The Extras
The Extras
The Four Horsemen, Cheyenne, and The Wacky Races Blu-ray Reviews
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.
To receive your replacement follow these instructions;
- Email customerservice@moviezyng.com with your request. Be sure to include your original purchase receipt in your initial email to Movie Zyyng.
- Movie Zyng is working with Warner Bros. and AV Entertainment to facilitate the replacement even if you’ve purchased it elsewhere. If you include your purchase receipt with your email, you will receive instructions on how to order your replacement disc at no charge.
Again, your original purchase receipt must be attached or included as part of your initial email in order to receive instructions. We’re delighted to get original purchasers taken care of. Please follow the instructions above to start the process.”
The Extras Facebook page
The Extras Twitter
Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog Group
As an Amazon Affiliate, The Extras may receive a commission for purchases through our purchase links. There is no additional cost to you, and every little bit helps us in the production of the podcast. Thanks in advance.
Otaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. tim@theextras.tv
Hello and welcome to the Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me today is George Feltenstein from the Warner Archive. Hi, George.
George Feltenstein:Hey there, Tim, glad to be with you.
Tim Millard:Yeah, we've got a lot of titles we haven't reviewed. Most of them came out in to talk about a few of the ones that have been lingering, and we'll start off with one that I think actually released in March but we didn't get a chance to get to it, and that is this very fabulous silent film, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from 1921. I was blown away, George. This is it's like a silent film opera 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 long film I thought, hey, I might get a little tired. No, I was absorbed the whole time, and part of that, of course, is this great restoration. That adds a lot in terms of the viewership and how well you can get into these films. So that's fabulous and we should probably talk about that right away because I know that's a big part of this release.
George Feltenstein:This was an extraordinarily successful silent film when it came out silent film when it came out. It cost over a million dollars to make and the Metro Pictures Corporation was basically. It was sink or swim based on the success of this movie and the director, rex Ingram, very, very unknown today except by certain silent film aficionados. He had extraordinary talent behind the camera and all of his films are really, really fascinating. But this really resonated with the public. Metro got behind it with a very, very big ad campaign and it was a massive success. And it also led to establishing Rudolph Valentino as a star. After his famous tango sequence in this movie, his film career took off like dynamite. So the film was very successful at the box office in its initial run. It played at very prestigious theaters and, of course, in the silent era, when movies were a big substance and opened in big cities, they had live orchestras accompanying them, orchestras accompanying them. And this film was so successful that five years after its release, when Valentino suddenly died, MGM which is how Metro merged with Goldman Pictures under the aegis of Lowe's Incorporated and LB Merck came in to run it and that became MGM Incorporated and LB Mayer came in to run it and that became MGM. Mgm re-released the movie in a shorter form in 1926. So, fast forward to the early 90s, kevin Brownlow and David Gill of Photo Play Productions approached a wonderful gentleman who I consider to be one of the fathers of film preservation, roger Mayer. No relation to LB, roger was the president of Turner Entertainment Company, which was ostensibly what MGM was after Ted Turner bought it, but Kerkorian. But he kept the library, and so Roger was the president of Turner Entertainment Company after having worked at MGM for 25 years prior, and he was really the father of the nitrate to safetyversion Program. Kevin Brownlow and David Gill came to Roger Mayer in 1992 with the proposition to do a photochemical restoration of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and fortunately, under Roger's aegis, the nitrate materials that MGM had on the film were protected onto safety film and Kevin and David took the film elements that were under the care of Turner Entertainment Company and were able to add to it certain shots and pieces of the film that were missing from the master MGM materials. And the end result was that they were able to basically put the whole thing back together as close as possible and they recreated the tints and tones and even certain hand colored frames of the film original score for this new presentation, which was then put on standard definition videotape in 1993. And I believe it aired, likely on TNT, because this was right before the start of Turner Classic Movies, right before the start of Turner Classic Movies. So Kevin and David would work with Carl Davis to tour theaters with this film and have live orchestral accompaniment and as well, there was the ability to see the film on television.
