An open letter to Sony

Jay_B! · 03-29-2008, 06:28 PM

I'm actually thinking of starting a petition to send to Sony, do you think it would be a good idea?

This is something along the lines

"Dear Sony Entertainment

Your company has one of the most impressive vaults for classic television. From the 50's through the 90's, you have hundreds, if not thousands of beloved television series gathering dust.

We are aware that you are the prime supporter of BluRay, but is it fair that we as TV-DVD consumers, have to suffer the most?

We are aware of the great shows you have completed over time, such as Good Times, Seinfeld, Sanford And Son, Soap, What's Happening, King Of Queens just to name a few. But for every King Of Queens, there are nine All In The Family's or The Jeffersons' that are sitting in DVD release limbo with no hints of a future release because the TV-DVD department has become marginalized and a far lesser priority than in 2005.

We also do not like the Minisode phenomenon you're trying to turn our old sitcom favorites into. Instead of releasing Facts Of Life episodes as bonus minisodes on DVD sets, how about releasing seasons 4-9?

Speaking of Facts Of Life, and Maude, and Diff'rent Strokes, and One Day At A Time... what is with your YouTube phobia? You are aware these shows still have fans, right? So what if Facts or Maude fans who are sick of waiting for another season announcement goes to YouTube to watch an episode that you have no intention of making for sale? Depriving fans of shows they want to see that simply cannot compete with Seinfeld in the sales department only drives fans to the tape trading market, and while you hate that concept, can you seriously blame fans who just want to watch an old sitcom again that you're not releasing and nobody is airing in reruns?

Speaking of Seinfeld, that show is a one of a kind success. You cannot seriously expect any other show in your vault to sell like that, so why penalize shows for only selling a fraction of it? Something like Silver Spoons or One Day At A Time doesn't even air in syndication anymore, while Seinfeld airs eight times a day in some markets. How can you expect those shows to sell Seinfeld numbers when Seinfeld has the exposure one hundred fold? Warner Bros. is just as guilty with punishing shows that aren't Friends. Shows like Seinfeld and Friends are one in a catalog, they're the exceptions, not the norm.

Please Sony, listen to the consumers. You have the rights to one of the best television vaults around, and the fans just want more. Come on, finish up The Jeffersons, All In The Family, Married With Children, Charlie's Angels and the sort... give us more Facts Of Life, Diff'rent Strokes and Mad About You... give a second chance to Maude, 227, One Day At A Time, Larry Sanders Show, Mary Hartman Mary Hartman and countless others.

Signed,
your consumers"

good?

bmasters9 · 03-29-2008, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay_B!

I'm actually thinking of starting a petition to send to Sony, do you think it would be a good idea?

This is something along the lines

"Dear Sony Entertainment

Your company has one of the most impressive vaults for classic television. From the 50's through the 90's, you have hundreds, if not thousands of beloved television series gathering dust.

We are aware that you are the prime supporter of BluRay, but is it fair that we as TV-DVD consumers, have to suffer the most?

We are aware of the great shows you have completed over time, such as Good Times, Seinfeld, Sanford And Son, Soap, What's Happening, King Of Queens just to name a few. But for every King Of Queens, there are nine All In The Family's or The Jeffersons' that are sitting in DVD release limbo with no hints of a future release because the TV-DVD department has become marginalized and a far lesser priority than in 2005.

We also do not like the Minisode phenomenon you're trying to turn our old sitcom favorites into. Instead of releasing Facts Of Life episodes as bonus minisodes on DVD sets, how about releasing seasons 4-9?

Speaking of Facts Of Life, and Maude, and Diff'rent Strokes, and One Day At A Time... what is with your YouTube phobia? You are aware these shows still have fans, right? So what if Facts or Maude fans who are sick of waiting for another season announcement goes to YouTube to watch an episode that you have no intention of making for sale? Depriving fans of shows they want to see that simply cannot compete with Seinfeld in the sales department only drives fans to the tape trading market, and while you hate that concept, can you seriously blame fans who just want to watch an old sitcom again that you're not releasing and nobody is airing in reruns?

