May 21, 2025 • 54 mins
Tim Millard and George Feltenstein from the Warner Archive delve into the fantastic new Blu-ray releases of three diverse classics spanning silent film, television westerns, and animated cartoons.
• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), a silent film that launched Rudolph Valentino's career, underwent a three-year restoration process
• Warner Bros. worked closely with film preservationists Kevin Brownlow and Patrick Stanberry to accurately recreate the film's original tints and tones
• Cheyenne (1955-1962), television's first hour-long western, now available as a complete series with all 107 episodes scanned in 4K from original camera negatives
• The series marked Warner Bros.' entrance into television production and starred Clint Walker as the beloved Cheyenne Bodie
• Wacky Races (1968) restoration brings vibrant colors and details to the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon series
• The Warner Archive team faced unique challenges with animation restoration due to how segments were originally archived
Purchase Links:
THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE (1921)-1993 PHOTOPLAY RESTORATION Blu-ray
CHEYENNE-The Complete Series (1957-1962) Blu-ray
WACKY RACES: The Complete Series (1968) Blu-ray
Replacement Program Communications
Upgraded Audio is available on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Important news : Recently, we upgraded the audio tracks to five releases. These changes were what we call, “running changes” so many customers already have the upgraded Audio. But if you were one of the early purchasers of these titles you may be eligible to receive a free replacement disc that includes the upgraded audio.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Blu-ray) is eligible for a replacement disc that will include DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo Audio. To know if you’re eligible for the replacement, check your purchased disc. If it does not have DTS-MA HD 2.0 Stereo Audio you’re eligible for a replacement.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tim Millard (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Extras.
I'm Tim Millard, your host, andjoining me today is George
Feltenstein from the WarnerArchive.
Hi, George.
George Feltenstein (00:06):
Hey there, Tim, glad to be with you.
Tim Millard (00:09):
Yeah, we've got a lot of titles we haven't
reviewed.
Most of them came out in totalk about a few of the ones
that have been lingering, andwe'll start off with one that I
(00:31):
think actually released in Marchbut we didn't get a chance to
get to it, and that is this veryfabulous silent film, the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse from1921.
I was blown away, George.
(01:13):
This is it's like a silent filmopera on epic scale the music,
the scope of the storytelling,the mythology, the mythology.
I didn't know what to expect,so I was just enthralled.
This whole time and it's a longfilm I thought, hey, I might
(01:35):
get a little tired.
No, I was absorbed the wholetime, and part of that, of
course, is this greatrestoration.
That adds a lot in terms of theviewership and how well you can
get into these films.
So that's fabulous and weshould probably talk about that
right away because I know that'sa big part of this release.
George Feltenstein (01:57):
This was an extraordinarily successful
silent film when it came outsilent film when it came out.
It cost over a million dollarsto make and the Metro Pictures
Corporation was basically.
It was sink or swim based onthe success of this movie and
(02:31):
the director, rex Ingram, very,very unknown today except by
certain silent film aficionados.
He had extraordinary talentbehind the camera and all of his
films are really, reallyfascinating.
But this really resonated withthe public.
Metro got behind it with a very, very big ad campaign and it
was a massive success.
And it also led to establishingRudolph Valentino as a star.
(02:53):
After his famous tango sequencein this movie, his film career
took off like dynamite.
So the film was very successfulat the box office in its
(03:48):
initial run.
It played at very prestigioustheaters and, of course, in the
silent era, when movies were abig substance and opened in big
cities, they had live orchestrasaccompanying them, orchestras
(04:10):
accompanying them.
And this film was so successfulthat five years after its
release, when Valentino suddenlydied, MGM which is how Metro
merged with Goldman Picturesunder the aegis of Lowe's
Incorporated and LB Merck camein to run it and that became MGM
Incorporated and LB Mayer camein to run it and that became MGM
.
Mgm re-released the movie in ashorter form in 1926.
(04:31):
So, fast forward to the early90s, kevin Brownlow and David
Gill of Photo Play Productionsapproached a wonderful gentleman
who I consider to be one of thefathers of film preservation,
roger Mayer.
No relation to LB, roger wasthe president of Turner
Entertainment Company, which wasostensibly what MGM was after
(05:01):
Ted Turner bought it, butKerkorian.
But he kept the library, and soRoger was the president of
Turner Entertainment Companyafter having worked at MGM for
25 years prior, and he wasreally the father of the nitrate
to safetyversion Program.
(05:22):
Kevin Brownlow and David Gillcame to Roger Mayer in 1992 with
the proposition to do aphotochemical restoration of the
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypseand fortunately, under Roger's
aegis, the nitrate materialsthat MGM had on the film were
(05:48):
protected onto safety film andKevin and David took the film
elements that were under thecare of Turner Entertainment
Company and were able to add toit certain shots and pieces of
(06:10):
the film that were missing fromthe master MGM materials.
And the end result was thatthey were able to basically put
the whole thing back together asclose as possible and they
recreated the tints and tonesand even certain hand colored
(06:33):
frames of the film originalscore for this new presentation,
which was then put on standarddefinition videotape in 1993.
(06:53):
And I believe it aired, likelyon TNT, because this was right
before the start of TurnerClassic Movies, right before the
start of Turner Classic Movies.
So Kevin and David would workwith Carl Davis to tour theaters
(07:14):
with this film and have liveorchestral accompaniment and as
well, there was the ability tosee the film on television.
As far as a home entertainmentrelease goes, there was a
LaserDisc in 1997 of the VideoMaster that Kevin had created.
(07:37):
That was probably available forless than a year.
It was very hard to find,probably available for less than
a year.
(07:58):
It was very hard to find and itwas of using what work Kevin
did.
We had a print that he had madethat reflected these tints and
tones and all the footage thatthey had reclaimed, and we used
(08:20):
the Video Master that they hadcreated.
And that's when the work beganhere at Warner Brothers Motion
Picture Imaging.
The colorist, doug Drake,worked with one of my colleagues
on the mastering team, anthonyBilotti, for close to three
years.
(08:41):
This was a project of enormousdifficulty and what we also
really wanted to do was makesure we were faithful to the
work that Kevin and David did onthe 1993 iteration 1993
(09:02):
iteration.
We had the print that they used, we had the VideoMaster that
they used and we had our ownfilm materials.
So all the film was scanned at4K and it was a painstaking
process for everybody involvedto make this what it turned out
(09:23):
to be involved, to make thiswhat it turned out to be and,
the most important thing for me,because I do have a close
friendship with PatrickStanberry of PhotoPlay he works
with Kevin now.
David Gill passed away severalyears ago and Kevin and Patrick
have been PhotoPlay for, I'd say, over 20 years at this point.
(09:47):
They've done wonderful thingsand I wanted to make sure this
had their sign-off, theirapproval, because their name was
going to be on it.
I wanted to make it clear thatthis was a new digital
presentation based on thephotochemical work they did 30
(10:08):
plus years ago.
So we sent them in England, wesent them over files that they
could view and they provided uswith guidance.
Like this tint isn't exactlywhere it should be, it needs to
be more lavender or this needsto be more blue, and the font
(10:29):
you should use is this and that.
So, after nearly three yearsand an exorbitant amount of
money.
The net result is what you haveon the Blu-ray disc.
We wanted it be something thatkevin and patrick and, of course
, the late david gill, uh thathonored their work and would
(10:54):
have their name on it, as wellas the people on our side that
did all the reconstructive work,because they were working with
multiple film elements, as wellas the print that Kevin had made
back in 1992-93.
So the enormity of the detailthat went into making this exact
(11:18):
to what Kevin had specified waspainstaking and well worth
every minute of it © BF-WATCH TV2021.
(12:15):
So Carl Davis wrote andperformed with the orchestra
this incredible, beautifulstereophonic score, this
incredible beautifulstereophonic score, and this, of
course, is an integral part ofthe presentation.
And although our file you know,because everything is now files
(12:36):
as opposed to tapes our filewas proper Somehow in the disc
manufacturing.
The first batch of discs cameout with a mono soundtrack, and
I bring this up because we dofor the people that ended up.
The first few rounds of copiesthat went out went out with this
(12:58):
incorrect soundtrack.
We have corrected thesoundtrack to its proper grand
stereo and there's a replacementprogram.
Nobody has to send their discsback, but we have a program in
place to replace discs.
People can contact Movie Zing,which is the website of our
(13:20):
distribution partner, alliedVaughn Entertainment, and we'll
be able to provide, uh, acorrected disc to those who
ended up with a mono track.
After all that work, to havediscs come out with the mono
soundtrack was, uh, a little bitupsetting, to say the least.
But I'm glad that we were ableto get to correct it fairly
(13:43):
quickly and the response to thedisc has been enormously
positive and I'm really hopefulthat we'll be able to do more
with our silent library.
(14:04):
People have been asking us foryears for certain films, and
some films will be comingthrough us.
