70s Live Kid Vid Blog

Even though no US Saturday morning tv DVD releases have been announced, there are a couple of 70s live kid themed releases coming out in the upcoming months.

On October 14th, a two DVD a 1 CD set of episodes and songs from The Magic Garden will be released. For those not familiar with the show, the Magic Garden was a daily kids show featuring the two hosts, Carole and Paula, singing songs and telling stories. It was originally produced in New York in 1972 and then syndicated all over the country, with reruns of the 52 episodes airing in some areas, including New York, through 1984.

As far as I can recall, the show didn’t air in my area (or I was too young to notice it), but I was able to view the few episodes of the series that were released on VHS in 1994. Despite the shows’ age and low budget, I thought it was a fun show. The two hosts were great and the show worked as a nice example of non-network childrens’ tv from the early 1970s.

The DVD set features 10 episodes on two DVDs, with a bonus CD featuring six songs. Unfortunately, it doesn’t contain the opening or closing theme.

Pre-order the set from Amazon.

Carole and Paula are still performing together in the New York and New Jersey area. Here’s another clip:

Check out their official site for dates, as well as background information on the two hosts and the show.

Coming out either two weeks later (October 28th) or one month later (November 11th), a two hour DVD, ZOOM - Back to the ’70s, will be released featuring clips from the PBS produced show that ran from 1972 to 1978. The show featured children and young adults performing skits and songs sent in by viewers.

Currently, there is not much information about the release, but the two hour running time suggests that it will not be just a DVD version of the ZOOM - Best of the ’70s VHS tape, which was released in 2000 and ran 40 minutes. If/when any additional information pops up, I’ll post it.

Last night, the Home Theater Forum had their annual DVD online chat with members of Warner Brothers’ Television and Animation Department, someone asked about a release Shazam!, probably the biggest show on the site that hasn’t been released on DVD - here’s the response: “No plans for (it) at this time.”

That doesn’t mean the show will never be released. Later in the chat, someone else asked about some other Filmation series based on DC comic characters and was told “Rest assured our goal is to release the entire dc comics library at some point.”

So there is still some hope it will be released, but don’t look for it on your local retailer’s shelf anytime soon.

Warner Home Video is asking fans to participate in a survey to find out which animated series they would like to see released on DVD.

I know this doesn’t have much to do with live action series, but I’m assuming that fans of the live action Saturday morning shows of the 1970s might be interested in some of the animated shows listed (Filmation’s Tarzan, Super Friends, etc…) from the same time period.

The survey also has a space to leave comments, which might be a good place to request that Warner Brothers release the Banana Splits or Skatebirds, which combined live action segments with animated ones.

In an earlier post, I said that the upcoming release of the Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show was limited to a Canadian release. A helpful site visitor just pointed out that it can now be ordered through Amazon in the US (for a few dollars more, but cheaper or free shipping).

So if you don’t want to deal with shipping costs and possibly shipping delays, you can order it here:

I’ve already ordered my copy via Canadian Amazon and will throw up a review once I get/watch it.

BCI/Eclipse, the company that has been putting a lot of the Filmation library (Ark II, Isis, Space Academy, etc…) on DVD, has started to put together low cost, themed compilation DVD sets featuring episodes of various Filmation series that have been already released on DVD.

The first compilation, Superheroes Vol. 1, was released in May and combined episodes of Filmation’s late 70’s Flash Gordon series with episodes of Defenders of the Earth, a mid 80’s cartoon from King Features that featured Flash Gordon as one of the members of the titular group.

In August, they will be releasing three more compilations. The first release, Heroes and Heroines, comes out August 5th and includes the first eight episodes of Isis, as well as all five episodes of Freedom Force, an animated series featuring Isis. The set also includes the full run of two other Filmation animated action series, Blackstar and Space Sentinels. When all of the shows were released separately as complete sets on DVD, each set featured extras (interviews, commentary tracks, etc…), but neither BCI’s or Amazon’s page say whether any bonus features are included on this (or any other) set.

A week later, the other two sets will be released, including a second volume of Superheroes,, featuring the second seasons of Flash Gordon and The Defenders of the Earth, and Frightfully Funny Collection Volume 1, which features episodes of the Groovie Goolies and Ghostbusters, the 80’s animated sequel to the live action Ghost Busters series from the 70’s.

While waiting for the upcoming Hudson Brothers and Red Hand Gang sets to be released, live action kid vid fans can get their Saturday morning fix from a new compilation of live action kids programming from the 1950’s, Hiya Kids! A 50’s Saturday Morning Box.

The four disc set contains one episode of each of the following shows: Kukla, Fran And Ollie, Howdy Doody, Lassie, Annie Oakley, Flash Gordon, Ding Dong School, Time for Beany, The Paul Winchell Show, The Roy Rogers Show, Captain Z-RO, The Rootie Kazootie Club, Winky Dink And You, Super Circus, Andy’s Gang, The Cisco Kid, Sky King, The Magic Clown, Kids And Company, Junvenile Jury, The Pinky Lee Show, and Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Here’s a preview.

The 1977 NBC live action Saturday morning show, The Red Hand Gang, is coming to DVD this September in the UK. Although the show was produced in America, it wasn’t a hit in the ratings and had a relatively short run on NBC. However, when the show aired in the UK shortly after the US run, it proved to be quite popular, with reruns of the 12 episodes airing into the mid 1980s. They even starred in their own bubblegum commercial! So it makes sense that the series is getting released in UK first.

I know the owners of the series are trying to get a US release for the show, but at this time, I don’t know when that might happen. When I do, I’ll post the information.

Unlike the upcoming Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show release, which is only available in Canada, but should be playable on all US DVD players, the Red Hand Gang release will not. DVD releases in Canada and the United States are Region 1, while the UK is Region 2. That means you will need a multi-region player to watch any Region 2 DVDs. For more information on Region Codes, go here.

Here’s a look at the cover art:

The complete run of the 1974 CBS variety series, the Hudson Brothers’ Razzle Dazzle Show, will be released on DVD on June 17th, 2008.

The rumors of the show’s DVD release has been going around for awhile now, but TV Shows on DVD recently posted the announcement as did VCS, the company that is releasing the series. According to both sites, the DVD release will feature all 16 episode of the series, as well as a bonus episode of the Hudson Brothers’ prime time summer variety series, The Hudson Brothers Show, which aired the summer prior to the Razzle Dazzle Show, and a compilation of the best moments featuring the recurring character, Chucky Margolis.

For more information about the series, check this previous post.

Here’s a look at the show’s opening and closing credits:

The show was produced in Canada and it appears that the DVD release will be limited to Canada, but copies can be ordered through VSC’s site, as well as Amazon Canada.