*Disneyland Episodes on DVD - Some facts

[Walt Forever]

Hi "disneyland" tv-show fans,

after reading (and of course using) the topic "disneyland episodes on dvd", which is a great contribution to the forum in my opinion, I noticed a few problems a dvd-collector has, when he/she wants to own all of the shows. Some shows would completly be unreasonable to release on dvd like the black and white Dumbo-show aired on 14-Sep-1955 (Maerj named that already in his topic). So here I try to distinguish the shows by their types first to get a "suitable" dvd-release. Of course the problem is, will Disney do it that way, their release-strategy is very incalculable, but some editions seem to be very suitable for some shows. But now the different types of tv-show most of us know already:

1) edited tv-versions of theatrical releases: Not much to say about - nobody needs these shows e.g. an edited version of Alice in Wonderland, but a great idea is it to put the tv-introductions as bonus material on the theatrical movie´s dvd-release. So ultimate collectors then actually own the complete show. (like Alice in Wonderland SE)
= bonus release on dvd-sets with the theatrical movie

2) documentary/work in progress/behind the scenes: Typical bonus material for SE of theatrical movies. It´s great entertaining stuff, but a release is only profitable with the original movie (like "An Escape To Paradise" on the Swiss Family Robinson DVD)
= bonus release on dvd-sets with the theatrical movie
An exception are the documentary shows about animation (like "The Story Of The Animated Drawing"), cause its great stuff
= treasure tin

3) documentary shows about the disneyland park: Really great stuff, so it´s good enough for their own treasure tin release
= treasure tin

4) original mini-series - these series were originally produced for a television release e.g. the Davy Crockett series. Best way to release them as Treasure Tins containing each single show. That also goes for the special animated series like the tomorrowland-animation series. (so like "Davy Crocket" Treasure Tin / "Tomorrowland" Treasure Tin)
- alternative: a little unsatisfying but better than no release would be to release the edited theatrical version (disney did with successful tv-shows). An example for this is "Dr. Syn Alias The Scarecrow".
= Treasure Tins with the whole mini series (dvd with the edited theatrical version also a possibility)

5) cartoon compilations - very problematic, I don´t know, best thing is to release the whole show (Treasure Tins?!?). Of course, you own most part of these shows when you own the single cartoons (on box sets). But often there´s some great "linking" animation like Donald Duck visiting Walt´s Office or Ludwig Van Drake. This character is an "exclusive television character". No, a true collector needs the whole show. I guess only the best of those shows will be released, because the single cartoons will be released within the "cartoon"-Treasure Tins.
= Treasure Tins (as bonus material to content related dvd editions like "The Complete Donald Duck" Treasure Tin)

[Walt Forever]

So let´s start with the first category, the tv versions of theatrically released movies. This list is referring to “Disneyland Episodes on dvd” and contains the “Disneyland” -tv-series, which ran under that banner for 4 seasons (start: 27-Oct-1954 with “The Disneyland Story”, end: 14-May-1958 with Magic Highway, U.S.A.)

1) tv versions of theatrically released movies

1-2______03-Nov-1954_______Alice In Wonderland Introduction ON Alice SE
1-5______24-Nov-1954_______So Dear To My Heart Introduction ON UK Version
1-9______22-Dec-1954_____A Present For Donald (The Three Caballeros) Movie only
1-11_____05-Jan-1955_______Treasure Island 1 Movie only
1-12_____12-Jan-1955_______Treasure Island 2 Movie only
1-15____02-Feb-1955_______The Wind In The Willows/The Reluctant Dragon Movie only
2-1______14-Sep-1955_______Dumbo Introduction ON Dumbo 60th AE
2-7______26-Oct-1955_______The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow (*theatrical featurette - from Ichabod&Mr Toad) Movie only
2-8______02-Nov-1955_______The Story Of Robin Hood 1
2-9______09-Nov-1955_______The Story Of Robin Hood 2
2-15_____04-Jan-1956_______When Knighthood Was In Flower 1
(The Sword And The Rose)
2-16_____11-Jan-1956_______When Knighthood Was In Flower 2
2-23_____14-Mar-1956_______Stormy The Thoroughbred (*theatrical featurette)
3-4______03-Oct-1956_______Rob Roy 1
3-5______10-Oct-1956_______Rob Roy 2
4-15_____08-Jan-1958_______Saludos Amigos Movie only
4-17_____22-Jan-1958_______The Littlest Outlaw 1
4-18_____29-Jan-1958_______The Littlest Outlaw 2

[Walt Forever]

2) documentary/work in progress/behind the scenes:[] means tv releases of theatrical featurettes!

