Warning: ALF Season 1 cut! - Page 5

I like to thank everyone for this info. I just removed ALF from my DVD Aficionado wishlist. Lion's Gate, you just lost my sale.

Alf was on of my favorite shows from when I was kid. I was about 9 yrs. old when Alf first aired on TV. I was waiting for this show to come on DVD but it's off my wishlist now thansk to Lion's Gate.

And putting the syndicated episodes of ALF on DVD just because their digitalized is complete & utter BS.

Too all studios, get this into your heads. People want TV shows on DVD in ORIGINAL UNCUT FORMAT. It's sicking that Lion's Gate didn't take the time to remaster the uncut episodes of ALF for the season 1 DVD while Shout! Factory puts uncut episodes of Punky Brewster & SCTV on DVD & these 2 companies are both smaller companies.

To everyone, boycott the ALF: Season 1 DVD & if you bought it, (if you can) return it to the store where you bought it. Crap like this can't be tolerated.

I don't like the idea about splitting a season in two... not at all... YOU GRIMY TIGHTWADS!!!

Hey, all you production companies, if you want to make money, real money from tv shows. why don't you release a tv show by the individual episode?

No chance, they're making too much money off of TV on DVD to simply stop doing it within a couple years. The bottom would really, really have to fall out of the market to an extent that has never before been seen in the home video market. Studios are expanding their production of TV on DVD, not pulling it back.

And with expanding it too rapidly, they are stretching their resources thin.

Okay, I'm just thinking of the worst case scenario. I mean, look at how badly TV on DVD already is... edited episodes... crappy quality care given to the sets. And now they're starting to cut seasons in half on DVD... I hope that the trend of cutting seasons in half dies quickly... that's why I posted that sarcastic statement earlier.. I mean, seriously, if production companies are that greedy why don't they start releasing episodes individually... They'd make killer money... 30 bucks for one half hour episode...

What's wrong with cutting shows in half? With all examples I can think of except Sex and the City, thsi was done because a full season would have been expensive. Sex and the City cutting sets in half and trying to charge what they did for full sets before is evil, yes, but I don't see what the problem is with Transformers, Lost in Space, et al.

I am tired of Sex and the City being used as an example of splitiing up sets. This is the way it was aired. Part one ended on September and part two began in January. Because of this I have no problem with them splitting up the release.

I don't like that idea at all. I wouldn't buy Happy Days Season One in two volumes. I hate this idea! I HATE IT! It's another way for production companies to gouge us with prices!

It's unnatural. I don't care if a set costs too much, at least it's intact!!!!!!!!

Is anyone sane enough on this message board to agree with me or am I the only dodo bird left here?

It's funny, because I had asked Lions Gate nearly a week ago for an explanation, and they still haven't provided one to me. I've asked every day since then for an update and have been told that "we're working on it; we're working on it." I specifically told them that I wanted a response for publication, which is what I have attributed to the delay. I would bet that when I finally do hear from them, it will be an official statement that will be provided to everyone--that is, the second reponse you're waiting for, Gord. I would bet that our requests went different routes through the company, and they recently realized that and are trying to reconcile them.

There is precedent for hope in the delay. MGM and Universal did the same when I asked them about the Bergman set and Pillow Talk, respectively, but their long-awaited responses were that they were correcting both DVD projects. I'm not sure about Universal, but I do know for a fact that my badgering MGM caused the company to redo the project.

(On the other hand, Warner and Image also delayed their responses about Kung Fu and Combat!, respectively, and their statements merely confirmed what we already knew--although, unlike Pillow Talk and Bergman, those DVDs' problems resulted from intentional decisions, not mistakes.)

Lost in Space Season One didn't do as well as Fox expected, and from what I could gather reading about it they felt the price they had to charge for a season of hour-long shows was too high.

Season Two is due to be released in two parts, at a price for each that when added together comes out to about what the single season would have run. They want to see if this helps sales. (The way HBO split up seasons on Sex in the City on the other hand was just pure greed.)

If splitting up seasons gets them better numbers, and assures a collector the complete release of the series, I say split 'em up. Besides - it helps me as a consumer to not lay out so much money all at once every new release Tuesday. Not all of us have unlimited budgets.

I agree. It was the same deal with the second season of "The Osbournes". MTV aired the first ten episodes consecutively, took a hiatus (a couple of months I believe) then aired the remaining 10.

As a result, Buena Vista has released both halves separately. I didn't understand it at first until I saw MTV's programming schedule.

...then I guess I'm going to stop buying TV Shows on DVD.

And I don't have an unlimited budget either.

So why don't they just start releasing a TV show by it's individual episode? Why not? Come on, I THINK IT'S A FANTASTIC IDEA.

I never really like it when I post at a forum and then get quoted on another one myself, but since a number of folks here have asked what Paul Fusco thinks of the whole situation...

