The Littlest Hobo
Collection – Volume One
(Children’s Television)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C- Episodes: B
Most children’s live action programming today is really
lame and condescending to children, but in the time it was good, some of the
shows featured animals. Lassie and Rin
Tin Tin are the most famous examples.
One of the more charming and smart contributions to this cycle is The
Littlest Hobo, a series that debuted in 1963 and ran on and off until
1985. VCI has issued twelve of the shows
in a new two-disc set that offers a smart dog that travels the world alone and
helps out human beings in trouble just by caring and being himself.
Though the dog is not granted any superpowers, the shows
are done seriously, are well-written, well cast, run about an hour each earlier
on and a half-hour later, and deserves rediscovery in a sea of bad current TV
as at least a minor classic of some sort.
The episodes featured are as follows:
1)
Trouble In Pairs
2)
Silent Witness
3)
Honored Guest
4)
Die Hard (with Keenan Wynn)
5)
Double Cross
6)
One Last Rose
7)
Cry Wolf (with a great guest turn by
Nita Talbot)
8)
Come Next Fall Session (with
Richard Rust)
9)
Blue Water Sailor
10)
Chico
11)
Honor Ranch
12)
The Great
Manhunt (with Henry Gibson)
This is like some fine lost show that is being kept secret
for no good reason. For all the quality
TV shows and cable/satellite networks around, where have they been hiding this
one? It is nice to see such a simple
concept work so well, not degenerate into bad formula and have a freshness over
forty years later that this all holds up so well and is such a pleasant
surprise. As a matter of fact, this is
one of the nicest TV on DVD surprises and Dorrell & Stuart McGowan and
their team deserve to be congratulated for a show well done.
Some of the early shows were shot in color, though the
credits were in black and white. This
is usually because TV shows of the time would be cut into artificial feature
films, but they look good in their original 1.33 X 1 aspect ration either
way. The only limit here is that the
transfer quality varies more than usual throughout this DVD. Most of the shows here are from 1963, and
the earlier shows tend to be the best.
It is just that there is a slight softness throughout, but it does not
spoil the story. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono is also a generation more down than one might want, but is passable. Extras include an isolated version of the
original theme song, info on trainer Charles P. Eisenmann and previews for
other VCI TV product. The Littlest
Hobo is one of their best TV releases to date.
- Nicholas Sheffo
