Saturday, June 5, 2010

Jack Kelly - How the West Was Fun - Again! :)

Hi Everybody,

Today's post may look like a rerun, but I just found some additional information about the When the West Was Fun special--and a much better copy of it on DVD--and I wanted to share it with you.

While watching the DVD I bought last Saturday, I noticed that the picture quality left a lot to be desired, as you could tell by the grainy screen caps I posted. Plus, a news brief scrolled across the bottom of the special at one point, and I realized someone had simply taped this landmark special from TV and copied it to a DVD. Grr.... >:(

I wondered if I could find a better copy of it somewhere, so I checked eBay. Well, not only did I find a better copy of When the West Was Fun on eBay, I actually found the show's producer, Brad Marks! His son, Michael, is selling sharp, "director's cut" DVDs of the special on eBay right now. How "sharp"? Have a look:




As you can see, the color and clarity are far better. If interested in purchasing the authentic DVD, search the seller name marcos1brad on eBay.

And, of course, I had to ask about you-know-who. This is what Michael told me his dad remembered about JK's stint on the special:

"Jack was a politician who lived in Orange County, California. During the show Dad, Jack, Neville Brand and Slim Pickens played cards during breaks."

JK also has a very funny card-playing scene in the special with Neville Brand of Laredo (on which JK guest-starred) and Lee Van Cleef (his Commandos co-star) which erupts into a full-scale bar room brawl. He even smashes a bottle over the head of Alan Hale, Jr. (who guest-starred in two of JK's Maverick episodes!) Bart Maverick also makes a cameo appearance by way of a Maverick clip.

Speaking of bottle smashing, Michael let me in on another little secret: In a scene where host Glenn Ford is demonstrating how fake prop bottles are usually used in western film fights, he accidentally conks Larry Storch of F-Troop on the head with a real bottle! (They left the scene in the special.)

There's also a clip of a fight scene from Bonanza where the Cartwright boys display an unprecedented lack of brotherly love. And, Pernell Roberts wasn't too forgiving in real-life either after When the West Was Fun aired--according to a 1979 article in the Pittsburgh Press he claimed his image was used without his permission and sued ABC, the network that ran the special!

3 comments:

  1. Hi L...
    I am commenting anonymously...seems to work that way for me...
    I love the pictures and commentary you posted about "How the West Was Fun!" So glad you found the ebay version and got to talk to Mr. Marks!! So interesting!!
    Thanks again, for sharing that with us!!
    Have a good Sunday!
    Always,
    Janet T.

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  2. Thanks for sharing not only the story and pictures but how we can go about getting our own copy ... I just ordered mine. :-)

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  3. At the moment, it's on youtube as I post this about 6 months later.

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