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They were hits in the antenna age. Now, as video collectibles, TV shows like The Fugitiue :

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amd The Twitiglht Zone ane urindows into the living rooms of our past. BY FRANK LovECE :

rrr Christopher Colum- ;

bus' historical role and ,

Wayme Newton's networth, i

old TV shows are currently i

underreassessment-there i

were some awfully low points, but thebetter moments are finally getting theirdue. Partly, it'S aging-boomer nostalgia.

Partly, there's a lot of cable space to fill.And parlly, it's home video: Shows once

expected to air and then disappear can

now live as long as Antigone-and be

similarly revisited and overscrutinized.A tortent of new old-TV shows on video

skews more to cult favorites than to ac-

knowledged classics, but the most in-teresting releases are as well worth sav-

ing as your mom's old meatloaf recipe.

Take THE FUGITIVE (1963-67, NuVen-

VINiTAGE TV SETS

tures, 70 two-epi,sode cassettes, $21r.95

each). Essentially a dramatic antholo-gy, this series mimicked the literary as-

pirations of the previous generation's

live-TV dramas. David Janssen, as an

angst-ridden Everyman runnirig froman unjust murder conviction, assumes a

new job and identity in most episodes;

he's less the point of each than the cata-lyst for tales of flawed but noble people

in pain. Yet though sincere and welldone, the stories, seen sequentially on

tape, end up feeling photocopied.

So do the stories from TllE TWILIGHT

ZO$E (rc59-63, CBS, 12 two-episode cas-

settes, $12.98 each),though as delight-fully as fairy tales-or in many cases,

Aesop's Fables. A social-realist antholo.gy cloaked in fantasy and science flction,

Rod Serling's gr.rtsy creation played out :

parables ofthe human heart, set any- i

where foom prison asteroids ("The Lone- i

1y") Lo metaphoric attics ("The Encoun- i

ter'). "The Encounter" (unaired for 28 ,

years) is part ofthe two-cassette TBEA- :

suREs 0F THE rWlUGllT ZOIilE (19s9-6.1, i

CBS, $29.98), which also includes five i

other episodes, a l0-minute promo spot, i

and a 1959.interview with Serling. i

But by the foliowing generalion of i

television drama, we and TV had devel- i

oped a mutual shorthand-less literary i

more purely "television." Using quick i

visqal cues and sound bites, most shows i

now sketched out efficient caricatures, i

not characters. In the youthful under- i

cover-copactionerTHE ltl0D $QUAD (1965- i

73, Nu Ventures, fiue lruo-episod.e cas- i

settes, 919.95 each), allit takes is a cou- i

ple minutes of ghetto basketball and :

some predigested rhetoric for Sammy i

Davis Jr. to be archet;ped as The Mili- i

tant Black Priest (in "Keep the Faith, i

Baby"). Essentially, Squad isn't much :

more than than an agreeable time killer. i

So is THE MAil Fn0m U.il.G.t.E. (196t!- |

66, MGM/UA,2J two-episode cassettes, i

g1-!.98 eacD, a lighthearted spy show i

played with a wink. In a typical episode, i

"The Project Strigas Affair," stars Rob- i

ert Vaughn and David McCallum per- :

suade average-Joe William Shatner to i

take part in an anti-Commie caper i

against-Thekker alert-Leonard Ni- i

moy. Like other U.I/.C.L.E. shows, this i

one has a timeless seriocomic edge. lt's i

an acquired taste, though-a sure sign i

.ofa cult classic. :

With episodes df such other treasures i

as I Laue Lucy,Thn Honeymooners, The i

Outer Limits,and Monty Python's FLg- i

ing Circus already available on tape, it i

looks as jf TV has finally taken its re- i

venge on the VCR. The Fugitiue: B fhe I

Tlnitight Zone: A Tleasures of the hui- i

Iight Zone: A+ Th,e Mod Squad: e- ThE i

Man From U.N.C.L.E.:B .

ehssy ehnss'isLu c t l r, n B er, I and Rod Serling aren't the only great names of vintage TV.

There's also DuMont Chatham and Phileo Predicta. Antique TVs have be-

corne a collectols bonanza, with prices jumping from flea-market to free-market

levels. "Common mid-1940s TVs sold fon u4!er $5O four years

ago,fl qaysJohn Tbrrey, editor and publisher of Carlisle, Mass.-

,based. Antiqae Radio Classified,,. "Now they're $100 to $300."

Most sought-a.fter are prewar electronic sets-such as the

seminal 1939,RCA "TRK'series-which can feteh anywhere

from $1;500 to $10,000. Other favorites inelude JVC'sretro-hipVideosphere from the l7Os, a bowling-ball-like

set that hangs from a chdin; and Phileo'S tgSg+t pre-

dicta, with its Jetsons-style swivelscreen.' As \i,ith all collectibles, prices fluetuate likQan EKG

reading. Specialty shops st's n6v/.getting fotim $S00

to $1,000 for a trapezoidal'DuMont Chatham-though #s list'ed as being worth'letween $?5 and

'. ,:r $125: For the best deals, tune iii to thp ads in Th'e

'" 'tn iqun Rad,io Gazettr lir trre:wrrt ington; ru -', based Antique Radio Club-of drnerica. Or start

u, colleeting those little plastiq souvenirTVs, which

; havenlt caught on as collectibles:-ysl. -FLsilrtl;scREEll GEil: A Zenith'model fr6n 1955

ILLUSTRATION BY J.D. KING