Next month, CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Media Home Distribution will bring to Blu-ray three classic TV shows:
The Honeymooners,
I Love Lucy: Ultimate Season 1 and
The Andy Griffith Show: Season 1. All three will be available for purchase on May 6th.
While discussing with Home Media Magazine the extensive restoration work that was needed to prepare these classic shows for Blu-ray release, Ryan Adams, director of multimedia services for CBS Television Distribution, also confirmed that CBS is preparing Blu-ray releases of
Gunsmoke,
Rawhide,
Bonanza,
The Wild Wild West,
Petticoat Junction,
Dynasty,
The Beverly Hillbillies,
Taxi, and
Twin Peaks (with director David Lynch involved with the restoration). According to Mr. Adams, CBS is also more than halfway through a three-year spruce-up of
Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Below are the technical specs for the already detailed and available for pre-order Blu-ray releases of
The Andy Griffith Show: Season 1,
I Love Lucy: Ultimate Season 1, and
The Honeymooners: Classic 39 Episodes.
The Andy Griffith Show: Season 1
Synopsis: Few television characters have impacted family culture as much as Andy Taylor (Griffith), Barney Fife (Knotts), Opie (Howard) and the idyllic American town of Mayberry. As town sheriff and widowed father, Andy teaches his son the meaning of family, friendship, and upstanding citizenship in this all-time classic series, now in remastered HD with slick-as-a-whistle special features. Includes every episode from the first season, beautifully restored in high definition, in original night-of-broadcast form with original sponsor openings and closings.
Special Features:
- The Danny Thomas Show: "Danny Meets Andy Griffith"
- Additional Scenes
- Interview: "Person To Person" with Andy Griffith (6/14/57)
- The Howards' On-set Home Movies
- Return To Mayberry Television Movie
The Honeymooners: Classic 39 Episodes
Synopsis: Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) is a New York bus driver who dreams of a better life. With his eccentric good friend, sewer worker Ed Norton (Art Carney), Ralph constantly tries crackpot schemes to strike it rich. All the while, his exasperated wife, Alice (Audrey Meadows), is always there to bring him down to earth or to pick him up if he beats her to it. For as much as they fight, even dunderhead Ralph knows that she is the greatest and vice versa.
Special Features:
- 60 Minutes' Jackie Gleason Profile (10/28/84)
- 50th Anniversary Special
- 35th Anniversary Special
- 60 Minutes' Jackie Gleason Profile: Outtakes and Bloopers
- Person to Person Interview Segment featuring Jackie Gleason (2/3/56)
- The Adoption Featurette
- Best Buick Yet Dealer Presentation
- Two Promos
I Love Lucy: Ultimate Season 1
Official Synopsis: You've loved and laughed at Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel for years, but you've never seen
I Love Lucy like this on glorious high-definition. Coming to Blu-ray in a highly collectible set with special gloss packaging that includes every episode from the first season, each one beautifully restored in high definition, in original night-of-broadcast form with original sponsor openings and closings. The set also includes a number of as yet undetailed special features, many never before released on home video.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary (from the Criterion Collection laserdisc)
- Nine Production Featurettes:
- Before and After: The Restoration
- Fancy Editing
- Guest Cast Profiles & Bios
- Costume & Makeup Tests
- On-Set Color Home Movies
- Sponsor Talent
- Take A Bow
- Behind The Scenes (audio only)
- Slide Shows (audio & photos)
- The Very First Show (1990 Network Special)
- The Very First Show: Outtakes
- Series Bloopers/Flubs
- Clowning Around
- Interview: Meet Marc Daniels
- The Sunday Lucy Show (SD)
- 1951 Promo (SD)
- Lucy On The Radio ("My Favorite Husband" radio broadcasts, audio only)
- Photo Gallery
- Production Notes