Some will be coming throughpartners that we work with, but
there will be more silent filmscoming on disc to home viewers
who really want them.
So that's the good news.
But this is really a very, veryspecial movie that deserves to
(14:30):
be presented with this kind of apalatial presentation.
We're very proud of it.
Tim Millard (14:37):
Yeah, and you should be, because the story is
so fascinating that you justgave about the background.
But if you just come to thefilm not knowing any of that,
you just pick up this Blu-rayand you think what is this?
Or you know a little bit aboutit and you put it in and you
watch it the sound, as you justspoke of, amazing.
(14:59):
And then the visuals arefantastic.
And then the storyline.
And then the visuals arefantastic, and then the
storyline.
I mean I wanted to know moreabout this director, this Irish
director, rex Ingram.
So I had to do some Googlebecause I just like what a
visionary and I know there wassource material to this but what
(15:21):
a visionary in terms of what hedid at that time, with effects,
with overlays of these horsemenand this kind of apocryphal
feel to it.
I thought it was fantastic.
And then, of course, the actingwith Rudolph Valentino and then
Alice Terry, who playsMarguerite in this film.
All of that together wasfascinating.
(15:41):
I had to do a little bit moreresearch because that's part of
the film history.
That's kind of fun when youdiscover stuff, right, yeah,
yeah.
And then from there I ended upreading about June Mathis, who
is the screenwriter being well.
She worked with Ingram on fourfilms, but she was the first
female executive at Metro MGMand the highest paid executive
in the 1920s.
That's fascinating.
And the highest paid executivein the 1920s that's fascinating.
(16:04):
So this tremendous talentbehind and in front of the
camera, no wonder it was such afabulous picture.
But what a great job nowbringing this so that modern day
fans, whether they be teenagersor whatever age, can watch this
(16:24):
and say this is just greatfilmmaking, without question, I
think.
George Feltenstein (16:29):
And there are certain directors DW
Griffith, eric von Stroheim thatare known for their great
silent films.
But Rex Ingram is not the firstname that comes to mind, even
among cinephiles, unless they'revery, very, very well versed
and educated in the silent era.
(16:49):
But, um, to have a modernaudience rediscover this film or
discover this film for thefirst time with this kind of a
presentation, there's still thisperception that silent films
are rinky-tink and they're spedup because they were so poorly
(17:12):
exhibited for so many years.
We now live in an era wherethere is a magnificent amount of
restoration work and care goingon in the presentation of
silent films and many peoplethey're doing it independently.
(17:33):
Uh, some are doing it sponsoredby various archives.
There are many, many people likethere's a silent film community
.
It's obviously relatively small, but it's fervent and
passionate and I pacifistmessage is very important more
(17:53):
than 100 years later and I thinkthat that will only add to its
impact.
Impact and we're very proud ofit.
(18:29):
We worked on it for so long andparticularly my colleagues not
just Doug the colorist andAnthony who oversaw the
mastering, but many other peopleat MPI did amazing things to be
able to recreate those tintsand tones that were
photochemically on that printand then make sure that it got
(18:52):
Kevin and Patrick's approval.
We did it and I really hopepeople who may not be
particularly interested in thesilent era we'll give this a try
because it's really worth doing.
Tim Millard (19:06):
Yeah, and I highly recommend it to people like
myself who are not reallyknowledgeable about that silent
era.
I've become more knowledgeable,as I've mentioned to you,
george, through the films wetalk about that you've released.
I've become more knowledgeable,but when I saw this film, I
have to say I thought it was ona different level.
It's not a comedy.
(19:28):
It's an epic, it is.
Yeah, it's like when you watchBen-Hur.
It's like, oh my God, this ison an epic level.
It doesn't mean you enjoy itmore or less than a comedy, but
I'm just saying the filmmakingis so impressive to me and maybe
I'm going on too much about it,but I really thought this was a
fantastic movie and I hopepeople will check it out who
(19:51):
maybe aren't sure what theythink about silent films,
because they're thinking of somekind of a comedy or or you know
, stunt type of silent film oror a a Western.
Uh, is not.
This is a 1921 version ofsomething on the level of a
Cleopatra or Ben-Hur.
George Feltenstein (20:11):
And to make a good point, this film was, of
course, based on a verybest-selling novel of the era
and it was remade in the early60s by one of my favorite
directors, vincent minnelli, andit was an incredibly tortured
(20:32):
production.
They tried to set it duringworld war ii.
Um the remake.
It pains me to even say thesewords.
The remake is pretty bad.
It has a brilliant musicalscore by Andre Previn, but it
was a tremendous disappointmentto MGM.
Thankfully, the original holdsup beautifully and I know that
(20:59):
there are some people that havea fondness for the remake.
I'm not among them, but since itis a work of one of my favorite
directors, it's painful for meto talk about.
But boy, that was a troubledproduction.
This was not a troubledproduction and was looked upon
(21:19):
as really one of the benchmarksof the silent era.
So I heartily urge people totake the chance and also to to
underscore again.
Just like I said earlier, thereis a lot of wonderful work
being done by many people torestore silent films and make
(21:42):
them accessible to newgenerations, and I urge people
to explore the wonderful worldof silent film.
It really is important.
(21:58):
Warner Brothers presents who belongs Cheyenne Next pastor's
always so green, drifted onCheyenne.
(22:22):
Don't forget the things youhave seen and when you settle
down where will it be, cheyenne?
Tim Millard (22:38):
Well, george, the next title that we're going to
talk about, I was equallyimpressed, but of course this is
the TV series Cheyenne, and youreleased the complete Blu-ray,
which is a whopping 108 episodes, and those ran on ABC from 1955
to 1962.
And I found out a few thingsthat I didn't know.
(23:01):
I'm sure you knew, but this wasthe first hour-long Western
right and, as I understand it,the first hour-long dramatic
series to last more than oneseason.
It was the first originalseries from a major Hollywood
studio.
So it's historic in just a lotof ways beyond just the
popularity studio.
(23:22):
So it's historic in just a lotof ways beyond just the
popularity.
But we have to thank producerWilliam T Orr for what he did
for Warner Brothers Televisionand bringing this series to it.
But hey, I'm a fan of Westerns,I love these classic TV series,
and so I dove in veryenthusiastically, watched a lot
of episodes and the show holdsup terrific.
(23:42):
It's entertaining, it'saction-packed.
The charm of Clint Walkerendures.
You can't help but root for thecharacter of Cheyenne Bodhi
because of Clint's portrayal.
He's wholesome and heroic.
He's handsome and big andpowerful.
He's all of these things thatyou wanted in TV serials back
(24:06):
then and I think you still dotoday, but it's just a great
show with this now, fantasticrestoration.
I absolutely loved it.
George Feltenstein (24:16):
Well, we're very proud of it.
It was actually you said 108episodes and I have to clarify
there were 107 Cheyenne episodes.
A couple of weeks afterCheyenne had stopped for that
(24:39):
sixth season, in its time slotas part of the quote-unquote
Cheyenne show, they ran a pilotfor a series that was
forthcoming called the Dakotas,and that episode was called A
man Called Reagan and it hadnothing to do with Cheyenne.
It was broadcast in its timeslot.
(25:02):
So people think, well, where isthe pilot for the Dakotas?
It was part of Cheyenne.
No, it wasn't.
It just aired in its slot, andthat's how ABC marketed it.
We have released on DVD all 19,I think it's 19, episodes of
the Dakotas.
It only lasted a half season.
(25:23):
So Cheyenne holds a veryspecial place in my heart for
numerous reasons.
In the early days of the WarnerArchive, we realized that the
company had a huge library ofclassic television that had
never been made available before.
The first season of Cheyennewas released to retailers and it
(25:48):
didn't sell well enough to gobeyond that.
So we picked up the gauntletand we released seasons 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, and 7 on DVD, seasons 2,3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 on DVD, and
now these new masters, 4k scansof the original camera, negative
, beautiful HD masters,beautiful Blu-ray, nice, healthy
(26:13):
bit rates, no cramming episodeson less discs, and we have
packaging that actually has eachseason individually presented,
with each disc carefully put onits own holder.
So there's no disc stacking,there's no discs falling out all
(26:35):
over the place.
I was really, really fightinghard for good packaging on this,
because if we put all this workinto the remastering, then to
have it in packaging that'sgoing to have discs fall out all
over, you just would be doingthe series an injustice.
(27:05):
The history of this series forthe company is very important
because it began life as WarnerBrothers' first attempt to be in
the television business andBill Orr, who you just mentioned
, william T Orr was JackWarner's son-in-law.
He was married to Jack Warner'sstepdaughter, right, and so he
had been an actor, is a reallygreat guy, and Jack put him in
(27:29):
charge of the TV division andfor a string, starting with
Cheyenne and I'll tell a littlebit more about how Cheyenne
started with Cheyenne and I'lltell a little bit more about how
Cheyenne started.
