Fall/Holiday Classic DVD Outlook = Bleak (1 Viewer)

[Randy Korstick]

The future of classic TV lies in MOD services like WA. I wouldn't look to Shout to be a big player. They need to make a profit as well and have abandoned many classic TV shows in the past due to lack of sales. If Shout starts a MOD program then they might be a bigger player.

 

[Regulus]

The only shows I'm looking for are a handful of "Grail" shows. My purchasing of DVDs has gone down significantly this year, not because of lack of money, but because these days it's not "What Series do I have?" It's the other way around. Bear in mind three of my "Grails" (Devlin, The New Adventures of Huck Finn and Chopper One) have been released this year, and if things go as they have since I began collecting DVDs at least one more could be out by the holidays.

PS The first DVD Box Set I purchased (The Gerry Anderson Thunderbirds) was a "Grail Show" for me at the time. On the day it was, released I was at Best Buy. An employee was putting copies of this show on the shelf, I reached into the box and grabbed my copy of this show, along with Joe 90 and Captain Scarlet. ​

 

[Neil Brock]

No matter how you spell it, VHS cassette is vastly inferior to DVD(and Blu-Ray) and even stored properly, degradation does occur and continues to look worse over time.. I taped the entire run of St. Elsewhere, tried to watch it a while back couldn't get through the second episode. So all that taping I did from the 80's to the mid 90's amounts to nothing but a large waste of time on my part because I will never re-watch anything on video cassette.

I've already transferred the majority of the collection from VHS to DVD quite some time ago. As for degradation, other than the very early RCA tapes which were not very good, most of what I've encountered, if it was stored properly, looks as good as the day it was recorded.

 

[Neil Brock]

It's the other way around. Bear in mind three of my "Grails" (Devlin, The New Adventures of Huck Finn and Chopper One) have been released this year, and if things go as they have since I began collecting DVDs at least one more could be out by the holidays.​

Now I've seen everything as I never thought I would ever see the word grail and Chopper One in the same sentence! By the way, what is Devlin? You got me on that one, never heard of it. Is that The Devlin Connection?

 

[Jack P]

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2196965376/tt0139981#

I think he means this.

 

[Jack P]

If the second season of "Burke's Law" could be freed that would make me feel much closer to the level of contentment I could be at for TV on DVD. To have a beautiful looking first season only of a two season show and crummy boots for the second season has really been frustrating for me (had "Honey West" been a two season show I doubt we would have seen that finished!). Other Grail titles I would like to see finished for the sake of pitching the boots (in R1 releases only) would be "Ironside" and "McCloud" and late 70s TV fluff can never be complete without "Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island" completed. Also need to see "Alfred Hitchcock Presents/Hour" finished as well. (not buying R4). "Switch" alas I know is MIA because of the fire so I have to make do with the bad boots there.

My only 80s Grail title is "Crazy Like A Fox" and I doubt we'll ever see that alas.

 

[Regulus]

Now I've seen everything as I never thought I would ever see the word grail and Chopper One in the same sentence! By the way, what is Devlin? You got me on that one, never heard of it. Is that The Devlin Connection?

Jack P is correct,it's the Hanna-Barbara Animated Series

 

[Bryan^H]

The future of classic TV lies in MOD services like WA. I wouldn't look to Shout to be a big player. They need to make a profit as well and have abandoned many classic TV shows in the past due to lack of sales. If Shout starts a MOD program then they might be a bigger player.

I'm all for this.

 

[Jack P]

Shout *had* a program along these lines. Their "Select" program which was supposed to be their way of doing limited pressings of titles that fans wanted and had been abandoned previously. We got the long overdue final season of "The Bill Cosby Show", S3 and S4 of "Ironside" and S2 of "Room 222" and then after that.....nothing. So I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to restart an option like that, though goodness knows it couldn't possibly hurt.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Shout *had* a program along these lines. Their "Select" program which was supposed to be their way of doing limited pressings of titles that fans wanted and had been abandoned previously. We got the long overdue final season of "The Bill Cosby Show", S3 and S4 of "Ironside" and S2 of "Room 222" and then after that.....nothing. So I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to restart an option like that, though goodness knows it couldn't possibly hurt.

There was a lot more than that. Rhoda S4, Mr Ed S5 ( and maybe 4), the last few seasons of Father Knows Best, Simon and Simon seasons 4-8, MST3K rereleases from the Rhino era, a lot of Nicktoons Animated stuff... but the line did eventually peter out.

 

[Regulus]

I'm certain Mill Creek will have a trick or two up their sleeves.

 

[Regulus]

x

 

[Neil Brock]

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2196965376/tt0139981#

I think he means this.

Thanks. Never heard of it but then again I was HS and college age at that point so not really aware of cartoons.

