Is the b&w era of TV on DVD slowly coming to an end? (2 Viewers)

[Jack P]

"Alice" is a rare case where Warner Archive did start a title and then stalled it (and the later seasons have a LOT of music in them), but I think at the same time they may have figured that as long as they got to the end of the Flo era of the show, they probably figured that was all that was important.

 

[Frank Soyke]

Its not always that simple. They didn't know how lengthy and complicated the issues with the detective shows were until they started to clear them and ran into many unforeseen issues. Regarding Mr. Novak Warner Archive normally has a steady release pattern when they start releasing a show and they have had very few stalled shows. They don't want to release season 1 and then have the show stalled at season 2 since they do not know how long the clearance is going to take.
A big company like Warner Brothers does not tease customers with potential releases they have no intention of releasing just to be cruel. I don't think you can honestly believe that. If they cannot release a show or if/when they have given up on clearing a show they will let us know. It saves them the trouble of having to answer the same questions over and over. I certainly wouldn't be offended if they told us the truth that they cannot release a show. Most would understand so I seriously doubt that would prevent someone from buying another show they wanted just because a show can't be released.

Honestly Randy we will probably never know which answer is correct although I suspect it's a hybrid of both....

 

[LouA]

I think we still might get a show here and there from Timeless- I understand that the Westerner will be released soon . I've kind of lost hope on WBA shows like the Alaskans , Colt 45 .

 

[Randy Korstick]

I think we still might get a show here and there from Timeless- I understand that the Westerner will be released soon . I've kind of lost hope on WBA shows like the Alaskans , Colt 45 .

Colt .45 should be coming next year based on the last update on it. It only has minor music clearances like the other Warner Westerns did but also needs to be re-mastered. The Alaskans has major music clearance issues like the detective shows so that one is more up in the air.

 

[JamesSmith]

Randy,
We also heard that the Guns of Paradise and Hondo were close to completion. Have you heard anything on those?

James

 

[Randy Korstick]

Randy,
We also heard that the Guns of Paradise and Hondo were close to completion. Have you heard anything on those?

James

Yes they did mention those early in the year but not a word since. They usually release a lot in November before the shutdown so maybe one or both of those will come in November. We now know we are getting HB's Peter Potamus show in November and possibly Jana of the Jungle.

 

[Neil Brock]

I have to make a confession. The MAJORITY of B&W Series (including one series that lasted a whopping 19 seasons, and I shelled out $700.00 to get it) in my collection were obtained via "other means". I don't condone doing this, but on the other hand (and I'm sure you've heard this saying countless times;If you want something and whoever is supposed to supply it refuses to do so, you have to get it from "somewhere else".

The "elsewhere" doesn't have to be any more complicated than recording the show off-air or trading with someone who can record or has recorded a show. Also, a great many shows surfaced on 16mm film over the decades if one were so inclined to desire rarities which have never re-aired. Over the years, networks like USA, CBN, Nostalgia Channel (aka Good Life), TV Land Canada, Bravo UK and many others have broadcast lots of series which will never be commercially released. So to say that they only way to have gotten copies is through illicit means is rather narrow thinking. And before people start whinging that they were negative 10 years old and their parents hadn't met when such and such series was on, even in the last decade or two there have been a myriad of shows that have been obtainable off-air.

 

[Neil Brock]

Randy,
We also heard that the Guns of Paradise and Hondo were close to completion. Have you heard anything on those?

James

I'm happy with having gotten Hondo from the dozen or so airings of the series on TNT.

 

[Jack P]

The term "illicit" or "illegal" may be melodramatic but it is in the narrow technical sense "illegal" to get stuff that way so I have no quibble with that term (I've had to do it myself, especially in my early days of building a vintage TV sports collection). Also, I am among those who sympathize with how it was a grind then and on many levels still is a grind to try and record every episode yourself of a long-running show. I didn't do it much back in the day (it was easy for "Battlestar Galactica" , it was harder for The Avengers, Ellery Queen and the Van Dyke Show which were the only other ones I tried to get complete) and that's why I think all of us would prefer to be spared the grind of having to do that work whether its in an official or unofficial release.

