Both E1 Entertainment ("What Makes Sammy Run?" and "Evening Primrose" and a boxed set of Studio One dramas )and VAI ("One Touch of Venus," "Bloomer Girl," "Peter Pan," "Annie Get Your Gun," "Desert Song") did clear the rights and put several of the TV classic out commercially on DVD. They are not big sellers and it takes a great deal of effort. I have been involved with helping the companies put them out, but E1 stopped releasing classic TV). I have also worked with TCM which aired the "lost" "Glass Menagerie" with Shirley Booth from 1966 and DuPont Show of the Month: "Wuthering Heights" (with Richard Burton and Rosemary Harris). It is time consuming, sometimes expensive and as I said the audience isn't so large.
By the way, most of the programs listed above were aired live and preserved in black and white on kinescope ("Damn Yankees" and the Goulet musicals were on tape) |
