Product Description

Robert Brown, pop music superstar Bobby Sherman and David Soul (TV's Starsky and Hutch) star in the classic television series HERE COME THE BRIDES, a delightful comedy that combines romance and adventure in the rugged landscape of the mid-nineteenth century Pacific Northwest.

The Bolt brothers own a mountain and logging camp in Seattle, and as the area's only employer, the brothers borrow money and head east to bring back a shipload of lovely ladies to boost morale. But if any of the women leave Seattle within a year, the Bolts lose their mountain to the man that lent them the money.

Also starring legendary actress Joan Blondell (Grease, The Public Enemy), the complete first season of HERE COME THE BRIDES is presented for the first time ever - and is only available - on DVD.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8449 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2006-05-16
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Dimensions: .70 pounds
• Running time: 1345 minutes

Amazon.com
If you look at the premise of Here Come the Brides on paper, the whole series sounds rather bizarre: three brothers head East to find 100 young women who agree to move to untamed Seattle to marry the single men in town. The potential brides have to remain in Seattle for at least a year. If they don't, the siblings could lose their family business. But this show isn't set in a society where there's a Starbucks on every corner. Rather, it takes place in the late 19th century. Add some sassy dialogue and throw in Bobby Sherman and David Soul as youngest brother Jeremy and middle brother Joshua, respectively, and voila! The show evokes charming innocence, if not antiquated notions of how the sexes should behave. The episode in which a visiting Mormon bogarts four of the women for his own brides isn't so much shocking as it is curious. Why aren't the local men more worked up that this could cause some of their own to be without brides?

The series, which lasted just two seasons, premiered on television in 1968 and helped springboard Sherman into a teen idol. The acting on the show by Sherman and his cast mates at times is self-conscious and stilted, but they share good chemistry and have fun with the scripts. One of the better-thought-out episodes aired early in the season. Jeremy's stuttering is miraculously cured by a charismatic magician (played by the late Jack Albertson, who ate up the scenery with relish), who turns out to be somewhat of a charlatan. The ending drives the point home that Jeremy needed as much faith in himself as he had in the magician. Like the series itself, yes, the sentiment is predictable. But it still makes for good TV. --Jae-Ha Kim

Customer Reviews

The Bluest Skies We've Ever Seen, in Seattle!!
I rejoice at our collective good fortune that Sony is releasing the all-too-short-lived 60's TV smash hit, "Here Come the Brides," on DVD. All 26 episodes that comprised the first season, including the pilot, are included in this six-disc boxed set. The only special feature listed to be included are "bonus previews." This release is even more amazing considering the show has never before been released to the public in ANY format since its initial run!!

The show, which aired for only two seasons from 1968-70 on ABC with a total of 52 episodes, launched the careers of teen heart-throbs Bobby Sherman and David Soul. Sherman, who was also a pop singer, became an international superstar predating David Cassidy's Partridge Family mass popularity. (Sherman made news in the 90s when he was certified as an Emergency Medical Technician in Los Angeles.) Soul went on to further TV fame co-starring in Starsky and Hutch (as well as for some later well-publicized legal troubles involving domestic violence charges, etc.)

Set in Seattle in the 1870's, the series focused on the travails of the logging Bolt brothers. To avoid losing their male crew, they were forced to agree to bring in 100 prospective brides from Massachusetts, using money they borrowed from sawmill owner, Aaron Stempel. Should any one of the women decide to go home, or should the camp fail to meet Stempel's timber quotas, the Bolts would forfeit their title to the mountain and the business that had been in their family for generations.

The core cast includes Robert Brown as eldest brother, Jason Bolt; Soul as middle brother, Joshua Bolt; Sherman as youngest brother, Jeremy Bolt; Mark Lenard as Stempel (and who went on into TV immortality as Sarek, Spock's father, in Star Trek: The Original Series and its later movies, most notably, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home); the incomparable movie actress Joan Blondell as saloon owner Lottie Hatfield; Bridget Hanley as Candy Pruitt, leader of the "brides" and Sherman's love interest in the show; Susan Tolsky as goofy Biddie Cloom; Henry Beckman as Capt. Roland Francis "Fish-Face" Clancey, Blondell's love interest in the show; and Bo Svenson as Big Swede.

