B.J. AND THE BEAR (1 Viewer)

[AndyMcKinney]

Perhaps not enough interest. Not every show that was popular in it's day will ever make it out on DVD.

Or, at least, not enough interest perceived by the studio, whether that interest is actually out there or not.

 

[Stephen Wight]

Perhaps not enough interest. Not every show that was popular in it's day will ever make it out on DVD.

Or, at least, not enough interest perceived by the studio, whether that interest is actually out there or not.

I know I'm sounding like a broken record,but it has an unreleased rank of 22 and is Universal's highest ranked unreleased show. So there's,clearly,enough interest.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Could the masters of this show have been lost in the Universal fire from a few years ago? Maybe thats whats holding this show up.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Could the masters of this show have been lost in the Universal fire from a few years ago? Maybe thats whats holding this show up.

Not likely. Even if a set of masters was lost in that fire, there would be other masters floating around somewhere (if nothing else, syndication tapes). I doubt that particular fire would have wiped out all of the film prints and and all of the broadcast tapes of those films that were made for syndication.

 

[DeWilson]

Not likely. Even if a set of masters was lost in that fire, there would be other masters floating around somewhere (if nothing else, syndication tapes). I doubt that particular fire would have wiped out all of the film prints and and all of the broadcast tapes of those films that were made for syndication.

The Vault affected in the fire was a "working" vault - not the master vault (which is off site),It Wasn't even the only only "working" vault on the lot.
It's worth repeating - NOTHING was truly lost in the fire.

 

[Corey3rd]

I watched an episode a few months back and they had BJ singing a few major hits of The Eagles. That's gonna cost major dollars for a DVD release.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

It's worth repeating - NOTHING was truly lost in the fire.

That's what I thought (think what I heard previously was everything that was in the fire was just 'backup' copies of stuff).
I just threw in the fact that there should be multiple masters of this floating around regardless to all those who insist on trotting out the 'Universal fire' as a reason for something not being released.

 

[DeWilson]

That's what I thought (think what I heard previously was everything that was in the fire was just 'backup' copies of stuff).
I just threw in the fact that there should be multiple masters of this floating around regardless to all those who insist on trotting out the 'Universal fire' as a reason for something not being released.

Yep! What the fire did was cut down the number of already-transfered shows.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Yep! What the fire did was cut down the number of already-transfered shows.

I guess depending on when those shows were transferred, it might be a blessing in disguise, at least for shows that originated on film, as telecine transfer quality has gotten considerably better in the last decade or two.
On the flipside, though, Universal may not bother with re-transferring stuff seen as "not commercially viable" (or, at least, put that stuff at the bottom of the list).

 

[banjo78]

Let's just hope the masters don't go to waste. Not much point having them if they're never to be released

 

[Neil Brock]

The Vault affected in the fire was a "working" vault - not the master vault (which is off site),It Wasn't even the only only "working" vault on the lot.
It's worth repeating - NOTHING was truly lost in the fire.

NOTHING film-wise was lost. Countless one of a kind irreplaceable music master recordings were destroyed from all of the Universal music west coast labels - Decca, Uni, ABC, Dunhill and many others. Lacquer discs (before the invention of audio tape) recordings from the 1940s and earlier, all burned up, including many Bing Crosby recordings. Basically anything on a 4-track tape or less, gone. As for TV material, Universal didn't produce or syndicate a great deal of videotaped shows or specials but what they did have, such as Don Adams Screen Test for example, were in that vault and destroyed. I can't really think of too many Universal series produced on tape (Sirota's Court, Semi-Tough) but those are probably gone as well.
But the problem is, even if the 35mm negatives are safe and sound, who is going to pay the 7K or so an hour that Universal charges for transfers? If they don't think a show has a lot of syndication value in it, they aren't going to pay for new transfers. And that's an awful lot of money for small independent companies to pay. As for this series, do the math. 48 hours times 7 thousand before you even get to the costs of licensing and then doing all of the music replacement that would be needed. The show would have to sell like Friends or Seinfeld to make a profit.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

But the problem is, even if the 35mm negatives are safe and sound, who is going to pay the 7K or so an hour that Universal charges for transfers? If they don't think a show has a lot of syndication value in it, they aren't going to pay for new transfers. And that's an awful lot of money for small independent companies to pay. As for this series, do the math. 48 hours times 7 thousand before you even get to the costs of licensing and then doing all of the music replacement that would be needed. The show would have to sell like Friends or Seinfeld to make a profit.

There are probably other video masters of this show floating around somewhere. It's doubtful that every video syndication master of this show would've been in that archive. I'm sure there are conversions out there somewhere in the Universal archive, whether leftover from syndication or from digital conversion for the archive.
That said, however, who knows what masters are out there. If there are digibeta masters, that's all well and good, but what if the only tape masters are the formats that would've been used in the '80s? Not every label (especially if licenced out to a third party) can produce a release themselves from 1", 2" or U-Matic tapes.
And as I already said a few posts earlier:
... Universal may not bother with re-transferring stuff seen as "not commercially viable" (or, at least, put that stuff at the bottom of the list).
I still say the problem(s) with B.J. and Lobo probably aren't related at all to what masters exist, but more down to the fact that they're probably not perceived as being worth the effort to put out there.