Starting with Cheyenne, he had,I would say, an eight-year run
(27:50):
of Warner Brothers reallytrailblazing with their
television productions and beingthe primary supplier of content
to the fledgling ABC network,which didn't have the kind of
funding as NBC and CBS.
So how they started was with ananthology series of rotating
(28:17):
programs.
Every three weeks you'd see anew episode of a specific
program.
So the three programs wereCasablanca, based on the movie
with Charles McGraw, and thenKing's Road, which was based on
the movie that had starredRonald Reagan and Ann Sheridan,
(28:38):
and then Cheyenne, which was notbased on the 1947 Warner
Brothers movie Cheyenne, it onlyused the title.
It was a fresh idea and ClintWalker was basically unknown.
He had done some bit parts.
He was in a Bowery Boys moviecalled Jungle Gents, but he was
(29:00):
undiscovered and there'ssomething about his personality
that just was incrediblymagnetic.
Rotating three different seriesrotating under the umbrella of
(29:26):
Warner Brothers Presents, andwithin the one hour time slot
before the very end of theepisode of either Cheyenne or
Kings Row or Casablanca, youwould see host Gig Young stop
everything to spend five or sixminutes promoting a new Warner
Brothers movie, and thatsequence was called Behind the
Cameras.
(29:47):
Well, none of those other seriesreally made a dent in the
ratings.
They were not performing well.
Cheyenne was immediatelydrawing more viewers and so
after these episodes were filmedthey decided to not proceed
(30:10):
with any more Casablanca and notproceed with any more King's
Row.
I think there were 15 episodesof Cheyenne and they balanced
off the rest of that season withunrelated anthology programs
that were self-contained by thenext season.
Cheyenne had a regular timeslot and people tuned in and
(30:35):
Clint Walker had establishedhimself immediately as a hero to
young kids, and men loved thefact that he was such a great
action star.
Women loved him because he wasvery attractive.
He was just a beloved performerand became a big, big star and
(31:03):
that also was the start ofWarner Brothers television going
into new directions and you mayhave noticed that there were
some contract performers insmall parts.
In the first season of Cheyennethere's an episode, mountain
Fortress.
I think it's the first one.
(31:23):
And there's James Garner inthere long before he stepped
into the shoes of Maverick, andCheyenne was the first of many
Warner Brothers Western series.
Maverick was the next to followand then came Bronco and Lawman
and Sugarfoot and people willnotice that there are fewer
(31:49):
episodes of the later seasonsand that is because Mr Walker
had a little bit of adisagreement with Mr Warner.
He didn't want to have to makeas many episodes as was usually
required and he even went on.
Basically he went on strike fora whole season.
(32:12):
There was a whole season wherethere was the Cheyenne show but
it was Bronco and Sugarfootepisodes and not Cheyenne.
He came back and he finisheduntil the 1962-63 season and the
last broadcast was actually thelast new show was shown in the
(32:35):
end of 1962.
But it was a seven-season run,107 episodes, and that's a lot
of work for our team ofrestorationists and mastering
people and we tried to make surethat we included everything
that was on the negatives.
The negatives were playedaround with a little bit but we
(32:58):
were able to put back thebumpers, you know.
And now we return to Cheyenne.
You know all those things areimportant and there's General
Electric sponsorship mentionsand the fact the ABC television
network is mentioned.
We wish that there was moreleft in those negatives.
We would have included them.
So in the third season ofCheyenne you have Clint Walker.
(33:24):
He actually introduced WillHutchins as Sugarfoot and you
ended up having, like Sugarfootepisodes in the Cheyenne show,
along with, eventually, broncowith Ty Harden.
Those three series kind of werein rotation within the Cheyenne
(33:48):
show.
So, uh, we released DVD sets ofall those other Westerns and
I'm hoping that we'll be able todo the same thing with them
that we've done with Cheyenne.
And if Cheyenne sells well, itwill pave the way for Maverick
and Sugarfoot and Lawman andBronco and all the Warner
(34:11):
Westerns that became so popular.
But the other thing that'sreally, I think, on a personal
note, because we were offeringin the early days of the Warner
Archive, we were offering theCheyenne DVDs Clint Walker, god
(34:32):
bless him.
He and his wife were sellingepisodes that Clint would
autograph, were selling episodesthat Clint would autograph.
So they were buying DVDs fromus for Clint to autograph and
send out to fans.
And we established a very closerelationship and he would call
(34:54):
us up all the time and I had thegreat good fortune of
interviewing him at the PaleyCenter when we had like a Warner
Archive weekend.
This is probably like 12, 13years ago and he was just the
nicest, most down-to-earth,remarkable guy and his fan base
(35:18):
continued because Cheyennedidn't really disappear.
I believe Encore WesternsNetwork was running it at the
same time.
We were selling the DVDs and hewas getting love letters from
little 12-year-old girls thatthought he was still the guy of
1957 and not the guy of 2012.
(35:40):
He was just completely down toearth and he welcomed his public
and he made personalappearances around the country
Just the best guy and I feelhonored to have known him.
But the series itself if wewere going to make a commitment
(36:02):
to bringing out such asubstantial show with
substantial expense to do so, wehad to start with Cheyenne,
because it was the success ofCheyenne that led to all these
other programs that were thecornerstone of Warner Brothers
(36:22):
television, and Warner Brotherstelevision, as of September,
will be celebrating its 70thbirthday, and think of all the
wonderful television shows ourTV division has brought to
audiences for the last sevendecades.
So where it all began.
That was a great honor for usand I'm glad the initial
(36:47):
response to the series has beenoverwhelming and very, very
positive and the fans just wantmore.
Tim Millard (36:55):
Yeah, and I'm hoping we can comply.
Well, I think a big part ofthat is you thought about the
collector when you put thistogether and you chose that
packaging.
Not just the restoration, but Imean when you chose that
packaging you knew, hey look,this is an expensive set and if
you're going to shell out thiskind of money as a collector,
(37:16):
you're going to want to havesomething that's going to
survive a couple of moves if youneed to move them from one room
to another or one house toanother, and so having them each
season in its own Blu-ray casewith the artwork looks great on
your shelf and also will last.
So that's a biggie.
And then the restoration itself, and I thought my opinion that
(37:39):
the price point you put it atwas very reasonable compared to
some of the other full series Isee out there that are only DVD,
not Blu-ray, that are stillthis cost or more.
So I thought the price pointalso for the collect was very
good.
And then, of course, the showis so good.
George Feltenstein (37:57):
We wanted to make sure that we could come up
with a price that wasreasonable but also give the
consumer something that issubstantially safe in terms of
packaging.
I buy a lot of TV sets myselffrom various different companies
(38:17):
and there's nothing morefrustrating when the discs are
stacked on top of another.
Or you open up this monstercase and you have 40 discs
falling on the floor, right, um,I did not want.
That's not what the warnerarchive is about.
Yeah, we're about what theconsumer wants.
Um and uh.
(38:39):
I'm really delighted with thefact that we were able to make
this check all the boxes, and Ihope people really enjoy it.
Tim Millard (38:48):
You know I have a lot of prized Warner Archive
films and TV series, but I'vegot this one right up there as
one of my prized ones now,George, because of the beautiful
artwork and the packaging, ofcourse, Because while any show
can be terrific, displaying thenice packaging is is part of
(39:10):
when you watch these beautifulnew 4k scans off the camera
negatives, it does kind of showwhat you wouldn't have seen on a
(39:31):
little television screen backin the day.
George Feltenstein (39:34):
Um the frequent use of stock footage,
you can clearly tell when theyhave a shot outside that could
have been from you know thethirties or something, and then
they go to the next scene.
That's on a soundstage and it's.
It's really noticeable it is.
But that's part of the charmbecause it represents how
(39:55):
television programming wasevolving.
Television was, in its basicfirst decade of being a consumer
, primary source ofentertainment for people not
only in this country.
But by the later part of the1950s television started making
entries all over the world.
(40:17):
So the fact that this seriesstill packs a punch no pun
intended today is somethingwe're very proud of.
Tim Millard (40:25):
Before we wrap up on Cheyenne, I did want to
mention that I watched thisinterview featurette with Clint
where he basically reminiscesabout his time on the series and
it's really informative.
But to your point about himbeing such a nice guy, that
really comes across just in thatas you're hearing him talk, and
(40:45):
he's so appreciative of thetime, of course, that he was on
the show and what what thatbrought to him in his life.
But I really enjoyed that.
I want fans to know that.
That's on there as well and isa terrific I think it's on the
first season actually.
Yes, so it's a.
(41:01):
It's a really nice, uh little extra there as well for the fans
and now, here they are, themost daredevil group of daffy
drivers to ever whirl theirwheels in the wacky races,
competing for the title of theworld's wackiest racer.
The cars are approaching thestarting line.