George Feltenstein:As far as a home entertainment release goes, there was a LaserDisc in 1997 of the Video Master that Kevin had created. That was probably available for less than a year. It was very hard to find, probably available for less than a year. It was very hard to find and it was of using what work Kevin did. We had a print that he had made that reflected these tints and tones and all the footage that they had reclaimed, and we used the Video Master that they had created. And that's when the work began here at Warner Brothers Motion Picture Imaging. The colorist, doug Drake, worked with one of my colleagues on the mastering team, anthony Bilotti, for close to three years.
George Feltenstein:This was a project of enormous difficulty and what we also really wanted to do was make sure we were faithful to the work that Kevin and David did on the 1993 iteration 1993 iteration. We had the print that they used, we had the VideoMaster that they used and we had our own film materials. So all the film was scanned at 4K and it was a painstaking process for everybody involved to make this what it turned out to be involved, to make this what it turned out to be and, the most important thing for me, because I do have a close friendship with Patrick Stanberry of PhotoPlay he works with Kevin now. David Gill passed away several years ago and Kevin and Patrick have been PhotoPlay for, I'd say, over 20 years at this point. They've done wonderful things and I wanted to make sure this had their sign-off, their approval, because their name was going to be on it.
George Feltenstein:I wanted to make it clear that this was a new digital presentation based on the photochemical work they did 30 plus years ago. So we sent them in England, we sent them over files that they could view and they provided us with guidance. Like this tint isn't exactly where it should be, it needs to be more lavender or this needs to be more blue, and the font you should use is this and that. So, after nearly three years and an exorbitant amount of money. The net result is what you have on the Blu-ray disc. We wanted it be something that kevin and patrick and, of course, the late david gill, uh that honored their work and would have their name on it, as well as the people on our side that did all the reconstructive work, because they were working with multiple film elements, as well as the print that Kevin had made back in 1992-93. So the enormity of the detail that went into making this exact to what Kevin had specified was painstaking and well worth every minute of it © BF-WATCH TV 2021.
George Feltenstein:So Carl Davis wrote and performed with the orchestra this incredible, beautiful stereophonic score, this incredible beautiful stereophonic score, and this, of course, is an integral part of the presentation. And although our file you know, because everything is now files as opposed to tapes our file was proper Somehow in the disc manufacturing. The first batch of discs came out with a mono soundtrack, and I bring this up because we do for the people that ended up. The first few rounds of copies that went out went out with this incorrect soundtrack. We have corrected the soundtrack to its proper grand stereo and there's a replacement program. Nobody has to send their discs back, but we have a program in place to replace discs. People can contact Movie Zing, which is the website of our distribution partner, allied Vaughn Entertainment, and we'll be able to provide, uh, a corrected disc to those who ended up with a mono track.
George Feltenstein:After all that work, to have discs come out with the mono soundtrack was, uh, a little bit upsetting, to say the least. But I'm glad that we were able to get to correct it fairly quickly and the response to the disc has been enormously positive and I'm really hopeful that we'll be able to do more with our silent library. People have been asking us for years for certain films, and some films will be coming through us. Some will be coming through partners that we work with, but there will be more silent films coming on disc to home viewers who really want them. So that's the good news. But this is really a very, very special movie that deserves to be presented with this kind of a palatial presentation. We're very proud of it.
Tim Millard:Yeah, and you should be, because the story is so fascinating that you just gave about the background. But if you just come to the film not knowing any of that, you just pick up this Blu-ray and you think what is this? Or you know a little bit about it and you put it in and you watch it the sound, as you just spoke of, amazing. And then the visuals are fantastic. And then the storyline. And then the visuals are fantastic, and then the storyline. I mean I wanted to know more about this director, this Irish director, rex Ingram. So I had to do some Google because I just like what a visionary and I know there was source material to this but what a visionary in terms of what he did at that time, with effects, with overlays of these horsemen and this kind of apocryphal feel to it. I thought it was fantastic. And then, of course, the acting with Rudolph Valentino and then Alice Terry, who plays Marguerite in this film. All of that together was fascinating.
Tim Millard:I had to do a little bit more research because that's part of the film history. That's kind of fun when you discover stuff, right, yeah, yeah. And then from there I ended up reading about June Mathis, who is the screenwriter being well. She worked with Ingram on four films, but she was the first female executive at Metro MGM and the highest paid executive in the 1920s. That's fascinating. And the highest paid executive in the 1920s that's fascinating. So this tremendous talent behind and in front of the camera, no wonder it was such a fabulous picture. But what a great job now bringing this so that modern day fans, whether they be teenagers or whatever age, can watch this and say this is just great filmmaking, without question, I think.
