We hope all of our USA readers had a Happy Thanksgiving yesterday! Before you start your "Black Friday" shopping (or after, if you got an earlier start than I did today), we have the rest of that cornucopia stuffed full of rumors about TV series that are new to DVD on Paramount/CBS's 2007 slate. Let's start with the oldest of these: 1959's
The Untouchables, starring Robert Stack.
After
I Love Lucy was over for regular seasons, and turned into a series of one-hour specials (
which are reportedly coming to DVD in 2007), Desi Arnaz and his Desilu Productions company turned to their first drama, based on the Elliot Ness biography of how he and his unbribable (a.k.a. "untouchable") team of agents fought organized crime in Chicago during the 1920's. The pilot episode, 1959's
The Scarface Mob, told the most well-known tale of how
The Untouchables came up against Al Capone's gang (an irony, since it's been said that Arnaz had actually been a school chum of Capone's son).
After the success of Robert Stack and the rest of the cast in that initial pilot film, ABC started airing
The Untouchables as an hour-long weekly drama, making a name for Executive Producer Quinn Martin in the process, who left the show after a couple of years to form his own production company. Quinn Martin Productions, as many of you know, went on to be responsible for shows such as
The Fugitive, The F.B.I., The Invaders, Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco and
Barnaby Jones, among others. Both
The Fugitive and
The Streets of San Fransisco are rumored to be coming to DVD next year as well!
We've found out from our reliable industry sources that Paramount/CBS is planning a 2007 release of
The Untouchables - Season 1, Volume 1. We're *guessing* that it will probably contain the pilot and the first 13 weekly episodes of the 28-episode first season, which means you'll get guest stars like Louise Fletcher, Jack Lord (who was supposedly considered for the part of Ness!), Jack Warden, Phyllis Coates, Martin Landau, Alan Hale Jr., Gavin MacLeod, Marion Ross, and Jack Elam.
Please remember, though, that this should be treated as a rumor, and that no formal announcement has come from the studio. Everything's subject to change, so take it with a grain of salt until it becomes official. Stay tuned, and we'll let you know when and if that happens!
