Happy Fifth Birthday to The Warner Archive Collection!

 

The final week of March, 2014 marked the fifth anniversary - or, as they called it in their ads, "fifth birthday" -- of The Warner Archive Collection. 

This "manufactured-on-demand" enterprise of Warner Home Video has been a huge favorite with me. 

Take our standard link for more detail. 

The number of Warner Archive Collection DVDs I've reviewed here at TIAH Blog should speak for itself (links below):

Humphrey Bogart:

"King of the Underworld"

"Chain Lightning"

"The Two Mrs. Carrolls"

"Conflict"

"Crime School"


James Cagney:

"Taxi"

"Jimmy the Gent"

And a few more that seem to be in a perpetual "state of preparation", including (if you can believe it) a Cagney and Bogart WESTERN! 

Other Golden Age Hollywood Greats - Edward G. Robinson, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre:

 "The Last Gangster" 

"Three Strangers"


Animation:

"The Herculoids"

"Popeye the Sailor: The 1960s Classics"


It's clear that I have great affection for -- and derive much enjoyment from -- the various products put forth by The Warner Archive Collection.

But, all is not peaches and cream, sunny days, and banana cherry cheesecake in "WAC"-ky Land...

"W-W-Warning!  What f-f-follows is culled from c-c-comments from the prev-prev-prev... LAST p-p-post!  Yeah, I'm cheat-cheat-cheat... CUTTING CORNERS!"

 For all the good emanating from the WAC over these last five years, one area in which it has FAILED to live up to its seemingly unlimited potential is animation. 

You'd think that the media giant that controls the cartoons of Warner Bros. (Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies), MGM, and Hanna-Barbera, would do a better job of releasing this classic material to the public! 

Every year, they seem to “shake loose” some older and more obscure Cagney or Bogart film – and I’ll always buy them, and (as seen above) review them here… BUT The Warner Archive Collection could – and SHOULD – be an ideal place to release all of the unreleased artifacts of animation that they control.  

I TOLD YA they made a western together!

Last year’s release of 1960s Popeyes (also above) was a great example of what they could do.  So, why not such Hanna-Barbera series as Wally Gator, Touché Turtle, Lippy the Lion,  Peter Potamus, Atom Ant, Secret Squirrel, et al?  Aren't "limited interest" properties like these EXACTLY what The Warner Archive Collection was MADE FOR? 

 And, even if there ARE (as has been oft reported) music clearance issues with the earlier seasons of Huckleberry Hound, the Fourth Season was okay, as was the Third Season of Quick Draw McGraw.  They were short seasons, so COMBINE them into one package – to be supplemented by the extra Hokey Wolf cartoons made to replace the departing Yogi Bear segment.  That would make for a bountiful release – and there’s no reason it could not be done.

Take that WHIP to Warner Archives, Huck!

Even Hokey Wolf couldn't talk Warner into such releases!

It’s a damned shame we still don’t have an official Tex Avery MGM set.  If Warner Home Video can’t support it, why not Warner Archives?   And dare I suggest the Gene Deitch Tom and Jerrys?  I love “Dicky Moe”! 

I'm as angry as Captain Ahab, over not having my own copy of "Dicky Moe"!

Black and white Looney Tunes won’t sell?  Put them out in MOD fashion via the WAC.  I just ordered a 1932 Cagney film, “Winner Take All”, that is so obscure I never heard of it, until WAC offered it.  Also, over the past month or so, I ordered a collection of 1930s Shemp Howard Vitaphone comedy shorts. 

 
If these artifacts of early entertainment can get a Warner Archives release, why not the Looney Tunes cartoons that PLAYED ON THE SAME PROGRAM with them?    

 

So, Happy Fifth Birthday to The Warner Archive Collection...

 

And thanks for all the great stuff...  

Now, let loose of the rest of it!   

 

“Realizations: It’s Not Easy Being… Geek!”

Summary:  Remember the kid telling the parent that “History” is harder now, because there’s SO MUCH MORE OF IT, than when YOU went to school?

I’ve finally realized the definitive reason for the existence of “The Internet”!   