1-3_____10-Nov-1954_______Prairie / [Seal Island]
1-6_____01-Dec-1954_______A Story Of Dogs Lady & Tramp doc (ON Platinum?)+ Pluto shorts
1-7_____08-Dec-1954_______Operation Undersea 20.000 Leaques Doc
1-10____29-Dec-1954_______[Beaver Valley] / Cameras In Africa
1-13____19-Jan-1955________Monsters Of The Deep
1-17____16-Feb-1955________Cavalcade Of Songs
2-2_____21-Sep-1955________Behind The True-Life Cameras
2-4_____05-Oct-1955________People and Places - Tiburo, Sardinia, Morocco, Icebreakers
2-11____30-Nov-1955________The Story Of The Animated Drawing ON Behind the Scenes TT
2-17____18-Jan-1956________A Tribute To Joel Jandler Harris SOTS Stuff
2-19____08-Feb-1956________Survival In Nature
2-25____04-Apr-1956________Where Do The Stories Come From
2-26____30-May-1956________Behind The Scenes With Fess Parker Great Locomotive Chase Stuff
3-1_____12-Sep-1956________Antarctica - Past And Present
3-2_____19-Sep-1956________The Great Cat Family
3-3_____26-Sep-1956________Searching For Nature´s Mysteries
3-7_____24-Oct-1956________Behind The Cameras at Lapland/Alaskan Eskimo
3-8_____31-Oct-1956________The Plausible Impossible ON Behind The Scenes TT
3-9_____07-Nov-1956________Cameras in Samoa/The Holland Story
3-10____14-Nov-1956________Along The Oregon Trail Westward Ho The Wagons Stuff
3-15____30-Jan-1957_________All About Magic ON The Sword in the Stone DVD
3-16____13-Feb-1957________Tricks Of Our Trade ON Behind The Scenes TT
3-17____27-Feb-1957________The Crisler Story / Prowlers Of the Everglades
3-18____06-Mar-1957________Man in Flight Victory Through Air Power stuff + Disneyland Park scenes
3-22____10-Apr-1957________People Of the Desert
3-24____01-May-1957________Yellowstone Story / Bear Country
3-25____29-May-1957________The Liberty Story
3-26____05-Jun-1957_________Antarctica - Operation Deepfreeze
4-1_____11-Sep-1957________The Fourth Anniversary Show
4-3_____25-Sep-1957________Adventure In Wildwood Heart
4-8_____06-Nov-1957________Adventures In Fantasy
4-9_____13-Nov-1957________To The South Pole For Science
4-10____20-Nov-1957________The Best Doggoned Dog In The World Old Yeller Stuff
4-13____11-Dec-1957________The Horse Of The West
4-14____01-Jan-1958_________Faraway Places: High, Hot, Wet
4-22____19-Mar-1958_________Magic And Music
4-25____30-Apr-1958_________An Adventure In Art
4-26____14-May-1958_________Magic Highway, U.S.A.

[Walt Forever]

3) documentary shows about the disneyland park:

1-1______27-Oct-1954_______The Disneyland Story ON Disneyland TT
1-17_____09-Feb-1955_______A Progress Report / [Natures Half Acre]
1-21_____13-Jul-1955________The Pre-Opening Report From Disneyland
2-21_____29-Feb-1956_______A Trip Thru Adventureland / [Water Birds]
3-21_____03-Apr-1957_______Disneyland, The Park / [Pecos Bill]
4-23_____09-Apr-1958_______An Adventure In The Magic Kingdom

[Walt Forever]

4) original mini-series:

- Davy Crocket Series (5 episodes) ON "Davy Crockett" Treasure Tin

1-8______15-Dec-1954_______Davy Crockett: Indian Fighter
1-14_____26-Jan-1955_______Davy Crockett: Goes To Congress
1-18_____23-Feb-1955_______Davy Crockett: At The Alamo
2-10_____16-Nov-1955_______Davy Crockett: Keelboat Race
2-13_____14-Dec-1955_______Davy Crockett: The River Pirates

- Tomorrowland Series (4 episodes) ON "Tomorrowland" TT

1-20_____09-Mar-1955_______Man In Space
2-14_____28-Dec-1955_______Man And The Moon
3-14_____23-Jan-1957_______Our Friend The Atom
4-12_____04-Dec-1957_______Mars And Beyond

- Saga Of Andy Burnett Series (6 episodes) TT release?