In the pilot, to keep their logging crew, the Bolt brothers end up literally betting their mountain to that they can bring 100 marriageable women back to Seattle, which has almost no women in residence, and that those women will remain in Seattle for a year. In exchange, Stempel funds their expenses. Jason Bolt travels to New Bedford, Mass., a town that had a shortage of men at the time, and enlists 100 women for the return trip to the Pacific Northwest. (Ironically, the episode evolved from a script originally intended as a movie musical. Among the stars considered were Burt Lancaster and Shirley Jones, soon of the Partridge Family. According to the Classic TV Archive, the storyline is loosely based on Seattle's history when a resident went to Massachusetts to bring back women to help civilize the Washington Territory, and was NOT based on "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.")

In addition to the pilot, episodes that comprised the first season and that are collected in their entirety in this boxed are (thanks to another reviewer, I have corrected two titles I incorrectly reported): A Crying Need; And Jason Makes Five; The Man of the Family; A Hard Card to Play; Letter of the Law; Lover and Wanderers; A Jew Named Sullivan (not a politically-correct title); A Man and His Magic; A Christmas Place; After a Dream Comes Morning; The Log Jam; The Firemaker; Wives for Wakendo; A Kiss Just for You; Democracy Inaction; One Good Lie Deserves Another; One to a Customer: A Dream that Glitters; The Crimpers; Mrs. and Mrs. J. Bolt; A Man's Errand; Loggerheads; Marriage Chinese Style; and The Deadly Trade.

The series also boasted one of the best theme songs ever (which Sherman recorded on his debut album.) The following is the rousing chorus: "The bluest skies you've ever seen, in Seattle, and the hills the greenest green, in Seattle. Like a beautiful child, growing up, free and wild, full of hopes and full of fears, full of laughter, full of tears, full of dreams to last the years, in Seattle. When you find your own true love, you will know it, by her smile, by the look in her eyes...scent of pine trees in the air...look out everyone, Here Come the Brides!"

Let us hope that Sony does not keep us waiting too long for the second season DVD boxed set! I'm sure the popularity of this release, and the DVD releases of the Big Valley and the Wild, Wild, West are sending strong messages to studio execs that there is a huge, appreciative and paying audience for vintage TV westerns. Hopefully, The High Chaparral is next in line for DVD release in complete season boxed sets!

Hug A Sony Executive Today!
Here Come The Brides was my favorite show growing up, and I was afraid it was destined to the realm of trading poorly-recorded vcr tapes. But now this wonderful news!

HCTB has excellent scripts, perfect casting, and wonderful background music; it seamlessly blends humor, or poignancy, with its adventures. But the show's greatest strength is the uniqueness of the Seattle residents, and their relationships with each other.

The shy courtship between Swede and Miss Essie, the playful, mature friendship of Lottie and Captain Clancy, the fierce loyalty between the three Bolt Brothers... and most especially, the sweet love story that is Candy and Jeremy... they are what make Here Come The Brides such a joy.

Thank you, Sony!

THANK YOU SONY!!!!!!!!!!!
To say I'm thrilled with this release would be a huge understatement. Here Come the Brides was my favorite show growing up and it still is to this day. They don't make them like this anymore. It would be hard to put together a more perfectly cast, well acted show. It has so much to offer and is truly unique. It's not like any other show ever on the air, and it's got something for everyone to love. I have old tapes, as others have stated, and I cherish those, but to see it again in clear, uncut versions will be so wonderful!

I echo what others have said about wishing for extras such as cast interviews, bloopers, etc. but Sony can always fix that for the season two release, right? ;-) I feel certain this show will sell well, and I am pre-ordering it for myself and as gifts for others.

Bless you Sony...you listened to us at long last!