Warning: ALF Season 1 cut!

Sorry for saying "prints" instead of "tapes." Force of habit from talking about film restoration.

Ultimately I think this is another illustration of how TV shows don't get no respect -- I'm not saying no one would ever release a cut version of a movie (for one thing, for many decades, Hollywood movie studios routinely cut the original negatives of their films and threw out the missing footage). But there's a certain level of respect given to films that TV shows don't get. But then, as I said, films used to get the same kind of treatment, and things changed a little. Maybe things will eventually change for TV shows too, when/if more members of the public come to understand the difference between cut and uncut. Which is to say, the day the public won't buy this kind of thing is the day companies will stop selling it.

I'm really curious to hear more from the Fusco side of things.>>

I had a snail mail addrses for Paul Fusco, and the letter should have been sent out last week, but got delayed. I'll send it out Monday, and with any luck, it states on the site that a reply should be had back within 13 days.

I left my phone nnumber and a link to this thread so hopefully he'll get back to his fan base with this one .

I'd like to know why Fusco let this happen, or does he care if the episodes of his own show are uncut?

I understand where Chris is coming from. These shows are not simple commodities, they represent our collective culture, precious memories from our childhoods, and these companies come and crap all over them with releases like this one, while keeping the originals in a lock-box, stealing in a way what is ours. It's not like you can go and buy a competitor's release of Alf that may cost more, but is complete. They have a monopoly on all these productions, and instead of endeavoring to make them available to the widest possible audience in the most authentic manner, they let them rot in a vault. I have been waiting forever for my third season of Mad About You. This show means so much to me, yet someone made the decision to keep it away from the public's reach. In the ancient Greek world, in the city of Alexandria, every ship was searched for papyrus, and if any work of value or interest was discovered, it was confiscated until a copy could be elaborated, and made available for everyone to consult. Culture is not the property of anyone, it belongs to society at large, to the entire world. These companies have an ethical obligation to release from captivity our collective heritage.

Thank you Juan. I am indebted to you.

The CEOs of this companies do not care about you and I, just about $. They put out ALF thinking they could make a quick buck. I so much want to buy the DVD, but have not due to principle. I feel the stand that has been made against ALF will reward us all in the future with better releases. We should all be proud.

Roman-K hit the nail right on the head. If the CEO's of a company think that a TV show DVD will sell, they will release it, if they think a TV show DVD will not sell, they won't release it.

This is why all ALF fans should not buy this DVD since this will cause Lion's Gate to lose money & they should lose money since they screwed up a good show.

First off, there's something about your statement that you just made that triggers a response from me.

Now, you say that we should boycott the release... but Roman K said that all they care about is money.

But are we really teaching them a lesson by boycotting them? If all they care about is money, the only thing they're going to learn from this is, "well, due to sales of the first season we won't release the second one."

How are we teaching them? I'd like to really know this, because it appears to me they only care about money, but then again Fox did not only care about money they also cared about what the fans wanted. They released The Mary Tyler Moore Show with quite a few extras.

Now I know I said earlier that "most of tv on dvd doesn't have extras." Let me correct that statement by saying the only shows I like, most of them have no extras.

But getting back to boycotting Lion's Gate and "teaching them a lesson" doesn't really make sense if all they care about is making money. Isn't it pointless if we try to teach them a lesson?

The mind reels.

I've been an Alf fan since 1986. It is, without a doubt, my favorite childhood show, and I've been wanting it on DVD since TV on DVD became popular. Like everyone else here, I'm outraged that the set is edited. I knew the set was edited before it was released to the public, as the review on Sitcoms Online had said that the episodes were shorter than expected. I bought it anyway...I couldn't resist. I hope the remaining three seasons are still released...cut or not. I'm not sure what else to say that hasn't already been said. I wish Shout! or WB would have released these Alf DVDs...I'm sure they would've done a much better job.

