Carlos Garcia

Will Gumby or Underdog be re-released?

I grew up watching Gumby in the 60s, so the 7 disc boxed set was a real disappointment to me when I found out it did NOT include the original music. Not only that, but I hear the picture looks scratchy and has occassional edit marks. I know the show is over 40 yrs old but come on, they can re-master anything today if they want to. How hard could it have been to reuse the original music too? More and more of these nostaglic sets are being released in versions we don't remember. The "Underdog" DVD set comes to mind. I've read the set doesn't include the entire shows, just continuous episodes of Underdog. Gone are the cliffhanger endings, and the episodes of other shows within "Underdog", like "Tennessee Tuxedo", "Go Go Gophers" and "The World of Commander McBragg". I think it's awful that those in charge today don't think enough of these shows to redistribute them the way they originally aired. Let's face it, it'll be mostly those of us who grew up watching these shows who will buy them. So what's the point of releasing them in a version that we never saw? I'm so disgusted that I just won't bother to buy them until they're done right.

Chris:L

this is the thing about production companies. They want to cut corners, such as the ones you're complaining about, to save money. The replacement of the original music comes down to the music rights factor. The original music could have cost too much, or too much for them to want to fork out.

As much I love Gumby, it wasn't necessarily the biggest hit, so that can factor in. I don't know.

The way I've come to understand it is when it gets down to it, sometimes quality is sacrified in order to cut costs.

That's not to say that quality is in their sights. It would have to be to have a successful selling.

Take a tv show, any tv show, and say that the first season, or a collection of episodes of the show is released. And the quality just isn't so-so. When it hits the streets, soon enough word of mouth will spread that the quality isn't good enough for the consumer to want to buy it. In that respect, the studios are slitting their throat.

But we all know it doesn't matter what the reasons are that the show isn't selling well. It matters how many and how much money they're raking in.

CherylWI

I hope another studio rereleases these classics in all its original glory.

Chris:L

Okay.. I must respond to this by saying... what is another production company going to do that the previous production company hasn't done?

Just because it's a different production company doesn't grant the promise releasing Gumby onto DVD with it's original score.

Carlos Garcia

"Okay.. I must respond to this by saying... what is another production company going to do that the previous production company hasn't done?"

Take the care that the previous company didn't. Find better source prints, perhaps the originals, and in the case of Gumby, hopefully, with original score intact. Maybe restrike some cleaner prints, or even digitally remaster them. In the case of Underdog, find the original complete episodes of the TV show, complete with the episodes of Go Go Gophers, Tennessee Tuxedo, Commander McBragg and all the rest of the shows that aired within the "Underdog" TV show, complete with cliffhangers intact. In other words, maybe if the rights were sold to another company that was willing to take better care in releasing a version of these shows that the public wants to see, then maybe sales would be better in the next DVD version released.

Chris:L

I think all that would make the set cost more.

Carlos Garcia

"I think all that would make the set cost more."

Fine by me, if I want it, I want it done right. I'd pay for it.