What you you think will happen next with the Saturday Night Live season sets? (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Radke]

Yeah, I read it yesterday. I'm also very disappointed, but honestly not surprised. I guess it was wishful thinking to believe that while collecting the first five sets, we'd have the chance to own complete seasons of our favorite eras down the road. As much as I enjoy seasons 1 to 5, it is definitely not my favorite era of the show. After all, I was born in '77. I became hooked on the show around 1990 and really would've loved the opportunity to own those seasons.....and of course everything in between. As it states in the article, we should keep our fingers crossed with the hopes that the release of future seasons will be re-evaluated and reconsidered for release once the economy improves. I guess that's just wishful thinking yet again.......

 

[DeWilson]

All this proves the only seasons they care about to present full-as-aired (more or less) are the first 5.

It's all BS - they spend the money to clear the first 5 Seasons / 100+ episodes, and NOW say the later seasons are cost-prohibitive???

SNL was as big,if not bigger in some of the later seasons than in those first 5 years.

The "best of" shows allow them to use "dress rehearsal" versions if Lorne and the talent prefer those versions to the live ones.

 

[David Rain]

* sigh *

 

[BrianJau]

This is probably just a convenient way to get around the problem of Seasons 6, 7, 8, 9, etc. and how they undoubtedly probably wouldn't sell that well.
I'm sure there was probably a big drop-off in sales with each successive season of the first five seasons (I haven't even gotten around to buying Season 5 yet), and I just can't see them ever giving Season 6 the expensive gift box presentation that the first 5 seasons received.

"The Best of '09-'10" was at least a step in the right direction, although it's weird that '06-'07 and '09-'10 got this treatment and '08-'09 (which was the election year with all the Palin sketches, and one of their most widely praised seasons in years) didn't. It's not unusual that '07-'08 didn't get a "best of", since that season was shortened by the writer's strike and only consisted of 12 episodes.

This situation has been discussed to death on the SNL message boards by the way, so if you can't find information about it you're not looking very hard.

 

[Corey3rd]

the first 5 seasons are all that I care about collecting. the other seasons would be ok to watch on Hulu. Anyone really wanting to pay top dollar to see the episode with Deion Sanders as star and musical guest? There's a lot of people whose careers look better with just highlights.

Originally Posted by DeWilson
All this proves the only seasons they care about to present full-as-aired (more or less) are the first 5.

It's all BS - they spend the money to clear the first 5 Seasons / 100+ episodes, and NOW say the later seasons are cost-prohibitive???

SNL was as big,if not bigger in some of the later seasons than in those first 5 years.

The "best of" shows allow them to use "dress rehearsal" versions if Lorne and the talent prefer those versions to the live ones.

 

[Stephen Wight]

I just noticed that Shrek Forver After is going to be released on Dec 7,which is,presumably,when the next set of Saturday Night Live would have been released(the first five sets have all been released on the first Tuesday in December). Doesn't that star the same Eddie Murphy who was in seasons 6-9 of SNL? Why wouldn't they release further seasons to capitalize on Eddie's success in the Shrek films? In Eddie's last two seasons,on the show,Julia Louis Dreyfus was a cast member. Considering how she wen't on to costar in one of the most popular sitcoms,in televison history,wouldn't they want to release her seasons to capitalized on her fame? And what about season 10,with Billy Crystal and Martin Short? I think you get the idea. I point this out because it seems to be over the head of the market department(if you can even call them that) of Broadway Video,or Universal. Or even Lorne Michaels,himself.

 

[Mike*SC]

I can't say this is surprising, and I hardly believe that these would be immensely popular and Universal is just too clueless to realize it. Yes, Eddie Murphy is popular in "Shrek" (less so now than a few years ago), but does this mean "Imagine That" and "Meet Dave" were also good sellers? Nope. Did Julia Louis-Dreyfus's success on "Seinfeld" mean that people are demanding season set boxes of "Watching Ellie"? No way. Much as I love Martin Short, he hasn't exactly burned up the box office or the ratings for many years. And Billy Crystal hasn't been in a movie in eight years -- his name is no guarantee of sales.

I can't imagine they could release 35 (and counting) multi-disc sets. Even if they released four sets a year (which would be suicidal), it would be the year 2020 before they caught up to the present (assuming the show was still running then). At a rate of one a year, this current season would come out in 2040!

I was excited by the first set, finally got through the second, but haven't watched the third yet (I own it) or bought the fourth or fifth. Not enough time in my life. I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that way.

 

[TonyD]

So what is the news?
I see links but no one is saying what the links are reporting?

Doesn't anyone want to post the actual info here?

 

[David Rain]

If they would stop showing the same damned shows in syndie and let us see the 80's & 90's eps again that would at least be a comfort.

 

[Stephen Wight]

Originally Posted by Mike*SC
I can't say this is surprising, and I hardly believe that these would be immensely popular and Universal is just too clueless to realize it. Yes, Eddie Murphy is popular in "Shrek" (less so now than a few years ago), but does this mean "Imagine That" and "Meet Dave" were also good sellers? Nope. Did Julia Louis-Dreyfus's success on "Seinfeld" mean that people are demanding season set boxes of "Watching Ellie"? No way. Much as I love Martin Short, he hasn't exactly burned up the box office or the ratings for many years. And Billy Crystal hasn't been in a movie in eight years -- his name is no guarantee of sales.

I can't imagine they could release 35 (and counting) multi-disc sets. Even if they released four sets a year (which would be suicidal), it would be the year 2020 before they caught up to the present (assuming the show was still running then). At a rate of one a year, this current season would come out in 2040!

I was excited by the first set, finally got through the second, but haven't watched the third yet (I own it) or bought the fourth or fifth. Not enough time in my life. I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that way.