 

[banjo78]

As usual, in the end it's the fans that get screwed, the ones who made these shows popular for the studios in the first place. "BJ and the Bear" for instance is a 30 year old show but still the studios would rather deny the fans it's release all because enough coin might not be going into their pockets at the end of they day, because the most important thing is to keep the these honchos lined with cash right? Let's keep this show under lock and key and never let it see the light of day unless of course we can wrought some little independent of tons of cash for transfers and licensing! Then we might get to see it again. The fans are the last consideration if a consideration at all in the dealings.

 

[DeWilson]

NOTHING film-wise was lost. Countless one of a kind irreplaceable music master recordings were destroyed from all of the Universal music west coast labels - Decca, Uni, ABC, Dunhill and many others. Lacquer discs (before the invention of audio tape) recordings from the 1940s and earlier, all burned up, including many Bing Crosby recordings. Basically anything on a 4-track tape or less, gone. As for TV material, Universal didn't produce or syndicate a great deal of videotaped shows or specials but what they did have, such as Don Adams Screen Test for example, were in that vault and destroyed. I can't really think of too many Universal series produced on tape (Sirota's Court, Semi-Tough) but those are probably gone as well.
But the problem is, even if the 35mm negatives are safe and sound, who is going to pay the 7K or so an hour that Universal charges for transfers? If they don't think a show has a lot of syndication value in it, they aren't going to pay for new transfers. And that's an awful lot of money for small independent companies to pay. As for this series, do the math. 48 hours times 7 thousand before you even get to the costs of licensing and then doing all of the music replacement that would be needed. The show would have to sell like Friends or Seinfeld to make a profit.

Yes, I meant Film Wise - I knew about the loss of the master sound recordings. Wasn't it later discovered there were duplicates on some of the sound recordings on the East Coast? I can't beleive there were not duplicates on the VT shows someplace.
7K - you gotta love the inflated in-house transfer costs Is it any wonder TIMELESS used 16mm (and VHS) for their budget releases!

 

[LeoA]

That's the cost per transfer that someone like Shout Factory that licenses a show and request transfers to be made has to pay.
I imagine the actual cost for doing a transfer for an in-house Universal project is just a small fraction of that $7,000 (I thought it was $5,000?). I really doubt they spent over 1.6 million, for instance, doing those new HD transfers for the entire run of Leave it to Beaver a while back.

 

[banjo78]

HD " BJ and the Bear". mmm. Now I'm really dreamin'!!!

 

[banjo78]

Fabulous Films in the UK is releasing "Tour of Duty" with ALL the original music intact, including the theme song, "Paint it Black" by The Rolling Stones. Season 1 is scheduled for release on Nov21 and is a region 2 release.
Obviously music rights in the UK are easier to clear? This show had tons of 60's music so I wonder why it's harder in the U.S for shows with popular music to be cleared?
Like it's been said before the music in "BJ and the Bear" is not the original artists so are Universal just being tight a$$es? It certainly adds another twist to the music rights/cost issue.
Chris

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Fabulous Films in the UK is releasing "Tour of Duty" with ALL the original music intact, including the theme song, "Paint it Black" by The Rolling Stones. Season 1 is scheduled for release on Nov21 and is a region 2 release.
Obviously music rights in the UK are easier to clear? This show had tons of 60's music so I wonder why it's harder in the U.S for shows with popular music to be cleared?

In certain respects, yes, rights are sometimes easier to clear in the UK versus the US. Season 2 of Happy Days is an excellent case in point. All of the '50s music underscore on the episodes is intact in the R2, but replaced with generic music in the R1s. Also, an episode commentary track on a Series 3 episode of Doctor Who had to be replaced in the US because the commentators got into a sing-a-long (instigated by John Barrowman), and so the track couldn't be cleared for the R1 release (it got replaced by a different podcast commentary in R1 land).
There are music difficulties in the UK as well, however and these have affected countless R2 titles (some which come to mind include UK TV shows, such as This Life, Being Human and Only Fools and Horses).

 

[banjo78]

Spoke to Richard(FabulousFilms) in email today about their "Tour of Duty" release with the original music(awesome) and I asked him about BJ. He said their company (Fabulous Films) had looked at "BJ & the Bear" but he briefly told me that Universal don't have the complete masters and there were huge music issues. I'm trying to find out more info on this.
Wonder why they don'y have complete masters?
Chris

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Could they have been destroyed in the fire a few years ago?

The blaze began around 4:45 a.m. (7:45 a.m. ET) and was contained initially by 9 a.m. Throughout the morning, large plumes of black smoke rose as the fire burned the vault containing hundreds of videos, said Ron Meyer, chief operating officer of Universal Studios.
"Fortunately, nothing irreplaceable was lost," Meyer said. "The video library was affected and damaged, but our main vault of our motion picture negatives was not."

I'd hate for them to call BJ and the Bear irreplaceable though. Of course anything could have happened to them.