Be it television favorites from yesteryear or one-season wonders, Nostalgia Family has lots of rare TV for you to check out. Here’s a roundup of ten new releases that just hit DVD. There’s sure to be something here to your liking!
My Little Margie: The Complete First Season
This hit series ran from 1952 to 1955 and featured Gale Storm as Margie Albright, the 21-year-old daughter of widowed investment banker Vern (Charles Farrell). How the two of them tried to get each other to “settle down” and act their age led to comical complications. Don Hayden, Hillary Brooke, and Willie Best also star. All 13 episodes from the first season are included in this two-disc set.
Airing Saturday nights on NBC over 1950-1954–and regarded as the benchmark for TV variety programming for a generation after that–this 90-minute live showcase offered up musical performances, special guest hosts, and, always, the classic comedy sketches rendered by the remarkable house company of Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris. Two episodes of the series are included in this release.
First airing in syndication in 1961, this location-shot adventure series starred Ron Hayes as Southern Florida county constable Lincoln Vail, who used an airboat to patrol the wetlands as he kept the peace and kept an eye out for the preservation of the local wildlife. Gordon Cassell, Steve Brodie, Dan Chandler, and a young Burt Reynolds had recurring roles. Includes three episodes.
Spun off from the 1967 family adventure film Africa–Texas Style, this season-lived ABC series starred Chuck Connors as champion rodeo rider Jim Sinclair, enticed to Kenya by retired RAF officer Howard Hayes (Ronald Howard) to bring modern-day American sensibilities to the operation of his game ranch. Tom Nardini, Gerald Edwards also starred. The episode “The Time of the Predator” plus three bonus episodes from The Rifleman are featured in this release.
After Gracie Allen called it a career in 1958, husband George Burns stuck it out for one more season on CBS with this reformatted sitcom, as a theatrical producer juggling assorted aggravations from staff and stars. The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show regulars Bea Benaderet, Larry Keating, Harry Von Zell, Ronnie Burns, and Judi Meredith were back on board. Three episodes are featured in this release.
Beat the Clock/Truth or Consequences
Installments of two of TV’s most fondly remembered game shows are featured on this disc. First, contestants are required to complete wacky tasks before time runs out, on Beat the Clock. Bud Collyer hosts. And, Bob Barker’s first game show hosting gig was Truth or Consequences, which found players being given crazy stunts to perform if they failed to answer a question correctly.
One Happy Family: Volume 1
Unable to afford a place of their own, meteorologist Dick Cooper (Dick Sargent) and his new bride, Penny (Jody Warner), move in with her parents (Chick Chandler and Elisabeth Fraser) and grandparents (Jack Kirkwood and Cheerio Meredith). What could possibly go wrong? Watch the generations clash in the most hilarious ways possible in this sitcom that ran for just one season in 1961. Includes the episodes “Love’s Big Omelette,” “Love Me, Love My Duck,” “Youth Is for the Young,” “Barney Gives Dick the Business,” and “Charley’s Birthday.”
Mack and Myer for Hire: Volume 1
In 1963, vaudeville veterans Mickey Deems and Joey Faye (creator of the “Slowly I Turn” routine made popular by Abbott and Costello and The Three Stooges) cranked out over a hundred 15-minute, old-school slapstick comedy shorts for TV syndication, respectively starring as itinerant handymen Mack and Myer, who always left a situation more broken than they found it.
Airing from September, 1967 to January, 1968, this NBC sitcom focused on comedian and widower Jerry Webster (Jerry Van Dyke) as he raised his son, Sandy (Teddy Quinn), on their farm in the San Fernando Valley. Lois Nettleton also starred as Sue Kramer, a divorced mother–and Jerry’s would-be love interest–who managed the farm and took care of Sandy when his dad was away on tour. Susan Benjamin co-starred. Includes the episodes “What Is This–Thanksgiving or a Nightmare” and “The Woodsman.”
Wayne and Shuster Take an Affectionate Look at Abbott and Costello
One of a series of documentaries Canadian comics Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster made in the mid-1960s, this entertaining and informative program aired on CBS in 1966. Join Wayne and Shuster as they explore the long and varied careers of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, focusing on their days as burlesque and vaudeville performers as well as their radio, television, and film work.