...Yeah, sometimes I catch-on slowly! 

It struck me as a bolt from the blue, while reading THIS BLOG POST on Alfred Hitchcock. 

I’ll spare you all the suspense and simply say that: “We can’t be EXPERTS on things anymore, simply because there are TOO MANY THINGS to be expert on!”

While I’ll never really consider myself a true “film buff” (A code word, perhaps, for self-anointed expert?), I have posted several items concerning Alfred Hitchcock – and have at least one more “in the can” waiting for the proper moment to loose upon the unsuspecting Blog-o-sphere. 

Despite this, nearly everything in the Blog post referenced above was NEWS to me!  I didn’t know Hitch made romantic comedies (to give myself something of a break, the Blogger seemed to regard this as being generally outside of common knowledge as well) – and it occurs to me that, her place in film history notwithstanding, I’ve probably never seen a single film featuring Carole Lombard! 

…So much for my ever becoming an “expert” on film – or even the subset of “Classic” or “Golden Age of Hollywood” film that more appeals to me.  

No matter how much I post on DVDs of the Warner Bros. films of James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and Edward G. Robinson, with a smattering of Errol Flynn – and my less-discussed other preferred areas of concentration: Alfred Hitchcock, John Wayne westerns, Abbott and Costello, and the catch-all designation of “Thirties Horror Thru Fifties Sci-Fi”… there’s still WAY TOO MUCH for me to ever become anything resembling an “expert” on film.   My respect goes to those who are.   

Yeah, I might be able to tell you some interesting things about those specific artists, films, and/or genres… but (Sniff!) you’ll need “The Internet” far more than you’ll ever need me!   …I didn’t even get some recent film questions on JEOPARDY.  

Funny… that wasn’t always the case. 

Comic books serve as a far better example of the point. 

I was not part of the formative years of fandom, but I did find my way in at a point where – with lots of diligent study and the willingness to make many personal contacts with those in (or formerly in) the field, you could accumulate enough knowledge on the subject of comic books in general to become an “expert”.  That is, someone to whom others would go with questions. 

At that point, there was “The Golden Age” and “The Silver Age”, and whatever “transitional designations” one cared to name the periods that surrounded them.  And some sort of “modern” age was beginning.  I called it “The Direct Age”, in tribute to the “Direct Market” that was on its way to becoming the driving force behind the distribution of the comic book.  Wonder why no one else went with that…

Nevertheless, I accumulated a considerable wealth of knowledge and, for a time, immodestly considered myself to be an “expert”. 

Now?  Not so much.  More like, not at ALL!  Because there’s TOO MUCH material to be (…at least by my own standards) any sort of an “expert” on.  Too much I’ve neither seen nor experienced.  Some of it, in terms of current material, best left “unexperienced”. 

...Of course, by that, we don't mean ANYTHING pictured in this post! We love ALL of these! 

Today, I’d say the best we can do is become (or remain) self-declared “experts” in OUR OWN SPECIFIC AREAS OF CONCENTRATION… and let “The Internet” do the rest. 

Our favored “Areas of Geekery”, be they comic books, animation, TV, film, music, sports, etc. have grown to such huge and unwieldy proportions that, if “The Internet” did not exist, Al Gore would have to invent it – just to hold all this stuff!  A volume of “Stuff” that is now beyond the capacity of anyone with a reasonable definition of “a life”. 

Throughout this Blog, you’ll find lots of material on the subsets of film listed above, Dell and Gold Key Comics, all Disney comic-book publishers post-Gold Key, DC Comics from the ‘60s thru ‘90s, certain areas of ‘60s TV, and specific products of modern TV animation such as THE SIMPSONS, FAMILY GUY, DC Comics Animated product and other ‘90s Warner series, etc.  As the Blog’s header states: “The Things that Interest Me”.

"Star Trek rules!"  "No! Lost in Space does!"

When I become an old man by the fireside (…or maybe the “glow” of a personal electronic device), I’ll still be available for discourse on those subjects.  But, for the rest of it, please consult “The Internet”… because no one can be a “true expert” these days!  

There’s just too darned much stuff to allow that anymore, sonny!