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The Golden Age of Television

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The hugely popular live American television plays of the 1950s have become the stuff of legend. Combining elements of theater, radio, and filmmaking, they were produced at a moment when TV technology was advancing and making art accessible to a newly suburban postwar demographic. These astonishingly choreographed, brilliantly acted, and socially progressive “teleplays” constituted an artistic high for the medium, bringing Broadway-quality drama to homes across the country. The following award-winning programs—curated for PBS in the early 1980s as the series The Golden Age of Television, with recollections from key cast and crew members—were conceived by such up-and-comers as Rod Serling and John Frankenheimer, and star the likes of Paul Newman, Mickey Rooney, Rod Steiger, Julie Harris, and Piper Laurie.

SPECIAL EDITION THREE-DISC SET

• The live kinescope broadcasts of Marty (1953), Patterns (1955), No Time for Sergeants (1955), A Wind from the South (1955), Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956), Bang the Drum Slowly (1956), The Comedian (1957), and Days of Wine and Roses (1958)
• Commentaries by directors John Frankenheimer, Delbert Mann, Ralph Nelson, and Daniel Petrie
• Interviews with key cast and crew, including Frankenheimer, Andy Griffith, Julie Harris, Kim Hunter, Richard Kiley, Piper Laurie, Nancy Marchand, Jack Palance, Cliff Robertson, Mickey Rooney, Carol Serling, Rod Steiger, and Mel Torme
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by curator Ron Simon and his extensive liner notes on each program

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swo17 wrote:Golden Age of Television

This fucking rules =D>

It's like what I see isn't true. Television? Who would have thought?

Saturnome wrote:It's like what I see isn't true. Television? Who would have thought?

They're not really TV shows though, did you read the description?

Domino Harvey: I'm not sure I understand. It's a compilation of television plays, doesn't it? I know it's not series or shows. It's still television. I'm not against it.

Saturnome wrote:Domino Harvey: I'm not sure I understand. It's a compilation of television plays, doesn't it? I know it's not series or shows. It's still television. I'm not against it.

Apparently you're not familiar with this.

Whoops, indeed.

damn! when eclipse line first started I emailed Mulvaney asking/suggesting a John Frankenheimer's television movies set (and never got a response, but those who doubt, look at the insane line up of A-list titles he directed for TV), and here we're getting Frankenheimer's Days of Wine and Roses in this set! and the original version of Marty (one of my favorite and one of the most unusual BP winners)! This set is a fucking treasure, I never expected to actually get to see these teleplays, though I hoped it might be possible, this is tremendous! Release of the year, easily!

eta. and hah to getting Christmas Tale and Gomorroh instead of Revanche, that's a rather cool and very unexpected one-two punch of modernity. :-p

I'm sure that all of those clamouring for Out 1 will be well pleased to have the "Golden Age of Television" set in its stead - after all, they were both made for the small screen, right? That makes them as good as interchangeable, really. ](*,)

Oops ... I knew this was coming a few months ago, and forgot to tell you guys.

I believe most of the interviews are taken from the Archive of American Television's oral history library, similar to those on Koch's Studio One set from last year. Not sure about the commentaries (Ralph Nelson died in 1987) ... did Criterion do some of these on laser?

Hard to find information on the PBS series, but some digging around on the internet reveals that they were ninety minute episodes hosted by Jack Klugman-- meaning that November introduces both Klugman and Dabney Coleman into the collection!

This looks very interesting, but I'm not sure to pre-order. Anyone have opinions on these?

I'm not personally that interested in this, but buying this for the library collection will allow me to throw out so many old VHS tapes. I couldn't be more excited.

I think that it is worth it for this version of Requiem for a Heavyweight alone. This is the release of the year for me.

Also, Fishing with John wasn't Criterion's first venture into TV territory. They released compilations of I Love Lucy and The Addams Family on laserdisc -- with supplements. I'm serious.

I think they're all terrific, and superior or equal to the later films made out of them (when applicable), except for A Wind from the South. That's a relative obscurity that I've never seen.

Most of these were all widely available on VHS. I remember renting them as a teenager, and seeing tons of unsold copies lying around in the only Suncoast Video we had in town. Always thought it odd that no one had migrated them to DVD. I'm not sure about the rights on these, but a lot of live TV is essentially PD, apart from any conflicts with the underlying source material or music.

I wish Criterion were going deeper on this, because there are many, many important live or videotaped "golden age" TV shows that still exist but have never been viewable outside of archives (or worse, the networks' vaults). But I can't complain about the most famous ones getting some renewed exposure ...

... especially since there are a fair number of prominent revisionist critics (like Howard Rosenberg, formerly of the LA Times, and Lee Siegel, the Armond White of television reviewing) who think live TV was too crude and obvious to be of any interest. Imagine saying that about silent cinema as a whole ... but with classic TV, you can get away with it. Anyhow, maybe this release will shut those fools up for a while.

This is fantastic -- exactly what Criterion should be doing. I hope this sells well enough to become an ongoing series.

Livia Soprano in the Criterion Collection...who woulda thunk it. O:)

Oh. My. God. I looked at the new announcements and thought to myself, "Guess THIS one is the one to skip that month." And then I looked at what it will contain. Holy crap.

Never expected to see this stuff in any form other than Dodgy Brothers bootleg DVD-Rs. Instant preorder for me.

domino harvey wrote:

swo17 wrote:Golden Age of Television

This fucking rules =D>

Why? I'm not being snarky- the Rossellini tv films are my favorite Criterions of the year. Are these great? I know nothing about them.

GringoTex wrote:Why? I'm not being snarky- the Rossellini tv films are my favorite Criterions of the year. Are these great? I know nothing about them.

Depends on what you're after. They have far more in common with theater than film. Great writing and acting -- very gripping stuff, but don't be expecting much in the way of mise en scène. This was mise en live-fucking-television after all. I'm curious to see what, if anything, Criterion can do with a kinescope.

Where did this Frankenheimer commentary come from? Spliced interviews, or recorded years ago and put on a backburner?

Jeff wrote:

GringoTex wrote:Why? I'm not being snarky- the Rossellini tv films are my favorite Criterions of the year. Are these great? I know nothing about them.

Depends on what you're after. They have far more in common with theater than film. Great writing and acting -- very gripping stuff, but don't be expecting much in the way of mise en scène. This was mise en live-fucking-television after all. I'm curious to see what, if anything, Criterion can do with a kinescope.

Mise en scene is quite interesting! How the camera handles scene changes and live set changes is cool, and Patterns especially plays with this. It's also just solid writing.

WOW! My parents were very into this back in it's day and their love for this kind of television influenced me. I was one of those odd ducks as a kid who actually thought these things were exceptionally cool. This is a huge surprise to me and I have to say that Criterion certainly caught me unaware this month. I anticipated Rossellini's other Eclipse box and his War Trilogy (let's hope that December or January delivers these). Nonetheless, this set will be a treat. I imagine this will turn into one of those affairs in which I take this to my folks and we enjoy this together.

It is refreshing to see someone recognize the importance of these early television broadcasts and how television and film inform one another.

Jeff wrote:I think that it is worth it for this version of Requiem for a Heavyweight alone. This is the release of the year for me.

Those were my initial thoughts as well. I am anxious to revisit Heavyweight again, especially -- I first encountered many moons ago and it left quite an impression. Gritty, powerful stuff and, if nothing else, it's nice to have some Serling represented in the collection.