Coronet Blue is the surprise DVD release of 2017, 50 years after its CBS summer airing. A real cult oddity, its reputation is greater than the reality. All 13 episodes are on 4 discs. (Two were never aired.) The picture and sound quality is good considering the age of the show but not excellent.
This is a bare bones package which is a disappointment. No subtitles, no commentary, no liner notes by any TV historians. Frank Converse is notably absent.
Creator Larry Cohen is in a bonus clip talking about the show and offers his take on why the show didn't survive the tough business of network TV broadcasting. He also mentions hiring Converse years later for a production and said that Converse didn't want to discuss Coronet Blue.
I saw some episodes a few years ago and bought the DVD. I love the theme song sung by Lenny Welch. At heart this is another "wandering man" anthology series that often inserts the lead into the stories of other people, along the lines of The Fugitive, The Invaders, Branded, Then Came Bronson, Route 66, Run For Your Life and The Immortal but comes close to surrealism in its quirky, improbable stories and improbable people. Michael Alden is not nearly as sympathetic and likable as Richard Kimble and Paul Bryan and the series doesn't come close to the writing of those shows. Converse is good in the role and has leading man looks but his character is thuggish, cold and dislikable. In the first episode, he tries to steal cash out of a woman's purse and punches out a guy. This first entry also has one of the worst, clichéd endings that could be hacked out. This series could also boast the most inept professional assassins ever. They would either miss him or only wound him, injuring or killing other people. These guys needed vision exams.
Cohen had little to do with the show during production and said that his amnesia/spy concept eroded over time. In any event it was never resolved although Cohen explains in a book The Radical Allegories of an Independent Filmmaker who Alden really was. Do I recommend the DVD? Yes.
This is a bare bones package which is a disappointment. No subtitles, no commentary, no liner notes by any TV historians. Frank Converse is notably absent.
Creator Larry Cohen is in a bonus clip talking about the show and offers his take on why the show didn't survive the tough business of network TV broadcasting. He also mentions hiring Converse years later for a production and said that Converse didn't want to discuss Coronet Blue.
I saw some episodes a few years ago and bought the DVD. I love the theme song sung by Lenny Welch. At heart this is another "wandering man" anthology series that often inserts the lead into the stories of other people, along the lines of The Fugitive, The Invaders, Branded, Then Came Bronson, Route 66, Run For Your Life and The Immortal but comes close to surrealism in its quirky, improbable stories and improbable people. Michael Alden is not nearly as sympathetic and likable as Richard Kimble and Paul Bryan and the series doesn't come close to the writing of those shows. Converse is good in the role and has leading man looks but his character is thuggish, cold and dislikable. In the first episode, he tries to steal cash out of a woman's purse and punches out a guy. This first entry also has one of the worst, clichéd endings that could be hacked out. This series could also boast the most inept professional assassins ever. They would either miss him or only wound him, injuring or killing other people. These guys needed vision exams.
Cohen had little to do with the show during production and said that his amnesia/spy concept eroded over time. In any event it was never resolved although Cohen explains in a book The Radical Allegories of an Independent Filmmaker who Alden really was. Do I recommend the DVD? Yes.