Tom & Jerry

The almost complete Tom & Jerry. The only thing missing are the 45 cartoons aired by CBS in the early 80's on the Tom & Jerry Comedy Show......but that is no great loss. Obviously, the jewels of this set are the cartoons produced by MGM for theatrical release between 1940 and 1958 and to a lesser extent the Chuck Jones produced cartoons between 1963 and 1967 - and all of those are found on the first three disks. Not only are they all found, but are excellent quality and in their original form with one small exception. The Tom & Jerry cartoons were butchered for years. Censored, cropped, dubbed...you name it. These have all the original dialogue and original screen size. Many of the cartoons in the 50's were made in wide Cinemascope and that is how you will see them here. And if you've read this far, you probably are well aware of how many of the Tom & Jerry cartoons were censored for the past 50+ years. The only censorship you will find here lasts about two seconds in the cartoon His Mouse Friday, which made its debut in theaters on 7 July 1951 and is found on disc 2.

What you see in that cartoon is this:

What people in theaters in July 1951 saw is this:

but other than that, all the politically incorrect and violent original content remains in place. Some of the finest animation ever produced. Also included are the two 1957 "solo" cartoons featuring Tom & Jerry characters Spike and Tyke.

Tom and Jerry

Peter Gunn

Peter Gunn, the complete US private eye crime series from the late 50's / early 60's.

Peter Gunn

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show

 

The pioneering television sitcom Burns & Allen Show ran for 8 years on CBS (1950-1958) and aired 291 episodes. This collection features 125 episodes. I have no idea how many are lost or available, but I did take the time to identify all of these. Officially, they didn't use episode titles until 1957. George Burns lived to be 100 and enjoyed great popularity to the end, but his wife Gracie was the true star of this show. Gracie was a brilliant, all-around comedienne.  

 Burns and Allen

Hawaii Five-O

Hawaii Five-O

Hawaii Five-O

 Update Oct. 25....I'm pleased to say that the banned episode Bored She Hung Herself, has been added to Disc 5. It's not the greatest quality, but ya gotta take what ya can get.

The Lucy Show

I Love Lucy was most likely the top sitcom of the first decade of television in the United States. Near the end it morphed into the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour and its final episode aired April 1, 1960. Exactly 2½ years later Lucy was back with a new sitcom, The Lucy Show. The new show enjoyed great success through the 60's just as I Love Lucy did during the 50's. Its first season, 1962-1963, it was the #2 rated sitcom (behind The Beverly Hillbillies). It was also rated #2 during its 6th and final season (behind the Andy Griffith Show) of 1967-1968. In fact, 3 of the top 4 sitcoms that season aired back-to-back-to-back Monday nights on CBS: Lucy Show, Andy Griffith, Family Affair. 
Lucy was back that autumn with a new show called Here's Lucy and that also enjoyed a six year run. During it's 3rd season (1970-1971) it was the #1 rated sitcom on American television. 
As I recall, this show started off as a family type of thing with her former I Love Lucy co-star Vivian Vance and kids, etc., then about halfway through its run it changed formats and was centered around Lucy's job at a bank and no kids.
The Lucy Show