What's new

Fox - New Kings of abandoned series! (1 Viewer)

Hank Dearborn

Supporting Actor
Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
715
Real Name
Hank
Let's see, White Shadow, Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart Show, Big Valley. And since they now distribute MGM, let's add Green Acres and Mr. Ed to the pile. Way to go Fox! And we thought they weren't on top in any category. BTW, how's that split season for the same price for Big Valley working out for you Fox? Must have sold real well. Stick to repackaging Buffy, apparently the only thing they're good at.
 

MatthewA

BANNED
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2000
Messages
9,727
Location
Salinas, CA
Real Name
Matthew
I agree wholeheartedly. I would also add King of the Hill, even though it is a more recent series. Maybe some "Beavis and Butthead" fans who were peeved over the DVDs of that fought back by boycotting all of Mike Judge's other stuff, including the KotH DVDs.
 

Duane Alford

Second Unit
Joined
May 17, 2004
Messages
310
Lucky for me there's not many shows left that I want that Fox owns. Other then Batman (which we'll probably never see), the other few shows are all one season shows.
 

Gary OS

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2004
Messages
5,995
Location
Florida
Real Name
Gary
Yeah, I have to agree on this point. Universal has ticked me off with a few abandoned series (most notably "Leave it to Beaver", "Dragnet" and "Quincy"), Sony has seemingly let "Hazel" die, and WB didn't do anything more with "Cheyenne". But Fox does seem to be the worst when it comes to just out and out desertion.

Gary "but I'm telling you, Universal is running a close second in this disgraceful race" O.
 

Jon Martin

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2002
Messages
2,218
I am also quite upset over the KING OF THE HILL sets being put on hold. I mean, the show got renewed, it is still in syndication, it has to be more popular than some of the other titles they continued to release.
 

Bryan^H

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2005
Messages
9,511
Hill Street Blues, and St. Elsewhere. Some of the finest television....ever. And yet we get the complete series of Stacked, and Newlyweds(both Fox) on dvd. Crimes against humanity, plain and simple.
 

Jaime_Weinman

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 19, 2001
Messages
786
What astounds me is that no studio seems to be willing to take the obvious step of licensing out their abandoned series. If Fox doesn't want to finish Mary Tyler Moore there would certainly be some independents that would want it.

At the height of the DVD boom, Fox and some other companies seemed so desperate for TV-on-DVD product that they'd put out the first season of everything, regardless of whether it was likely to sell at the levels they were looking for. I don't object to a studio having higher sales expectations than an independent. But then why release the first season of St. Elsewhere yourself, knowing that it's probably not going to sell at modern-show levels, instead of just licensing it to someone else?
 

MatthewA

BANNED
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2000
Messages
9,727
Location
Salinas, CA
Real Name
Matthew
They did license Doogie Howser, MD to Anchor Bay, who released all four seasons. Now that Anchor Bay is Starz Entertainment and has started cutting corners across the board, I'd rather see someone who gives a damn take up the slack, like Shout!, Image or S'more.

Part of it is that their infrastructure is so bloated compared to an independent, who would be thrilled to sell "only" 150,000 copies of a show. This applies to all the studios.

They don't even remaster. Lost in Space, IIRC, was taken from 20-year-old analog masters, and the pilot of Anna and the King, included on the 50th Anniversary Edition of The King and I, looked like a beat-up 16mm dupe.

I'd boycott them but they're not releasing anything I want. The last TV show DVD I intend to buy from them that I know will come out is season 11 of The Simpsons, the last season I can bring myself to pay for or accept as a gift. Then I'm totally through with Fox.
 

Corey3rd

Screenwriter
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
1,728
Real Name
Joe Corey
it's a numbers game. The best thing you can do is keep an eye out for the next major sale of these Fox titles and buy copies to give out as Christmas gifts.
 

BobSchneider

Second Unit
Joined
Nov 15, 2005
Messages
418

Yeah NYPD Blue is the one that cheesed me off the most:angry:, they stop releasing set on the fourth season with ends in a cliff hanger which for folks who didnt watch NYPD Blue on it first run (i did), it like wth? ok what happened? Not everyone has cable but what I understand NYPD Blues not on cable or OTA re runs anymore ethier. Then there was the cruel joke of ad in fourth season dvd set "More nypd blue season 5+ soon", I can under stand fox passing on the post jim smiths years? But why piss off fans with the fake season 5 ad when according to some folks fox had already made the decesion stop with the 4th season? What fox doesnt seem to understand , is there wishy washy committment to series completion effects all the dvd set sales and even moives with sequels. Why should you buy any fox dvd set of a multi season show? Honestly right now I see zero? Honestly I think it the reason behind poor sales of green arches, king of the hill and etc ... due to the reasonable belief that fox at some point will abandon the series and leave the collection of the show incomplete.:thumbsdown::angry::frowning::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::td ::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown:: td::angry::angry::angry::angry::angry::angry::angry::angry::angry::angry::angry::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown::thumbsdown:: td::thumbsdown:
 

David Deeb

Screenwriter
Joined
Nov 17, 2005
Messages
1,278
Real Name
David
Any news about "WKRP in Cincinnati?"

With 1 volume out that they already changed all the music on, & w/ nearly every single fan of the series screaming bloody murder, I suspect this series will never see completion either.

Remember the uproar surrounding this music replacement? People said "it's OK - we have to support it so they release all the seasons".

But we're talking about FOX.
 

Doug Wallen

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2001
Messages
14,461
Location
Macon, Ga.
Real Name
Doug


Amen, brother. Classic television that helped create the climate for Homicide:LotS, The Shield, etc. and now in tvdvd purgatory.

Doug
 

MatthewA

BANNED
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2000
Messages
9,727
Location
Salinas, CA
Real Name
Matthew

Personally, I'm glad seasons 2, 3 and 4 are not going to get subjected to the same slipshod treatment.
 

Robert13

Supporting Actor
Joined
Feb 21, 2007
Messages
733
Real Name
Robert
Add Cagney & Lacey to the list. There was such a long wait for the first box-set. Barney worked very hard to get them to put any effort into that project and then they went and released it with hardly and promotion and poor distribution. How on earth they thought it would sell is beyond me.
 

ScottRichard

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 14, 2003
Messages
254
Location
Michigan
Real Name
Scott
I think Sony's list of seemingly abandoned series is even longer than Fox's! Although hopefully we'll still see some of these continued, it seems to me that all of the following may have been abandoned:

The Partridge Family
The Flying Nun
Here Come The Brides
Hazel
Different Strokes
227
Who's The Boss
Mad About You
The Nanny
Barney Miller
S.W.A.T.
T.J. Hooker
Police Woman
Riptide (though continuing to be released by VEI?)
Charlie's Angels
Hart to Hart
Fantasy Island
Family

Then there's their more recent releases that you still have to wonder about:

The Facts Of Life
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
Maude
One Day At A Time

Wow, that's a long list, and I've probably missed a few titles!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,810
Messages
5,123,561
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top