George Feltenstein:And there are certain directors DW Griffith, eric von Stroheim that are known for their great silent films. But Rex Ingram is not the first name that comes to mind, even among cinephiles, unless they're very, very, very well versed and educated in the silent era. But, um, to have a modern audience rediscover this film or discover this film for the first time with this kind of a presentation, there's still this perception that silent films are rinky-tink and they're sped up because they were so poorly exhibited for so many years. We now live in an era where there is a magnificent amount of restoration work and care going on in the presentation of silent films and many people they're doing it independently. Uh, some are doing it sponsored by various archives.
George Feltenstein:There are many, many people like there's a silent film community. It's obviously relatively small, but it's fervent and passionate and I pacifist message is very important more than 100 years later and I think that that will only add to its impact. Impact and we're very proud of it. We worked on it for so long and particularly my colleagues not just Doug the colorist and Anthony who oversaw the mastering, but many other people at MPI did amazing things to be able to recreate those tints and tones that were photochemically on that print and then make sure that it got Kevin and Patrick's approval. We did it and I really hope people who may not be particularly interested in the silent era we'll give this a try because it's really worth doing.
Tim Millard:Yeah, and I highly recommend it to people like myself who are not really knowledgeable about that silent era. I've become more knowledgeable, as I've mentioned to you, george, through the films we talk about that you've released. I've become more knowledgeable, but when I saw this film, I have to say I thought it was on a different level. It's not a comedy.
Tim Millard:It's an epic, it is. Yeah, it's like when you watch Ben-Hur. It's like, oh my God, this is on an epic level. It doesn't mean you enjoy it more or less than a comedy, but I'm just saying the filmmaking is 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 hope people will check it out who maybe aren't sure what they think about silent films, because they're thinking of some kind of a comedy or or you know, stunt type of silent film or or a a Western. Uh, is not. This is a 1921 version of something on the level of a Cleopatra or Ben-Hur.
George Feltenstein:And to make a good point, this film was, of course, based on a very best-selling novel of the era and it was remade in the early 60s by one of my favorite directors, vincent minnelli, and it was an incredibly tortured production. They tried to set it during world war ii. Um the remake. It pains me to even say these words. The remake is pretty bad. It has a brilliant musical score by Andre Previn, but it was a tremendous disappointment to MGM. Thankfully, the original holds up beautifully and I know that there are some people that have a fondness for the remake.
George Feltenstein:I'm not among them, but since it is a work of one of my favorite directors, it's painful for me to talk about. But boy, that was a troubled production. This was not a troubled production and was looked upon as really one of the benchmarks of the silent era. So I heartily urge people to take the chance and also to to underscore again. Just like I said earlier, there is a lot of wonderful work being done by many people to restore silent films and make them accessible to new generations, and I urge people to explore the wonderful world of silent film. It really is important.
:Warner Brothers presents who belongs Cheyenne Next pastor's always so green, drifted on Cheyenne. Don't forget the things you have seen and when you settle down where will it be, cheyenne?
Tim Millard:Well, george, the next title that we're going to talk about, I was equally impressed, but of course this is the TV series Cheyenne, and you released 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 things that I didn't know. I'm sure you knew, but this was the first hour-long Western right and, as I understand it, the first hour-long dramatic series to last more than one season. It was the first original series from a major Hollywood studio. So it's historic in just a lot of ways beyond just the popularity studio. So it's historic in just a lot of ways beyond just the popularity. But we have to thank producer William T Orr for what he did for Warner Brothers Television and bringing this series to it.
Tim Millard:But hey, I'm a fan of Westerns, I love these classic TV series, and so I dove in very enthusiastically, watched a lot of episodes and the show holds up terrific. It's entertaining, it's action-packed. The charm of Clint Walker endures. You can't help but root for the character of Cheyenne Bodhi because of Clint's portrayal. He's wholesome and heroic. He's handsome and big and powerful. He's all of these things that you wanted in TV serials back then and I think you still do today, but it's just a great show with this now, fantastic restoration. I absolutely loved it.