My local Best Buy and Circuit City were completely sold out of these Alf DVD sets the morning after its release. (judging by the tags on the rack, BB had quite a few copies, too) I had to get my copy at a local mom & pop music shop, and they only had one set left. Alf: Season 1 is also currently on the Top Seller list at Amazon.com.

boycotting a DVD is not enough, it just shows poor sales and future releases will not come out. My point is how the people here have handled the release, by not only refusing to buy it, but letting the company know why they won't buy it. I personally wrote them letting them know I am a fan of ALF, but decided not to purchase the DVD due to thier lack of consideration to us, the consumers. I feel there are two parts to a boycott, not buying and informing the producers why we are not buying. I feel the people here have made a stand that in the long run will result in better quality shows being released. Kudos for not bending over and taking it.

If they already had digital masters of the syndication versions, and the originals couldn't be made to look as good, couldn't they just transfer the missing scenes and cut them back in? Probably would have been cheaper wiht only about 10% of the mastering they would have had to do to transfer the whole series from the old tapes (though there would be extra work cutting them back together) and would have been a much better result that shouldn't have cost a whole lot extra over what they did.

Chris,

I have been very angry at things that have been done by dvd companies, and I have come into the HTF and ranted like a madman in threads. It's cathartic and it helped me feel better. BUT, people are right, it's counterproductive to express yourself that way directly to the companies involved. For them, I always right very lucid, very polite letters that clearly indicate how angry I am, and why, but without ranting or name-calling. That way they know that they have angry, upset customers, but they can't simply say, "oh this is just some raving nutcase".

Just some thoughts.

I am not a nutcase. I just feel that Lion's Gate CHEATED it's customers.

I hate to tell you this, but these shows do not belong to you. I've heard this argument with Star Wars, and why the Original Trilogy should be on DVD. Summing the argument up, it was that the original theatrical versions should be released because a lot of people spent a lot of money going to see those in the theater and George Lucas would be nowhere without them. Translation: Lucas owes us.

Reality is that much like Star Wars we the people do not own Alf. There is no constitutional right to Alf on DVD in any form whatsoever. The creaters of the show provided it for you to watch in the 1980's when it first aired, and you did...and that was the end of that contract. Because you watched it 12 years ago does not mean you are entitled to a DVD release now.

Please don't think that I'm in favor of what Lions Gate has done. I think this sucks, but I'm not going to go and say that they should've done it differently because Alf belongs to the people. The fact is that IMO they should've done it differently, but not because of some grand entitlement we may think we have.

The best way to express you're disappointment is to not buy the set, return it if you've already bought it, and then write a polite letter in the vain that George suggested above.




That's nice, but some of the comments you've made in this thread and what you wrote in some of those emails to Lions Gate...would make it very easy for you to be dismissed as such. Rational people don't suggest that everyone arm themselves because episodes of Alf have been cut.

Saying this is rarely helpful.

I certainly wasn't suggesting that you are, simply that you don't want to give the people you're complaining to the excuse to label (and hence dismiss) you as such.

Try to put yourself on the other side. If you had people trying to convince you that you'd done something wrong (like in this thread ), do you put more stock in those who calmly and politely try to explain to you why it's ineffective, or would you be more convinced by someone who said:


Warning Spoiler! Click to show

Now, you might not change your mind in either case, but which is more likely to get you to admit you were wrong?

I have to admit the polite way would be more comforting... but do you think Lion's Gate has the heart to listen to us.

As I was explained to earlier, the people at Lion's Gate, and many other companies, do not care about what the public wants. They just care about making money.

So, how are we going to persuade a heartless company? With letters? Only a handful of people will write letters to that company. Not enough to take notice of the mistake they made.

All I've ever been saying is that I'm dumbfounded that a company could make such a mistake.

They'll listen to reasonable emails and letters. The best thing to do is to combine a complaint with a way to make money. Here's something you could say:



So my sample email lets them know that the person isn't happy with the set, returned the set (loss of sale, and loss of sales to friends), but is willing to purchase it again if the problems can be fixed. There's no name-calling, ranting or raving, and the point is made. It's effective, and something that studios would listen to. It's hard to do, but it's usually best to try and take emotion out of negative emails.

Hope that helps,
Gord

I think what goes on with a dynamic such as what occurs between Star Wars fans and Lucas is not quite the same as something like Alf. It is similiar in the same way that any product that is offered to consumers is similar.