4-4______02-Oct-1957_______SO Andy Burnett: Andy´s Initiation
4-5______09-Oct-1957_______SO Andy Burnett: Andy´s First Chore
4-6______16-Oct-1957_______SO Andy Burnett: Andy´s Love Affair
4-19_____26-Feb-1958_______SO Andy Burnett: The Land Of Enemies
4-20_____05-Mar-1958_______SO Andy Burnett: White Man´s Medicine
4-21_____12-Mar-1958_______SO Andy Burnett: The Big Council

[Walt Forever]

5) cartoon compilations:

1-4_____17-Nov-1954_______The Donald Duck Story
1-19____02-Mar-1955_______From Aesop To Hans Christian Andersen
2-3_____28-Sep-1955_______Jiminy Cricket Presents Bongo
2-5_____12-Oct-1955________The Adventures Of Mickey Mouse
2-6_____19-Oct-1955________The Story Of The Silly Symphony
2-7_____26-Oct-1955________The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow Movie only
2-12____07-Dec-1955_______The Goofy Success Story On R1 A Goofy Movie DVD
2-18____01-Feb-1956________A Day In The Life Of Donald Duck
2-20____15-Feb-1956________Our Unsung Villains
2-22____07-Mar-1956________On Vacation
2-24____21-Mar-1956________The Goofy Sports Story
3-6_____17-Oct-1956________Goofy´s Cavalcade Of Sports
3-11____21-Nov-1956________At Home With Donald Duck
3-12____12-Dec-1956________Pluto´s Day
3-13____16-Jan-1957_________Your Host, Donald Duck
3-19____20-Mar-1957_________The Adventure Story
3-20____27-Mar-1957_________Donald´s Award
3-23____17-Apr-1957_________More About The Silly Symphonies
4-2_____18-Sep-1957_________Four Fabulous Characters
4-11____27-Nov-1957_________How To Relax
4-16____15-Jan-1958_________Donald´s Weekend
4-24____16-Apr-1958_________Four Tales Of A Mouse

[Walt Forever]

There are some categorial problems with shows that contain more than one type! e.g. "The Disneyland Story" is about the park and contains cartoons. In these cases the original stuff dominates (in my opinion), which means that in the case of "The Disneyland Story" is in the documentary dl park category...

[2099net]

1) edited tv-versions of theatrical releases: Not much to say about - nobody needs these shows e.g. an edited version of Alice in Wonderland, but a great idea is it to put the tv-introductions as bonus material on the theatrical movie´s dvd-release. So ultimate collectors then actually own the complete show. (like Alice in Wonderland SE)
= bonus release on dvd-sets with the theatrical movie

It strikes me that they could put the edited content onto a DVD with the introductions and credits of they used the same DVD for this content and used seamless branching. After it's no different to the Abyss or T2 DVDs which play "extended" or "edited" cuts of the movies. Of course, the film would be in colour rather than black and white, but it would be a good effort.

Some people may say this is a waste of time, given that the whole feature is on the same DVD anyway. But I'd rather own a piece of Disney television history than play a "Virtual Tea Party" game.

[Loomis]

Some people may say this is a waste of time, given that the whole feature is on the same DVD anyway. But I'd rather own a piece of Disney television history than play a "Virtual Tea Party" game.

I tend to agree.

It WOULD be a waste of time

Kidding. Really.

I actually do think it would be a good idea to provide these on the DVDs with the films as companion pieces. Yes, they are edited; yes, they are in black and white. But as a collector, I do like to have the most "complete" collection of movie-related footage on the DVD, and the television version is part of that history. It is also interesting to compare the two, and see what has been changed/edited.

[Walt Forever]

You´re both right. Those edited theatrical releases are of course a part of television history. And a possible solution to the problem would be to release the edited version with the movie. A stupid kids trivial game has no right for existence on a collectors edition.
But well-known problem is: Disney releases what they want and how they want it. It´s so unfair - They do what they want, e.g. the OAR-problem with their live action features. Sometimes I think they don´t care much about us fans/collectors - I´m sure, without Leonard Maltin they´d never have released the Treasure Tins. That´s what makes me angry , but we have to face reality: They don´t release everything, so each collector has to give priorities for his "complete collection". My priority is to get the "original" tv stuff, e.g. "Andy Burnett", "Elfego Baca" or the tv-cartoon-shows first. When I own those on dvd, then I will think about an edited "Alice in Wonderland" tv-show on dvd. But it´s a lost chance that they didn´t release it on the special edition...