Donna Reed Show Seasons 4-8 Campaign

Jude, I'm sure there are several of us here that would like to see additional seasons of The Donna Reed Show released onto dvd.  Please don't interpret silence to mean "not interested."  In my case I've been very busy recently and haven't had time to post here like I normally do.  That may be the case for other Vintage TV fans as well.

Gary "I'm sure you and I aren't the only ones here at HTF that would like to see this series continue on DVD" O.

I'm on board for more Donna Reed . Not sure what the status is on the show at this point . 

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Originally Posted by Jude86 

Up to 142 people now have joined the page. no one here has any comments about seeing Donna Reed seasons 4 and on?  Esp since season 4 was never syndicated or reran during the Nick at Nite days?

     Not true. All of the episodes were in syndication at one time. It was only in the 80s when stations no longer wanted huge packages of a show that 100 episodes of Donna Reed were dropped from the syndication package.

    As for getting the remaining seasons, yes I would be interested as there will still be gaps even after I transfer the remaining shows from Nick that haven't come out on DVD. By the way, its my understanding that Nick did run SOME 4th season shows and that it was the 6th and 7th season (the 2 Bob Crane years) which were totally taken out of the package.

   I don't believe that getting together a group of a couple of hundred fans is going to influence anything. A couple of hundred thousand maybe. Besides, we don't even know what the reasons are that they stopped after 3 seasons. Maybe there are ownership rights issues that cannot be cleared up? Perhaps one of the ownership parties is either difficult or impossible to deal with?  Unless we know for sure what the issue is, it really is a moot point.
 

I'm eager for more Donna Reed Shows.  They make an interesting contrast to "Father Knows Best" which we are discovering for the first time in many, many decades in this house.  The season one episodes I've watched so far seem like a "Father Knows Best" meets Lucy Ricardo as Donna manages to get herself into a jam and uses her feminine wiles to cleverly get out of it.

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Originally Posted by Gary OS 

Jude, I'm sure there are several of us here that would like to see additional seasons of The Donna Reed Show released onto dvd.  Please don't interpret silence to mean "not interested."  In my case I've been very busy recently and haven't had time to post here like I normally do.  That may be the case for other Vintage TV fans as well.

 

Gary "I'm sure you and I aren't the only ones here at HTF that would like to see this series continue on DVD" O.

I'm also wanting more of this show but I haven't had the time to look into Facebook, or look at petitions.  I admire the effort but I'd have to agree with Neil about the effectiveness unless there were some very large #'s involved with this.  As Neil said, we don't know the status of the rights/clearances of the series.

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Originally Posted by Jeff Willis 

I'm also wanting more of this show but I haven't had the time to look into Facebook, or look at petitions.  I admire the effort but I'd have to agree with Neil about the effectiveness unless there were some very large #'s involved with this.  As Neil said, we don't know the status of the rights/clearances of the series.

Anything that raises awareness of this show is good.  It spreads internet chatter which can only help.
 

I for one am tried of hearing about "The Donna Reed Show." Either release the entire show or burn it!!!!! I mean a person would have to be totally out of their mind to keep 'Posting Information' regarding a TV Show that has a history of having so much 'Bad Luck' when it comes to 'Syndication Packages' and Greedy 'Music Right Issues.' I say, if Actress Donna Reed and her then Husband Tony Owen screwed up their own TV Show with these 'Song Numbers' then who cares what happens to their show in this present time!!! It is ancient history anyway!!!!!  Just throw the 'DUMB SERIES' to the Wolves!!!

Have I 'Psyched' anyone Out Here Yet???!!!!!   GOTCH YEA!!!!!! (Chuckles.) Of course as anyone knows that have seen my previous posts: I am absolutely head over heels in 'Love' with "The Donna Reed Show!!!!!"  And I am so 'Very Sorry' about the delay of this series!!!!!!! But I have no doubt that this series will have continued releases especially seasons 4 & 5 since Donna Reed's Children still have the rights to these episodes. Even though I discovered on a Web Site that Donna Reed and Tony Owen's name have been taken off of the Trust, and now Donna Reed's last husband Grover Asmus has been entrusted to over see the 'Family Trust.' But, Donna Reed's Children still have ownership over "The Donna Reed Show" episodes through the Fifth Season. It is just that each child has been given their very own fair share of episodes from their parent's series. So it is not like all the episodes through the 'Fifth Season' is owned in a conglomerate fashion by all four children, but rather that each child has their very own divided episodes which they separately own, but just not together- through Season Five. And as far as 'Nick at Nite' showing episodes from the 'Fourth Season' regarding "The Donna Reed Show," the only episode from that particular season that I know of that "Nick at Nite" had always shown is entitled, "Mouse at Play" with Guest Stars Cloris Leachman and John Astin. But no other episodes from this 'Fourth Season' of this series had ever aired on "Nick at Nite."