Speaking of Seinfeld, that show is a one of a kind success. You cannot seriously expect any other show in your vault to sell like that, so why penalize shows for only selling a fraction of it? Something like Silver Spoons or One Day At A Time doesn't even air in syndication anymore, while Seinfeld airs eight times a day in some markets. How can you expect those shows to sell Seinfeld numbers when Seinfeld has the exposure one hundred fold? Warner Bros. is just as guilty with punishing shows that aren't Friends. Shows like Seinfeld and Friends are one in a catalog, they're the exceptions, not the norm.

Please Sony, listen to the consumers. You have the rights to one of the best television vaults around, and the fans just want more. Come on, finish up The Jeffersons, All In The Family, Married With Children, Charlie's Angels and the sort... give us more Facts Of Life, Diff'rent Strokes and Mad About You... give a second chance to Maude, 227, One Day At A Time, Larry Sanders Show, Mary Hartman Mary Hartman and countless others.

Signed,
your consumers"

good?

Excellent-- no doubt about it, right on the bullseye!!!

AnthonyC · 03-29-2008, 06:47 PM

My one suggestion would be to make the phrasing less accusatory ("what is with your YouTube phobia?" "You cannot seriously expect any other show in your vault to sell like that, so why penalize shows for only selling a fraction of it?"). But the message is something that I think everyone here can agree with.

After delaying it for several weeks, I finally finished off Not Just the Best of The Larry Sanders Show last night. I'd bought the first season as a blind buy and was incredibly impressed, and from the best-of, it appears that the series only got better with age. I really, really want to see it in its entirety.

Jay_B! · 03-29-2008, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnthonyC

My one suggestion would be to make the phrasing less accusatory ("what is with your YouTube phobia?" "You cannot seriously expect any other show in your vault to sell like that, so why penalize shows for only selling a fraction of it?"). But the message is something that I think everyone here can agree with.

After delaying it for several weeks, I finally finished off Not Just the Best of The Larry Sanders Show last night. I'd bought the first season as a blind buy and was incredibly impressed, and from the best-of, it appears that the series only got better with age. I really, really want to see it in its entirety.

well, maybe "YouTube phobia" isn't the best way to put it, but Sony has removed countless episodes of Maude, Facts and Strokes from the site. I know maybe it's "rights" issues, but considering Sony is showing no intention on releasing future seasons of any of those shows, what is it hurting? You don't see people watching Seinfeld episodes on YouTube, because the fans can buy the entire series of that show, and it's still in reruns daily.

I used to be against tape trading (and I still don't agree with it in terms of material that is commercially available), but I have to admit even I've become guilty of it because I've given up waiting on certain shows. Sony and Warner are two prime companies that are driving consumers to the tape trading market (even tho it's DVD trading now) because of shows we love but they're not making available for us. If Sony announced Facts Of Life season 4, I would buy it the day it comes out, but until then, I'll settle for second/third generation USA Network recordings from a decade ago because it's better than nothing.

MatthewA · 03-29-2008, 08:14 PM

You can edit together the USA and N@N versions of The Facts of Life to get almost complete versions. But the color would be widely off. On USA it looked pale and washed out. N@N must have gotten uncut versions from which to make their own cuts, and they looked far superior.

Adding insult to injury, hulu.com's page on FOL has only minisodes of George Clooney episodes. Columbia must have had a falling out with someone high up at Embassy when Coke bought that company from Norman Lear.

Speaking of Hulu, I saw that Sony has Season 3 of Archie Bunker's Place (which, if they waited to finish All in the Family to start on, would never come out). Some episodes actually run over 27 minutes, while the "Gloria Comes Home" hourlong show is presented as a syndicated two-parter, with the two parts timing out at 22 minutes each. They were getting better about the cutting thing, even presenting a 28 minute pilot on Silver Spoons. But they never addressed the slip-ups on various shows.

