should Sony revisit Mad About You? (1 Viewer)

[Jay_B!]

I personally don't like the show enough to own, I watched it when it aired, but it's not something I would cherish to keep.

However, I do think Sony owes the fans to try to see if sales for season 3 will pick up. Season 2 flopped on DVD, but it was ten dollars higher than season 1 (only 3 more episodes... full seasons of Good Times cost as much as half-seasons do) and plus, it was almost three years ago, the TV-on-DVD idealogy was different back then.

While Mad About You was an award-winning show, it wasn't a "cult" show, back in those days, TV-on-DVD was defined by X-Files, Buffy, Star Trek, Simpsons and The Sopranos, shows that don't have mere followings, but rabid devoted cult followings. For sitcoms to do well on DVD, you had to be like Friends and Sex And The City and be super-popular.

Considering Mary Tyler Moore and The Jeffersons initially came out on DVD in this era and were seemingly abandoned indefinately, and eventually revisited on DVD and performed much better than initially... I think Mad About You (which peaked in it's third season in the ratings) should at least be given the opportunity to see if it can give Sony a second wind the way Jeffersons and All In The Family (which initially was labelled a flop on DVD, but sales picked up around season 3) have.

 

[EricW]

i'd love to see more seasons. but the "best of" came out like a year ago? if there was any indication of bigger sales it would have been there. yeah i know some people hold out for whole seasons, but like it or not, i think that's the way it works...

 

[Jay_B!]

the "best of" set was lame, because it contained too many season 1 and 2 episodes, that the fans already owned. It should've been seasons 3-7 ONLY

 

[David Rain]

Yes, they should revisit this series. But they won't.

 

[Jason_V]

While I'm not a fan of MAY (never have been, never will be), it is incredibly bad form for a studio to release one or two seasons and then stop. I'd be incredibly ticked off if one of the shows I collected and enjoyed suddenly stopped being released for no reason.

 

[MatthewA]

I agree with Jason V.

Plus, didn't they cram 11 episodes onto a disc, degrading picture quality severely?

 

[Jay_B!]

who says never? I'm sure if Helen Hunt is in a hit movie or something, Sony might reconsider.

Remember when the idea of future Mary Tyler Moore sets were DOA? How about Once And Again?

 

[Gord Lacey]

So you'd advocate them releasing the sets if they made no money off them?

Gord

 

[Juan Books]

Sony doesn't care about fans of the show. They have no respect or concern for anything or anyone. They probably made a little money off the first two seasons, but with the current business fad of focusing on blockbusters only, they'll let the rest of the seasons rot in their vaults.

Sony is the devil.

 

[Jay_B!]

I'm sure the MAY sets have turned a profit, it's just not paying back in the dividends that Seinfeld and other shows have.

If anything, season 3 of MAY has a Friends crossover, you'd think they'd want to release that season because there are Friends fans who'd want it. Season 4 has Yoko Ono in an episode, which will draw in a lot of John Lennon fans to buy it, same with Bruce Willis in the season 5 finale, a lot of Bruce fans will buy that.

I seriously refuse to believe that THAT'S MY MAMA is more successful for Sony than Mad About You.

 

[Glennica]

I considered purchasing Mad About You, but after hearing about the poor quality and lack of extras, I decided to rent it instead.

If they had a put a bit more effort into the season sets, maybe they would have sold better.

 

[JohnDMoore]

I'd like them to, but I can't speak from a business perspective.

I doubt it has that much to do with the quality. Fans will buy. They weren't intolerable (in my opinion).

Perhaps when Sony's emptied out most their vaults (wrapped up Seinfeld, finished up most of their popular seventies shows), they'll revisit? Years from now? If they do, I'll pick it up in an instant.

I can't imagine this show selling worse than some of the releases they're putting out these days. Maybe if there is a big Helen Hunt or Paul Reiser film in the next couple years we'll see a cash-in?

I just really want a copy of all the episodes.

 

[John*D]

I'd buy S1/S2 if I knew the rest were coming...

I'll probably end up buying them sooner or later.


If SONY can't make the numbers work to continue to release this series themselves, then they should license it out to one of the little guys and get a % while having to do a minumum of effert.

 

[Ravi K]

At the very least they should re-promote the seasons they've released, since TV-on-DVD has boomed in the last year. Maybe people who weren't interested in TVOD or didn't have DVD players when the DVDs were released would buy them.

 

[Jay_B!]

good idea Ravi, part of what caused MTM to finally merit a season 2 was Fox going back and repromoting season 1 for a cheaper price. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people didn't take advantage of the DDD Sony B1G1 sale with seasons 1 and 2

 

[Tory]

Wasn't there talk of a Mad About You movie for a while after the series ended? I thought they were offered shovels of dough for it and it was a go but that was years ago. If that ever happens then this would be a good cross promotion or maybe they can release it in bundles with BayWatch. Still, if they were popular enough to warrant a film consideration and their heads were too big to take it up and they were paid lots of money when the show was on, I thought they broke records at the time, then the show should probably sell well if it were seeded correctly.

 

[Aryn Leroux]

They should release more, or have an option to make sets for those that send in money upfront. That way they can't lose money. Yeah i know it's to far fetched to ever happen. How about some more who's the boss while there at it!

 

[Michael Alden]

Many of us who liked the show think it went on too long and many of the shows from the last 3 or 4 seasons were "lame".

 

[Gord Lacey]

There are lots of upfront costs associated with DVDs. Clearing music, packaging design, tranfers, menus, mastering...it's not as simple as "oh, we have an order so let's run one off"

Gord

 

[Dax P]

I hope they eventually return to it.

My girlfriend was a big fan. I liked it, but there are many episodes I've never seen.