Search Horseapple.com
  
Then Came Bronson
Home
Valkyrie
Veterans
Media Products

Please email me if you find any broken links.  Thanks

Yep, that's me and my Valkyrie above. 
Not Bronson's Sportster, but it rides well.

IN STOCK, READY TO SHIP!!!
In a Nutshell, for those in a hurry:

10 Verbatim premium DVD's of Then Came Bronson movie & series, with hi-res photo graphics of the episodes contained printed directly on the Verbatim Premium +R DVDs; menus, on-screen episode guides, Long Lonesome Highway & Closing the Gap tunes, and other bonus features, in 2 multi-disc holders with custom graphics. Putting the set on 10 discs keeps the content per disc under 3 hours, eliminating compression which would otherwise degrade the quality. The Bronson videos have never been released officially, but this set has been edited for optimal color and commercials and "dead air" is removed. All TCB sets available today, are "bootleg" and came from TNT, at one time the owner who broadcasted the set. THIS set came from a TNT broadcast and I spent a couple weeks editing it. The tunes came from mint unplayed vinyl records I found from a record broker online, which were never released again after 1970.  I remastered them to CD quality with a mixer and DAK "depopper" software  - eliminated all pops, clicks and hiss and normalized the volume. Then Came Bronson now belongs to the Public Domain, so you're not likely to see any official releases from recording labels anymore.

View a couple screen shots of the menus here. (hit your BACK button to return)
View screen shots of all the episodes
here.
See a picture of the whole package
here.
See the Michael Parks tunes list
here.

The uncompressed TEN disc set per the picture, $59 + $8 priority mail shipping.
Shipping - next business day after funds received, via priority mail.

ORDERING:

We haven't put in a shopping cart.  If you're not in the continental US, email me for a quote on shipping.  Mainland U.S.A. or Canada, I have the postage calculated by paypal.  You can order

    1. Using Paypal.  Click the "Buy Now" button below.  Of course you know you can use a credit/debit card account through paypal too.  I prefer this method - making the shipping label is faster & they send a confirmation to you.  If you're not familiar with PP - it's safe for you - the merchant doesn't see your CC#,  I.O.W. you SEND a payment, the payee can't PULL a payment from your account. Shipped with next mail pickup.
    2. Call the order in toll free - 877-338-1077, use Visa / Mastercard / Discover for the pymnt.  Shipped with next mail pickup.
    3. "snail mail" a money order, cashier's or personal check to the address at the bottom of this page.  Shipped after check clears.

Now, more detail:

Remember Then Came Bronson? Once in a while television comes up with a gem in all the - OK let's face it - garbage on the air. Then Came Bronson was a diamond. Too bad it lasted for only a season - 26 episodes and the pilot. I read that Michael Parks wanted too much to continue, so the network suits pulled the plug. That year I was working in a foundry, 18 and just finished high school, having received my draft notice to show up for Vietnam. I used to call in sick every Wednesday (?) so as not to miss Bronson.

Here's a few reviews from readers over at imdb.com:

    From "Owlwise" :

    Searching for America & one's own self, 4 June 2002

    The sort of show that simply wouldn't make it to television today, "Then Came Bronson" told quiet, lyrical, sometimes comic, sometimes dramatic stories about a young man traveling through America in search of personal meaning; unlike many attempts at this theme, the show was never heavy-handed, offering intelligent, often quirky character portraits of the people Jim Bronson encountered. The viewers always came away with a rewarding, thought-provoking experience. It's a pity both the pilot film & the individual episodes aren't available on video or DVD. Shows of this caliber may be born of their particular time, but their substance is timeless.

    Great Show, and a Great Guy, 13 May 2006
    Author:
    dbking-2 from United States

    I must have been in the summer of 1969 when a friend of mine said that he had heard that they were filming an episode of Then Came Bronson near by. We were born and raised in Pueblo, Colorado. So the 4 of us jumped in the car, I was to young to drive but my friend wasn't, along with my cousin who was visiting from Utah away we went to find Bronson. In the mountains of Colorado during the summer they film a lot of movies so we had to go from Hotel to Hotel in Canon City to find him, finally some one knew where he was in a rented house in some neighborhood that I couldn't find again if I had to. We pulled up in the driveway and out he came, he was friendly beyond what any of us could imagine. We sat with him and watched the Johnny Cash Show and ate carrot sticks. He was such a great guy to be so kind to a bunch of kids, none of us has ever forgotten the day or the guy. I think that the show was so popular with young men because this guy was free, just going from town to town helping people, meeting people, but it was all so simple then our generation thought we could save the world. You live on Michael, live on brother.

