more "You Bet Your Life" on DVD

[narzo]

Here's the story:

 
One of the first releases from Shout! Factory last year was You Bet Your Life - The Lost Episodes, a great set that featured episodes that were never re-run after thier initial airing in the 50's. The set was packed with extras, looked great, and it sold very well. After such a warm reception for Groucho, Shout! couldn't resist going back for more.

The Shout! Factory is now pleased to release You Bet Your Life - The Best Episodes, which is planned to concentrate on the fan favorite episodes that have made this series such a beloved classic. A few weeks ago, we gave you the heads-up on what sort of material that Shout! wanted to include on this set. While we are still waiting for their official press release announcing the package, we are happy to bring you what early details that we can:

Yesterday The Best Episodes DVD set was put up for pre-order at DVDEmpire and at DVDPlanet. We won't be shy to encourage you to use those links to pre-order this compilation; doing so helps support this site at no extra cost or inconvenience to you. As we stated in our previous news item, the release date is July 27th. List price is $39.98, but each of these retailers offers a nice pre-order discount.

DVDPlanet shows this to be a 3-DVD set, but offers no other details beyond that. DVDEmpire has a lot more information, however. To start with, here's their description of the set:

Groucho Marx is arguably the most famous iconic comedian of all time. You Bet Your Life began on radio in 1947, ostensibly as a game show, and becameia huge hit television program and as big a part of Groucho's legacy as the amazing movies he made with his brothers in the earlier part of his career. After the start on radio, the show ran through 423 episodes from 1950-1961.

In addition to a 570-minute running time, DVDEmpire also lists the following supplements:

Three Groucho Pilots Including "What Do You Want," "Tell It To Groucho" and the never before seen "The Plot Thickens"
Outtakes
Bloopers

[Ian Wallis]

There has been some hope that other game shows will eventually released on DVD - either "best of" sets or complete seasons.  For obvious reasons, this will likely never happen.  One thing that came to mind while reading the above post was that, one reason "You Bet Your Life" works so well on DVD is that each episode is self-contained.  You can watch one, and have it draw to a natural conclusion.  For example, if they were to put "Best of Match Game" on DVD, most of the episodes either start part way through a game - or end that way.  

I'm not saying that every game show that was self-contained would work on DVD - there's a lot of other reasons why "YBYL" has been released - but I think this is certainly one reason that might prevent others from being tried.

[DrBear]

Of course, it helps if your host is a national icon, and I would say Groucho's the only game show host in that category, with Bob Barker and Hugh Downs somewhere back in the dust. (Let's put it this way - do you see anybody dress as Bob, Hugh, Bill Cullen, Alex Trebek, etc. for Halloween?)

But that's a good-point about self-contained episodes.

[The Ol' Guy]

Cool! There was a VHS release of What Do You Want? by some outfit like Interglobal Video some time back, but to have a fresh DVD copy along with the two others - that's great. Hadn't heard of "The Plot Thickens". What was that - some mystery game with the great Sherlock Marx on hand,  or a more scripted show?

[Kevin Prather]

I wonder if they'll ever find the "Cigar" clip somewhere and release it.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'whoserman\' date=\'Apr 29 2004, 03:50 PM\'] I wonder if they'll ever find the "Cigar" clip somewhere and release it. [/quote]
 Unlikely:

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/groucho.htm

[Adam Nedeff]

Highly unlikely, considering Groucho wasn't even sure if it happened, and even if it did, the film was probably pitched right after it was removed.

The Urban Legend of Groucho's cigar comment

[clemon79]

Wow. Great minds.

[Jimmy Owen]

This will sound strange, but I would like to see the syndication package of "The Best of Groucho," mainly because those are the ones I saw in the '70's.  There are a couple of bargain DVDs of YBYL, I would guess those are public domain eps.

[johnnyd1788]

Hey, first post after finally being allowed to do so.
Regarding the cigar incident:
I have the 1st DVD, and there's a bonus on here and it is the recording of a Chrismas record given out to DeSoto Plymouth dealers. Well, there is a clip from that same exact episode. No cigar joke, sorry.