 

[LouA]

The term "illicit" or "illegal" may be melodramatic but it is in the narrow technical sense "illegal" to get stuff that way so I have no quibble with that term (I've had to do it myself, especially in my early days of building a vintage TV sports collection). Also, I am among those who sympathize with how it was a grind then and on many levels still is a grind to try and record every episode yourself of a long-running show. I didn't do it much back in the day (it was easy for "Battlestar Galactica" , it was harder for The Avengers, Ellery Queen and the Van Dyke Show which were the only other ones I tried to get complete) and that's why I think all of us would prefer to be spared the grind of having to do that work whether its in an official or unofficial release.

I'm with you. I used to program my VCR and tape lots of stuff, and then use a second VCR to edit the commercials . These days I'd rather buy the series, if and when released .
And although this thread is about black and white programs , has anyone noticed that almost no pre-1975 shows have been released lately ?

 

[BobO'Link]

And although this thread is about black and white programs , has anyone noticed that almost no pre-1975 shows have been released lately ?

That's because all of us "boomers" are rapidly retiring leaving many people now in charge of deciding what gets released being mostly from generations for whom nothing exists before they were born. As evidence I draw your attention to the Rolling Stone list of the 100 "greatest" TV shows of all time.

 

[Harry-N]

In the past few years, I went through the exercise of trying to record full-series shows from television. When we first got access to MeTV, I saw that they were airing 12 O'CLOCK HIGH, and it was a show I really wanted to see again. To accomplish the task, I moved my aging hard-drive/DVD recorder to a front bedroom where MeTV over-the-air reception was the best. MeTV aired these at that time in the early morning 2AM time slot, thankfully ever day Sunday through Friday, so I could grab six per week.

With the vagaries of over-the-air reception, occasional power failures, and yes, operator error, a few episodes here and there were missed, which meant that a second run-through would be needed to get every episode. All in all, it took about six months of dedicated time-shifting, commercial editing, transferring to DVDs, etc., but I did manage to get them all. Thankfully at that time MeTV wasn't chopping the episode, but was airing them time-sped, so I'm pretty sure the entire series is there, if a bit fast in some of the dialog.

After that project was complete, I then attempted MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY. It was a series I hadn't seen since childhood, and it was one I used to be quite fond of. I managed to score a few Season 4 episodes, and most of Seasons 5 through 9. Again, thankfully at the time, MeTV aired the series in the complete 4:3 aspect ratio, not the hacked off episodes that Cozi is now airing.

I've toyed with the idea of adding the later seasons that Cozi seems to show, even though they are hacked at the bottom to make them fake widescreen, but so far haven't done anything about it.

Bottom line is, that while it certainly IS possible to record series yourself, it is both time-consuming and a bit labor-intensive to do it right.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Another common obstacle these days is with PVR setups, such as what we have, is the ability to transfer programs to physical media is often defeated by the signal. Over the air is a really poor option where we live, as we've never had very good reception, which we experienced first hand through 7 very painful years without either cable or satellite service! VHS recordings from that period (January 1999 - January 2006) looked like absolute myopic garbage!

These days, for me, "other" options simply aren't really feasible, and my level of patience has become just about nil in that regard, anyway!

CHEERS!

 

[LouA]

Luckily , we've had a "ton" of good classic TV releases on DVD to occupy our screen time these days .
Still the thought of popular shows that didn't make it like Tightrope ,
WB detective shows , December Bride , Trackdown , East Side -West Side , Adventures in Paradise, Bendix Life Of Riley , Rin Tin Tin , etc. is frustrating !

 

[Silverking]

Back in the day I well remember how labour intensive it was to record shows on video.