First is the turbo terrificdriven by Peter Perfect, next
(41:25):
Rufus Roughcutt and Sawtooth inthe buzz wagon.
Maneuvering for position is theArmy Surplus Special.
Right behind is the Ant HillMob in their bulletproof bomb,
and there's ingenious inventorPat Pending in his converter car
.
Oh, and here's the lovelyPenelope Pitstop, the glamour
gal of the gas pedal.
Next we have the Bowler Mobilewith the Slag Brothers Rock and
(41:46):
Gravel Lurching along.
Is the Creepy Coop with theSlag Brothers Rock and Gravel
Birching along.
Is the Creepy Coop with theGruesome Twosome, and right on
their tail is the Red Max.
And there's the ArkansasChuggabug with Luke and Blubber
Bear Sneaking along.
Last is that mean machine withthose double-dealing do-batters
Dick Dastardly and his sidekickMuttley.
And even now they're up to somedirty trick and they're off to
(42:07):
a standing start.
And Now they're up to somedirty trick and they're off to a
standing start.
And why not?
They've been chained to a postby shifty Dick Dasterly who
shifts into the wrong gear.
Tim Millard (42:21):
And away they go on the way out.
Wacky races Well, the nextthing we're going to talk about,
george is another TV series.
This is from Hanna-Barbera andand it's Wacky Race is the
Complete Series from 1958.
And I watched a number of theseepisodes and the time just kind
of flew by because they are sofun and entertaining.
There's just very little pointto them other than there's a
(42:41):
race and there's all of thesethings that they're trying to do
to each other, whether it beDick Dastardly or whoever it is
trying to win this race.
And I love the narrator.
The restoration here in theselooks good and it's like a
nostalgia throwback to Saturdaymorning cartoons.
George Feltenstein (43:00):
Absolutely, and it was a very different.
It was a different kind ofSaturday morning cartoon coming
from Hanna-Barbera.
It wasn't like anything elseand it is my understanding.
I'm not expert on its genesisexactly, but I believe the idea
(43:25):
in well.
I know the idea involved thesame people who produced the
hollywood squares, the game showright heater and quigley, and I
think there was originally anidea to do something live action
and it ended up being animated.
They're still credited on theend of the program in
(43:47):
association with uh.
But uh, this became such a fanfavorite when it premiered on
saturday mornings that it wasrerun frequently and then led to
two spinoff shows.
There was dastardly and mutleyand, of course, the perils of
Penelope Pitstop, but it allbegan with Wacky Races and you
(44:12):
look at the old DVDs and thecolors are washed out and
there's dirt all over the placeand suddenly you see it new,
coming off the negatives, 4kscan and beautiful color and it
just brings you much more intothe art of it as well.
(44:33):
As the writing is really sharpand very comical and uh, the
voice artists are terrific and,um, people were very excited
that we were putting this outand people I I know some people
have been a little put off bythe fact that there were bridges
(44:55):
in the original networkbroadcasts that are not part of
our release.
Well, the way Hanna-Barbera putthings together, they did not
have a complete show negative,everything was segments and
unfortunately, the littlebridges weren't in the negative
(45:20):
and were not able to be found.
They may exist in other formsand collectors may have 16
millimeter prints and whatnot,but this was not really the core
of what that show was about andwe didn't want to cut away from
the excellence of the qualityand, frankly, that was just our
(45:43):
guess that, hey, maybe they'reout there somewhere.
That, hey, maybe they're outthere somewhere.
You know, for McGillig gorillawe were really at a real problem
place because we could notlocate 35 millimeter negative on
the curtain call and it was avery kind film collector who
(46:04):
allowed us to use his 16millimeter print, which we
brought the color back as bestas we could because it was faded
, and we cleaned it up and thatenabled us to have complete
McGill and Gorilla shows.
So I just have to mention that.
Those of you who were hoping tosee those bridges because
(46:25):
everybody wants to seeeverything exactly as it was I'm
one of those people as well.
But it was not possible heredue to the way that these shows
were maintained.
It's a problem on a lot ofHanna-Barbera shows that were
not.
You know, things like Top Catand the Flintstones and the
Jetsons.
They were one continuous storyand the Jetsons, they were one
(46:47):
continuous story, but whenthings were built out of
segments.
They were not stored andinventoried properly and we're
paying the price for negligenceof what happened 60 years ago.
Wacky Races is not quite 60years old, but it's getting
there.
We are providing it in a waythat looks and sounds better
(47:11):
than it ever has, probably evensince the original airing.
So I stand by it.
It's also very reasonablypriced and I hope people really
enjoy it.
(47:26):
Drat.
One of them turned off, butwe'll stop the rest of them.
When we blast the pass, youplant the dynamite, muttley, and
I'll give you the signal.
What was that?
Tim Millard (47:48):
I just love Don Messick's voicing of Motley, I
mean.
George Feltenstein (47:53):
Well, and he did that in other.
There were other series too,you know, like Quick Drama Girl
had snuffles and it was the same, you know.
I mean, they used that a lotand it worked every time.
It worked every time.
That's part of the charm ofhannah barbara yeah, and then uh
, and then.
Tim Millard (48:12):
It has so many different cars so you can have
your favorite car, you can haveyour favorite team.
They're all so different.
The creativity that went intothis that you could just tell
that everybody's having a lot offun.
And the uh extras that you haveon here, which, uh, let me see
I have them here.
You've got a rear view mirror,a look back at Wacky Races.
That has a lot of theinformation from because you
(48:35):
have interviews with the peoplewho worked on the show, of what
went into the design and they'reall, of course, trying to
remember years back of did youcreate that or did I do that,
but it's fun to hear themtalking about it and all the
creativity and the fun they hadjust creating the cars, coming
up with the wacky ideas, thenarrator and everything.
(48:55):
So that's on there.
That's really fun.
You've got spin out andspinoffs, which is about the
other spin off.
As you mentioned, there's atrivia track and really a real
gem here you got fourcommentaries with a lot of the
people who worked on the show,so those are also really that's
a great package of extras toalso have on here.
George Feltenstein (49:15):
We always try to carry over what was
created years ago, when we had alot more staff and a lot more
budget in this arena, but noteverything survives.
Some things won't play backanymore and some things can't be
(49:36):
located Because, tim, you werepart of the group for so many
years here.
No one had the foresight to putthe care into storing of
special features the way theywould with a film or a
television program itself, andthat's always the way it should
(49:57):
have been.
That is the way it is now, uh,but sometimes we go through a
lot of difficulty trying to findthese pieces, and I'm glad we
were able to include so much onthis, because it does make a
great deal of difference.
Tim Millard (50:13):
Yeah, yeah, because this one, uh, you didn't go
what more than like one season.
So it's not a lot of episodes,but it's fun to hear because the
um, what was it?
And to you know the boomerangshow that they did?
Uh, you know the boomerang showthat they did?
You know, years later, like,there's a lot of people who know
the name Wacky Races from thenewer version of the show, but
it's fun to go back to theoriginal and see who the
(50:35):
original artists were and thecreators of it and the original
iteration of it that you know.
For, for the younger fans nowtoo, and having having these
extras on there give them thathistory of the origins of the
show, which is a great thing.
So lots of fun.
This is another really fun,good release from the Warner
(50:55):
Archive.
And will there be moreHanna-Barbera coming, george?
Oh, yes, I knew the answer, butI had to ask you because people
keep asking.
George Feltenstein (51:06):
We have been working diligently on multiple
projects and there will be morecoming soon.
I won't say when or where, butI'll just tell people that
people that are fans ofHanna-Barbera I'm really tired
(51:28):
of hearing people complain aboutwe want to see things that
weren't on DVD.
Well, there are some reallyimportant, famous things that
weren't on DVD that you'll beseeing, but the fact that
something was on DVD before andwas incomplete and didn't look
good, what we're able to do nowwith scanning the negatives and
(51:51):
presenting a very high quality,high definition presentation, I
think is very meaningful, andthe truth of it is that for a
very long time given that therewere other people involved in
overseeing this stuff and a lotof it before even the Turner
(52:13):
purchase of Hanna-Barbera, which, of course, was followed four
years later by our purchase ofTurner there was some terrible
damage done to the way theHanna-Barbera library was
handled, way the Hanna-BarberaLibrary was handled, and I am
(52:34):
happy to say that we will have amix of things people haven't
seen before at all in home media, as well as things that have
been out before but in poorcondition, that we can really
make shine, and that's somethingto be very proud of and happy
about.
Tim Millard (52:50):
Well, this was a fun conversation, george,
because we kind of grouped thesetogether because, even though
one is a silent film and thenone is a Western and then one is
an animation, they each have areally unique restoration story
to them.
Yes, and you have said thatthere's going to be more silent
films, there's going to be moreWesterns and there's going to be
(53:13):
more Hanna Barbera.
