Aside from wanting to know what we consider to be the best product in a given category, occasionally readers will also ask for help in locating hard-to-find items. Out of print movies and DVDs are among the most frequent requests. And some of the movies and TV shows you would expect to be easy to find are the hardest. Two recent requests are for Hawaii 5-0 and Amos and Andy.
Hawaii 5-0, despite its great success over many years, has never been released on DVD However; it was available from a major video distributor on VHS tapes for a while. Today you can find many other less successful TV shows (many of which you probably never even heard of) almost anywhere. This makes no sense, but no luck so far on Hawaii 5-0 high-quality DVDs.
There is better news for Amos and Andy fans. I presume, for reasons of political correctness, this famous old show has long been unavailable, except for poor-quality bootleg versions. The general consensus is that the only high-quality DVDs now obtainable come from the efforts of one determined collector, a fellow named Howard Madden, who a few years ago was able to obtain original 35mm prints of many of the episodes. Since there has been a large demand for the show, a number of inferior copies are on the market, most of which are of such poor quality as to be virtually unwatchable. For those of you that have inquired, and are interested in purchasing high-quality DVDs, check out the Madden collection, at http://amosnandydvds.home.mindspring.com for further information.
JL
Printer-friendly version