I was always a bit of a quality buff so had some high end equipment , used to always try to get a direct record and edit out the advert breaks as they went out. Copying later to remove them was OK but you would lose a bit of quality on VHS by dubbing. Recall sitting up tilll the small hours to capture material which went out after midnight & sometimes dozing off.,Also if two programs on different channels went out at the same time, dashng back & forth from one room to another to make sure I could get both on different recorders. Nowadays of course, just press series record once & you can edit out ads later at your convenience.

Thing of it is , around 75% of the things I recorded have since been released on dvd, often with better quality so all that time was wasted..

So what vintage shows did you guys record on VHS which have not yet appeared on DVD & are not shown these days ?

 

[smithbrad]

I've recorded quite a bit over the last several years, mostly Westerns. However, much went for naught since many like Cheyenne, Maverick, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Sea Hunt, Highway Patrol and others all ended up with formal releases later on. Happily, I have been capturing the Carson shows this year and the newer transfers of Laramie. Knowing my past history, I can't see Laramie getting another shot or being able to afford all that Carson.

Using equipment I already had, my most successful attempts have been to record to the DVR. I then have an older Sony camcorder that acts as a "pass through" in that I can connect the DVR to the camcorder using standard s-video and audio cables and the camcorder to an extra computer using a firewire connection. Nero has a capture program that I use to capture as an AVI (for quality, generally 15GB for an hour). I then convert that to an MPEG format (avg 2GB per hour) at the same time as editing out commercials. It is a process.

This weekend I am giving up cable, so that will end any future captures. The kids are primarily streaming from either Hulu or my own NAS, and i have plenty I own on physical media to last me going forward. Capturing was an interesting experience and i enjoyed getting some new content (even if quite a few were no longer needed), but I look forward to spending that time now just watching what I already have.

 

[Bert Greene]

Trying to think of some things I taped that have yet to come out on DVD... Well, I taped the old Richard Egan series, "Empire'" off of CBN back around 1987. They were also airing "Ben Casey" and I grabbed a few dozen of them. The Nostalgia Channel aired a few series like "Dr. Christian," "Waterfront," "Mr. District Attorney," "The dick Powell Show," "The Rogues," and later on, "The People's Choice," "The Law and Mr. Jones," "Dante," "Law of the Plainsman," and some others. Grabbed a decent handful of those. A&E used to run a batch of "Alcoa/Goodyear Theater" shows under some generic umbrella title like "The Golden Age of TV" or something like that. Taped a ton of those. The Encore Mystery channel aired "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan," which I think I got all of. The Sci-Fi Channel aired "Men into Space" and "Suspense Theater.". Got most of those. One series I regret not taping was "The Farmer's Daughter," back when CBN was running it. Only taped a scant few. Didn't realize it would become so scarcely-seen. Oddest thing I recall encountering was some obscure, short-lived 'college' themed network back in 1988, which was airing "Richard Diamond" and a few other Four-Star series. I thought I even encountered them showing an episode of "Walter Winchell File," but as I didn't tape it, I often wonder if I just dreamed it!

 

[Flashgear]

I'm glad to have several episodes of the star studded The Rogues...and several of Dick Powell Theatre, including performances for which the Great Peter Falk won Emmy's in 1961 and 1962...I don't regret many hundreds of hours taped for shows upon which much superior studio DVD have been (thankfully) released...

On another note, I see someone has uploaded many great episodes of CBS 20th Century w/ Chronkite on youtube...apparently sourced from 16 mm, or even 35 mm network films...very happy about that...

 

[Neil Brock]

Far too many to name but pretty much all of the short-run, 6 episode or fewer series that have proliferated since the late 70s which will never be seen again. Unsold pilots, which the networks used to air fairly regularly, especially in the summer. The hundreds of TV movies which have been pretty much buried, especially the ones from the 70s and 80s. Sporting events, a scant few of which have ever reappeared. The hundreds of network specials which aired only once.

 

[Jack P]

Edited "20th Century" episodes were part of the "World War II With Walter Cronkite" VHS series that was also released at a bargain price on DVD.