So this was a fun conversationand fans of of like us, who
enjoy all three of those genres,can enjoy all of them.
But even if you only enjoy oneor two, it's great to get these
and to hear that more of whatyour favorite releases are from
the Warner Archive are coming.
George Feltenstein (53:33):
Well, there's more fun ahead and we're
trying to please a myriad ofdifferent fan groups.
And what ties it all togetheris fan passion.
And our goal is to profitably,because we are a public company
(53:54):
and we responsibility ourshareholders, but to profitably
bring things from our libraryvault out to the home shelves,
with the phenomenon of physicalmedia.
Tim Millard (54:07):
Yep, yep.
Well, as always, george, thanksfor coming on.
It's always fun to go overthese with you.
George Feltenstein (54:12):
Thank you, Tim.
It's a pleasure to be with you.
Hello and welcome to the Extras.
I'm Tim Millard, your host, andjoining me today is George
Feltenstein from the WarnerArchive.
Hi, George.
George Feltenstein (00:06):
Hey there, Tim, glad to be with you.
Tim Millard (00:09):
Yeah, we've got a lot of titles we haven't
reviewed.
Most of them came out in totalk about a few of the ones
that have been lingering, andwe'll start off with one that I
(00:31):
think actually released in Marchbut we didn't get a chance to
get to it, and that is this veryfabulous silent film, the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse from1921.
I was blown away, George.
(01:13):
This is it's like a silent filmopera on epic scale the music,
the scope of the storytelling,the mythology, the mythology.
I didn't know what to expect,so I was just enthralled.
This whole time and it's a longfilm I thought, hey, I might
(01:35):
get a little tired.
No, I was absorbed the wholetime, and part of that, of
course, is this greatrestoration.
That adds a lot in terms of theviewership and how well you can
get into these films.
So that's fabulous and weshould probably talk about that
right away because I know that'sa big part of this release.
George Feltenstein (01:57):
This was an extraordinarily successful
silent film when it came outsilent film when it came out.
It cost over a million dollarsto make and the Metro Pictures
Corporation was basically.
It was sink or swim based onthe success of this movie and
(02:31):
the director, rex Ingram, very,very unknown today except by
certain silent film aficionados.
He had extraordinary talentbehind the camera and all of his
films are really, reallyfascinating.
But this really resonated withthe public.
Metro got behind it with a very, very big ad campaign and it
was a massive success.
And it also led to establishingRudolph Valentino as a star.
(02:53):
After his famous tango sequencein this movie, his film career
took off like dynamite.
So the film was very successfulat the box office in its
(03:48):
initial run.
It played at very prestigioustheaters and, of course, in the
silent era, when movies were abig substance and opened in big
cities, they had live orchestrasaccompanying them, orchestras
(04:10):
accompanying them.
And this film was so successfulthat five years after its
release, when Valentino suddenlydied, MGM which is how Metro
merged with Goldman Picturesunder the aegis of Lowe's
Incorporated and LB Merck camein to run it and that became MGM
Incorporated and LB Mayer camein to run it and that became MGM
.
Mgm re-released the movie in ashorter form in 1926.
(04:31):
So, fast forward to the early90s, kevin Brownlow and David
Gill of Photo Play Productionsapproached a wonderful gentleman
who I consider to be one of thefathers of film preservation,
roger Mayer.
No relation to LB, roger wasthe president of Turner
Entertainment Company, which wasostensibly what MGM was after
(05:01):
Ted Turner bought it, butKerkorian.
But he kept the library, and soRoger was the president of
Turner Entertainment Companyafter having worked at MGM for
25 years prior, and he wasreally the father of the nitrate
to safetyversion Program.
(05:22):
Kevin Brownlow and David Gillcame to Roger Mayer in 1992 with
the proposition to do aphotochemical restoration of the
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypseand fortunately, under Roger's
aegis, the nitrate materialsthat MGM had on the film were
(05:48):
protected onto safety film andKevin and David took the film
elements that were under thecare of Turner Entertainment
Company and were able to add toit certain shots and pieces of
(06:10):
the film that were missing fromthe master MGM materials.
And the end result was thatthey were able to basically put
the whole thing back together asclose as possible and they
recreated the tints and tonesand even certain hand colored
(06:33):
frames of the film originalscore for this new presentation,
which was then put on standarddefinition videotape in 1993.
(06:53):
And I believe it aired, likelyon TNT, because this was right
before the start of TurnerClassic Movies, right before the
start of Turner Classic Movies.
So Kevin and David would workwith Carl Davis to tour theaters
(07:14):
with this film and have liveorchestral accompaniment and as
well, there was the ability tosee the film on television.
As far as a home entertainmentrelease goes, there was a
LaserDisc in 1997 of the VideoMaster that Kevin had created.
(07:37):
That was probably available forless than a year.
It was very hard to find,probably available for less than
a year.
(07:58):
It was very hard to find and itwas of using what work Kevin
did.
We had a print that he had madethat reflected these tints and
tones and all the footage thatthey had reclaimed, and we used
(08:20):
the Video Master that they hadcreated.
And that's when the work beganhere at Warner Brothers Motion
Picture Imaging.
The colorist, doug Drake,worked with one of my colleagues
on the mastering team, anthonyBilotti, for close to three
years.
(08:41):
This was a project of enormousdifficulty and what we also
really wanted to do was makesure we were faithful to the
work that Kevin and David did onthe 1993 iteration 1993
(09:02):
iteration.
We had the print that they used, we had the VideoMaster that
they used and we had our ownfilm materials.
So all the film was scanned at4K and it was a painstaking
process for everybody involvedto make this what it turned out
(09:23):
to be involved, to make thiswhat it turned out to be and,
the most important thing for me,because I do have a close
friendship with PatrickStanberry of PhotoPlay he works
with Kevin now.
David Gill passed away severalyears ago and Kevin and Patrick
have been PhotoPlay for, I'd say, over 20 years at this point.
(09:47):
They've done wonderful thingsand I wanted to make sure this
had their sign-off, theirapproval, because their name was
going to be on it.
I wanted to make it clear thatthis was a new digital
presentation based on thephotochemical work they did 30
(10:08):
plus years ago.
So we sent them in England, wesent them over files that they
could view and they provided uswith guidance.
Like this tint isn't exactlywhere it should be, it needs to
be more lavender or this needsto be more blue, and the font
(10:29):
you should use is this and that.
So, after nearly three yearsand an exorbitant amount of
money.
The net result is what you haveon the Blu-ray disc.
We wanted it be something thatkevin and patrick and, of course
, the late david gill, uh thathonored their work and would
(10:54):
have their name on it, as wellas the people on our side that
did all the reconstructive work,because they were working with
multiple film elements, as wellas the print that Kevin had made
back in 1992-93.
So the enormity of the detailthat went into making this exact
(11:18):
to what Kevin had specified waspainstaking and well worth
every minute of it © BF-WATCH TV2021.
(12:15):
So Carl Davis wrote andperformed with the orchestra
this incredible, beautifulstereophonic score, this
incredible beautifulstereophonic score, and this, of
course, is an integral part ofthe presentation.
And although our file you know,because everything is now files
(12:36):
as opposed to tapes our filewas proper Somehow in the disc
manufacturing.
The first batch of discs cameout with a mono soundtrack, and
I bring this up because we dofor the people that ended up.
The first few rounds of copiesthat went out went out with this
(12:58):
incorrect soundtrack.
We have corrected thesoundtrack to its proper grand
stereo and there's a replacementprogram.
Nobody has to send their discsback, but we have a program in
place to replace discs.
People can contact Movie Zing,which is the website of our
(13:20):
distribution partner, alliedVaughn Entertainment, and we'll
be able to provide, uh, acorrected disc to those who
ended up with a mono track.
After all that work, to havediscs come out with the mono
soundtrack was, uh, a little bitupsetting, to say the least.
But I'm glad that we were ableto get to correct it fairly
(13:43):
quickly and the response to thedisc has been enormously
positive and I'm really hopefulthat we'll be able to do more
with our silent library.
(14:04):
People have been asking us foryears for certain films, and
some films will be comingthrough us.
Some will be coming throughpartners that we work with, but
there will be more silent filmscoming on disc to home viewers
who really want them.
So that's the good news.
But this is really a very, veryspecial movie that deserves to
(14:30):
be presented with this kind of apalatial presentation.
We're very proud of it.
Tim Millard (14:37):
Yeah, and you should be, because the story is
so fascinating that you justgave about the background.
But if you just come to thefilm not knowing any of that,
you just pick up this Blu-rayand you think what is this?
Or you know a little bit aboutit and you put it in and you
watch it the sound, as you justspoke of, amazing.
(14:59):
And then the visuals arefantastic.
And then the storyline.
And then the visuals arefantastic, and then the
storyline.
I mean I wanted to know moreabout this director, this Irish
director, rex Ingram.