But with things like Star Wars and other genres (whether it's a movie series, or TV series, or a musical act, etc.) that have a HUGE following, it sometimes can be worse for the fans in some ways. There are a number of problems for hardcore fans of something when that something not only has those hardcore fans, but has a huge amount of "average" fans as well. Simply put, Lucas (in this example) doesn't have to cater to his "hardcore" fans because A) The average fans will just be happy with whatever he puts out, such as the altered/updated Stars Wars DVD's and B) The hardcore fans that aren't as happy with whatever Lucas does are still 99 times out of 100 going to buy whatever he puts out anyway. This happens with other similar projects. Beatles fans didn't want a hits package when they put out that "Beatles 1" CD back in 2000. They wanted more unreleased material on CD or DVD. But most Beatles fans bought the CD (it had remastered sound), and because of the huge amount of "average" fans, "Beatles 1" is on the way to becoming one of the biggest selling albums of all time.

Back to TV on DVD, the problem with ALF is that it doesn't have a HUGE following from both hardcore and average fans (relative to something like "Star Wars"). This unfortunately means that not a huge amount of people will buy it, and/or the sort of novice fan that might remember the show from years ago and might be interested in picking it up when they spot it in the store will do just that; they'll buy it and watch it and probably enjoy it and never know about the syndication cuts. The big question is whether those types of sales will outweigh the backlash among educated fans in the know, some of which aren't buying the DVD set. It would be interesting if there was a way to really find out how many sales the "ALF" DVD has lost. I know some fans have boycotted it on principle while others who were iffy about getting it in the first place have also passed. But I'm also convinced that even some of the fans who are outraged about the cuts are still buying the set. Around $20 for 4 DVD's of a show that is rarely in syndication anymore is difficult for some fans to pass up. I'm still tempted. The main reason I'm waiting is to see if by some freak occurance they actually fix the Season 1 DVD's anytime soon.

Well you might be surprised. I don't know specifically about Lion's Gate, but it's probably a lot like any company. Which is a lot of different people, and the one's making the decisions not always the best informed about the product, and yes, with mostly an eye to the bottom line.

However, in most companies, the upper honchos may think about the bottom line above all else, and they probably spend as much time worrying about how not to lose market share (and how to increase revenues a certain percentage each year) as they do about how to minimize their costs on current product.

If a letter gets to the right person, you'd be surprised what it can do. The trick is bypassing customer service and marketing bozos, and getting it to the proper V.P. or president. If the president of a company can be informed that customers are unhappy, these guys often run scared about what that means. Now, the same guy who early on cut corners figuring no one would care, is equally likely to panic that the product won't make it's IRR (Internal rate of return).

I can't guarantee that it would work, but if you can send a polite, but firmly negative letter high enough up in the company, you can certainly do some good.

I once managed to do a google search for a company that had screwed me over. I'd sent emails and letter complaining to no effect. But having found a financial disclosure form that included the names of the top officers, and looking at the email addresses of the low level people I'd been in correspondence with, I was able to piece together the president and CEO, CFO, etc., email, and sent them an email informing them of the situation and how it wasn't being dealt with satisfactorily.

Just a few days later the same low level schmuck who'd told me that there was absolutely nothing that they could do for me, was back in contact with me offering me a full refund!

So, it can work, but you do need to make sure the contacts are high enough, and communicated with appropriately.

As someone who used to work for a magazine, I can tell you that the editors didn't bother with any letters that bashed them and didn't give a reason. They didn't mind constructive criticism but letters like "This magazine is so stupid, blah blah blah" were trashed.

Saw "ALF" in Best Buy today.

It looked very nice setting there on the shelf.

It was very disappointing that I had to leave it there.

I once had a CD break in half when I was removing it from its case. It was part of a 6-CD set of cantatas by J. S. Bach. I was really upset because the disks where not sold individually at the time, so if I wanted to replace it I would have had to buy the complete set again, which is quite expensive. So I searched on the net for the website of the label, Teldec, and wrote to their generic customer service e-mail. Well, after a couple of weeks and some very friendly e-mails, I received a replacement disk directly from Germany, completely free of charge, and without even having been asked for a proof of purchase or receipt. I buy dozens of classical CDs every year and, guess what, every time I have a choice I pick up a Teldec album. An example for you all of a company which does give a damn about their customers...

Another analogy is Buffy The Vampire Slayer which got terrible ratings on television but does very well on DVD.

