Steve Canyon TV series (1958/1959)

[John Ellis]

I am trying to track down episodes in any format (film or video) of this rare NBC series for a research project. I would prefer 16mm, but I will take what I can get.

I am also interested in scripts or any other materials relating to the production of this show.

Any assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Email me at: spfxu4ea AT speakeasy.net

[John Ellis]

I'm still looking.

I have managed to find a few episodes from various sources in varying quality on video. I am particularly interested in copies of any press kits, magazine articles or scripts. If you know of any magazines that carried articles back in 1958/59 I would appreciate any clues.

I am writing an article for a magazine with an October 2006 deadline so my time is running out for research. Thanks for the response via email, the assistance very much appreciated.

Confidentiality guaranteed.

John Ellis

[John Ellis]

I'm still looking for a few things, but first a little update. Shortly after my last post here I began conversations (for my magazine article) with Harry Guyton who is the executor of The Milton Caniff Estate (the owners of The Steve Canyon character and TV series). Ultimately Harry offered me the opportunity to fully restore the TV series for DVD and eventual re-release in syndication. My long term background as a film producer, writer/researcher, SPFX director and digital film restoration artist made this a perfect match. If you want to read more we have a blog dedicated to the restoration at Steve Canyon On DVD (http://stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com). I also finished the in-depth Steve Canyon magazine article for Mondo Cult Magazine which was published on September 24th of this year. It's sort of a "Son Of Cult Movies Magazine" (due to the people publishing it) and may be of interest to some of you (more details available on our blog).

Now though I have been going through boxes and boxes of historical material, 16mm and (mostly) 35mm prints of all of the shows, and basically having a the time of my life, there are some things conspicuously missing from the Estate's materials, and we are actively searching for:

1) Milton Caniff's 2 minute filmed introduction to the Steve Canyon pilot film (It starts out with him sitting at a drawing table working on a Steve Canyon strip). We have found an old "film-chain to 3/4" transfer (which is "just ok", but we would like to find a decent 16mm or 35mm print and do our own transfer). We know there is at least ONE of these out there in the hands of a collector, as it was used 20 years ago to do the iffy transfer we do have...

2) A kinescope (or better 2" Quad tape...I know, I'm dreamin') of NBC's The Eddie Fisher Show from September 30th 1958, featuring guests Milton Caniff and Dean "Steve Canyon" Fredericks...it was broadcast in COLOR! NBC doesn't have this and we can only find the script and an audio air check. So I'm grasping at straws here...

3) Prints that are dubbed in any foreign languages. Even just a snippet will help us. We know they dubbed Japanese versions, and we just recently found some letters from 1959 indicating sales to Germany and dubbing prints in Spanish for Latin American sales. We'd like just a bit to use in the documentary...

4) Filmed screen tests of Dean Fredericks, John Smith, Steve Forrest, Richard Webb and anybody else (of the 150 or so that tried out for the part)...all are missing...

5) Behind the scenes/documentary footage...anything at all. We have a handful of behind the scenes stills, but that's about it. I know there's more out there...

There are other things, but I will just say we are looking for anything rare and related that we don't have good original materials on.

Thanks for your time, and I hope this is at least mildly interesting and that someone reads this that can help.

John Ellis
Representing The Milton Caniff Estate

[James Wheeler]

John,

Very cool, wanna trade jobs? What kind of equipment do you use? Is this done on a computer? If so, what software do you use? I'd be interested in seeing some before and after video's.

[John Ellis]

Hello James! I only have time for a quick reply at the moment, but some of your questions can be answered by viewing a mini documentary on our blog at Steve Canyon Restoration Promo (http://stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com/2007/05/new-steve-canyon-series-promo.html) (Apple Quicktime required). We have been using traditional film editing equipment for checking prints (such as a 35mm Steenbeck Flatbed editor, loupe, rewinds, gloves), but the cleanup work is digital, some of it on Macs, some aspects on PC's. We are using 10bit uncompressed files to work from, and a variety of open source (Avisynth) and standard "over the counter" software (After Effects)...and some "proprietary" techniques I have developed over the years.

If you check my listing on the John R. Ellis IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0254918/) you'll see quite a few "digital restoration artist" credits (for movies such as Daredevil, Frieda, American Splendor, etc.)...a lot of these prior to their initial release because someone wanted them to look perfect.

No, I don't want to trade jobs (hehe), but your request for before and after comparison pics is a great idea and I'll put something together in the next few days and let you know here. There is a bit of comparison on the beginning of the restoration promo you can check out as well.

Maybe I should mention, by the way, that this Promo, plus 6 extended episode trailers and 4 complete restored episodes are available in full resolution on factory-pressed DVD via our blog (http://stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com/2007/08/ye-olde-caniffcanyon-shoppe.html) if anyone is interested or curious. We decided to do a "sampler" release to help fund the work...and every week we are counting pennies ;)