So I had to do some Googlebecause I just like what a
visionary and I know there wassource material to this but what
(15:21):
a visionary in terms of what hedid at that time, with effects,
with overlays of these horsemenand this kind of apocryphal
feel to it.
I thought it was fantastic.
And then, of course, the actingwith Rudolph Valentino and then
Alice Terry, who playsMarguerite in this film.
All of that together wasfascinating.
(15:41):
I had to do a little bit moreresearch because that's part of
the film history.
That's kind of fun when youdiscover stuff, right, yeah,
yeah.
And then from there I ended upreading about June Mathis, who
is the screenwriter being well.
She worked with Ingram on fourfilms, but she was the first
female executive at Metro MGMand the highest paid executive
in the 1920s.
That's fascinating.
And the highest paid executivein the 1920s that's fascinating.
(16:04):
So this tremendous talentbehind and in front of the
camera, no wonder it was such afabulous picture.
But what a great job nowbringing this so that modern day
fans, whether they be teenagersor whatever age, can watch this
(16:24):
and say this is just greatfilmmaking, without question, I
think.
George Feltenstein (16:29):
And there are certain directors DW
Griffith, eric von Stroheim thatare known for their great
silent films.
But Rex Ingram is not the firstname that comes to mind, even
among cinephiles, unless they'revery, very, very well versed
and educated in the silent era.
(16:49):
But, um, to have a modernaudience rediscover this film or
discover this film for thefirst time with this kind of a
presentation, there's still thisperception that silent films
are rinky-tink and they're spedup because they were so poorly
(17:12):
exhibited for so many years.
We now live in an era wherethere is a magnificent amount of
restoration work and care goingon in the presentation of
silent films and many peoplethey're doing it independently.
(17:33):
Uh, some are doing it sponsoredby various archives.
There are many, many people likethere's a silent film community
.
It's obviously relatively small, but it's fervent and
passionate and I pacifistmessage is very important more
(17:53):
than 100 years later and I thinkthat that will only add to its
impact.
Impact and we're very proud ofit.
(18:29):
We worked on it for so long andparticularly my colleagues not
just Doug the colorist andAnthony who oversaw the
mastering, but many other peopleat MPI did amazing things to be
able to recreate those tintsand tones that were
photochemically on that printand then make sure that it got
(18:52):
Kevin and Patrick's approval.
We did it and I really hopepeople who may not be
particularly interested in thesilent era we'll give this a try
because it's really worth doing.
Tim Millard (19:06):
Yeah, and I highly recommend it to people like
myself who are not reallyknowledgeable about that silent
era.
I've become more knowledgeable,as I've mentioned to you,
george, through the films wetalk about that you've released.
I've become more knowledgeable,but when I saw this film, I
have to say I thought it was ona different level.
It's not a comedy.
(19:28):
It's an epic, it is.
Yeah, it's like when you watchBen-Hur.
It's like, oh my God, this ison an epic level.
It doesn't mean you enjoy itmore or less than a comedy, but
I'm just saying the filmmakingis so impressive to me and maybe
I'm going on too much about it,but I really thought this was a
fantastic movie and I hopepeople will check it out who
(19:51):
maybe aren't sure what theythink about silent films,
because they're thinking of somekind of a comedy or or you know
, stunt type of silent film oror a a Western.
Uh, is not.
This is a 1921 version ofsomething on the level of a
Cleopatra or Ben-Hur.
George Feltenstein (20:11):
And to make a good point, this film was, of
course, based on a verybest-selling novel of the era
and it was remade in the early60s by one of my favorite
directors, vincent minnelli, andit was an incredibly tortured
(20:32):
production.
They tried to set it duringworld war ii.
Um the remake.
It pains me to even say thesewords.
The remake is pretty bad.
It has a brilliant musicalscore by Andre Previn, but it
was a tremendous disappointmentto MGM.
Thankfully, the original holdsup beautifully and I know that
(20:59):
there are some people that havea fondness for the remake.
I'm not among them, but since itis a work of one of my favorite
directors, it's painful for meto talk about.
But boy, that was a troubledproduction.
This was not a troubledproduction and was looked upon
(21:19):
as really one of the benchmarksof the silent era.
So I heartily urge people totake the chance and also to to
underscore again.
Just like I said earlier, thereis a lot of wonderful work
being done by many people torestore silent films and make
(21:42):
them accessible to newgenerations, and I urge people
to explore the wonderful worldof silent film.
It really is important.
(21:58):
Warner Brothers presents who belongs Cheyenne Next pastor's
always so green, drifted onCheyenne.
(22:22):
Don't forget the things youhave seen and when you settle
down where will it be, cheyenne?
Tim Millard (22:38):
Well, george, the next title that we're going to
talk about, I was equallyimpressed, but of course this is
the TV series Cheyenne, and youreleased the complete Blu-ray,
which is a whopping 108 episodes, and those ran on ABC from 1955
to 1962.
And I found out a few thingsthat I didn't know.
(23:01):
I'm sure you knew, but this wasthe first hour-long Western
right and, as I understand it,the first hour-long dramatic
series to last more than oneseason.
It was the first originalseries from a major Hollywood
studio.
So it's historic in just a lotof ways beyond just the
popularity studio.
(23:22):
So it's historic in just a lotof ways beyond just the
popularity.
But we have to thank producerWilliam T Orr for what he did
for Warner Brothers Televisionand bringing this series to it.
But hey, I'm a fan of Westerns,I love these classic TV series,
and so I dove in veryenthusiastically, watched a lot
of episodes and the show holdsup terrific.
(23:42):
It's entertaining, it'saction-packed.
The charm of Clint Walkerendures.
You can't help but root for thecharacter of Cheyenne Bodhi
because of Clint's portrayal.
He's wholesome and heroic.
He's handsome and big andpowerful.
He's all of these things thatyou wanted in TV serials back
(24:06):
then and I think you still dotoday, but it's just a great
show with this now, fantasticrestoration.
I absolutely loved it.
George Feltenstein (24:16):
Well, we're very proud of it.
It was actually you said 108episodes and I have to clarify
there were 107 Cheyenne episodes.
A couple of weeks afterCheyenne had stopped for that
(24:39):
sixth season, in its time slotas part of the quote-unquote
Cheyenne show, they ran a pilotfor a series that was
forthcoming called the Dakotas,and that episode was called A
man Called Reagan and it hadnothing to do with Cheyenne.
It was broadcast in its timeslot.
(25:02):
So people think, well, where isthe pilot for the Dakotas?
It was part of Cheyenne.
No, it wasn't.
It just aired in its slot, andthat's how ABC marketed it.
We have released on DVD all 19,I think it's 19, episodes of
the Dakotas.
It only lasted a half season.
(25:23):
So Cheyenne holds a veryspecial place in my heart for
numerous reasons.
In the early days of the WarnerArchive, we realized that the
company had a huge library ofclassic television that had
never been made available before.
The first season of Cheyennewas released to retailers and it
(25:48):
didn't sell well enough to gobeyond that.
So we picked up the gauntletand we released seasons 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, and 7 on DVD, seasons 2,3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 on DVD, and
now these new masters, 4k scansof the original camera, negative
, beautiful HD masters,beautiful Blu-ray, nice, healthy
(26:13):
bit rates, no cramming episodeson less discs, and we have
packaging that actually has eachseason individually presented,
with each disc carefully put onits own holder.
So there's no disc stacking,there's no discs falling out all
(26:35):
over the place.
I was really, really fightinghard for good packaging on this,
because if we put all this workinto the remastering, then to
have it in packaging that'sgoing to have discs fall out all
over, you just would be doingthe series an injustice.
(27:05):
The history of this series forthe company is very important
because it began life as WarnerBrothers' first attempt to be in
the television business andBill Orr, who you just mentioned
, william T Orr was JackWarner's son-in-law.
He was married to Jack Warner'sstepdaughter, right, and so he
had been an actor, is a reallygreat guy, and Jack put him in
(27:29):
charge of the TV division andfor a string, starting with
Cheyenne and I'll tell a littlebit more about how Cheyenne
started with Cheyenne and I'lltell a little bit more about how
Cheyenne started.
Starting with Cheyenne, he had,I would say, an eight-year run
(27:50):
of Warner Brothers reallytrailblazing with their
television productions and beingthe primary supplier of content
to the fledgling ABC network,which didn't have the kind of
funding as NBC and CBS.
So how they started was with ananthology series of rotating
(28:17):
programs.
Every three weeks you'd see anew episode of a specific
program.
So the three programs wereCasablanca, based on the movie
with Charles McGraw, and thenKing's Road, which was based on
the movie that had starredRonald Reagan and Ann Sheridan,
(28:38):
and then Cheyenne, which was notbased on the 1947 Warner
Brothers movie Cheyenne, it onlyused the title.
It was a fresh idea and ClintWalker was basically unknown.