George Feltenstein:Well, we're very proud of it. It was actually you said 108 episodes and I have to clarify there were 107 Cheyenne episodes. A couple of weeks after Cheyenne had stopped for that sixth season, in its time slot as part of the quote-unquote Cheyenne show, they ran a pilot for a series that was forthcoming called the Dakotas, and that episode was called A man Called Reagan and it had nothing to do with Cheyenne. It was broadcast in its time slot. So people think, well, where is the pilot for the Dakotas? It was part of Cheyenne. No, it wasn't. It just aired in its slot, and that'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. So Cheyenne holds a very special place in my heart for numerous reasons.
George Feltenstein:In the early days of the Warner Archive, we realized that the company had a huge library of classic television that had never been made available before. The first season of Cheyenne was released to retailers and it didn't sell well enough to go beyond that. So we picked up the gauntlet and 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 scans of the original camera, negative, beautiful HD masters, beautiful Blu-ray, nice, healthy bit rates, no cramming episodes on less discs, and we have packaging that actually has each season individually presented, with each disc carefully put on its own holder. So there's no disc stacking, there's no discs falling out all over the place. I was really, really fighting hard for good packaging on this, because if we put all this work into the remastering, then to have it in packaging that's going to have discs fall out all over, you just would be doing the series an injustice.
George Feltenstein:The history of this series for the company is very important because it began life as Warner Brothers' first attempt to be in the television business and Bill Orr, who you just mentioned, william T Orr was Jack Warner's son-in-law. He was married to Jack Warner's stepdaughter, right, and so he had been an actor, is a really great guy, and Jack put him in charge of the TV division and for a string, starting with Cheyenne and I'll tell a little bit more about how Cheyenne started with Cheyenne and I'll tell a little bit more about how Cheyenne started. Starting with Cheyenne, he had, I would say, an eight-year run of Warner Brothers really trailblazing with their television productions and being the 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 an anthology series of rotating programs. Every three weeks you'd see a new episode of a specific program. So the three programs were Casablanca, based on the movie with Charles McGraw, and then King's Road, which was based on the movie that had starred Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan, and then Cheyenne, which was not based on the 1947 Warner Brothers movie Cheyenne, it only used the title. It was a fresh idea and Clint Walker was basically unknown. He had done some bit parts. He was in a Bowery Boys movie called Jungle Gents, but he was undiscovered and there's something about his personality that just was incredibly magnetic. Rotating three different series rotating under the umbrella of Warner Brothers Presents, and within the one hour time slot before the very end of the episode of either Cheyenne or Kings Row or Casablanca, you would see host Gig Young stop everything to spend five or six minutes promoting a new Warner Brothers movie, and that sequence was called Behind the Cameras.
George Feltenstein:Well, none of those other series really made a dent in the ratings. They were not performing well. Cheyenne was immediately drawing more viewers and so after these episodes were filmed they decided to not proceed with any more Casablanca and not proceed with any more King's Row. I think there were 15 episodes of Cheyenne and they balanced off the rest of that season with unrelated anthology programs that were self-contained by the next season. Cheyenne had a regular time slot and people tuned in and Clint Walker had established himself immediately as a hero to young kids, and men loved the fact that he was such a great action star. Women loved him because he was very attractive. He was just a beloved performer and became a big, big star and that also was the start of Warner Brothers television going into new directions and you may have noticed that there were some contract performers in small parts. In the first season of Cheyenne there's an episode, mountain Fortress. I think it's the first one.
George Feltenstein:And there's James Garner in there long before he stepped into the shoes of Maverick, and Cheyenne was the first of many Warner Brothers Western series. Maverick was the next to follow and then came Bronco and Lawman and Sugarfoot and people will notice that there are fewer episodes of the later seasons and that is because Mr Walker had a little bit of a disagreement with Mr Warner. He didn't want to have to make as many episodes as was usually required and he even went on. Basically he went on strike for a whole season. There was a whole season where there was the Cheyenne show but it was Bronco and Sugarfoot episodes and not Cheyenne. He came back and he finished until the 1962-63 season and the last broadcast was actually the last new show was shown in the end of 1962. But it was a seven-season run, 107 episodes, and that's a lot of work for our team of restorationists and mastering people and we tried to make sure that we included everything that was on the negatives. The negatives were played around with a little bit but we were able to put back the bumpers, you know. And now we return to Cheyenne. You know all those things are important and there's General Electric sponsorship mentions and the fact the ABC television network is mentioned. We wish that there was more left in those negatives. We would have included them. So in the third season of Cheyenne you have Clint Walker. He actually introduced Will Hutchins as Sugarfoot and you ended up having, like Sugarfoot episodes in the Cheyenne show, along with, eventually, bronco with Ty Harden. Those three series kind of were in rotation within the Cheyenne show. So, uh, we released DVD sets of all those other Westerns and I'm hoping that we'll be able to do the same thing with them that we've done with Cheyenne. And if Cheyenne sells well, it will pave the way for Maverick and Sugarfoot and Lawman and Bronco and all the Warner Westerns that became so popular.