People may not be demanding season sets of Watching Ellie,but don't you think the fact that Julia Louis-Dreyfus was on Seinfeld had something to do with Warner Bros releasing The New Adventures of Old Christine? Or is it that good,and popular,of a show that they would have released it anyway? As for Billy Crystal, it doesn't matter how long he's been in a movie. Sony didn't care when they released Soap on DVD,and featured his face on the front of every cover. People never bought the Soap DVDs for names like Robert Mandan,Ted Wass,Jennifer Salt,et al. The makers of Make 'Em Laugh didn't care when they go him to host their documentary.You (and Universal) may not find Louis-Dreyfus and Crystal very marketable,but,obviously,a lot of other people do.

 

[Mike*SC]

Originally Posted by Stephen Wight
People may not be demanding season sets of Watching Ellie,but don't you think the fact that Julia Louis-Dreyfus was on Seinfeld had something to do with Warner Bros releasing The New Adventures of Old Christine? Or is it that good,and popular,of a show that they would have released it anyway?

With respect, I'm not sure of your point, Stephen. The popularity of Louis-Dreyfus on "Seinfeld" was one of the reasons "Old Christine" existed on television at all (though it was not conceived for her, it was certainly a selling point). The show was a marginal ratings success for a while, though no, I didn't think it was very good (just my opinion). Still, Warner Bros. pushes most of their current shows on DVD (okay, you won't see "Hank," but even "The Middle" is out on DVD, and it gets terrible ratings). And "Old Christine" is being issued now only on DVD-R on-demand, so clearly it wasn't exactly a hot seller, "Seinfeld" connection or not. So to answer your question, Louis-Dreyfus's star power in "Christine" helped get the show picked up, which resulted in its running for several seasons, which resulted in its being on DVD. But had the show starred Stephanie Powers as Christine and somehow run the same five seasons, yes, I believe Warner Bros. would have released the DVDs all the same.

There's no question that star power can help make entertainment of all sorts (movies, television, theater) more successful. But if star power alone were a guarantee of success, "The Love Guru," "Imagine That," and "Land of the Lost" would have been huge successes with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and WIll Ferrell starring in them, respectively. In fact, these were three of the biggest flops of the past few years, despite the presence of SNL superstar alums.

My point is only that we are not the only people who realize that Julia Louis-Dreyfus was on both SNL and "Seinfeld." The people at NBC-Universal Home Video know this, too. They also know that "Seinfeld" was a huge hit. And that Eddie Murphy was "Beverly Hills Cop." And that Billy Crystal was a City Slicker. They also know something we don't: The sales figures for SNL seasons 1-5. These sets are expensive to produce, and I see no reason to believe that sketch shows full of decades old no-longer-topical humor (Walter Mondale jokes, anybody?) would be strong sellers. Yes, all shows date, but even if Archie Bunker's references aren't exactly up-to-date, his character is as fresh today as it was in the '70s, and the show coasts along on the relationships. SNL doesn't have this advantage.

Can I guarantee SNL '82 would sell poorly? No, of course not. But I don't buy at all the argument that NBC-U is sitting on a gold mine, and they're too stupid to realize it.

 

[David Bixenspan]

New SNL content finally hit Netflix's streaming service this week.

The good news:

There's footage from every episode of Seasons 6-12 to compliment the complete Seasons 1-5.

You can see Charles Rocket cursing and Laurie Metcalf as a featured player.

The bad news:
No full episodes or even full episodes aside from musical guests. They look to range from 19-50 minutes each. Even worse, there's no rhyme or reason to the cuts. From what I've checked out so far, the Hulk Hogan/Mr. T episode is missing Fernando's Hideaway and the Malcom Jamal Warner episode is missing The Crosby Show. The S11 opener is missing the cold open with the cast getting drug tests, but that's not a surprise. Still, in the handful of episodes I've looked at so far, the best sketch in 2 of them (one of which was a highlight reel pick for years) is missing.

It's better than nothing, but the haphazard cuts are awful.

 

[James_Garner]

Actually, the omission of S11's drug test is very suprising to me, considering Charles Rocket's infamous F-bomb and the very real news bulletin in season 7 episode 8 of Russia invading Poland (occuring at 30:20 in netflix's version) returning to the show in mid-sketch (watch a dead-serious Bill Murray at the show's end announcing the event to the stunned studio audience, who thought it was one of Murray's jokes) were both untouched in the streaming versions

 

[David Bixenspan]

Well, the F-bomb is pretty nothing in 2010 (especially on a pay service requiring a credit card vs network TV), while the drug test was dropped for being in bad taste.

It's interesting that they're using the live versions for some of these.

 

[James_Garner]

Originally Posted by David Bixenspan
Well, the F-bomb is pretty nothing in 2010 (especially on a pay service requiring a credit card vs network TV), while the drug test was dropped for being in bad taste.

well, the drug test sketch is certainly not in any worse taste than any of the sketches in the notorious 6th season; besides, "SNL" was never the paragon of good taste, anyway.

 

[David Bixenspan]

Yeah, but:

1. S11 is Lorne.
2. It's in worst taste now since more cast members have died, even if most of the deaths weren't drug related.

 

[Stephen Wight]

I,recently,started re-watching my SNL dvds and am really jonesing for further seasons. What are the chances a season set will be released later this year?

 

[Andrew Radke]

I'd love nothing more than to see future sets released, but sadly I'm not holding my breath. It would be great if someone could prove me wrong though!

 

[moviebuff75]

I've just resigned myself to the fact that I own the original cast seasons and call it a day. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Stephen Wight]

With the release of Fridays,hopefully,the folks at Broadway/Universal will see that there's a demand for sketch comedy shows from the early '80s era.