I loved cowboy TV shows when I was a kid (just check my collection). The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Wild Bill Hickcock, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Hotel de Paree, The Deputy, Wagon Train, Cheyenne, Maverick, and on and on. But I never found much interest in Bonanza. I felt like the only reason people watched it was because it was in color, and an hour long and every week. People had color TVs in 1959 and were desperate for color programming of any quality. We still had a black & white set (until 1966) and couldn't get into the Manly Men who were the Cartwrights. Perry Mason was still on and better... (Yes, Bonanza didn't move to Sundays until 1961).

So. Okay.

When are the rest of the Have Gun Will Travel seasons getting DVDs?

For the ones who don't mind importing:

In germany the first seven seasons have already been released. 

http://www.ofdb.de/film/17548,Bonanza

Quoting SpaceFreakMicha:

Quote:
For the ones who don't mind importing:

In germany the first seven seasons have already been released. 

http://www.ofdb.de/film/17548,Bonanza

Yep, and now waiting for "High Chaparral" on DVD! 

deejay:

This will be the first time that the Original broadcasts have been available. Bonanza has been around for years from many distributors, garbage transfers lousy sound, public domain from syndication. This is the first time the REAL thing has been available.

Skip

I'd have to register my lack of enthusiasm as well. The one I'm waiting for is Maverick. Brilliant show which was available in late-night reruns when I lived in Northern California in the late 1970s. James Garner, Jack Kelly, and Roger Moore all did great work. (Don't know about the guy who represented the familiy on the last season -- I don't think I saw more than one rather unimpressive episode with Robert Colbert or whatever his name was.)

Encore Westerns runs 2 hours of Maverick and an hour of Cheyenne daily.  Also some Gene Autry movies.  On the weekends, Encore Westerns has Brett Maverick (1981-1982) which isn't really as good (and not true to the earlier series) and Cimmaron Strip (1967-1968) which is a pretty good Western.

I'm eager for more HGWT, too.  I just recently bought the final (third) season of Wanted: Dead or Alive.  I had the first two seasons and was continuing to put off getting the third, then found out it had been discontinued.  Luckily one of the Amazon Marketplace vendors had it available new, in the box, etc.

I have a couple of box sets of TV Westerns that include the Bonanza episodes Skip mentions.  They're so poorly done they aren't worth watching -- I mean, who would even want to watch them with the lousy substitute music they have.  Here's an example of how important the right music is to a production.

What many people have forgotten, is that PUBLIC DOMAIN in TV is always going equal syndication version of a show. Back in the old days, they started syndicating shows, the first I think was Andy Griffith, i think and the network was concerned about confusion of the syndication with the Original broadcast. So, they demanded that the theme music be changed, syndication also was more commercial time, so the shows were cut up to make room for the commercial time. These are the shows that went to public domain, and they film and audio elements have not been taken care of over the years so what you get generally is garbage. Having seen the restored Bonanaza on TVLand, and it is gorgeous BTW, I have been waiting for it for years and now it's is coming, HOORAY.

Now on to my next eagerly awaited title, maybe Sea Hunt or Rescue 8. Or , or, even Ripcord.

Indee there was Surfside Six, Karl. Like I said i could go on and on and on

Skip

One I'd like to see (once upon a time it was available on VHS, but I never got it) is Yancy Derringer, starring Jock Mahoney and X Brands as his Indian side-kick.  It's a Western, in the sense that it is West of the Mississippi (New Orleans), but also a cop show, since Yancy helps the city administrator solve cases.

It'll probably never see the light of DVD day, though, since it was only on for one season (1958-1959) and there probably aren't many people who remember it.

Others we need: Death Valley Days, Wagon Train, and Frontier ("It happened that way...moving West").

Yee-Haw!