    Snapshot of the late 60's, early 70's, 2 March 2006

    Author:
    mishippp from United States

    Then Came Bronson was seminal and what I remember most about it (since I was 12 when I saw it for the first time) was the notion that you could lose yourself in America by simply getting on a motorcycle and disappearing. The imagery was perfect for young guys like myself who were watching people come back from Vietnam, utterly broken by the events of the period. The theme of "no ties" was utterly appealing to many people who felt that any connection to the "establishment" was empty and devoid of the satisfaction one could get from simply getting lost and "being free." The main character was far less hardened than other similar leading dropouts of the same genre (Fonda, Brando, Hopper) and far less psychedelic than guys pushing the "trippy" side of late 60's America. Bronson was more of a workin man's dropout and that's what I loved about him. And the mountain climb was unique. I think a whole generation of dirt-bikers caught the bug after seeing this movie for the first time.

    Very cool, man.

 

Then Came Bronson was important to me (more on that below), so I set out to find the show and put it in my library. I had also heard many of his songs - he is a talented singer - my brother had two of his 1969-era records. I wanted the songs too.

So I searched the Internet for TCB info - for several years now. I found the movie and series has never been remastered, and has never been offered for sale by any large production company who owns it and has the resources to restore the old film. The pilot movie was broadcast by the Speed Channel on Thanksgiving 2005. Several years back, Turner South broadcast the series, and some enterprising fans captured it with their VCR's. This has been the only source for the show series that I can find. I've also found that some of the online sellers are selling some poor quality copies. Not surprising given the variance in equipment, operator skills, putting more than 3 hours of video on single-layer DVDs which adds compression tokens, and the practice of repeating generations of tape copies which degrades video with each subsequent generation. So I set out to produce the best videos possible and make them available to my brothers who loved Bronson and were profoundly influenced by his odyssey.

I found a good set of VCR copies, recorded as SP and not later than the 3rd generation, of a cable broadcast from Turner South. All the copies I found, came from the TNT network, as they apparently used to own the series but have not and are not producing it for sale - in spite of multiple requests from many people. In fact, I have a copy of an inquiry & response on a forum on superstation.com, where a viewer requested purchasing TCB, and TNT told him to search on the internet to find copies, as they won't be producing them for sale.

OK, so I have a lot of video equipment and software, and the technical background to use it. I converted the videos to MPG2 format (DVD quality) while adjusting the brightness, contrast, color saturation, and hue, as these 38-yr old videos need fixing. I ran the resulting MPG2 files through a video editor and removed the transitions to/from commercials. I had previously collected Michael Parks music from the period - which was only released on vinyl, has been out of print over 30 years. But I didn't have all the tracks from both albums, and I wanted CD quality which the tunes I had, weren't. So I searched for the albums "Long Lonesome Highway", & "Closing the Gap" ,from 1969-70. Not available anywhere including I-Tunes, the record publishers, and other online sellers. Only available on old records in used music stores.  I got lucky and found MINT UNPLAYED copies of both from a record broker.  You may recall, even brand-new vinyl recordings still have a bias tone, background noise, pops & clicks.  So I remastered the albums to CD quality with  a DAK mixer and their software, removed all the vinyl blems, and normalized the volume to max, short of clipping - they all have the same volume.  I collected episode guide info from Wikipedia, and created 3-episode screens that display the guides while playing one tune per guide. I bundled the episodes into 3-episode groups, each group with it's appropriate guide - and created a menu for each group while creating the files that your DVD player needs. I also created a complete episode guide for the pilot movie disc that displays while the Parks' '69-'70 songs play. You can scroll through the guide with your FF button. And three other Bonus Features on the movie disc - Searching for Bronson that plays with a clean copy of "Re-enlistment Blues" - viewer reviews of TCB with Parks' tunes, and a slideshow of pics from the series and the movie, also with Park's tunes. Here's screen snaps of the pilot movie disc menu and the episode 7-9 menu:

Feedback below about the current TCB pkg:  I deleted last names & domains to protect their privacy.

Subject:
        Thank You......................
   Date:
        Sat, 8 Dec 2007 08:29:41 -0800 (PST)
   From:
        Johnny L. <dirtyjohnb@XXXXX.com>
     To:
        Mark Tobias <valkstuff@horseapple.com>




Very Much. Received the DVD yesterday, watched it, then watched it again with my girlfriend. Outstanding Job, no bad spots(skips) in the film or sound. Well worth the money. I appreciate ALL your work and efforts to make this a smooth transaction.

