CBS/Paramount Complete Series Craze (1 Viewer)

[Professor Echo]

"I Spy" I can handle. I'm not so sure about "The Bill Cosby Show" any longer though I suppose its age might work as a factor in its favor of it seeming from so long ago that it's a different person. But I do know I will never watch a Fat Albert episode again because Cosby for all time shamed himself as a wise instructor in the art of dispensing values and lessons.

I too can handle I SPY still because I don't believe he had the fame or fortune yet to engage in his heinous behavior. It's a debatable point, I know, but I draw the line there because it's a show I won't give up. So I had to create my own justification.

 

[Jack P]

It's kind of like how with O.J. Simpson I can handle him in films like "Towering Inferno" and "Capricorn One" because the seriousness of the plot makes me forget about who he is to a sufficient degree (likewise an old NFL game with him playing or announcing, where its the game I'm interested in). But I have refused to watch the "Naked Gun" films since the murders because seeing him doing slapstick comedy is not something I can handle watching.

 

[Mitchell Hadley]

I too can handle I SPY still because I don't believe he had the fame or fortune yet to engage in his heinous behavior. It's a debatable point, I know, but I draw the line there because it's a show I won't give up. So I had to create my own justification.

I think the difference between I Spy and Fat Albert that Jack P mentioned is an illustrative one. One must be able to draw a distinction between the artist and his art, so to speak; admirers of the operas of Richard Wagner (me included) have had to do the same thing, to separate the terrible man from his truthful art (as one author put it). Were Wagner to have written an opera that had an explicitly anti-Semitic plot to it (as opposed to subtle suggestions that certain characters are Jewish, for example), then it would be a situation like Cosby and Fat Albert - much too close for comfort. As it is, I'm able to appreciate Wagner's music as deeply moving while still viewing Wagner the man as contemptible. I suspect that in time many will - or should - be able to draw the same distinction between Cosby the actor and Cosby the man.

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

But I have refused to watch the "Naked Gun" films since the murders because seeing him doing slapstick comedy is not something I can handle watching.

Some people can view them as payback for what he did to Ron and Nicole.

 

[jcroy]

Some people can view them as payback for what he did to Ron and Nicole.

IIRC, Fred Goldman goes after OJ's assets in civil court, which are not directly legally protected by the jurisdiction OJ is in (ie. such as homestead exemption laws in Florida).


http://thetrustadvisor.com/news/20-years-after-the-bronco-chase-how-did-o-j-simpsons-5-million-asset-protection-strategy-pay-off


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_exemption_in_Florida


As long as OJ is alive, Fred Goldman will be a constant monkey on OJ's back.



Whatever royalties/residuals OJ is entitled to from Naked Gun, most likely never ends up seeing the light of day.

 

[Professor Echo]

I steadfastly refuse to patronize anything John Landis is involved in because of his culpability in the deaths of two children and one of my favorite actors. We were once at the same social engagement and he attempted to talk to me. I refused to shake hands and then turned my back on him.

Getting back on topic, still no repackaged Complete Series sets for PERRY MASON, MANNIX and HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL. I expect these will be coming, but who knows? Recently Amazon Canada had the complete PERRY MASON Seasons collected for $80 shipped and I totally went for it. Even if a repackage release does happen, I doubt it will be that cheap. A couple of days ago Amazon Canada had the new repackage of RAWHIDE for $59 shipped and I jumped on that too. Now keeping an eye out for HAVE GUN. Fantastic deals from our northern neighbors.

 

[bmasters9]

Was at the Wal-Mart earlier today and noticed that there was a revised full-series release of The Brady Bunch, in that there were four slipcases in it, instead of just one big keepcase. The first three slipcases had 6 discs apiece, and the last one had only 2; I would have thought that the discs would be apportioned 5-5-5-5 (there being 20).

 

[jcroy]

Was at the Wal-Mart earlier today and noticed that there was a revised full-series release of The Brady Bunch, in that there were four slipcases in it, instead of just one big keepcase. The first three slipcases had 6 discs apiece, and the last one had only 2; I would have thought that the discs would be apportioned 5-5-5-5 (there being 20).

Interesting.


I recently purchased the repackaged version (without any bonus disc), which had all 20 discs in a single giant 20-disc case.

 

[jcroy]

Perhaps there were too many complaints + returns about the giant cases holding 20-24 discs, for various Paramount re-releases complete series sets?

 

[MattHR]

I get tired of complaining about shoddy packaging, but does anyone else dislike the new multi-disc plastic cases that Paramount has been using for their complete series and multi-season sets? While preferable to the stacked-on-a-spindle (Sony) and discs-in-slotted-cards or envelopes (Mill Creek), I find them to be quite bulky and not space-saving at all.


When I first saw the complete sets for Cheers and Frasier, I noticed that each set was just about exactly the same width as 11 standard cases, so there was no space-savings, and yet each lost a ton of graphic material. To me, they look quite bland with such minimal graphics combined with the generic gray disc labels. There just seems to be so much plastic visible, greatly reducing the "collectible" appeal of other sets.


I also recently saw new multi-season sets (usually four seasons combined) of shows such as NCIS and Charmed in this type of packaging, and each case was actually a bit wider than four standard cases together. My preference would be for the standard individual seasons over this new combined-season release.