When I saw recently that 'MPI' is releasing the complete short lived series entitled, "The Mothers in Law" which had consisted of something like 56 Episodes, this gave me some more hope that they would be willing to release at least the Fourth and Fifth Season in regards to "The Donna Reed Show." That is if "Shout! Factory" doesn't decide to release them first...  And Donna Reed's TV Series was way more popular than 'The Mothers in Law" series, even though I am thinking of purchasing it myself!!!! 

I applaud your efforts but personally if I was going to clamor for the continuation of an abandoned series, it would be for Make Room for Daddy. That ran 11 seasons of which we got one done right and one in butchered form. To me anyway, a much funnier show.

I'd be content with the Marjorie Lord years.  It is, indeed, a very funny show and seriously overlooked these days.  Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas had a major hand in The Dick Van Dyke Show after all, and Make Room for Daddy has a lot in common with Dick Van Dyke with its New York show business setting.  It also is written on the high level of the Van Dyke show and has a terrific ensemble supporting Danny.

Keeping this on thread, Donna Reed also deserves to be seen.  I haven't seen the Bob Crane seasons since they originally aired back in the sixties!

The goofiest thing about that last season was the fact that they adopted a little girl played by Paul Peterson's sister after she just followed them home one day.  But since she looked exactly like Paul Peterson in drag (almost as much as Max Baer's Jethrine looked like Jethro!) it made me think that Dr. Stone "had some 'splain' to do" as they used to say on another '50s sitcom.

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Originally Posted by Rob_Ray 

The goofiest thing about that last season was the fact that they adopted a little girl played by Paul Peterson's sister after she just followed them home one day.  But since she looked exactly like Paul Peterson in drag (almost as much as Max Baer's Jethrine looked like Jethro!) it made me think that Dr. Stone "had some 'splain' to do" as they used to say on another '50s sitcom.

I didn't think it was goofy at all in regards to the end of the 'Fifth Season' where they introduced the character of 'Trisha' onto the Donna Reed Show Series, since Shelley Fabares was leaving the show as a permanent cast member. I rather enjoyed the episodes from the latter part of the 'Fifth Season' with Patti Petersen, as for example, the episode entitled, "A Way of Her Own" and also the episode entitled, "Three is a Family," as both of these episodes were very cleverly done... I am also 'thrilled' that Patti Petersen Mirkovick has just recently signed on to help the "Facebook Campaign" in order to get studios like "Shout! Factory" or "MPI" interested in releasing more seasons of this Great TV Series!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH-Patti, for your HELP- It is very Greatly Appreciated!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Thanks for your effort, Jude. I love the show as well and hope to see the remaining seasons on dvd sometime soon. I'd buy them in a heartbeat!

Bring back seasons 4-8!

I just ordered season two and three and three did not ship.  The vendor said three was out of stock !!

Maybe that is the end of the series being released with the current vendor ??? I was told that it is back ordered ??

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Originally Posted by Jude86 

Good news! Mary Owen, Donna Reed's daughter has joined the Facebook campaign. She also confirmed that she and her siblings own seasons 4 and 5 and would love to release the DVDs themselves, instead of relying on another distributor.

So who owns the rest of the series? Colpix/Sony?
 

While they own seasons 4 & 5, I wonder if they actually have the original prints to those episodes?

If not, that could seem to be pose a problem unless a company was able to source prints from the collectors market like Timless does so often.

I wonder why they couldn't come to an agreement with Virgil Films and Entertainment? They seemed to have been doing a decent job with the first three seasons. I wonder if it wasn't selling well enough for them so they decided not to continue and even try to negotiate a license for seasons 4 and & 5?

Doesn't it strike anyone a bit odd that rights holders (in this case family members) are using facebook to solicit business advice on how to release product on DVD?  If they are truly that lacking of knowledge then they'd be better off forging a professional relationship with a company that knows what they are doing as opposed to doing some paint by the numbers do it yourself approach.

That's not exactly how it came about.  The topic simply came up, and the family wondered if anyone on the page happened to have any ideas.  I didn't view it as a calculated, deliberate issue of using Facebook to solicit advice. 

My advice to them would be to contact MPI, Infinity and Shout Factory, in that order. Those are the 3 companies that would be most likely to be interested in this type of show.