THE ALASKANS - THE COMPLETE SERIES (1959-1960)
Label: Warner Archive
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 1941 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1)
Cast: Roger Moore, Jeff York, Dorothy Provine
Warner Archive have dug deep into the WB Television archive and unearthed another complete series set, this time it's The Alaskans (1959-1960), a single-season series set against the backdrop of the 1890s gold rush in the Yukon, in the port town of Skagway, Alaska. There adventurer's Jeff York (Roger Moore, The Man Who Haunted Himself) ad his burly pal Reno McKee (Jeff York, Fear the Night) get themselves into series of schemes meant to make them rich. Other characters include the beautiful saloon showgirl/singer "Rocky Shaw" (Dorothy Provine, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World). As with a lot of Tv from this era the rugged adventure show featured a stellar cast of guest stars that included James Coburn (Our Man Flint), Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Beyond Witch Mountain), Troy Donahue (Cockfighter), Lee Van Cleef (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), Claude Akins (Rio Bravo), Dick Sargent (Bewitched), Alan Hale Jr. (Gilligan's Island), Werner Klemperer (The Wrong Man), and Julie Adams (Creature from the Black Lagoon), to name but a few. The show had adventure, romance, thrills, and it's quite witty at times. Moore is phenomenal in the role that first brought him to acclaim in the U.S., and love all the potato-flake and gypsum-dust blizzards and winter bound scenes that they conjured up on sets in Burbank in the 85 degree heat, the cast sweating it out underneath fur-lined parkas, you just gotta love that old Hollywood magic! If you're a fan of the Maverick TV show you might recognize some similar story lines with a few minor alterations as was commonplace at the time, and when this show was cancelled Moore ended up being James Garner's replacement on the fourth season of Maverick, playing his cousin, which I thought was interesting, and brought back to mind something similar that happened on Colt. 45.. While originality is not the show's strong suite by any means the show is still quite an enjoyable Klondike adventure romp, and with Moore leading the cast how could it not be?
Warner Archive have dug deep into the WB Television archive and unearthed another complete series set, this time it's The Alaskans (1959-1960), a single-season series set against the backdrop of the 1890s gold rush in the Yukon, in the port town of Skagway, Alaska. There adventurer's Jeff York (Roger Moore, The Man Who Haunted Himself) ad his burly pal Reno McKee (Jeff York, Fear the Night) get themselves into series of schemes meant to make them rich. Other characters include the beautiful saloon showgirl/singer "Rocky Shaw" (Dorothy Provine, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World). As with a lot of Tv from this era the rugged adventure show featured a stellar cast of guest stars that included James Coburn (Our Man Flint), Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (Beyond Witch Mountain), Troy Donahue (Cockfighter), Lee Van Cleef (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), Claude Akins (Rio Bravo), Dick Sargent (Bewitched), Alan Hale Jr. (Gilligan's Island), Werner Klemperer (The Wrong Man), and Julie Adams (Creature from the Black Lagoon), to name but a few. The show had adventure, romance, thrills, and it's quite witty at times. Moore is phenomenal in the role that first brought him to acclaim in the U.S., and love all the potato-flake and gypsum-dust blizzards and winter bound scenes that they conjured up on sets in Burbank in the 85 degree heat, the cast sweating it out underneath fur-lined parkas, you just gotta love that old Hollywood magic! If you're a fan of the Maverick TV show you might recognize some similar story lines with a few minor alterations as was commonplace at the time, and when this show was cancelled Moore ended up being James Garner's replacement on the fourth season of Maverick, playing his cousin, which I thought was interesting, and brought back to mind something similar that happened on Colt. 45.. While originality is not the show's strong suite by any means the show is still quite an enjoyable Klondike adventure romp, and with Moore leading the cast how could it not be?
Audio/Video: The entire 36-episode run of the series has been lovingly remastered in 1080p HD by Warner Archive Blu-ray release, derived from new 4K scans of the original camera negatives, presented here in the original 1.37:1 fullscreen broadcast aspect ratio. The 36-episodes are spread across 9 discs with 4 episodes on each one giving the episodes plenty of digital room to breathe. The black and white show was shot on film and looks immaculate, the mix of on actual snowbound locations and Burbank studio shot sets looks terrific, and I am pretty sure the show never looked even close to this good on the old cathode tube TV's back in the late-50's, not even close! Grain is finely resolved, details are crisp, textures are pleasing, and black levels and grayscale look wonderful. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles, the track is clean and well-balanced, dialogue sounds terrific, the howl of sled dog and the roar of avalanches have some nice punch to them, and the at times dramatic score comes to life quite nicely. Of course we also get plenty of songs sung by actress Dorothy Provine, and they sound great.
There are no new extras, though WAC did delay this set when they discovered some episode bumpers that were included with the original broadcasts, and they have included them here as part of the episodes which is wonderful.
The Warner Archive's continued dedication to resurrecting and restoring not just classic films, but these nuggets from the golden-age of TV, is nothing short of miraculous. There's more good news for vintage TV western fans to look forward to as Warner Archive will also be releasing the 34-episode series A Man Called Shenandoah (1965-1966) starring Robert Horton will be the next vintage WB TV release to get the restorative Warner Archive touch. The Alaskans on Blu-ray is quite a treat, and while I have not watched the whole 36-episode run as of yet, about half way so far, from what I have seen thus far it is quite enjoyable, and is sure to please Roger Moore fans like me, who maybe are not familiar with a lot of pre-007 body of work on television, but - spoiler alert - he's quite a charmer and the star-power was already quite evident.
Special Features:
- None
Screenshots from the Warner Archive Blu-ray:
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