(Editor's note: This was originally posted in different form last week but was swallowed whole by the Monster That Challenged Blogger. Even if it DID actually make it to the site for some length of time, the issues discussed here are just as timely today as they were 5 days ago--which is to say, not very.)
Lest you think this post title is setting up a new spin on a very old joke, let me get to the point: Antenna TV, which prior to its launch touted rarely rerun 1960s sitcom "The Farmer's Daughter" as a staple of its weekday vintage sitcom lineup, has finally confirmed that it will not be showing the series at all. This sad news comes after Antenna had assured us (and some bloggers had rather smugly reiterated) that it was only a matter of time until the show was coming and that it was a simple issue of waiting for Sony to convert the tapes and deliver them.
Well, when Antenna launched January 1 sans the Inger Stevens sitcom, many were skeptical that the show would ever really show up, and now, unfortunately, the skeptics are proven right. Antenna deserves credit for maintaining its commitment to some of the other goodies it promised--at least for now--and is in fact adding "Burns and Allen" Memorial Day weekend. That's a good thing. We'll apparently get "Circus Boy" and maybe some other rarities like the 1950s anthology that was initially announced, and that's good, good news. But vintage TV lovers had a real treat to look forward to in "Farmer's Daughter," and now it's gone.
Worse yet is the realization that if we didn't somehow tape it off CBN in the eighties, we may never see it (unless, of course, we take the risk of purchasing an *ahem* alternative set), because, well, look at why the show won't be on Antenna. According to the official Facebook page, it would have been too expensive to restore the tapes to broadcast quality. Steve Russo quickly replied by saying, look, tell it like it is: Nobody wants to spend the money on the project. By the way, Russo does a better job of disseminating info and responding to viewer inquiries than the official reps who run the RTV and Antenna Facebook pages; he ought to get some kind of bonus each month from their P.R. departments.
If Sony and Tribune aren't gonna spend the money needed to make the old tapes "watchable"--and here I might add that MY standard for watchable is surely a hell of a lot lower than Antenna's, considering the visual quality of stuff in my collection--who is? "Farmer's Daughter" had a great run in its day, and there is even some intrigue about it due to the sad fate of star Inger Stevens, but otherwise, I must admit it has little going for it in terms of name recognition, making a DVD release from a third party like MPI or Shout unlikely.
I also read some skepticism that Sony couldn't at least put together a limited "best of" package for Antenna, one that would feature the episodes that are in the best condition. That sounds to me like a decent enough compromise. Surely there's a respectable batch of airable installments in the 100 or so in the collection?
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3 comments:
The Nostalgia Merchant website was at one time offering two sets of The Farmer's Daughter episodes (24 on each, for a total of 48) but apparently they pulled them from their inventory -- whether or not this was due to the announcement that the program would be rerun on Antenna TV I cannot say...and now that that's been aborted, I'll be curious to see if they sneak back into the Merchant catalog.
I have about eighty episodes of the series that I purchased from your friendly neighborhood "alternative source" (and as you state, they were recorded when the show was rerun on CBN) and the visual quality leaves a lot to be desired (though I have about the same standards as you, something that really should keep you awake at night). To hear the reason that Antenna TV is having to renege on its promise to show the series is because Sony is too tight to spend the money, however, is really disturbing...but at the same time not at all surprising since their business seems more preoccupied with the bottom line as opposed to preserving any sort of TV heritage.
Well said, Ivan...except for the part about sharing my standards--that's just chilling.
Seriously, someone pointed out that while at least we get Burns and Allen starting Memorial Day on ANT, it's curious that they went ahead and "restored" THAT but not Daughter...though of course Burns and Allen has much bigger name value today.
I just hope we get that Ford Theatre anthology show that was promised.
The truth is, Sony was looking for one-inch tape transfers that were done on the show for CBN in the 80s and couldn't find them. The 35mm film masters are all still in the vaults but they don't want to go to the expense of transferring them. That's what it comes down to.
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