Have a GREAT weekend. Johnny
 

Subject:
        Michael Parks cd's
   Date:
        Fri, 4 Jan 2008 14:51:06 -0800 (PST)
   From:
        Steve C. <stooge29@XXXXX.com>
     To:
        valkstuff@horseapple.com




Mark,Just a note to let you know I recieved the "Bronson" stuff and I'm thrilled with it.  I watched the first episode last night and loved it.  Bronson ran up here only once,and I haven't seen them in almost 40 years.

Thanx for everything;steve c
 

Subject:
            Then CameBronson - Premium Quality
       Date:
            Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:27:13 -0500
      From:
            Dennis R <trainman414@XXXXX.com>
        To:
            Mark Tobias <valkstuff@horseapple.com>



 
Mark, I just received your Then Came Bronson DVD set and CD, the set is very good, thank you!
I watched parts of a few episodes and I am very pleased! 

  Thanks again for a very nice Then Came Bronson DVD set !   

Dennis R  Orlando, Fl.
 

Subject:
            Then Came Bronson order
       Date:
            Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:05:32 +0200
      From:
            300tuula k <ktuula@XXXXX.com>
        To:
            <valkstuff@horseapple.com>




Hi there and greetings from Finland,

I received the full set  of Then Came Bronson just before Christmas. Boy, what a Christmas! Best present I ever had! There my hero from the seventies rides again. I thougth I will never see Mr. Bronson and his Sportser again. You know, they broadcasted the series only once  in 1970 here in Finland.

Thank you for the good job, the very nice pack, it was done very well. I had also those songs in seventies, but they disappeared long time ago. Very nice to hear these again. Of course the quality of the picture canīt be same as today. But itīs quite good.

Soon I will show one episode in my motorcycle club event. I guess, it will be instant success.

Best regards,

Juha K (my wife is Tuula K)
 

Subject:
        compliment
   Date:
        Sun, 20 Jan 2008 01:32:50 -0600
   From:
        "CcRider" <ccrider54@XXXXX.net>
     To:
        <markspark@horseapple.com>




Hey just had to tell you how totally thrilled I am with my then came Bronson dvd's I received from you! I had purchased two previous sets online each called their video quality about a "7" well if theirs was a "7" on the one to ten scale then I'd rate your set at about a "17"!  Fantastic job enhancing the colors, Both my other copies were washed out colors almost to the point of being black and white, Its a real joy to watch my favorite shows seeing green trees, blue skies and flesh tone colored people!  The organization you used is fantastic also. Super Kudos' on a great job. you made an old "Bronson" fan a very happy camper!
Thanks
Steve C AKA CcRider
 

Notice I named the 3-episode guide, on the episode discs, after the song that plays while you're viewing it.

On the quality: These aren't perfect. But they are pretty good, in fact as good as they can be until/if TNT ever listens to the public and remasters and releases them for sale. Don't hold your breath - not likely as Then Came Bronson now belongs to the Public Domain. I have high standards, partly because I have a movie library, home theater with large screen HD TV, satellite DVR and top grade DVD player. I limited each disc to 3 episodes to avoid compression. If you put 4 on a disc you'll have over 3 hours of video per single-layer DVD - which results in compression that you can see in tokens on the videos. (I've created lots of DVD's - have experience at this) I use Verbatim +R Inkjet Printable premium DVD's - they are premium discs, the top grade of 4 grades.  And print the disc graphics directly on them with a hi-res photo printer, using Claria Hi-Definition ink. See a discussion of DVD media quality at http://www.cdr-zone.com/articles/recordable_dvd_quality_page_1.html

FYI you can't burn discs to dbl layer and have them player-readable. Only mass-produced pressed dbl-layer DVD's are readable by standard DVD players.  These discs are Single Layer - the original DVD format, with the most compatibility. I'd rate the movie and episodes around 8.5 on a 10 scale. Because they were at one time on tape, there's a little grain. I'd rate Episodes 17 & 18 - "The Gleam of the Eagle Mind" & "That Undiscovered Country" a point lower because they have a band across the top of the screen that's wavy.

OK, so here's actual screen snaps from all the episodes - you can see, not bad for 38 yrs old and having been on tape. I should have looked that good when I was 38.