And then there's the logo thing. This BS dates back to the Coca-Cola era but it's more annoying now. With few exceptions, the era-appropriate Screen Gems, Columbia, Embassy, and TriStar logos have been covered up with the overexposed Sony Pictures TV logo. If they could leave Screen Gems' S From Hell on TV Land's prints of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, would it kill them to leave it on the DVDs? Can't they do what they did on 227 and Silver Spoons: put the new logo AFTER the old one, not INSTEAD of it?

They're now offering complete series sets of Soap and What's Happening. The former I will buy because between that and the Columbia House tapes I can get the truly complete series. I already bought the season sets of What's Happening and will not buy the complete series set unless the missing footage is restored (i.e. the recap of the Doobie Brothers episode and the missing tag scenes on some season 3 episodes). This is a transparent attempt to clear out inventory. No attempt to add extras on either. For What's Happening they missed the chance to interview half the cast, but there's another half still alive, probably with stories to tell. For Soap, Katherine Helmond, Robert Mandan and Robert Guillaume are getting up there in years too. And what about asking Billy Crystal about what was like playing a gay character 30 years ago, and his perspective now that gay characters are fairly commonplace on TV?

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TravisR · 03-29-2008, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay B!

Speaking of Seinfeld, that show is a one of a kind success. You cannot seriously expect any other show in your vault to sell like that, so why penalize shows for only selling a fraction of it?... How can you expect those shows to sell Seinfeld numbers when Seinfeld has the exposure one hundred fold?

I know that people say that all the time (so much that people have started to accept it as fact) but how do you know that it's true? I'm not asking to be antagonistic- I'm asking because if someone at Sony with actual knowledge of sales expectations read that and knew that you were way off, it would weaken your letter/petition.

Jay_B! · 03-29-2008, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TravisR

I know that people say that all the time (so much that people have started to accept it as fact) but how do you know that it's true? I'm not asking to be antagonistic- I'm asking because if someone at Sony with actual knowledge of sales expectations read that and knew that you were way off, it would weaken your letter/petition.

I remember that article from 2005-2006 that bluntly stated that for every 100 Seinfeld sets sold, only 8 Who's The Boss sets would be sold, therefore WTB got abandoned for performing that way, when I think considering how much more popular Seinfeld is and how much more often Seinfeld airs in syndication that for WTB to sell 8% of it is fairly respectable, because it's probably only about 8% as popular. But yet we've never seen another WTB set because it's sales are so pale next to the blockbuster Seinfeld numbers.

Mark Talmadge · 03-30-2008, 04:47 AM

You honestly think that your open letter is going to sway them? If Sony releases a Season 1 set and it doesn't sell well, they are NOT going to release further seasons.

Maude, Archie Bunker's Place and most of the others you listed had done poor in sales and it's douobtful further seasons will ever be released. While they may be at some future point down the line.

As far as Sony's production line goes for television shows releases, it's no different than Fox Home Video. Sony Home Video has a 9-Month gap between releases of a television show. Fox Home Video has a 6-Month gap between their television show season releases.

Other studios have a 4-Month gap between releases. Get over it. Studios are motivated by profits. If they release a new television series on DVD and if that release doesn't sell, they are not going to release any further sets.

COmpanies don't usually follow the business model of selling a product when it's obviously not making money. WKRP has also fallen into this rut as I suspect other shows have from other studios.

bmasters9 · 03-30-2008, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay_B!

You don't see people watching Seinfeld episodes on YouTube, because the fans can buy the entire series of that show, and it's still in reruns daily.

Why, like "Friends," is it still in reruns when it's available on DVD? I would think that if "Seinfeld" or "Friends" fans had the entire package of either of those series on DVD, they wouldn't want to keep seeing the same episodes in possibly edited or commercial-filled reruns on satellite or cable. Now that I have the first two seasons' worth of "Lucy" on DVD, I think it'd be kind of awkward to see them on TV Land (that doesn't apply, yet, to the rest of the series).