George Feltenstein:But the other thing that's really, I think, on a personal note, because we were offering in the early days of the Warner Archive, we were offering the Cheyenne DVDs Clint Walker, god bless him. He and his wife were selling episodes that Clint would autograph, were selling episodes that Clint would autograph. So they were buying DVDs from us for Clint to autograph and send out to fans. And we established a very close relationship and he would call us up all the time and I had the great good fortune of interviewing him at the Paley Center when we had like a Warner Archive weekend. This is probably like 12, 13 years ago and he was just the nicest, most down-to-earth, remarkable guy and his fan base continued because Cheyenne didn't really disappear.
George Feltenstein:I believe Encore Westerns Network was running it at the same time. We were selling the DVDs and he was getting love letters from little 12-year-old girls that thought he was still the guy of 1957 and not the guy of 2012. He was just completely down to earth and he welcomed his public and he made personal appearances around the country Just the best guy and I feel honored to have known him. But the series itself if we were going to make a commitment to bringing out such a substantial show with substantial expense to do so, we had to start with Cheyenne, because it was the success of Cheyenne that led to all these other programs that were the cornerstone of Warner Brothers television, and Warner Brothers television, as of September, will be celebrating its 70th birthday, and think of all the wonderful television shows our TV division has brought to audiences for the last seven decades. So where it all began. That was a great honor for us and I'm glad the initial response to the series has been overwhelming and very, very positive and the fans just want more.
Tim Millard:Yeah, and I'm hoping we can comply. Well, I think a big part of that is you thought about the collector when you put this together and you chose that packaging. Not just the restoration, but I mean when you chose that packaging you knew, hey look, this is an expensive set and if you're going to shell out this kind of money as a collector, you're going to want to have something that's going to survive a couple of moves if you need to move them from one room to another or one house to another, and so having them each season in its own Blu-ray case with 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 the price point you put it at was very reasonable compared to some of the other full series I see out there that are only DVD, not Blu-ray, that are still this cost or more. So I thought the price point also for the collect was very good. And then, of course, the show is so good.
George Feltenstein:We wanted to make sure that we could come up with a price that was reasonable but also give the consumer something that is substantially safe in terms of packaging. I buy a lot of TV sets myself from various different companies and there's nothing more frustrating when the discs are stacked on top of another. Or you open up this monster case and you have 40 discs falling on the floor, right, um, I did not want. That's not what the warner archive is about. Yeah, we're about what the consumer wants. Um and uh. I'm really delighted with the fact that we were able to make this check all the boxes, and I hope people really enjoy it.
Tim Millard:You know I have a lot of prized Warner Archive films and TV series, but I've got this one right up there as one of my prized ones now, George, because of the beautiful artwork and the packaging, of course, Because while any show can be terrific, displaying the nice packaging is is part of when you watch these beautiful new 4k scans off the camera negatives, it does kind of show what you wouldn't have seen on a little television screen back in the day.
George Feltenstein:Um the frequent use of stock footage, you can clearly tell when they have a shot outside that could have been from you know the thirties 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 charm because it represents how television programming was evolving. Television was, in its basic first decade of being a consumer, primary source of entertainment for people not only in this country. But by the later part of the 1950s television started making entries all over the world. So the fact that this series still packs a punch no pun intended today is something we're very proud of.
Tim Millard:Before we wrap up on Cheyenne, I did want to mention that I watched this interview featurette with Clint where he basically reminisces about his time on the series and it's really informative. But to your point about him being such a nice guy, that really comes across just in that as you're hearing him talk, and he's so appreciative of the time, of course, that he was on the show and what what that brought to him in his life. But I really enjoyed that. I want fans to know that. That's on there as well and is a terrific I think it's on the first season actually. Yes, so it's a.
