I wonder how many other programmes he appeared in?

www.20six.co.uk/jiltedbarfly

Good point Jilted!

And I wonder if he got paid!!

In a similar vein,the portrait of the fictional
detective Mrs Melville from "Murder By The Book"
also appears in the Rockford Files episode "Crackback"
which is a story about a second string football who murders a bartender during a holdup as a picture of a non-existent head of a foundation.

I have never seen that episode...I will look out for it. Rockford, as well as Magnum are on twice a day here.
I bet Mrs. Melville demanded money for her appearance!!...she looked like a tough chick.

You are very lucky to have Rockford broadcast in your town. I am mystified why they are delaying bringing it out on DVD (I am also waiting for Mission Impossible). They are bringing out really bad shows on DVD (e.g Green Acres, T J Hooker), but it seems the classy stuff, even if it popular, the companies aren't interested in.

YM...I didn't realize that Rockford wasn't on dvd yet...that is a bit odd. It is a great show...it just was on and now Magnum is going on. And then they will be on again later. This is that WGN Superstation from Chicago...which I have no idea why I get it in Jersey...Headache explained it to me once and said that in Chicago they get WGN but not WGN Superstation...it is a bit confusing. I know Magnum recently came out on dvd..do you like that one too? And Mission Impossible was terrific! I loved the first scene...it was all shades of black and white and grey...very classy show!!

Sometimes the reissue of these old programmes is held up by copyright complications. There's a great 60s sci-fi series called The Invaders of which I'm a big fan. However, it has not been released on DVD yet because of some issue between the original producer and the company who now the rights.

It seems to be a problem which crops up with these older series as the contracts didn't cover things like videos/DVD releases. It seems to create a grey area which paralyses releases as the people involved haggle over who should get paid what.

www.20six.co.uk/jiltedbarfly

Sure, I remember "The Invaders". I was a kid then and it scared the daylights out of me. More recently people have said it was an allusion to Communist infiltration of the US.
That show was made by Quinn Martin Productions who also made the famous 70's detective shows Barnaby Jones and Cannon (these were part of the same era as Columbo with a detective with some sort of eccentricity, i.e. Columbo is slovenly and apologetic,
Cannon is fat and a bon vivant, Barnaby is old and orders milk in a bar). So far as I know, no QM shows have appeared in DVD.

Yeah, I loved The Invaders when I was a kid as well.

Your right, the programme was deliberately trying to tap into prevailing cold war paranoia and the interest in the then space race.

It recently was re-rerun in the UK in the middle of night, it still by and large stands up to day - though some episodes are clunkers.

My understanding is that it is a problem with the Quinn Martin Estate and the TV company who currently own the programme. Some episodes appeared on video in the 80s but Martin's death seems to have prevented the various parties coming to some sort of agreement.

It's probably the reason why other Quinn Martin shows have not had a DVD release.

www.20six.co.uk/jiltedbarfly