Here Come The Brides – The Complete First Season

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: D     Episodes: B-

 

 

Not seen for decades, Sony Television has decided to dig into their television catalog and come up with one of the more interesting productions of the late 1960s, a drama/comedy/Western show called Here Come The Brides.  It only lasted two seasons, but it was one of the most ambitious productions of the time and holds up surprisingly well in a way unexpected.  One of the classic Screen Gems productions, the production values are very solid and though the costumes have dated a bit, even they have some serious money put into them.

 

Robert Brown, Bobby Sherman (from Shindig! and on his way to a teen pop idol career) and David Soul (before Starsky & Hutch and his own big one hit wonder in 1977’s Don’t Give Up On Us that was larger than anything Sherman ever cut) play The Bolt Brothers, trying to lead a happy life in the country, but where are the women?  Well, that has been an eternal question in Westerns with answers that are not always good.  However, in this case, they take a page from the hit musical Seven Brides For Seven Brothers sans the music (don’t worry, Sherman and Soul made up for it later, right?) and find a way to recruit women to join them.

 

Remarkably, they find many and from the pilot, a good number stay for the series.  This is a family show and the great character actress Joan Blondell plays a matriarch, but there is a strange catch.  The women have been brought in with the help of a rich man who will get the Bolt’s property if the women leave within a year, played by the late Mark Lenard.  He is best know for playing Mr. Spock’s father in Star Trek from the original series (which ended around the time this show did) to the later feature films.  He is good here too.  Barry Cahill also stars as McGee.

 

I don’t know why this show disappeared, but for all the TV classics that have been played out, the time has come for its return, because this is a family show with intelligence and a some authenticity we used to get on TV all the time.  The episodes are as follows:

 

1)     Here Come The Brides/Pilot (Vic Tayback guest stars)

2)     A Crying Need

3)     And Jason Makes Five

4)     The Man Of The Family (Elaine Joyce and William Schallert guest star)

5)     A Hard Card To Play (Sheree North guest stars)

6)     Letter Of The Law (John Marley and Michael Murphy guest stars)

7)     Lovers & Wonderers

8)     A Jew Named Sullivan (Daniel J. Travanti guest stars)

9)     The Stand Off (Don Pedro Colley guest stars)

10)  A Man & His Magic (Jack Albertson guest stars)

11)  A Christmas Place (Michael Bell guest stars)

12)  After A Dream, Comes Mourning

13)  The Log Jam (Sam Melville guest stars)

14)  The Firemaker (Ed Asner & Monte Markham guest star)

15)  Wives For Wakando (Michael Ansara and William Smith guest star)

16)  A Kiss Just For You (Rhys Williams guest stars)

17)  Democracy Inaction

18)  One Good Lie Deserves Another (Lew Ayres guest stars)

19)  One To A Customer (Peter Jason guest stars)

20)  A Dream That Glitters (Will Geer guest stars)

21)  The Crimpers (Rosemary Decamp & Jack Perkins guest star)

22)  Mr. & Mrs. J. Bolt (Henry Jones guest stars)

23)  A Man’s Errand (John Anderson guest stars)

24)  Loggerheads (Alan Oppenheimer guest stars)

25)  Marriage, Chinese Style (Bruce Lee guest stars)

26)  The Deadly Trade (R.G. Armstrong and Murray MacLeod guest stars)

 

 

That is a very serious guest list with more than enough curios alone for someone to check out the show.  This was also the first of many productions by Paul Junger Witt, who went on to team up with Tony Thomas and Susan Harris to created groundbreaking TV like Soap and other huge hits like The Golden Girls.  Even this early, he had great judgment and taste about what would and would not work.  Now you can see for yourself.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image has its softness, but the depth and detail can be interesting and the color is especially impressive.  The color is credited as “Perfect Pathé” and it is one of the best examples of color from a TV show we have seen so far along with The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Andy Griffith Show and Kolchak: The Night Stalker for live-action series up to the mid-1970s.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono shows its age and is a bit more compressed than expected, with limited depth, even for mono.  Why is the question when these transfers look so good throughout but is passable.  Of course, it has the hit song “Seattle” in its non-vocal version in the credits.  In 1969, a vocal version became one of Perry Como’s last Top 40 hits.  There are no extras, but with a cast, guests and history like the show has, Sony has to have something in the vaults for the next and last set.  It deserves the treatment.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo