The Warner Chat 5/7: Official Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[DeWilson]

I'm all for more 1970's TV Movies from the Thriller - Horror - Scifi - Adventure genres! For instance, WHV could do a 3- film set with the Gene Roddenberry pilots "Genisis II","Planet Earth" and "Strange New World"

Why didn't WHV release the Cathy Lee Crosby "Wonder Woman" TV Pilot? They put it up on AOL's intoTV.

When it comes to 1970's TV Movies, the Spelling Library is still the largest - CBS/Paramount Home Video could do a whole line with just those!

 

[tjguitar85]

For them to release stuff that they think has a high probability of tanking is very, very bad business.


It's the whole catch 22 , I"m not gonna buy this because they didn't release subsequent seasons"....and then the studio says "I'm not gonna release this because you didn't buy the previous seasons".


What i don't get is why Universal is more willing to farm out TV shows (Hercules, Xena) to Anchor Bay, for example.

 

[Bryan^H]

They can learn something from Universal.
Season 1 of Airwolf sold poorly, and they continued to release seasons 2, and 3.
If you give up after the first season release, why even bother to release it at all.

"No plans" = not cool.

 

[ScottR]

When WB gets around to releasing HD DVD's and Wonder Woman, they should include both versions of Lynda Carter's pilot...The New, Original Wonder Woman was originally played straight, then re-cut when it was re-aired. Plus Seasons 2 and 3 have messed up opening credits all over the place, and Season 3 has a cut episode (The Deadly Dolphin.) This is why I don't like a show being rushed into release after the first season..there tends to be more problems.

 

[Bob Hug]

Denny, you can add the classic "The Outer Limits" to the list of MGM releases and season 2 of "The Rat Patrol" is coming, completing that series and there's little doubt in my mind that they'll finish "The Addams Family." But the series that I'd really love to see that was produced under the United Artists banner was "Stoney Burke," an early 1960s one-season drama produced by Leslie Stevens' Daystar Productions, the same folks behind the original "The Outer Limits." The only hope that I have on this one is that Jack Lord was the star of the series and with the huge success of season 1 of "Hawaii Five-0" and season 2 on its way, maybe someone would revisit this series . . . . . but, frankly, I'm not holding my breath. I have a single episode of this series in my collection and it's an underrated classic, really a bit ahead of its time.

 

[Charles Ellis]

Gary, what on earth are you drinking? Praising Fox for its TV-on-DVD releases? Come on, at least Warner has been far more willing to release classics from its TV vault than FOX!!! OK- where's

Dobie Gillis
Peyton Place
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
Room 222
Nanny & The Professor
Judd: for The Defense
Julia
Bracken's World
Adventures In Paradise
Lancer
Bus Stop
The Green Hornet
Twelve O'Clock High
James At 15
The Monroes -and that's just the 1950s-70s shows, not mentioning the Four-Star and MTM holdings!

How can you rate this claptrap operation as second-best after Paramount? Gimme a break! FOX would rather keep repackaging X-Files and Buffy sets than go for the real treasures in its vaults! And I won't even discuss the whole Batman situation between them and Warner! Think again, Gary- Warner is FAR better than FOX in the TV-on-DVD field!!!!

 

[Gary OS]

Charles, maybe I'm just forgetting some of WB's releases. Name some of their "classic" releases for me (other than the HB animation). I'm being serious too, because I can't think of very much. And yea, FOX still has a ton of great shows that they need to release (and probably never will). Still, they've given me the great IA shows that I loved so much as a kid, and they've at least started BIG VALLEY. Are they "Buffy" and "X-Files" crazy? Of course. But at least they've tapped a few oldies. I swear I can't think of much of anything from the 50's or 60's that WB has released. CHEYENNE and GILLIGAN are the only two non-animation series I can think of that have had full season releases. Are there any others?

Gary "look, FOX got the #2 slot in my personal list by default more than anything else - Paramount is really the only one of the studios that gets any strong praise from me at this point because all the others are lagging behind" O.

P.S. By the way, Charles. What studio would you rate as second to Paramount?

 

[Charles Ellis]

I would definitely name Warner Bros. as #2. They have tested the waters with some titles thru its TV Favorites line, and some actually have led to season releases (Drew Carey, Kotter, Cheyenne and Night Court). They have released more titles than FOX and my only gripe is that they do tend to be VERY slow in deciding whether to continue a title after a season or two. On the other hand, they've had great success with complete vintage releases of Gilligan and The Adventures of Superman, among others, while doing long-distance with 80s hits like Dallas and Full House.

On the other hand, it took FOX years to put out the second year of Mary Tyler Moore, and it dropped Hill Street and NYPD Blue after a few seasons each. And STILL no word on the rest of Malcolm In The Middle!!!!

 

[Gary OS]

Okay, I forgot about THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, and that was a great release for WB. Like I said above, at this point it's Paramount as the undisputed #1 and then everyone else falls in line. I guess I'd bump WB up to #2 based on their animation and the SUPERMAN releases, but it's not like they are overwhelming me with their devotion to classic TVonDVD. It's just that their recent chat did hold out much hope for their b&w catalog. And their TV Favorite releases aren't cutting it either. And I'm not thinking about 70's or 80's releases when I talk about "classics." I'm thinking specifically of shows done in the 50's or 60's in this particular discussion. And on that front, you have to admit that WB is pretty sad. Not that Fox is any better, but I'd put them pretty close together. There's certainly no way WB wins by a landslide over Fox if you look strictly at 50's and 60's releases. But the Superman releases and the classic HB releases do merit some points, so my updated list would look like this:

1) Paramount - by a long, long shot and the only one that's not allergic to b&w
2) WB - by a hair over Fox
3) Fox
4) Universal
5) MGM
6) Sony

I'd put these 6 studios into three distinct groups. First, Paramount is by itself as the King of TVonDVD. They are the only studio that has proven that they'll dip deep into the 50's and 60's with their releases. The next tier would have to include WB & Fox. Neither are doing much, but at least they've released a few series and shown they aren't utterly scared to release something that's not in color. And then Uni, MGM, and Sony fall into the last category. Universal is kinda stuck in the cracks. They could jump up into the second tier in my list if they'd get off their butt and keep releasing LEAVE IT TO BEAVER. That would pull them up to even with WB and Fox, and might even jump them to #2 in my book. MGM, as Bob reminded me, has a few good mid-60's releases, so they are actually not that far from being on the border with Universal. Sony, on the other hand, seems to be the worst of the worst when it comes to anything that is in b&w. They have so many wonderful shows that they obviously aren't going to do anything with that I have to rank them dead last even though I enjoy HAZEL, BEWITCHED, and IDOJ.

Gary "I don't think I'm missing any other major players" O.

 

[Bob Hug]

In terms of vintage, pre-1970s TV-on-DVD, the major studios are really lagging behind Paramount in terms of what they’ve actually released. I’m not ranking the studios here (other than Paramount) and I may be missing a few titles, but here’s my assessment.

Sony

Not bad if you like sitcoms, primarily in color with the likes of Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Hazel, The Flying Nun, and Gidget. But outside of sitcoms, fuggedaboutit! Sony really hasn’t done anything else pre-1970.

Universal

Leave it to Beaver, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Dragnet, Adam-12, The Munsters. Uni has a great catalog, but they have a hard time finishing what they start. Good news is that a part of their vintage catalog (McHale’s Navy, Ironside) is now licensed to Shout! Factory.

MGM

These folks often get overlooked, but despite bizarre changes in distribution, really aren’t bad at all with vintage shows like Mister Ed, Green Acres, The Outer Limits, The Rat Patrol, The Addams Family, and the recent release of Flipper.

Fox

Pretty much limited to the Irwin Allen Sci-Fi series and The Big Valley. But, like Universal, it looks like they may also be going the licensing route with Burke’s Law, Honey West, and Zane Grey Theater with VCI Entertainment.

Warner

Gilligan’s Island, Cheyenne, The Adventures of Superman and F-Troop are pretty much it unless you throw in the 3-episode Maverick single disc release. I thought when they had their "50 years in television" celebration a while back, that they'd really dig deep into their back catalog . . . not much came of it . . . a real disappointment for vintage TV fans and a missed opportunity for Warner, in my opinion.

Paramount

Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Rawhide, I Love Lucy, the original Star Trek, The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible, The Phil Silvers Show, Andy Griffith, Gomer Pyle, Wild, Wild West, The Fugitive, Perry Mason, The Honeymooners, Hawaii Five-0, Hogan's Heroes. ’Nuff said.

 

[Gary OS]

Ah, Bob. Thanks for kind of breaking those down that way. I had forgotten about a few of the MGM titles, just as I had about AoS (shame on me). It really is tough to rank the studios once you move past Paramount. They definitely are the cream of the crop. That's something we all seem to agree on. Therefore I guess there really is only two tiers when it comes down to it - Paramount is in one all by itself and then there's everyone else.

Gary "I still think Sony is the worst in terms of truly vintage b&w shows - they have so many they are sitting on that I have to rank them dead last" O.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

It's the general populace's ignorant atitude toward anything B&W. A friend came over while I was watching McHale's Navy one day and said B&W? Did'nt they have it in Color. Some people are so stupid, if they see it's B&W they turn the channel. So If warner is listening to this segment, forget it. I hate to say to it, being a long good standing member of this forum. But with the attitude's of these studio, my Attitude to Bootlegs are changing.

 

[tjguitar85]

Because fans whine and moan for the first season releases---making the studio think that there is a market--but then nobody buys it until more seasons are out.....

WHV thought nobody would buy Babylon 5, but we proved them otherwise, and now we are getting a new Direct-to-DVD movie.


Money talks and the only way they are going to release X is if a large number of people buy them. I would guess that so many current shows get released because there is no remastering that would need to be done, thus it is cheaper to produce...

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I guess David probably knows firsthand as I suspect (reading between the lines) that BCI probaly tried to get them to licence out Shazam! so it could've gotten released as a companion-piece to Isis (as it should have been to maximise sales).

Am I getting warm?

 

[TheLongshot]

Part of the problem is a lot of times, the first season is either signifigantly different or doesn't contain the "classic" lineup. Fact is, there are a good number of shows which started out on shaky legs before they found themselves.

It is why a lot of us are annoyed at WB for Night Court, because we know that most people didn't become fans because of that first season, but down the road when the cast changed and the writing got sharper. Yet, all we get is that first season (which I bought).

Jason

 

[JoshuaB.]

I'm happy for all the DC-related releases in the future, though I'm disappointed that Superboy didn't sell enough to justify more releases--in that glut of Superman-related DVD releases in November, a forgotten syndicated show from the early 90s got lost in the shuffle.

 

[Jeff-Wooten]

Hmmm, talk about your horror movies. I'm a huge comic-book fan and tv-on-dvd buyer, but even I'm not sure I would've shelled out any dollars for this release. IMO, Cathy Lee Crosby was the biggest miscast of a superhero property. However this pilot probably would've made an interesting curio extra on any one of the Lynda Carter dvd sets. Mmmm, Lynda Carter (drool!) But "Genesis II" and "Planet Earth" would probably make a pretty neat double-feature disc. Those were the ones with John Saxon, right?

Speaking of one bit of good news I gleaned from the chat, it's good to see WE will at least be releasing "Super Powers: Galactic Guardians" sometime THIS year. With their previous schedule of "once-a-year" for the Super Friends line, I was worried I'd have to wait another full year for the possibility of this release (still so much SF in the vault) which is probably my fave incarnation of the SF line.

 

[tjguitar85]

They said in LAST year's chat that Legendary Super Powers Show and Galactic Guardians would be coming out in 2007. Perhaps both it and aquaman will be released at the same time. I hope we see the original filmation batman series released around the time of the next Christian Bale film. More Superfriends (World's Greatst Superfriend would be nice, and would make sense considering these next two will also be 8 episodes sets) would be welcome too.

 

[Jeff-Wooten]

After last summer's Man From U.N.C.L.E. snafu, I highly doubt WB will farm any of their classic shows out to Anchor Bay. Geez, ff WB had said there were no plans for U.N.C.L.E. (after stopping the release), I would've gone ape insane. Oh well, something's supposed to be coming (keeping fingers crossed).

Speaking of farming out, wasn't TV Guide supposed to be releasing season sets of older series like Banacek? Did any of those ever come out? You'd think maybe WB would test farming out some of their older shows that they're sitting on for "financial reasons" (Sunset Strip, Maverick, Hawaiian Eye, etc.) to something like TV Guide's program and see how they do. If they're successful, then put WB could put out a S2 and onward. If it didn't sell, well, they made "some" money out of the loan-out and we fans who did buy the set would at least have one season.

 

[Jeff-Wooten]

Y'know, I'm getting very curious to see the final press release for the ISIS dvd set this July to see which eps will be included. I noticed today the (sweet!) box art says it will be the "Complete Series." Wasn't Captain Marvel/Shazam in a couple of those episodes? Or was Isis on eps of SHAZAM instead?