show didn’t make it to series.

Television's Lost Classics Volume Two: Rare Pilots Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Television's Lost Classics Volume Two: Rare Pilots is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual and VCI with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.32:1. Unlike the offerings in the first volume, it doesn't appear these were sourced from kinescopes, and the uptick in overall quality is noticeable. There are still rather wide variances in contrast especially (as perhaps can be gleaned from the screenshots accompanying this review), but on the whole these are all organic looking presentations, with stable imagery and good to very good detail levels. There are no troubling compression issues like have been seen on other VCI releases, and no real authoring weirdnesses either, other than I found myself stuck on the "Subtitles" menu when I was checking resolutions with my PC drive. I discovered on my standalone player that pressing the down button on my remote got me out of that menu and back to the Play menu.

Television's Lost Classics Volume Two: Rare Pilots Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This volume's LPCM 2.0 mono tracks all sound generally fine, with good support for dialogue and the occasional flourish of music (Nero Wolfe bears a brassy, Mancini-esque theme by none other than Alex North!). Things can sound a bit thin at times, but there are no real problems with major distortion or dropouts. Commendably, the release also features optional subtitles (including for the commercials that are on a couple of episodes).

Television's Lost Classics Volume Two: Rare Pilots Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• CBS Gag Reel (1080p; 12:16) is hosted by James Arness of Gunsmoke fame and was evidently put together for an affiliate's meeting.

Television's Lost Classics Volume Two: Rare Pilots Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hey, SabuCat (the restorer of these items): there's this peculiar 1966 thing called Sedgewick Hawk-Styles: Prince of Danger I've been curious to see for decades. Get on that for me, will you? Seriously, though, this is a rather enjoyable collection of rare television, with surprisingly solid technical merits. Recommended.