The Clint Eastwood Archive: Rawhide: The Rare Japanese Laserdisc Box Sets

Rawhide: The Rare Japanese Laserdisc sets

Long before the Blu-ray format and even before the DVD format, if you wanted quality over your standard VHS or Betamax tape – you really had to go down the Laserdisc route. Firstly, a brief hstory:

LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United States in 1978 under the name DiscoVision, a brand used by MCA. As Pioneer took a greater role in its development and promotion, the format was rebranded LaserVision (LV). While the LaserDisc brand originally referred specifically to Pioneer's line of players, the term gradually came to be used generically to refer to the format as a whole, making it a genericized trademark. The discs typically have a diameter of 300 millimetres (11.8 in), similar in size to the 12-inch (305 mm) phonograph record. Unlike later optical disc formats, LaserDisc is not fully digital; it stores an analog video signal.

Many titles featured CD-quality digital audio, and LaserDisc was the first home video format to support surround sound. Its 425 to 440 horizontal lines of resolution was nearly double that of competing consumer videotape formats, VHS and Betamax, and approaching the resolution later achieved by DVDs. Despite these advantages, the format failed to achieve widespread adoption in North America or Europe, primarily due to the high cost of players and their inability to record.

In contrast, LaserDisc was significantly more popular in Japan and in wealthier regions of Southeast Asia, including Singapore and Malaysia, and it became the dominant rental video format in Hong Kong during the 1990s. Its superior audio/visual quality made it a favourite among videophiles and film enthusiasts throughout its lifespan.

There is no doubt about it at a time where the only other format was video tape – the Laserdisc was really the first choice when it came to quality. I still have several hundred of them, and while most have been replaced by Blu-ray, the Laserdisc often prove extremely difficult to part with – as a physical piece of media, holding that 12” sleeve with its often-beautiful artwork or gatefold sleeve, simply makes it a thing of aesthetic beauty. It’s like being asked to give up that favourite piece of vinyl in exchange for the CD… It’s something you either get or you don’t.

So, there it is or there it was - I thought I’d post a little piece focusing on one of the very rare Laserdisc box sets which emerged from Japan. Yes, practically every Eastwood film was featured on the format – I even have the episode of Death Valley Days which featured Clint on the Laserdisc format (left). However, the Rawhide series did make an appearance on LD through a variety of different ‘Special Selection’ box sets. To be honest, there were 217 episodes of Rawhide, which aired from January 9, 1959, to December 7, 1965 – a vast amount to make it fully to the format – so a ‘selection’ basis was always going to be the way to go.

These days, to find any of the rare boxsets is hard, but every now and then a set appears on auction sites such as Ebay, and still command an extremely high price.

I never owned anything of Rawhide on Laserdisc, even back in the day these 6 Disc box sets were extremely expensive. As far as I can research, I believe there was 4 boxsets released of the Rawhide: Special Selection sets. These sets often featured Japanese language on channel 1/L and English language on channel 2/R. and had Japanese subtitles only to interpret English language signs and writings that appear on-screen.

What couldn’t be denied is the quality packaging these sets came in. The Japanese market is still regarded as the finest when it comes to their packaging, they are just of a higher standard – and a reason which continues to see the products reaching higher asking prices.

I was inspired to create this post for a couple of reasons, firstly, there really is nothing here on the archive covering Rawhide on Laserdisc, and secondly, when I found this Vol. 4 set recently on Ebay, I was taken by the quality photographs that the seller had taken – if ever there was a perfect example or visual representation – this was surely it. Just as a point of interest, this particular set featured here is currently up on Ebay for $182.32 (Approximately£135.53) – by way of comparison, you can find the entire Rawhide series (all 217 episodes) on the DVD format for around $108.00 or approximately£80.28. The Vol.4 Laserdisc boxset featured here as an example contained 6 discs, with one episode contained over each of its sides. The episodes featured were Incident at El Crucero (1963), Incident of the Slavemaster (1960), Incident of the Shambling Man (1959), Incident at the Buffalo Smokehouse (1959), Encounter at Boothill (1965), Walk into Terror (1965), Piney (1964), Hostage for Hanging (1965), Incident of No Man's Land (1959), The Sendoff (1961), Incident of the Dogfaces (1963) and Incident of the Gilded Goddess (1964).

Below: The front and back of the Vol 4 Box set