Direct quote from booklet:
"In December 1950 DeSoto distributed a twelve inche 78rpm record featuring highlights from You Bet Your Life and a holiday message from Groucho to their dealers. The nine minute recording includes an excerpt from Groucho's November 17, 1947 radio interview with Mr. and Mrs. Story of Bakersfield, California, the parents of twenty children. This interview has become legendary for a portion of it that never aired.
Groucho: 'Why do you have so many children? That's a big responsibility and a big burden.'
Mrs. Story: 'Well, because I love my children and I think that's our purpose here on earth, and I love my husband.'
Groucho: 'I love my cigar too, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while.'
Considering how many people have claimed to have seen or heard that exchange over the years it would seem likely that it must exist somewhere. But of the ninety-nine radio episodes of You Bet Your Life that aired prior to the show's television debut, fewer than half of them survive. And the show with Mr. and Mrs. Story is not among them. The famous exchange would certainly have been edited out anyway. The brief clip from Season's Greetings From DeSoto- Laughs With Groucho (the record's name) is all that remains of this episode. And the only people who witnessed that legendary moment were the studio audience that fatefl night in 1947."

Whew! lots of typing! But that's ok, this is a great DVD set I have here... I can't wait for the next one! There will be more of the episodes we should all remember easily.

That's great they're adding tons more DVD extras! THREE pilots from Groucho! This is great... sounds like there will be more extras than the DVD set out already, since these episodes were harder to find and couldn't find anything else to relate to these episodes. I wonder if they'll have the film version of the YBYL pilot, I'm up to seeing what it was like on radio in the audience...

Well, hope any of the cigar info was helpful to you curious people to wonder about the wherabouts of this episode!
John Dyson

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Apr 29 2004, 08:54 PM\']This will sound strange, but I would like to see the syndication package of "The Best of Groucho," mainly because those are the ones I saw in the '70's.  There are a couple of bargain DVDs of YBYL, I would guess those are public domain eps.[/quote]
IIRC, Shout! Factory has been putting out a call to try to find usable prints of the shows as they aired on the network--they *have* "The Best of Groucho" versions, but want to put on the DVD the shows as they aired, without the strange reformatting and blacking out to cover the DeSoto logos and the "NBC" on Groucho's mike.

For the set used in the last two years of "YBYL" (and perhaps a year or two before that), the sponsor logos were added in post-production and the "NBC" was taken off of Groucho's mike (the show had ended its radio simulcast by then, anyway--the NBC mike was there to symbolize the simulcast).

[johnnyd1788]

IIRC, Shout! Factory has been putting out a call to try to find usable prints of the shows as they aired on the network--they *have* "The Best of Groucho" versions, but want to put on the DVD the shows as they aired, without the strange reformatting and blacking out to cover the DeSoto logos and the "NBC" on Groucho's mike.

This is true for the first DVD, also. A few of the episodes didn't exist except for the Best of Groucho prints, so they had to use it for the ones they wanted on the DVD that they couldn't find the original print for.
IMO, Shout! Factory made a fine choice at not choosing to use the Best of Groucho episodes except if they really had to, because of what they did to eliminate the logos for syndication just made it a bad experience to witness. The way the frame was blown up to eliminate , and the way there was just a black "dot" where Groucho's mic made made me wondering why people never complained about it...
John

[tommycharles]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Apr 30 2004, 02:34 PM\']
IIRC, Shout! Factory has been putting out a call to try to find usable prints of the shows as they aired on the network--they *have* "The Best of Groucho" versions, but want to put on the DVD the shows as they aired, without the strange reformatting and blacking out to cover the DeSoto logos and the "NBC" on Groucho's mike.

For the set used in the last two years of "YBYL" (and perhaps a year or two before that), the sponsor logos were added in post-production and the "NBC" was taken off of Groucho's mike (the show had ended its radio simulcast by then, anyway--the NBC mike was there to symbolize the simulcast). [/quote]
 The earliest ep I've seen show up on my PBS affil (who aired the show for about a year, but as they only had 16 eps, it got old pretty fast) was from 1954. Do earlier eps exist than 1954?

[johnnyd1788]

Yes, the first show ever broadcasted on TV was aired on August 24, 1950. On top of that, the radio show existed even longer, with the first radio broadcast airing on October 27, 1947.
John

[johnnyd1788]

Did anybody go out and buy this yet? I saw it at Border's totally shocked. I knew Border's had sucky prices, so I went down the street to Best Buy and bought it for cheaper today. It's really great! I've only seen the first episode on the first disc and all of the pilots. I couldn't resist. I think "The Plot Thickens" may work today. Anybody have any thoughts?
I recomend to buy "The Best Episodes" more than "The Lost Episodes" because these are the episodes most of our veterans will remember, more than some rare episode with no "surprises".
John