At the Mobius forum (mhvf.net) someone who says he knows Paul Fusco made a post about the matter. He didn't go into details, but he did say that Fusco is not pleased.

where in the Mobius forum did you find this?

sci-fi horror & fantastic, under the clever topic title 'Melmacian blues'

and


Chris, if you have to buy two seperate volumes that are released on the same date, and you end up paying the exact same amount that you would've for a single, combined volume, you won't do it? I'm not suggesting that studios break down shows into individual episodes (though if each episode was sold for exactly 1/22 (or however many episodes are in a particular season) of the price of a normal full season, then it would still cost me the same and I wouldn't complain) But if it helps the studio sell more units of the set and costs me nothing more, then I say why not do it?

Jimmy!

Why brake them up. I'm deeply offended by this action studios are taking.

First of all. They wouldn't release them on the same date. They'd wait a half a year to separate two volumes of one season.

It would take up more shelf space...

It would be disturbing to me.

And they wouldn't release an episode for only $1.22 more like, $9.00

Here's an exmaple of my thinking.

Say that they release the first season of a show. then they release the second season in two volumes... both volumes add up to the same price as the first season did... guess who's losing money? The production companies y ou know why? Because they went through all that time to create two separate boxes, two separate art covers... two separate... I mean, come on.

Frankly, I'd like to have all episodes of a season in one freichen box.

IT JUST DISTURBS ME!

I personally just like having a season in one complete package simply because it saves shelf space. As for Sex and the City, it still annoys me that they split up the season. If it was cheaper, it may have been more attractive to me as a consumer, but for what they're charging now I'll wait. I don't care that the show went on hiatus for a couple months, it is still the same season, and should have been released in the same fashion as every other season. HBO obviously knew that there wouldn't be many more chances to milk the fans because the show is over.

Andy

Chris, the first mistake your making is to assume that this will become standard proceedure for all TV shows to hit DVD.

I will grant you that if they split up Happy Days in to 2 sets for season 1 that would not make sense, because it was only what 16 episodes?

However, a number of the shows being split like that are shows like Transformers and all its various incarnations. Some of these shows had seasons that ran for 50 or 60 episodes in a season. Even if you pay the same for 2 sets as you would've for one one, you don't really. Paying 100 dollars for a set now, is not the same as paying 50 now and 50 six months from now.

Besides, aside from those cartoons with large seasons, the only shows that are seeing this treatment are hour long shows, I can't think of one sitcom that has been talked about for splitting up this way. Sex and the City and the Osbournes, aired with a gap between them so that's ok if they're released accordingly, but I haven't heard anything about Simpsons season 5 Volume 1, or King of the Hill season 3.5.

As for Sex and the City, my problem with that is not that it was split up in to 2 volumes, my problem is that HBO felt compelled to charge the same amount of money for season 5 (8 episodes) that they did for season 4 (18 episodes) even though there was no difference in the types of supliments or anything else that would've justified me to pay practically the same for either of them. That's why I didn't buy season 5, why I didn't by season 6.1 or whatever they want to call it, I won't buy the next release, and it actually contributed to me selling off the 4 seasons I already had.

On to the original topic of this thread, I guess I'll wait for Lionsgates' official sanitized answer, but if what Michael says is true and in fact Fusco himself is not pleased, that does give me some measure of satisfactioneven if I would have a hard time explaining why it might.

What about Lost in Space Casey... they're releasing Season Two of Lost In Space dividedly.

At the same time, Seinfeld is getting ready to release seasons 1 & 2 packaged together.

You know what? I thought that Warner Brothers owned the rights to ALF... in a Warner Brothers chat not too long ago they said that they had no recent plans for an ALF DVD... so who owns the darn show? Lion's Gate or Warner Brothers?

...and I Love Lucy went from individual discs with four episodes each for the first season to a box set for the second.

Once again, Lost IN Space performed below expectations, so it's this new idea by Fox to split it in 2, and charge the same price, or they just stop with season 1.

I'd rather have 2 half seasons at the same price as a single season, released 2 months apart, than NOTHING at all...

IMDB lists the production company as "Alien Productions, Inc." (assumed to be Paul Fusco and company) and Warner Bros. as the distributor (broadcast).

So why did Lion's Gate release it?

Can we please keep this discussion on topic (Alf Season one Being Cut).

The splitting of sets has nothing to do with Alf and has been discussed in great length here:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...=lost+in+space

I had a brainstorm today re: Paul Fusco's thoughts on the DVD release. As I said in this week's Weekly Roundup thread, he is from the town where I live. So tomorrow, I'll e-mail the TV critic/reporter for the local daily paper. He could probably get Fusco's contact info and contact him about it (especially if Fusco still lives locally, which I doubt). It's another possibility to find out Fusco's opinion on it. I'll let you guys know if/when he gets back to me.

I'd still like to know if Warner Brothers owns ALF, why did Lion's Gate release the show....

Could it be that Warner doesn't own the rights to the show anymore?

This is just a thought. If Warner doesn't own the rights then I (& every other fan of ALF) wants to know who really owns the rights.

Lion's Gate didn't want to spend the money to clean up/digitalize the original broadcast episodes but they are defintely going to lose a good amount of money since the news of ALF episodes being cut is spreading like wildfire thru the Internet.

Lion's Gate, the only way to correct this is to release the original broadcast episodes of ALF onto DVD.