JAMES DEAN: LOST TELEVISION LEGACY - JAMES DEAN: LOST TELEVISION LEGACY (3 DVD)

Fantastic collection of James Dean's Television work. Some rare ones too. Great to have the chance to see these, but why no "The Unlighted Road"?.

It's great to finally get a chance to see James Dean's many TV features before he made the 3 classic films that he's mainly known for, before his car crash death at age 24 on Sept. 30th, 1955. I bought this for 3 main reasons: 1) I've really enjoyed his 3 big movies, especially "East of Eden," so I was eager to see his earlier work. 2) TCM showed some of these TV appearances on the 60th anniversary of his death and promoted this 3 DVD set. 3) I recently bought a "Studio One" (an early TV dramatic anthology) DVD set, which I liked very much, and knew that James Dean did a number of Studio One plays that I hadn't seen before. What a treasure to be able to see not only James Dean's earliest acting work (including a couple of soft drink commercials), but also to see such early TV shows that hadn't been seen probably since they aired in the 1950s. I got a kick out of seeing other notable acting stars appear with him, such as a young Cloris Leachman, Mary Astor, Ed Begley Sr., Dorothy Gish, Gene Lockhart and Betsy Palmer. The quality is not too bad at all, considering that it's all over 60 years old and was kinescoped (a filming of a TV broadcast). Most of the plays in this set were well written and well performed, especially Dean's performances. This set allows us to see his development as an actor, especially his growing "rebel" side that he's become legendary for. A couple of his TV appearances on this set are only brief fragments, since the whole episodes from which they came have been lost to time. I would have loved it if the original commercials were left in the old programs here (like in the "Studio One" DVD Set, which has most of those episodes shown with Betty Furness making her usual pitches for Westinghouse fridges, TVs, dishwashers & more.) Alas, they are not a part of James Dean's set (except for the 2 separate Pepsi commercials he appeared in to start his TV career, although in the first one, you can barely see him.) Also, I didn't find James Dean's cousin (Marcus) all that effective in presenting each of the TV programs. I would have found it more interesting if, let's say, Robert Osborne from TCM did them, as he did when a few of these shows were presented on TCM on 9/30/2015. Robert is much more informative, smooth and professional in presentation. The accompanying booklet in the set captured some fascinating accounts of Dean's early years, too. This was quite a treat to obtain! For those who enjoy early TV or James Dean, this one's a gem to own!

Excellent set for all James Dean fans, a must have!

I was only 1 year old when he suffered his untimely death. To have more of Dean's legendary self in his TV showcases is a real treat, as I was far too young to have experienced them. The transfers are not uniformly good, the kinescopes didn't fare too well in translation,but just their existence is a miracle and a Godsend. What performances we would have, if only he had lived longer.

If you're a fan of James Dean and/or early live television, you're going to enjoy this. The collection is presented very nicely and is as good as the rather primitive kinescope prints get. The minor cons are that many of the productions, especially the early one's, have little of Dean and the stories are rather dull. Dean definitely gets better as time went on his roles got bigger. I personally enjoyed the stories where he was in his classic "Rebel Without A Cause" persona, but there's not too many of them. I wouldn't make this a deterrent to adding this to your DVD collection.

Dean fans, RUN, do not walk to pick up this set. If you are at all interested in Dean's development as an actor, this set is for you. In many Dean biographies you read mentions of these teleplays or behind the scene tales...but with this set you have the original, beautifully restored teleplays themselves, actually introduced by Dean's cousin (the closest thing he ever had to a little brother.) There are some jaw-dropping finds here for the true Dean fan. This set goes far in plugging a large hole in the Dean creative canon.