He had done some bit parts.
He was in a Bowery Boys moviecalled Jungle Gents, but he was
(29:00):
undiscovered and there'ssomething about his personality
that just was incrediblymagnetic.
Rotating three different seriesrotating under the umbrella of
(29:26):
Warner Brothers Presents, andwithin the one hour time slot
before the very end of theepisode of either Cheyenne or
Kings Row or Casablanca, youwould see host Gig Young stop
everything to spend five or sixminutes promoting a new Warner
Brothers movie, and thatsequence was called Behind the
Cameras.
(29:47):
Well, none of those other seriesreally made a dent in the
ratings.
They were not performing well.
Cheyenne was immediatelydrawing more viewers and so
after these episodes were filmedthey decided to not proceed
(30:10):
with any more Casablanca and notproceed with any more King's
Row.
I think there were 15 episodesof Cheyenne and they balanced
off the rest of that season withunrelated anthology programs
that were self-contained by thenext season.
Cheyenne had a regular timeslot and people tuned in and
(30:35):
Clint Walker had establishedhimself immediately as a hero to
young kids, and men loved thefact that he was such a great
action star.
Women loved him because he wasvery attractive.
He was just a beloved performerand became a big, big star and
(31:03):
that also was the start ofWarner Brothers television going
into new directions and you mayhave noticed that there were
some contract performers insmall parts.
In the first season of Cheyennethere's an episode, mountain
Fortress.
I think it's the first one.
(31:23):
And there's James Garner inthere long before he stepped
into the shoes of Maverick, andCheyenne was the first of many
Warner Brothers Western series.
Maverick was the next to followand then came Bronco and Lawman
and Sugarfoot and people willnotice that there are fewer
(31:49):
episodes of the later seasonsand that is because Mr Walker
had a little bit of adisagreement with Mr Warner.
He didn't want to have to makeas many episodes as was usually
required and he even went on.
Basically he went on strike fora whole season.
(32:12):
There was a whole season wherethere was the Cheyenne show but
it was Bronco and Sugarfootepisodes and not Cheyenne.
He came back and he finisheduntil the 1962-63 season and the
last broadcast was actually thelast new show was shown in the
(32:35):
end of 1962.
But it was a seven-season run,107 episodes, and that's a lot
of work for our team ofrestorationists and mastering
people and we tried to make surethat we included everything
that was on the negatives.
The negatives were playedaround with a little bit but we
(32:58):
were able to put back thebumpers, you know.
And now we return to Cheyenne.
You know all those things areimportant and there's General
Electric sponsorship mentionsand the fact the ABC television
network is mentioned.
We wish that there was moreleft in those negatives.
We would have included them.
So in the third season ofCheyenne you have Clint Walker.
(33:24):
He actually introduced WillHutchins as Sugarfoot and you
ended up having, like Sugarfootepisodes in the Cheyenne show,
along with, eventually, broncowith Ty Harden.
Those three series kind of werein rotation within the Cheyenne
(33:48):
show.
So, uh, we released DVD sets ofall those other Westerns and
I'm hoping that we'll be able todo the same thing with them
that we've done with Cheyenne.
And if Cheyenne sells well, itwill pave the way for Maverick
and Sugarfoot and Lawman andBronco and all the Warner
(34:11):
Westerns that became so popular.
But the other thing that'sreally, I think, on a personal
note, because we were offeringin the early days of the Warner
Archive, we were offering theCheyenne DVDs Clint Walker, god
(34:32):
bless him.
He and his wife were sellingepisodes that Clint would
autograph, were selling episodesthat Clint would autograph.
So they were buying DVDs fromus for Clint to autograph and
send out to fans.
And we established a very closerelationship and he would call
(34:54):
us up all the time and I had thegreat good fortune of
interviewing him at the PaleyCenter when we had like a Warner
Archive weekend.
This is probably like 12, 13years ago and he was just the
nicest, most down-to-earth,remarkable guy and his fan base
(35:18):
continued because Cheyennedidn't really disappear.
I believe Encore WesternsNetwork was running it at the
same time.
We were selling the DVDs and hewas getting love letters from
little 12-year-old girls thatthought he was still the guy of
1957 and not the guy of 2012.
(35:40):
He was just completely down toearth and he welcomed his public
and he made personalappearances around the country
Just the best guy and I feelhonored to have known him.
But the series itself if wewere going to make a commitment
(36:02):
to bringing out such asubstantial show with
substantial expense to do so, wehad to start with Cheyenne,
because it was the success ofCheyenne that led to all these
other programs that were thecornerstone of Warner Brothers
(36:22):
television, and Warner Brotherstelevision, as of September,
will be celebrating its 70thbirthday, and think of all the
wonderful television shows ourTV division has brought to
audiences for the last sevendecades.
So where it all began.
That was a great honor for usand I'm glad the initial
(36:47):
response to the series has beenoverwhelming and very, very
positive and the fans just wantmore.
Tim Millard (36:55):
Yeah, and I'm hoping we can comply.
Well, I think a big part ofthat is you thought about the
collector when you put thistogether and you chose that
packaging.
Not just the restoration, but Imean when you chose that
packaging you knew, hey look,this is an expensive set and if
you're going to shell out thiskind of money as a collector,
(37:16):
you're going to want to havesomething that's going to
survive a couple of moves if youneed to move them from one room
to another or one house toanother, and so having them each
season in its own Blu-ray casewith the artwork looks great on
your shelf and also will last.
So that's a biggie.
And then the restoration itself, and I thought my opinion that
(37:39):
the price point you put it atwas very reasonable compared to
some of the other full series Isee out there that are only DVD,
not Blu-ray, that are stillthis cost or more.
So I thought the price pointalso for the collect was very
good.
And then, of course, the showis so good.
George Feltenstein (37:57):
We wanted to make sure that we could come up
with a price that wasreasonable but also give the
consumer something that issubstantially safe in terms of
packaging.
I buy a lot of TV sets myselffrom various different companies
(38:17):
and there's nothing morefrustrating when the discs are
stacked on top of another.
Or you open up this monstercase and you have 40 discs
falling on the floor, right, um,I did not want.
That's not what the warnerarchive is about.
Yeah, we're about what theconsumer wants.
Um and uh.
(38:39):
I'm really delighted with thefact that we were able to make
this check all the boxes, and Ihope people really enjoy it.
Tim Millard (38:48):
You know I have a lot of prized Warner Archive
films and TV series, but I'vegot this one right up there as
one of my prized ones now,George, because of the beautiful
artwork and the packaging, ofcourse, Because while any show
can be terrific, displaying thenice packaging is is part of
(39:10):
when you watch these beautifulnew 4k scans off the camera
negatives, it does kind of showwhat you wouldn't have seen on a
(39:31):
little television screen backin the day.
George Feltenstein (39:34):
Um the frequent use of stock footage,
you can clearly tell when theyhave a shot outside that could
have been from you know thethirties or something, and then
they go to the next scene.
That's on a soundstage and it's.
It's really noticeable it is.
But that's part of the charmbecause it represents how
(39:55):
television programming wasevolving.
Television was, in its basicfirst decade of being a consumer
, primary source ofentertainment for people not
only in this country.
But by the later part of the1950s television started making
entries all over the world.
(40:17):
So the fact that this seriesstill packs a punch no pun
intended today is somethingwe're very proud of.
Tim Millard (40:25):
Before we wrap up on Cheyenne, I did want to
mention that I watched thisinterview featurette with Clint
where he basically reminiscesabout his time on the series and
it's really informative.
But to your point about himbeing such a nice guy, that
really comes across just in thatas you're hearing him talk, and
(40:45):
he's so appreciative of thetime, of course, that he was on
the show and what what thatbrought to him in his life.
But I really enjoyed that.
I want fans to know that.
That's on there as well and isa terrific I think it's on the
first season actually.
Yes, so it's a.
(41:01):
It's a really nice, uh little extra there as well for the fans
and now, here they are, themost daredevil group of daffy
drivers to ever whirl theirwheels in the wacky races,
competing for the title of theworld's wackiest racer.
The cars are approaching thestarting line.
First is the turbo terrificdriven by Peter Perfect, next
(41:25):
Rufus Roughcutt and Sawtooth inthe buzz wagon.
Maneuvering for position is theArmy Surplus Special.
Right behind is the Ant HillMob in their bulletproof bomb,
and there's ingenious inventorPat Pending in his converter car
.
Oh, and here's the lovelyPenelope Pitstop, the glamour
gal of the gas pedal.
Next we have the Bowler Mobilewith the Slag Brothers Rock and
(41:46):
Gravel Lurching along.
Is the Creepy Coop with theSlag Brothers Rock and Gravel
Birching along.
Is the Creepy Coop with theGruesome Twosome, and right on
their tail is the Red Max.
And there's the ArkansasChuggabug with Luke and Blubber
Bear Sneaking along.