Episode Disc 1: 1 - The Runner

2. The Old Motorcycle Fiasco

Disc 2: 4. A Circle of Time

Disc 3: 7. The 3:13 Arrives At Noon

Disc 4: 10. Two Percent of Nothing

Disc 5: 13. The Spitball Kid

Disc 6: 16. A Pickin' an' A Singin'

Disc 7 : 19. Lucky Day

Disc 8: 22. Still Waters

Disc 9: 25. The Mary R

5. Where Will the Trumpets Be?

8. Old Tigers Never Die—They Just Run Away

11. All the World and God

14. Against a Blank Cold Wall

17. The Gleam of the Eagle Mind

20. Mating Dance for Tender Grass

23. The Forest Primeval

26. What's An Ark Without Centaurs?

3. A Famine Where Abundance Lies

6. Amid Splinters of the Thunderbolt

9. Your Love is Like a Demolition Derby in My Heart

12. A Long Trip to Yesterday

15. Sibyl

18. That Undiscovered Country

21. The Mountain

24. The Ninety-Nine Mile Circle

OK, so yes I am making these available for your purchase. The complete Then Came Bronson series and pilot movie with on-screen menus, episode guides, reviews of the movie and the series,  "remastered" tunes from Parks' albums of the day that play while you're browsing the Episode Guides, Slideshow and Reviews, on TEN Premium grade Verbatim Discs, in plastic multi-disc folders with artwork on the covers I created from the episode and movie stills.

You can use paypal - send $67 for the set and Priority Mail shipping (continental US) to valkstuff@horseapple.com  Or you can call the 800# in the footer below to use a CC by phone, or to arrange money order purchase.


Here's what it looks like:

These are the tunes of the two albums released when Then Came Bronson was on the air - most episodes have Michael singing at least one of these songs:

One more word about Quality: That's the watchword around here. We have a great reputation & I intend to protect it. Notice the discs look labeled, each with graphics I created from stills on that episode set. BUT THESE DISCS ARE NOT LABELLED - THEY ARE PRINTED DIRECTLY BY A HI-RES PHOTO PRINTER, DIRECTLY ON VERBATIM PRINTABLE DISCS!!!! It's not a good idea to put labels on DVD's. You know how you remove a label? Heat it up with a hair dryer or heat gun. Guess what your DVD player does. It has a laser and it makes the discs warm. Over time, and repeated heatings, the adhesive is likely to degrade and the labels come off. Inside your player, if you're unlucky. So don't put labels on your DVD's, or buy them that way.

On "Get it Fast" - Place order by 11:00AM MT for overnight 3:00pm delivery by DHL.

Returns: We will replace any DVD that is defective & doesn't play, at our expense, if the playing surface is undamaged. If you damaged them - we will still replace them but there will be a fee prorated on the pkg price.   I'm being as thorough as I can, so you know what to expect - and that's what you'll get, no surprises. These discs are region free, and they are play tested - so once the package is opened, they are not returnable.

Here's a question "Greg" wrote in - posted here as you might have the same question:

Q: Hi! I like you have loved Bronson since I was 13! I was lucky enough to tape it back in 89 from TNT and then in 02 put it to DVD. I can't believe it has not come to DVD. I'm always looking for better than what I have. Mine seems to be around an 8 in quality. But no chapters.....commercials still in! I'm always unhappy with the ones I try. Yours sounds like you have put some time into this! Guess i'm asking if you think this will top what I'll already have! THX Greg

Nov-12-07 A: I don't think TCB will be officially released to DVD now, as it's gone to Public Domain. Yep, I've read lots of disappointing reports on what's out there. I set out to make a set as good as it can be - my goal to make the best and I worked on it for weeks. Started with VHS tapes I'd say were about 8. Then converted to MPG2 while correcting colors - brightness, contrast, saturation & hue. Used skin tones to set the hue, adjusted contrast and brightness together with a goal of having the contrast cover the full range of the scene - in a sunlight scene, usually 7 stops. That is, set the brightness and contrast together so I got fully black blacks and completely white highlights. (I have photog experience, owned a studio for 9 years, was also the Tucson studio manager for CPI.) Saturation - good color so it looks natural, not psychedelic or like hand-tinted B&W. I did this with each episode seperately as they varied from each other, and sometimes varied within the episodes. I removed all the "dead air" left over from the last editor's incomplete removal of the commercials.

Yeah, I believe this set is better than what you have, for the color correction, menus and extra features I included, as well as no commercials. Two of the episodes I'd say are a point down from the others, with some waviness on the top 15% of the screen - episodes 17. The Gleam of the Eagle Mind, and 18. That Undiscovered Country

Oh yeah.  I promised I'd tell my Bronson story:

All content on www.horseapple.com copyright 1999-2006 Mark Tobias except "Riders Say", "Dyno Day", Vallejo and Shop Manual and Alternator Review pages, and SWF and MP-3 files and their graphic icons, and any content specifically attributed to another author.  
All rights reserved.

 Prices and product specifications are subject to change without notice

Glasspack mods are for off road use only.  Always wear helmet, eye and ear protection while riding.  Wear leather gloves while handling exhaust parts.