35mm 4K film scan
Original air date: March 17, 1955
FT Depot restoration release date November 21, 2023

We have uncovered and managed to piece together TWO episodes from this previously lost tv show. You can watch the first episode at www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_LJWRao5s8

'His Honor, Homer Bell' was a short lived syndicated sitcom produced by Galahad Productions for NBC in 1954 for the 1955 season.

The series' regular cast included stage and screen star Gene Lockhart as Judge Homer Bell, the justice of the peace and local attorney in the small fictional Midwest town of Spring City. Mary Lee Dearring plays Homer's orphaned 15 year old niece Casey, and Jane Moultrie plays Bell's housekeeper and cook, Maude. Most of the episodes were directed by Derwin Abbe, and the music was composed by veteran cartoon score composer Winston Sharples.

Most of the episodes involved Homer or Casey getting into some kind of dilemma, usually with one or both of them learning a valuable lesson in the process of getting out of it.

A total of 39 episodes were filmed, they were aired by local TV stations across the country from 1955 until about the early 60s, most notably on KCOP-TV in Los Angeles. The series' main sponsor was Union Pacific Railroad.

Not a lot of information exists regarding the show itself save for a handful of draft scripts, some pre-release promotional ads in trade magazines, and several of Winston Sharples' musical scores.

Until now, no known copy of any episode or even clips of the show in any form were known to exist.

This film print was found at a manufacturing facility of film lab equipment. It must have been a discarded print from a local TV station. The facility had cut up the film and was using it for film transport testing of their machines. The reels became FT Depot property with the purchase of some of that lab equipment at a bankruptcy auction.

Years later one of our lab staff was inspecting the unlabeled reels of film to see what it was. That inspection revealed that although the film had been chopped up into several different smaller rolls, except for some missing frames, we did in fact have the entire tv episode!

The film print was badly scratched from being used as testing rolls of film and was already suffering various physical degradation, so we made necessary repairs, cleaned, did some photochemical restorative work and then scanned it.

While the results are not pristine due to the abused film elements, we at FT Depot are pleased to present to the world this formerly lost piece of television history.