The Cosby Show - Season 1 Announced (1 Viewer)

[Jaime_Weinman]

Depending on the episode, syndication cuts can sometimes take out lines or scenes that are essential to the plot. Other times they take out scenes that don't advance the plot but are funny and enjoyable. Syndication cuts are rarely made by people who are involved with the show, and they are usually arbitrary and almost always take out some good material.

Put it this way: the people who made the shows worked hard to decide, in the original editing, what should stay and what should go to get the show down to the required network length (24 minutes). Then in syndication, somebody just chops out an additional 2 minutes. This can affect the plot; it can affect the structure; it can make one scene seem too long because the preceding scene is now too short. The upshot of it is, syndication cuts suck, they make the shows weaker. There is no excuse, none, for preserving them on a DVD release, and there is no reason, none, to buy a set of 22 chopped-up episodes.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

I support your intentions, but obviously there are plenty of reasons to buy the 22 chopped-up episodes or people wouldn't buy them. There may be no reason for you to buy 22 chopped-up episodes, but others may enjoy the cut episodes to watch at their schedule and leisure more than not having them at all.

There are people who "watch" TV while making dinner or doing the dishes. They may "generally" like the Cosby Show and want to own it, but the 2 cut minutes aren't going to make or break the show for them. They don't pay that close attention in the first place. Not everyone sees this stuff as high art that must be preserved in its pristine state.

 

[Allen_Kir]

I'm going to buy the show I just hope the rest are uncut I've never seen the REAL versions so to me it will seem regular, BUT I'm still MAD!!

 

[Rob P S]

 

[george kaplan]

Well if you're just going to have the dvds playing as background while you make dinner and not pay much attention to it, why the hell waste money buying the dvds at all? Why not just turn on whatever happens to be on tv at the time.

I'd certainly assume that anyone who actually was going to spend hard cash on the dvds, liked the show enough to actually sit down and watch it, and want to watch the whole thing, not a chopped up abomination.

 

[Juan Books]

a couple of hours before the official release date:

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #121 in DVD

let's hit them where it hurts

 

[TravisR]

I think that just shows the lack of interest in the title (mostly due to a glut in TV product), not the fact that its edited. It's a twenty year old sitcom, how popular is its DVD release going to be? To sell big numbers you need to have a devoted fan base (like Star Trek or many other sci-fi shows have) or you need to be a current show. If you're not one of those things, you don't sell that many copies.

Either way, you can hope that Urban Works will look at it as a sign to use the network versions for the other seasons though.

 

[Allen_Kir]

Fry's will have it for $27.99

And Target will have it for $32.99 W/ a $5 Gift Card.

I DON'T think that will change anyones mind here though.

 

[AnthonyC]

Well, a lot of people would say the same about the release of Survivor (admittedly, it is a current show but a lot of people felt the show wouldn't sell very well when the outcome is known). The first season was in the top 20 DVD sellers at Amazon the week it came out. So I think it says a lot that TCS has such a low ranking.

 

[TravisR]

Doesn't that just back up what I said that there isn't as much interest in an old sitcom? That doesn't mean that The Cosby Show is bad, it just means that people aren't as interetested in it as they were in Survivor since it's a current show.

 

[DanMel]

Hogan's Heroes, Bob Newhart and many other old shows were all in the top 10 on Amazon during their respective release week. So I don't buy these recent remarks. The Cosby show is NOT ranked higher because it is in fact edited. Just look at the number of people on this thread alone that stated they cancelled their pre-orders for the show. Old shows are in fact just as popular if not more so in sales as all this garbage that is on TV now.

There are many of my favorite shows that I will not buy under any circumstance because they are edited or are missing shows. The Beverly Hillbillies is ranked right now at 7,205 on Amazon. I can garantee that it is not because their is a lack of interest in this older show. The reason I will not touch that release with a 10 foot pole is in fact they are not releasing the complete season and are leaving off the last 10 episodes. I don't buy any shows that are edited in any way period regardless if they are my favorite shows or not.

 

[george kaplan]

The Cosby Show is not ranking low because it's not popular, it's clearly because it's cut. Look at some of the other tv shows it's behind at Amazon right now:

Columbo
Remington Steele
Mary Tyler Moore
Dukes of Hazzard
The Simpsons
The Muppet Show
Seinfeld

All of those old shows are currently in the top 50. There's no reason (except for the cuts), to think that The Cosby Show wouldn't be as popular as Remington Steele and Dukes of Hazzard.

 

[TravisR]

I will say that that is a good point but how many people do you think know about these edits? Most people on message boards like this are aware of the problem but not too many people other than that. I will concede my original point but say that while some online retailers may have their sales slightly affected, I don't think the number of people buying it (especially at B+M stores) will change too dramatically if only due to a lack of knowledge.

 

[NeilO]

Well, everyone who goes to the Amazon site should know. There is a rave review about the show and then 4 in a row 1 star reviews complaining about the cuts.

Unfortunately, it appears there will not be any markings on the physical sets to show that the episodes are cut. So, people doing impulse buys at the B&M stores today won't know what they are getting.

Neil

 

[Pavan_P]

For August 2, everyone who was planning on buying Cosby Show, buy Hearts Afire instead. That'll show UrbanWorks.

 

[Jonny P]

Does this...by chance...have anything to do with "music rights"...

By that I mean, was the music in the "syndicated" versions cleared for sale on video in future releases?

I recall owning two of the "Miami Vice" two hour eps (pilot and Prodigal Son) on VHS with the original music, but in order to release them on DVD, they had to go back and "again" secure the music rights for release on disc.

I may be totally wrong (and I know you people will tell me if I am), but Cosby used a lot of music during the run of the series.

When the shows were prepared for syndication, I am wondering if the "music rights" were already cleared on "those" versions for future video releases (as some line item in a long legal agreement) so it made it more "feasible" for UrbanWorks and Carsey-Werner to release those prints instead.

I would imagine that they'd want to sell the originals if they could. I don't think this is some vast conspiracy here.

 

[ElijahS]

The lack of sales at Amazon may also have to do with the fact that it's coming from a bottom-tier distributor who seems to have done all of its promotion in the last week or less (I saw the first TV ad on Nick at Nite around 7:AM today).

 

[Jonny P]

It is currently sitting at #50 on the Amazon.com DVD sales charts.

 

[Jay_B!]

you're kidding, right? Dukes are HUGE right now.

 

[Allen_Kir]

It is #51 in ALL DVDs

AND #27 in TV DVDs