 

[Neil Brock]

Shout *had* a program along these lines. Their "Select" program which was supposed to be their way of doing limited pressings of titles that fans wanted and had been abandoned previously. We got the long overdue final season of "The Bill Cosby Show", S3 and S4 of "Ironside" and S2 of "Room 222" and then after that.....nothing. So I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to restart an option like that, though goodness knows it couldn't possibly hurt.

I don't know this for a fact but if I had to guess, it would be that those were seasons of shows which they had already paid to license and since the money was spent already anyway, they figured they might as well put them out and make back whatever money they could on them. Big difference between doing that compared with spending money to acquire other shows, especially if it would entail then having to pay for film transfers for something like the remainder of The Defenders for instance.

 

[shoeshineboy]

The future of classic TV lies in MOD services like WA. I wouldn't look to Shout to be a big player. They need to make a profit as well and have abandoned many classic TV shows in the past due to lack of sales. If Shout starts a MOD program then they might be a bigger player.

I dare say Warners is trying to prove otherwise. The whole 'burn' scenario, at least from a TV standpoint, has been a bust. Yes, we got some unique shows like FBI, NIcholls, the Jimmy Stewart Show and the last remnants of Maverick, but considering the depth of their assets its been a drop in the bucket -- and most of those were released as pressed on 1st and 2nd run! This great promise of the 'burnt dvd-r's', of which i stubbornly argued against, remains unfulfilled because the company continues to act as a carpetbagger. Not all of their holdings require massive restoration (and judging by some of their classic film releases, WA hasn't hesitated to release films whose elements make it barely a step ahead of Alpha) and while we can't begrudge them the right to make a profit, they certainly could do a better job of mining their collection better.
I'm certain if they ran a subscribers list of news and info, polling members on what they would like to see and what they'd pay for, we'd get more than 1-2 classic tv show releases a year.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I didn't say anything about dvd-r I said mod. Manufactured on demand which can be burned or pressed and in the case of warner archive tv most are pressed. I disagree on their releases. Take a look at their tv releases on their website they have released around 50 % of their huge assets which puts them second to only CBS for a studio's tv output and CBS has all but dried up now. It's also obvious that you haven't seen many warner archive releases. They released unmastered movies in 2009 and most of 2010 but it is ridiculous to mention that now since 2011 they remaster everything and remain one of the top studios for remastered films. The warner archive blu ray s are among the highest quality transfers released. Just what are they supposed to mine out? They are getting down to the bottom of their catalog now with lots of monogram and Allied artists releases because they have released so much already. 20-30 new titles every month. Name another studio that still releases that many catalog titles. Paramount is not a legitimate answer for farming out because they can only release blu rays of what paramount makes hd masters of so any blame lies with paramount. I think you may be surprised at how much they have released if you visit their website.

 

[Randy Korstick]

I did get a chuckle about 1-2 tv releases a year. Seriously? If we are talking seasons it's been at least 12-15 every year from 2011-2015. This year if you are talking Stickley black and white then only 2-3 so far but then black and white has slowed to a crawl everywhere. And they do take polls on their FB page and people post their request there every day of the year so they know exactly what shows people want but many classic shows have music rights issues that they work to clear before releasing and thankfully they don't do music replacement s like cbs. I'm am very grateful for the huge amount of classic films and tv shows that we have because of warner archive not to mention all the Hanna barbera releases. My shelves would certainly be a lot thinner without their releases.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Regarding the urban legend or myth of the dvd-r. It remains that. In nearly 8 years there is still no proof that factory made dvd-r s last less or are inferior to pressed disc's . In fact if you look at any of the disc rot threads it's just the opposite pressed dvd 9 and dvd 18s are the discs that most commonly fail. Bottom line a file is a file and a disc is a disc. No disc will last forever we just hope they last our lifetime so just enjoy the film's.

 

[Jack P]

I dare say Warners is trying to prove otherwise. The whole 'burn' scenario, at least from a TV standpoint, has been a bust.

I don't consider Warner's output to be a "bust". We've gotten a lot of good titles from them, notwithstanding the ones blocked by clearance issues, but the one saving grace of that is that unlike other studios and labels, I at least know I'm getting UNCUT program content with a release. The overall track record from Warner has yielded for me personally:

The FBI (I never expected this to get completed on DVD)
Maverick
The Girl From UNCLE
Tarzan
Jericho
Dr. Kildare
The Eleventh Hour (unimpressed as I was by the first season I applaud its becoming available)
The Lieutenant (This was a great show to discover)
The Gallant Men
Search
Jimmy Stewart Show
Hawkins

That is not a bust for me.

 

[benbess]

I wish Twilight Time would get into releasing a few classic TV shows. But it seems like they have their hands completely full with movies....