It appears that The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. may FINALLY be coming to DVD!
YEE-HAW!!!
TVShowsOnDVD.Com reports:
After years of rumors and finger-crossing, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. will likely come to DVD in 2006. Warner Bros have given me the go-ahead to post the news that it’s strongly being considered for release next year. They haven’t started on the project yet, so they can’t say with 100% certainty that it’s coming, but things are looking good for our boy. We posted news that this was coming before, but that was secondhand info and obviously wasn’t reliable.
This is a show I’ve fought very hard to get on DVD, so I’m excited by the news that it’ll be coming out. It’s currently the 3rd most popular unreleased show on the site, and Bruce Campbell fans are diehards and throw their support behind the actor; I think the release will be successful. We’re very much "in-the-loop" on this title, so stay tuned for more news when we get it [SOURCE].
For those who may not be aware, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. was an outstanding saddlepunk series that Fox aired back in 1993. It’s a lot like the old 1960s series Wild, Wild West–only good (or better).
I didn’t wach Brisco when the show was first on because of the way Fox advertised it. (I.e., as a Western done "Fox style"–wink, wink, nudge, nudge–implying a lot more sexual content than the show actually had.) And apparently a lot of other people didn’t, too.
Fox wasn’t really behind the show and debuted it in the 8 p.m. Friday Death Slot, which is guaranteed to kill programs in short order (as happend to Star Trek Enterprise in its last season) due to the fact audiences are unusually low at that time, making it hard to get ratings.
It aired just before The X-Files (and, you’ll note, when the latter started to get popular the network moved it out of Friday night and onto Sunday–a high TV-audience night).
Brisco lasted only a season, but what a season it was!
I discovered the show when TNT was airing it Saturday mornings, and it was good enough to pull me away from watching cartoons (which was an accomplishment).
The show had tremendous potential, and it’s really a shame that the network didn’t give it more of a chance. It seems to have been a couple of years ahead of its time, because the exact same kind of anachronistic in-joking that the show did was later used to great effect on Hercules and Xena, both shows that were extremely popular in their day.
The program tells the story of a bounty hunter named (are you ready?) Brisco County Jr., who is hired by wealthy San Francisco robber barons to hunt down a particular gang of criminals who (coincidentally), killed Brisco’s father, lawman Brisco County Sr.
That much is more of less standard Western fare, but the show injected numerous sci-fi elements, including the mysterous "orbs’ (metallic devices that look like floating ocean mines) that came from the future and had mysterious powers, like endowing people with superstrength, turning bad characters good, and consuming and trapping evil androids.
The show also featured a lot of anachronistic, forward-looking humor, like a character named "Aaron," who was a knockoff of Elvis Presley and who had invented "day-glasses" (glasses with darkened lenses) to protect his eyes from the sun.
Or Brisco’s rival (and later partner) Lord Bowler, an ultra-macho ex-Buffalo Soldier who’s secret dream was to move to the Napa Valley and plant a vineyard (hence: the origin of California’s Napa wine industry).
Or John Astin (formerly Gomez Addams) playing Prof. Wickwire, a crazy inventor who comes up with (are you ready?) crazy inventions–like rocket-propelled trains and things like that.
Brisco County Jr. himself is played by Bruce Campbell (better known as Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy, which is comedy horror rather than comedy sci-fi western).
Anyway, it’s a great show, and I wanted to give a head-up to other Brisco fans out there that the long wait for (legitimate) DVDs may FINALLY be coming to an end!
Will keep you posted!
Never saw the show, but this post reminds me of another comment I saw in the combox of your post about “The Searchers”.
The poster asked for information about the movie “Support Your Local Sheriff”.
If you haven’t seen this movie, it is a little gem of a comedy western starring James Garner, and a cast of western regulars like Bruce Dern, Jack Elam, Walter Brennan and Harry Morgan.
Sounds like fans of Brisco County, Jr. might appreciate the humor.
Dang… Never heard of it, but it sounds like exactly the kind of show I’d like.
First Firefly and now this. What’s up with Fox making innvoative shows and then exiling them to Friday night?
Good ol’ Brisco.
Now, there’s a show I haven’t thought about in ages.
Maybe Adventures of Brisco County Jr should follow the Firefly path: Take the cancelled series to movie producers; make a movie that resolves some of the series secrets; make a bundle off of renewed interest in people buying “The Complete Series” of a one-season show.
If I held the rights to Brisco, that’s how I’d play it . . .
Bruce Campbell should play JPII in an autobiographical TV presentation. “Communism, you’re going down!” 🙂
I always believed that my family & I were the only audience Briscoe ever had. Apparently, I wasn’t far off. Loved the show.
I loved that show.
Other points:
Briscoe always looking for “the coming thing” He was the early-adopter of the 1890s. Balloons, automobiles, you name it.
Just watching Bruce Campbell is worth getting the DVD. Check him out as a geriatric Elvis in “Bubba Ho-Tep.” Priceless.
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