Jay_B!
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2005
- Messages
- 1,746
personally, I think Warner sets too high standards for their shows. The holy grail is Friends for sitcoms (I'm not sure what would be the holy grail for dramas... Smallville? Gilmore Girls? Dukes Of Hazzard?), everything that cannot match Friends gets screwed in the long run.
As much as I used to complain about Sony, at least Sony accepts the fact that Seinfeld is a once-in-a-library sitcom (much like Friends is for Warner and Golden Girls is for Buena Vista) and that they don't penalize every other show because it doesn't sell those numbers, instead they seem to put "smaller" but still popular shows (Good Times, AITF, Sanford, Facts Of Life, Married With Children...) as the standard by which the rest of their catalog is judged. I am sure if Growing Pains was a Sony or Fox property, we would've seen a season two by now, but because it likely sells (at best) 1/10th what the average Friends set does, it's not good enough for Warner.
I honestly think Warner and others should do for DVD's what they do for music... license. Warner could license a lot of their "no plan" shows to a smaller company, but retain 75% of the sales for it, and I'm sure that those companies would be gracious to be releasing shows like Everwood, Murphy Brown, Night Court, Without A Trace, etc... Much like how smaller companies will reissue Warner CD's that may not be a big enough deal for the label, but that the smaller label will still be glad to distribute for Warner.
As much as I used to complain about Sony, at least Sony accepts the fact that Seinfeld is a once-in-a-library sitcom (much like Friends is for Warner and Golden Girls is for Buena Vista) and that they don't penalize every other show because it doesn't sell those numbers, instead they seem to put "smaller" but still popular shows (Good Times, AITF, Sanford, Facts Of Life, Married With Children...) as the standard by which the rest of their catalog is judged. I am sure if Growing Pains was a Sony or Fox property, we would've seen a season two by now, but because it likely sells (at best) 1/10th what the average Friends set does, it's not good enough for Warner.
I honestly think Warner and others should do for DVD's what they do for music... license. Warner could license a lot of their "no plan" shows to a smaller company, but retain 75% of the sales for it, and I'm sure that those companies would be gracious to be releasing shows like Everwood, Murphy Brown, Night Court, Without A Trace, etc... Much like how smaller companies will reissue Warner CD's that may not be a big enough deal for the label, but that the smaller label will still be glad to distribute for Warner.