The Rebel: The Complete Series

DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:

‘BUYERS BEWARE’ – Originally I had bought this from what I thought to be a reputable seller. After loading the discs I noted the quality just didn’t seem right and have a trained eye to discern compression artifacts from heavily compressed video. I loaded the disc and sure enough it showed 4.2gigabyte as the DVD size which indicated a “single layer-disc”. I went to the Shout Factory web page and found an FAQ on counterfeits and bootlegs. Sure enough their site provided invaluable tips on how to discern the difference. They noted bootleggers have gotten so good to also include the sticker on the shrink wrap. I notified the seller and also ordered from “Sold and Ship by Amazon” so I knew a true original was on the way as they buy direct avoiding possible counterfeits. You get what you pay for. We have two DVD players on our PC and I was able to load both the counterfeit and the original side by side. Take a look at the attached image. Visually looking at the two box sets outside and inside there’s no way to tell if you only had one box set. They appear to be spot on direct copies. This included image clearly shows the proof needed, note the greenish cover on the right which is the counterfeit. Please check whatever you buy to be sure you get what you are paying for. Outside of all this, with the original discs displaying on a 78″ TV, they look great. Highly recommended for Rebel /Nick Adams fans

-Anthony G.

I must confess to having mixed feelings regarding this release. While I am pleased with the opportunity to finally have this entire series available to view at my leisure, I must admit that the quality is not what I had hoped it would be. The Rebel was an interesting premise and a well made western series with Nick Adams handling the Johnny Yuma role much more proficiently than the producers apparently felt he could. The two year run was less than the series deserved. Even the best westerns of the era usually included some very lightweight episodes overloaded with comedy relief that rendered them “silly” on occasion. While that observation varies among viewers, I would think that only one or possibly two episodes of The Rebel fall into that category. The changing locales allowed for guest appearances to replace the need for a regular cast and the ever-changing faces served this series well. I also applaud the bonus disc with the pilot episode of The Yank starring James Drury and the various interviews included. Having said all that regarding the positives this package offers, the overall video quality is disappointing. Yes, the original Johnny Cash theme song is present for us to enjoy but the 16mm sources utilized have a number of issues. There are varying degrees of shaky video, blurring, video artifacts (as they call video flaws), and a few small dropouts. Also, on my set, many of the episodes feature black bars on each side of the screen rather than full screen presentation. This is not on only a few episodes as nearly the entire second season is that way as well as a substantial amount of season one. While I did not count the number of episodes involved, I’m sure it is over 50% of the series. The series is certainly still solidly viewable and, if indeed these were the best prints available I would understand and hold my peace. That is not the case though as I have seen reruns shown (sans the Johnny Cash theme song) which are much nicer and actually own a bootleg version of the complete series that has many episodes of finer quality than available here. It is STILL a nice set to have but I do believe it could have and should have been better.

-Keith A. Hall

Nick Adams was one of the creators of this TV Western. Sadly this one ran for only two seasons. The scripts were well written having good story lines. Nick Adams played his role very well that of being a loner roaming the west post Civil War righting wrongs. A bonus for this series was having Johnny Cash sing the theme song. This is definitely one you should own.

-R. B. Benedictson

DVD Wholesale Main Features:

Actors: Nick Adams
Directors: Various
Format: Multiple Formats, Box set, Collector’s Edition, Full Screen, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Number of discs: 11
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Shout! Factory / Timeless Media
DVD Release Date: August 18, 2015
Run Time: 1950 minutes