‘Steve Canyon’ TV Series to DVD
Steve Canyon is a classic comic strip hero, created by Milton Caniff. Since his debut in 1947, the hero was a mainstay until Caniff’s death and the strip’s cancellation in 1988. Interestingly, there was little merchandising done with the character through the years with the notable exception of being part of the personas to be played by Captain Action in the 1960s and the short-lived NBC live action television series from 1958.
Being the series;’ 50th anniversary, the Caniff Estate has authorized a complete restoration and collection of the 34-episode series on DVD. The estate even established a blog to keep fans updated on progress.
According to TV Shows on DVD, work is nearing completion and the prototype package art was recently released. Plans now call for the series to be released in three volumes with the first due out on November 18 (same day as the 75th anniversary DVD collection of The Lone Ranger). Sales are limited to the website at present with no other retailers involved to date.
Volume one will contain the first 12 episodes starring Dean Fredericks as the Air Force plot and adventurer for $24.95. The second and third volumes will each follow some 60-to 90 days later and the blog says the episodes are being collected in their proper order for the very first time. The final volume will include as an extra the original unaired pilot plus a custom slipcase to hold all three sets.
Already ordered mine. Only seen a couple episodes before. Watch for a very young Mary Tyler Moore in one ep.
Woo-hoo!I can't wait to see it!
"…little merchandising…"??? To quote from MEANWHILE… (R.C.Harvey's excellent Caniff bio)"At the peak of the licensing effort, 56 companies were producing Steve Canyon items. There were junior-sized Air Force uniforms and flying togs, costumes and masks for characters, jet pilot helmets, Air Force scarves and space goggles, gun and holster sets, airplane models kits, lunch boxes and thermos bottles, slides of aircraft in flight, reels and viewers, air power hobby kits, spiral notebooks and zipper binders, autograph albums, scrapbooks, playsuits, T-shirts, shirts, pajamas, coloring books and paint sets-all emblazoned with the strip logo and Steve's face." (end quote). There were also 2 series of comic books from 2 different companies, posters, a series of juvenile novels, glider bomb truck, graphic novels, a board game…the list goes on and on. The jet pilot helmet alone fueled the imaginations of my generation. So using the words "little merchandising" in regard to Steve Canyon is like saying Carters is short on liver pills. By the way, a tip 'o the hat for your most excellent plug for our upcoming DVD set.
remember the steve canyon pilot helmets with the green visor and the mask that changed you voice to radio talk!!! my brother and I had them when we were 3 me an 8 big bro! they were soooo cool Im 54 now Jonny H ..
My DVD arrived a couple days ago. Looking forward to watching it but have no time right now. Darn deadlines.
I eagerly await Volumn 3 of the Steve Canyon TV series. No body could remember the series or the star but I tried to keep up with both! Too bad there isn’t a revival of the TV series on the networks, only this time in color!