Three months ago we
had the heads-up that Jame Drury's classic western series could be headed to DVD in 2010, but that nothing was official at the time. Well, it's all official now: Timeless Media Group has announced that the entire first season of the show will be available on
March 9th, as two half-season sets (to help keep costs under control for fans, we presume). They are both immediately available to pre-order from Amazon, in fact, so click on these links for
The Virginian - Season 1, Part 1 and
The Virginian - Season 1, Part 2.
Each of these is a 6-disc set with 15 episodes running approximately 1170 minutes (19.5 hours) per box (don't forget that these episodes were broadcast as 1.5-hour shows), costing $69.98 SRP per set. The episodes are all remastered, and the studio contact was spoke with proudly said it "looks as fresh as it did when they made it." Additionally, there are extras on these sets:
Season 1, Part 1 includes "an interview with James Drury, who played the part of
The Virginian for all 9 years the show ran." Meanwhile,
Season 1, Part 2 will have interviews with Gary Clark (
The Virginian's "Steve Hill"), along with guest stars Robert Fuller (
Laramie, Wagon Train, Emergency!) and Peter Brown (
The Lawman, Laredo).
Note that Peter Brown guested several times in
The Virginian, in different roles...one of them being the third season episode "We've Lost a Train," that served as the pilot for the spin-off program Brown co-starred in,
Laredo. So will we see that? What about ALL the other seasons of
The Virginian, since it ran for 9 seasons overall...are they in the works? Timeless Media told us that they are working on the second season of the show for DVD, and while they apparently haven't finalized a release date (or bonus material, which they're working on now) for that yet, they do plan on it being another split-season release like they are doing with the show's rookie year. Stay tuned for more on that.
And also stay tuned for package art for the two releases of
Season 1, as Timeless is still finalizing that and waiting for all the necessary approvals. We'll bring that package art to you just as soon as we can! Our thanks to the studio for filling us.