Last is that mean machine withthose double-dealing do-batters
Dick Dastardly and his sidekickMuttley.
And even now they're up to somedirty trick and they're off to
(42:07):
a standing start.
And Now they're up to somedirty trick and they're off to a
standing start.
And why not?
They've been chained to a postby shifty Dick Dasterly who
shifts into the wrong gear.
Tim Millard (42:21):
And away they go on the way out.
Wacky races Well, the nextthing we're going to talk about,
george is another TV series.
This is from Hanna-Barbera andand it's Wacky Race is the
Complete Series from 1958.
And I watched a number of theseepisodes and the time just kind
of flew by because they are sofun and entertaining.
There's just very little pointto them other than there's a
(42:41):
race and there's all of thesethings that they're trying to do
to each other, whether it beDick Dastardly or whoever it is
trying to win this race.
And I love the narrator.
The restoration here in theselooks good and it's like a
nostalgia throwback to Saturdaymorning cartoons.
George Feltenstein (43:00):
Absolutely, and it was a very different.
It was a different kind ofSaturday morning cartoon coming
from Hanna-Barbera.
It wasn't like anything elseand it is my understanding.
I'm not expert on its genesisexactly, but I believe the idea
(43:25):
in well.
I know the idea involved thesame people who produced the
hollywood squares, the game showright heater and quigley, and I
think there was originally anidea to do something live action
and it ended up being animated.
They're still credited on theend of the program in
(43:47):
association with uh.
But uh, this became such a fanfavorite when it premiered on
saturday mornings that it wasrerun frequently and then led to
two spinoff shows.
There was dastardly and mutleyand, of course, the perils of
Penelope Pitstop, but it allbegan with Wacky Races and you
(44:12):
look at the old DVDs and thecolors are washed out and
there's dirt all over the placeand suddenly you see it new,
coming off the negatives, 4kscan and beautiful color and it
just brings you much more intothe art of it as well.
(44:33):
As the writing is really sharpand very comical and uh, the
voice artists are terrific and,um, people were very excited
that we were putting this outand people I I know some people
have been a little put off bythe fact that there were bridges
(44:55):
in the original networkbroadcasts that are not part of
our release.
Well, the way Hanna-Barbera putthings together, they did not
have a complete show negative,everything was segments and
unfortunately, the littlebridges weren't in the negative
(45:20):
and were not able to be found.
They may exist in other formsand collectors may have 16
millimeter prints and whatnot,but this was not really the core
of what that show was about andwe didn't want to cut away from
the excellence of the qualityand, frankly, that was just our
(45:43):
guess that, hey, maybe they'reout there somewhere.
That, hey, maybe they're outthere somewhere.
You know, for McGillig gorillawe were really at a real problem
place because we could notlocate 35 millimeter negative on
the curtain call and it was avery kind film collector who
(46:04):
allowed us to use his 16millimeter print, which we
brought the color back as bestas we could because it was faded
, and we cleaned it up and thatenabled us to have complete
McGill and Gorilla shows.
So I just have to mention that.
Those of you who were hoping tosee those bridges because
(46:25):
everybody wants to seeeverything exactly as it was I'm
one of those people as well.
But it was not possible heredue to the way that these shows
were maintained.
It's a problem on a lot ofHanna-Barbera shows that were
not.
You know, things like Top Catand the Flintstones and the
Jetsons.
They were one continuous storyand the Jetsons, they were one
(46:47):
continuous story, but whenthings were built out of
segments.
They were not stored andinventoried properly and we're
paying the price for negligenceof what happened 60 years ago.
Wacky Races is not quite 60years old, but it's getting
there.
We are providing it in a waythat looks and sounds better
(47:11):
than it ever has, probably evensince the original airing.
So I stand by it.
It's also very reasonablypriced and I hope people really
enjoy it.
(47:26):
Drat.
One of them turned off, butwe'll stop the rest of them.
When we blast the pass, youplant the dynamite, muttley, and
I'll give you the signal.
What was that?
Tim Millard (47:48):
I just love Don Messick's voicing of Motley, I
mean.
George Feltenstein (47:53):
Well, and he did that in other.
There were other series too,you know, like Quick Drama Girl
had snuffles and it was the same, you know.
I mean, they used that a lotand it worked every time.
It worked every time.
That's part of the charm ofhannah barbara yeah, and then uh
, and then.
Tim Millard (48:12):
It has so many different cars so you can have
your favorite car, you can haveyour favorite team.
They're all so different.
The creativity that went intothis that you could just tell
that everybody's having a lot offun.
And the uh extras that you haveon here, which, uh, let me see
I have them here.
You've got a rear view mirror,a look back at Wacky Races.
That has a lot of theinformation from because you
(48:35):
have interviews with the peoplewho worked on the show, of what
went into the design and they'reall, of course, trying to
remember years back of did youcreate that or did I do that,
but it's fun to hear themtalking about it and all the
creativity and the fun they hadjust creating the cars, coming
up with the wacky ideas, thenarrator and everything.
(48:55):
So that's on there.
That's really fun.
You've got spin out andspinoffs, which is about the
other spin off.
As you mentioned, there's atrivia track and really a real
gem here you got fourcommentaries with a lot of the
people who worked on the show,so those are also really that's
a great package of extras toalso have on here.
George Feltenstein (49:15):
We always try to carry over what was
created years ago, when we had alot more staff and a lot more
budget in this arena, but noteverything survives.
Some things won't play backanymore and some things can't be
(49:36):
located Because, tim, you werepart of the group for so many
years here.
No one had the foresight to putthe care into storing of
special features the way theywould with a film or a
television program itself, andthat's always the way it should
(49:57):
have been.
That is the way it is now, uh,but sometimes we go through a
lot of difficulty trying to findthese pieces, and I'm glad we
were able to include so much onthis, because it does make a
great deal of difference.
Tim Millard (50:13):
Yeah, yeah, because this one, uh, you didn't go
what more than like one season.
So it's not a lot of episodes,but it's fun to hear because the
um, what was it?
And to you know the boomerangshow that they did?
Uh, you know the boomerang showthat they did?
You know, years later, like,there's a lot of people who know
the name Wacky Races from thenewer version of the show, but
it's fun to go back to theoriginal and see who the
(50:35):
original artists were and thecreators of it and the original
iteration of it that you know.
For, for the younger fans nowtoo, and having having these
extras on there give them thathistory of the origins of the
show, which is a great thing.
So lots of fun.
This is another really fun,good release from the Warner
(50:55):
Archive.
And will there be moreHanna-Barbera coming, george?
Oh, yes, I knew the answer, butI had to ask you because people
keep asking.
George Feltenstein (51:06):
We have been working diligently on multiple
projects and there will be morecoming soon.
I won't say when or where, butI'll just tell people that
people that are fans ofHanna-Barbera I'm really tired
(51:28):
of hearing people complain aboutwe want to see things that
weren't on DVD.
Well, there are some reallyimportant, famous things that
weren't on DVD that you'll beseeing, but the fact that
something was on DVD before andwas incomplete and didn't look
good, what we're able to do nowwith scanning the negatives and
(51:51):
presenting a very high quality,high definition presentation, I
think is very meaningful, andthe truth of it is that for a
very long time given that therewere other people involved in
overseeing this stuff and a lotof it before even the Turner
(52:13):
purchase of Hanna-Barbera, which, of course, was followed four
years later by our purchase ofTurner there was some terrible
damage done to the way theHanna-Barbera library was
handled, way the Hanna-BarberaLibrary was handled, and I am
(52:34):
happy to say that we will have amix of things people haven't
seen before at all in home media, as well as things that have
been out before but in poorcondition, that we can really
make shine, and that's somethingto be very proud of and happy
about.
Tim Millard (52:50):
Well, this was a fun conversation, george,
because we kind of grouped thesetogether because, even though
one is a silent film and thenone is a Western and then one is
an animation, they each have areally unique restoration story
to them.
Yes, and you have said thatthere's going to be more silent
films, there's going to be moreWesterns and there's going to be
(53:13):
more Hanna Barbera.
So this was a fun conversationand fans of of like us, who
enjoy all three of those genres,can enjoy all of them.
But even if you only enjoy oneor two, it's great to get these
and to hear that more of whatyour favorite releases are from
the Warner Archive are coming.
George Feltenstein (53:33):
Well, there's more fun ahead and we're
trying to please a myriad ofdifferent fan groups.
And what ties it all togetheris fan passion.
And our goal is to profitably,because we are a public company
(53:54):
and we responsibility ourshareholders, but to profitably
bring things from our libraryvault out to the home shelves,
with the phenomenon of physicalmedia.
Tim Millard (54:07):
Yep, yep.
Well, as always, george, thanksfor coming on.
It's always fun to go overthese with you.
George Feltenstein (54:12):
Thank you, Tim.
It's a pleasure to be with you.
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