As for Columbia, I'm still miffed that they released a syndicated version of one of the episodes on Sanford And Son: Season Two. The network version must exist since the version that runs on TV Land has a scene that was cut from the shorter 21 minute version found on the DVD.

Buffy's ratings weren't exactly terrible. It got 7 seasons somehow. Not as high as CSI, but way better than you'd see on almost any cable show.

Buffy's ratings were low overall, but high among young viewers, and that's what kept it going (because advertisers are very interested in reaching the youth demographic). But even overall, the ratings weren't bad by the standards of the WB or UPN; not great, but not bad.

SASE Letter to Paul Fuscos fan mail address sent. Hopefully we'll get a reply back within a week as I left my # on it..

Has anyone thought about dropping a polite message on Paul Fuscos page at IMDB? You never know, he might be a little vain and check in now and then.

After reading this whole thread from the first message I thought I would share my thoughts inspired by reading the thread. I had purchased the ALF S1 DVD. Almost eight after doing so I heard the news about the syndication cuts and the article we currently see about removing the story for a better explanation. I see that some bit a light has been shed on the issue but no definitive resolution offered to the public as to will Lions Gate correct the set and do it with the uncut eps.

I also like many people was very upset with the news. On 8/22/2004 I emailed Lions Gate with this email. If your not interested in reading my email skip to end for the rest of my thoughts about the set.


I hope this is the correct place to send this. I didn't see any other way to contact those responsible for the ALF season 1 DVD set. As you may have already gotten many emails, I'll try and keep mine short. I watched this show when it originally aired but was never able to see it ever again after due to my cable provider not carrying the channels it syndicated on. So when I first heard it was coming to DVD I was very excited. I purchased the DVD set, but immediately upon returning home I seen many people and places on the internet talking about the huge disappointment of the episodes being syndication versions and other forms of alteration. So I went right back to the store and returned the unopened set with major disappointment that a company would do such a thing. And also seeing a website where they have been asked to pull a news story "Lions Gate has asked that we pull this story for a bit so they can work on getting us a better explanation as to what happened." This leads me to wonder what the old explanation was but also has me wondering why a new explanation hasn't been offered in the past 9 days since the article was posted. I feel it is the responsibility of Lions Gate to correct this an release the DVD set with the uncut episodes as it should have been originally with the same bonus stuff and possibly more as some people seem to be disappointed in the lack of extras. And it being the same retail price as the other (33.99). I hope that Lions Gate will heavily consider rectifying this and carefully make all future releases with uncut episodes.

Thanks you for your time

Jason


I never got a response to it but I figured that with the volume of email they were likely to get I wouldn't get a response. I followed up to this email with a similarly worded email basically I wanted to make sure that the appropriate people go the 1st email. I omitted the information about the same price and I wasn't as strong in some of the words. As I have had more time to think about it.

So I am now thinking.... What if as an alternative, since it has been stated by a few that Lions Gate may not do a full uncut box set due to the cost of remaking it, they were to release a set of DVDs that had the scenes that were cut from the episodes kind of like with the deleted scenes extras done with many movies. I know alot might not like this idea, however I would be willing to buy the existing set of DVDs and pay the little extra for a set that contains the cut scenes. Even though I woulsn't be able to watch the eps in its uncut form on the DVDs in the existing set I wouldn't be completely bummed out if I was able to see the missing parts in a separate DVD. Let me say that I definitely want uncut eps in the 1st place but this could be a happy median between having cut eps vs uncut eps. I buy the shows on DVD for both the nostalgia and to have uncut eps. If i wanted the cut eps I would stick with the syndicated recordings I already have. I have also come up with a little pricing policy I try and follow when buying TV on DVD. However this is only a guideline when it comes to shows that I listed as my extremely desired ones. As I have found that I am willing to pay a little more for them.

Well for now I think this is all I wanted to say I'll post again if I think of anything more. If anyone agrees with me on the compromise to the cut vs uncut eps let me know, perhaps this suggestion could be sent to Lions Gate.

I of course want to thank tvshowsondvd for I wouldn't know about a lot of the stuff I know about tv DVDs without the website.

Why? That's pointless. The scenes would all be out of context.