 

[LeoA]

All of the talk about CBS stripping out bonus discs made me go looking for the movie disc with their latest I Love Lucy set. Sure enough it seems to be absent. The disc count is even 1 less than the last complete series release that included it, confirming that I didn't miss it as I searched through my set.


So it looks like if I really want to make this set complete, I'll have to buy an additional release to get there.

The movie itself is in the season 2 Blu-Ray release, but the other extras on it don't seem to have made the cut for either Blu-Ray release so far.

 

[Randy Korstick]

The Have gun will travel season sets have been dirt cheap on Amazon recently.1,2 and 3 for $15.00 and the half season sets for 4, 5 and 6 are going for $7-$9 each. So that's a good sign that a complete series set maybe on the way. But at those prices I am content to complete the series this way since I already had 2 seasons.

I steadfastly refuse to patronize anything John Landis is involved in because of his culpability in the deaths of two children and one of my favorite actors. We were once at the same social engagement and he attempted to talk to me. I refused to shake hands and then turned my back on him.

Getting back on topic, still no repackaged Complete Series sets for PERRY MASON, MANNIX and HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL. I expect these will be coming, but who knows? Recently Amazon Canada had the complete PERRY MASON Seasons collected for $80 shipped and I totally went for it. Even if a repackage release does happen, I doubt it will be that cheap. A couple of days ago Amazon Canada had the new repackage of RAWHIDE for $59 shipped and I jumped on that too. Now keeping an eye out for HAVE GUN. Fantastic deals from our northern neighbors.

 

[bmasters9]

All of the talk about CBS stripping out bonus discs made me go looking for the movie disc with their latest I Love Lucy set. Sure enough it seems to be absent. The disc count is even 1 less than the last complete series release that included it, confirming that I didn't miss it as I searched through my set.


So it looks like if I really want to make this set complete, I'll have to buy an additional release to get there.

The movie itself is in the season 2 Blu-Ray release, but the other extras on it don't seem to have made the cut for either Blu-Ray release so far.

Which means, as I said before, that MacGyver has been the only series that has been released in a condensed version to have its bonus disc with it (the two 1994 movies).

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

All of the talk about CBS stripping out bonus discs made me go looking for the movie disc with their latest I Love Lucy set. Sure enough it seems to be absent. The disc count is even 1 less than the last complete series release that included it, confirming that I didn't miss it as I searched through my set.


So it looks like if I really want to make this set complete, I'll have to buy an additional release to get there.

The movie itself is in the season 2 Blu-Ray release, but the other extras on it don't seem to have made the cut for either Blu-Ray release so far.

Which is why when I bought The Brady Bunch, I went with the earlier "Shag Carpet" edition over the newer release. Same transfers but the Shag Carpet Edition had the extras (Brady Bunch TV specials I believe) which were absent in the newer release.


If we ever get a nice Blu-ray set of The Brady Bunch, I'll know which disc(s) I'll need to keep from my current set.

 

[bmasters9]

Yet another revised CBS condensed full-series release: the I Love Lucy condensed release has apparently been revised to where the first four seasons are in two cases (first and second in the first case, and third and fourth in the second), and the remainder of the series is in the third case.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/I-LOVE-LUCY-COMPLETE-DVD-BOXED-SET-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-194-Episodes-2015-/191774402633?hash=item2ca6a52849:g:e5gAAOSwLN5WieNf

 

[LeoA]

Sounds like a good move. The big case that houses the first five seasons or so is a bit unwieldy, so I'm not sure why they didn't take this approach to begin with.


Assuming these cases are similar to the smaller case that holds the latter part of I Love Lucy with last Fall's release, another advantage I presume this one has is you don't have to remove the upper disc just to get to a lower disc.


That has quickly become an irritation as I run through the early seasons of I Love Lucy with last Fall's complete series rerelease.

 

[jcroy]

But I do know I will never watch a Fat Albert episode again because Cosby for all time shamed himself as a wise instructor in the art of dispensing values and lessons.

I watched through some Fat Albert episodes this past weekend. I have two of the old dvd season sets released back in the day. (I don't have the Shout Factory re-release).


The Bill Cosby live-action segments seemed somewhat creepy to watch, where I couldn't suspend my disbelief at all. But the actual animated cartoon segments seemed to be still ok to watch for me.


I could probably still watch Fat Albert, without any of the Bill Cosby live-action segments. (Though I don't think anybody would release an edited version with ONLY the animated cartoon segments).


Wonder how soon the Shout Factory re-release will end up in the bargain bin.

 

[Jack P]

In a similar vein regarding another Filmation property, I wonder if "Isis" is now too dangerous a title to reissue simply because of the name.

 

[jcroy]

In a similar vein regarding another Filmation property, I wonder if "Isis" is now too dangerous a title to reissue simply because of the name.

I don't know if Dreamworks would even bother re-releasing any old BCI-Eclipse Filmation dvd titles.


These days it would probably be easier to just license it to a streaming service.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Except there would be very little interest on streaming for Filmation titles with the majority of the streaming audience being under 30. That's why there are not many classic TV shows on streaming and almost no old Saturday morning cartoons or old TV shows that are not considered classics.

I don't know if Dreamworks would even bother re-releasing any old BCI-Eclipse Filmation dvd titles.


These days it would probably be easier to just license it to a streaming service.