:It's a really nice, uh little extra there as well for the fans and now, here they are, the most daredevil group of daffy drivers to ever whirl their wheels in the wacky races, competing for the title of the world's wackiest racer. The cars are approaching the starting line. First is the turbo terrific driven by Peter Perfect, next Rufus Roughcutt and Sawtooth in the buzz wagon. Maneuvering for position is the Army Surplus Special. Right behind is the Ant Hill Mob in their bulletproof bomb, and there's ingenious inventor Pat Pending in his converter car. Oh, and here's the lovely Penelope Pitstop, the glamour gal of the gas pedal.
:Next we have the Bowler Mobile with the Slag Brothers Rock and Gravel Lurching along. Is the Creepy Coop with the Slag Brothers Rock and Gravel Birching along. Is the Creepy Coop with the Gruesome Twosome, and right on their tail is the Red Max. And there's the Arkansas Chuggabug with Luke and Blubber Bear Sneaking along. Last is that mean machine with those double-dealing do-batters Dick Dastardly and his sidekick Muttley. And even now they're up to some dirty trick and they're off to a standing start. And Now they're up to some dirty trick and they're off to a standing start. And why not? They've been chained to a post by shifty Dick Dasterly who shifts into the wrong gear.
Tim Millard:And away they go on the way out. Wacky races Well, the next thing we're going to talk about, george is another TV series. This is from Hanna-Barbera and and it's Wacky Race is the Complete Series from 1958. And I watched a number of these episodes and the time just kind of flew by because they are so fun and entertaining. There's just very little point to them other than there's a race and there's all of these things that they're trying to do to each other, whether it be Dick Dastardly or whoever it is trying to win this race. And I love the narrator. The restoration here in these looks good and it's like a nostalgia throwback to Saturday morning cartoons.
George Feltenstein:Absolutely, and it was a very different. It was a different kind of Saturday morning cartoon coming from Hanna-Barbera. It wasn't like anything else and it is my understanding. I'm not expert on its genesis exactly, but I believe the idea in well.
George Feltenstein:I know the idea involved the same people who produced the hollywood squares, the game show right heater and quigley, and I think there was originally an idea to do something live action and it ended up being animated. They're still credited on the end of the program in association with uh. But uh, this became such a fan favorite when it premiered on saturday mornings that it was rerun frequently and then led to two spinoff shows. There was dastardly and mutley and, of course, the perils of Penelope Pitstop, but it all began with Wacky Races and you look at the old DVDs and the colors are washed out and there's dirt all over the place and suddenly you see it new, coming off the negatives, 4k scan and beautiful color and it just brings you much more into the art of it as well. As the writing is really sharp and very comical and uh, the voice artists are terrific and, um, people were very excited that we were putting this out and people I I know some people have been a little put off by the fact that there were bridges in the original network broadcasts that are not part of our release.
George Feltenstein:Well, the way Hanna-Barbera put things together, they did not have a complete show negative, everything was segments and unfortunately, the little bridges weren't in the negative and were not able to be found. They may exist in other forms and collectors may have 16 millimeter prints and whatnot, but this was not really the core of what that show was about and we didn't want to cut away from the excellence of the quality and, frankly, that was just our guess that, hey, maybe they're out there somewhere. That, hey, maybe they're out there somewhere. You know, for McGillig gorilla we were really at a real problem place because we could not locate 35 millimeter negative on the curtain call and it was a very kind film collector who allowed us to use his 16 millimeter print, which we brought the color back as best as we could because it was faded, and we cleaned it up and that enabled us to have complete McGill and Gorilla shows. So I just have to mention that.
George Feltenstein:Those of you who were hoping to see those bridges because everybody wants to see everything exactly as it was I'm one of those people as well. But it was not possible here due to the way that these shows were maintained. It's a problem on a lot of Hanna-Barbera shows that were not. You know, things like Top Cat and the Flintstones and the Jetsons. They were one continuous story and the Jetsons, they were one continuous story, but when things were built out of segments. They were not stored and inventoried properly and we're paying the price for negligence of what happened 60 years ago. Wacky Races is not quite 60 years old, but it's getting there. We are providing it in a way that looks and sounds better than it ever has, probably even since the original airing. So I stand by it. It's also very reasonably priced and I hope people really enjoy it.
