The beginning of the end for classic shows? (1 Viewer)

[Joe Lugoff]

If the executives are making business decisions based on only what they like or know, then they should be demoted to the mail room or something. The first lesson of marketing is to find out what people want and provide it -- even if you don't like it yourself or never even heard of it.

They must be doing some kind of market research (at least, I hope they are!) and the results probably don't inspire them to release too many shows from the 1950s or 1960s. I don't really expect them to. But I do wish they'd license them out.

 

[JohnMor]

????

 

[Lenny Rakes]

If that was true, "Superboy Season 2" would have been announced with the upcoming release of "TAOS seasons 5 and 6" .

 

[Carlos Garcia]

Charles, I'm sorry you think that facts=negative attitude. The bottom line is, studios usually release shows that have been in the public eye. This isn't a negative attitude, this is fact. I wish they would release shows not seen in many years, like the original Dragnet, Life of Riley, Amos & Andy, Barnaby Jones, Mannix, Cannon, etc. etc., but apparently the system isn't being run that way. In fact there are several shows like Dragnet (1968), Quincy, M.E., and Adam 12 (for examples) that weren't much in the public eye lately and their first seasons got released, only to halt production on future seasons as a result of poor sales. I'm sure the studios are taking a wait and see approach to release future sets. I seriously doubt that any negativity in this thread will change the minds of any studios as far as what will eventually make its way into the DVD market.

 

[TravisR]

The differences are that Adventures Of Superman is good, it has fans outside of Superman fans and it sold better than a low budget 1980's syndicated series (even one from the Superman franchise). The Superman fans are just a good base, that 99 out of 100 shows don't have, that added to the sales for the series.

 

[Lenny Rakes]

Yes, you are right, but I was hoping that the same Superman fanbase, would have bought the first season of Superboy. Even though the first season of the show was not that great, the show improved in quality in the later seasons.

Like a few others, I think the main cause for the lack of releases for older shows, is mainly due to the fact that a lot of the older shows have not been in syndication for the last 10 years. Examples, are shows like the Fugitive, Superboy, and etc and too much syndication for other shows like Leave it To Beaver, which has been showing on TV Land since the 90's, where it continues to do excellent ratings, but it has been played to death which could possibly be one of the main contributing factors that is hurting the sales on the DVD box sets.

 

[Professor_Echo]

I know that few people ever think this works and we all may be too cynical for such an approach, but I was thinking that if we made as much of a concerted effort to write the studios and DVD companies about our desired shows as we do posting in these threads perhaps it could make a difference.

I'm not saying it's a waste of time to post your thoughts and opinions, just to match those efforts with equally impassioned requests and petitions at the source. Letter writing campaigns have saved several tv shows from going off the air prematurely, so who's to say these old fashioned methods no longer have any effect?

True that the response may be non-existent, particularly with the big studios, but small, independent DVD companies like SHOUT! and ANCHOR BAY may be more receptive to viewer's requests and/or see it as a cheap research barometer of what us dedicated buyers are looking for. Nowadays with the immediacy of E mail and omnipresent customer surveys, I believe a polite, but consistent, campaign may be just as satisfying as posting on a message board.

 

[TravisR]

I think letter writing might entice a big studio to license a title out to a smaller company. They may not want to 'risk' their own money or effort but if they know there's some market, letters may turn the tide to seeing more shows licensed to other companies.