The Quinn Martin Productions drama
The F.B.I., which premiered in 1965 and starred Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (
77 Sunset Strip) as "Inspector Lewis Erskine," appears to be heading home on DVD at long last! A longtime fan of the show, Shaun K. Chang,
asked about the program on Facebook a bit over a week ago, on the "wall" of the fan page there for the Warner Archive Collection. The studio folks have given Shaun an exciting answer in a pair of reply comments:
- Shaun K Chang - Any chance of having the Quinn Martin/Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. series "The FBI" out on DVD as well? It was a TV rerun staple of my childhood!
- Warner Archive Collection - Inspector Erskine will be on the case beginning early next year....All 9 seasons are planned...and bonus content, to boot!
- Shaun K Chang - Thank you so much!
- Warner Archive Collection - We share your enthusiasm! There's a reason the show lasted for 9 seasons.....It's terrific!
That's terrific to know, although I'm sure we'll have to take it one season set at a time. Another fan, Brent, follows Warner's second comment with a question: "
Is this an Archive project, or regular retail distribution?" Warner hasn't answered, but our gut feeling is that this must be an Archive manufacture-on-demand (MOD) project, or else the Warner Archive folks probably wouldn't have had the answer. It's not widely recognized in the public, but the traditional retail releases of Warner Home Video products (in stores) is one department of WB Studios, but we understand that the MOD products actually come out via the "Warner Bros. Advanced Digital Services" department instead. So if the Warner Archive folks are talking about a title, we're going to assume it will be an MOD release.
However, the catch in what the studio said is that bonus content will be included! The Warner Archive/WBshop MOD releases have routinely shied away from anything resembling extras so far. Perhaps this represents a change in overall strategy, or perhaps this is just special to this one particular program for reasons singular to it. Or maybe it means that the releases will actually come to traditional retail after all, despite our reasoning above! Stay tuned, of course, and we'll fill you in further about
The F.B.I. on DVD - no matter how it ends up being available! - just as soon as more info comes our way. And speaking of info coming our way, we owe our thanks to reader Greg Brobeck for tipping us off about the studio's postings on this subject in the first place!