:Drat. One of them turned off, but we'll stop the rest of them. When we blast the pass, you plant the dynamite, muttley, and I'll give you the signal. What was that?
Tim Millard:I just love Don Messick's voicing of Motley, I mean.
George Feltenstein: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 lot and it worked every time. It worked every time. That's part of the charm of hannah barbara yeah, and then uh, and then.
Tim Millard:It has so many different cars so you can have your favorite car, you can have your favorite team. They're all so different. The creativity that went into this that you could just tell that everybody's having a lot of fun. And the uh extras that you have on here, which, uh, let me see I have them here. You've got a rear view mirror, a look back at Wacky Races.
Tim Millard:That has a lot of the information from because you have interviews with the people who worked on the show, of what went into the design and they're all, of course, trying to remember years back of did you create that or did I do that, but it's fun to hear them talking about it and all the creativity and the fun they had just creating the cars, coming up with the wacky ideas, the narrator and everything. So that's on there. That's really fun. You've got spin out and spinoffs, which is about the other spin off. As you mentioned, there's a trivia track and really a real gem here you got four commentaries with a lot of the people who worked on the show, so those are also really that's a great package of extras to also have on here.
George Feltenstein:We always try to carry over what was created years ago, when we had a lot more staff and a lot more budget in this arena, but not everything survives. Some things won't play back anymore and some things can't be located Because, tim, you were part of the group for so many years here. No one had the foresight to put the care into storing of special features the way they would with a film or a television program itself, and that's always the way it should have been. That is the way it is now, uh, but sometimes we go through a lot of difficulty trying to find these pieces, and I'm glad we were able to include so much on this, because it does make a great deal of difference.
Tim Millard: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 boomerang show that they did? Uh, you know the boomerang show that they did? You know, years later, like, there's a lot of people who know the name Wacky Races from the newer version of the show, but it's fun to go back to the original and see who the original artists were and the creators of it and the original iteration of it that you know. For, for the younger fans now too, and having having these extras on there give them that history 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 Archive. And will there be more Hanna-Barbera coming, george? Oh, yes, I knew the answer, but I had to ask you because people keep asking.
George Feltenstein:We have been working diligently on multiple projects and there will be more coming soon.
George Feltenstein:I won't say when or where, but I'll just tell people that people that are fans of Hanna-Barbera I'm really tired of hearing people complain about we want to see things that weren't on DVD.
George Feltenstein:Well, there are some really important, famous things that weren't on DVD that you'll be seeing, but the fact that something was on DVD before and was incomplete and didn't look good, what we're able to do now with scanning the negatives and presenting a very high quality, high definition presentation, I think is very meaningful, and the truth of it is that for a very long time given that there were other people involved in overseeing this stuff and a lot of it before even the Turner purchase of Hanna-Barbera, which, of course, was followed four years later by our purchase of Turner there was some terrible damage done to the way the Hanna-Barbera library was handled, way the Hanna-Barbera Library was handled, and I am happy to say that we will have a mix of things people haven't seen before at all in home media, as well as things that have been out before but in poor condition, that we can really make shine, and that's something to be very proud of and happy about.
Tim Millard:Well, this was a fun conversation, george, because we kind of grouped these together because, even though one is a silent film and then one is a Western and then one is an animation, they each have a really unique restoration story to them. Yes, and you have said that there's going to be more silent films, there's going to be more Westerns and there's going to be more Hanna Barbera. So this was a fun conversation and fans of of like us, who enjoy all three of those genres, can enjoy all of them. But even if you only enjoy one or two, it's great to get these and to hear that more of what your favorite releases are from the Warner Archive are coming.
George Feltenstein:Well, there's more fun ahead and we're trying to please a myriad of different fan groups. And what ties it all together is fan passion. And our goal is to profitably, because we are a public company and we responsibility our shareholders, but to profitably bring things from our library vault out to the home shelves, with the phenomenon of physical media.
Tim Millard:Yep, yep. Well, as always, george, thanks for coming on. It's always fun to go over these with you.
George Feltenstein:Thank you, Tim. It's a pleasure to be with you.