New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Wildly Popular; Sadly Neglected SITCOMS! - Page 3

post #61 of 77
8/10/11 at 8:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Wight View Post

E/R - This hospital comedy,starring Elliott Gould,only aired for one season(1984-85),but it co-starred Jason Alexander and some guy named George Clooney. Sherman Helmsley guest starred in an episode as George Jefferson,who was one one of the characters uncle.I'm not sure who owns this program,but if I was the head of the studio that did,I'd release it,as well as anything else that Clooney and Alexander did. Even if it was their Burger King commercials.

How is a one-season show "wildly popular"?
Reply
post #62 of 77
8/10/11 at 8:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vnisanian2001 View Post

Well, do you REALLY think Fox, and ONLY Fox is to blame as the reason why we haven't seen more of Peyton Place?

The actual reason is that it didn't sell. Certainly not well enough to justify what I'm sure are the outrageous fees that Fox charges.
Reply
post #63 of 77
8/10/11 at 8:11am
The Ann Sothern Show 93 episodes

Hennesey 96 episodes
Reply
post #64 of 77
8/10/11 at 11:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Wight View Post

... if I was the head of the studio ...,I'd release ... anything else that Clooney and Alexander did. Even if it was their Burger King commercials.

If this were still 1997 I might agree with you (when er and Seinfeld were at the height of popularity), but just having Clooney or Alexander's name on anything in 2011 is hardly a guarantee of a best-seller. The current crop of twenty-somethings probably have likely never seen Seinfeld or er for that matter, certainly not when the shows were first-run, watercooler phenomenons.
Reply
post #65 of 77
8/10/11 at 11:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil Brock View Post


The actual reason is that it didn't sell. Certainly not well enough to justify what I'm sure are the outrageous fees that Fox charges.

On tvshowsondvd.com's what's the hold-up FAQ, it says that the first two home video releases sold well enough that Shout! was interested in continuing.

Does Fox really think it's good business to charge astronomically higher prices just to license more episodes to any company that deals with them, especially when the show is a strong seller, such as VCI's Burke's Law?
Reply
post #66 of 77
8/11/11 at 7:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by vnisanian2001 View Post


Does Fox really think it's good business to charge astronomically higher prices just to license more episodes to any company that deals with them, especially when the show is a strong seller, such as VCI's Burke's Law?

Apparently so. While I cannot reveal the source or the company, one of the independents tried to license out some of the MGM shows which Fox handles. They asked about one of the more popular and longer running Ziv shows and were told the price, which was way out of line. Fox told them, "it'll sell a hundred thousand copies" to which the independent responded, "if it would sell that many, you would put it out yourselves". But that seems to be their mentality, that every show they have is going to sell like its Friends or Seinfeld and that's the type of price they ask.
Reply
post #67 of 77
8/11/11 at 4:17pm
I remember someone online calling Fox "the cheapest place on Earth." I think that's the most accurate description of them. It may explain why they barely syndicate many of their pre-1990s shows, it may explain why the recent DVD releases of the likes of Room 222 and The Paper Chase were from 1'' inch transfers made 30 or so years ago, and yeah, it may explain why their licensing fees are outrageous.

Another thing that has recently been brought to my attention about Fox (not that it means much, just an observation I noticed) is that in the 60+ years they've been in the TV industry, just about all of their shows originated on film. The only videotape-originated shows I can think of are Mr. Belvedere and Small Wonder and those were from the 1980's.
Reply
post #68 of 77
8/11/11 at 5:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vnisanian2001 View Post

I remember someone online calling Fox "the cheapest place on Earth." I think that's the most accurate description of them. It may explain why they barely syndicate many of their pre-1990s shows, it may explain why the recent DVD releases of the likes of Room 222 and The Paper Chase were from 1'' inch transfers made 30 or so years ago, and yeah, it may explain why their licensing fees are outrageous.

Another thing that has recently been brought to my attention about Fox (not that it means much, just an observation I noticed) is that in the 60+ years they've been in the TV industry, just about all of their shows originated on film. The only videotape-originated shows I can think of are Mr. Belvedere and Small Wonder and those were from the 1980's.


Your observation that most of Fox's shows were filmed (rather than videotaped), sort of negates the accusation of Fox being "the cheapest place on Earth", since producing a show on film is more expensive than one on tape.
Reply
post #69 of 77
8/11/11 at 5:27pm
The last paragraph was an unrelated note about the company itself.
Reply
post #70 of 77
8/11/11 at 5:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vnisanian2001 View Post

The last paragraph was an unrelated note about the company itself.

I know. I just thought it was funny to see two different (but ironically related) perspectives in the same post. smile.gif
Reply
post #71 of 77
8/11/11 at 6:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MattHR View Post




Your observation that most of Fox's shows were filmed (rather than videotaped), sort of negates the accusation of Fox being "the cheapest place on Earth", since producing a show on film is more expensive than one on tape.
 


They're among the cheapest when it comes to remastering their filmed TV properties. They only remastered Rhoda, which they didn't even produce, because of the outcry over the Season 1 DVD debacle. Have the negatives of any pre-Simpsons filmed Fox show besides M*A*S*H been taken outside of their cans since 1990?

 

There is a good book about the formation of the Fox network, called Outfoxed, by Alex Ben Block, which describes the state of Fox's TV division at the beginning of the 1980s, and I recall Block saying they were the weakest part of the company in spite of M*A*S*H's success in syndication.

Reply
post #72 of 77
8/11/11 at 7:20pm
They remastered all the Irwin Allen shows (except for Lost in Space) and Dobie Gillis. They were about to bring the latter to DVD upon remastering it, when suddenly, the Max Shulman estate stopped them in their tracks.

But yeah, that's about all the known shows Fox recently remastered besides what Matthew mentioned.
Reply
post #73 of 77
8/12/11 at 8:58am
I know I've said this time and time again, but Mr. Belvedere is the one sitcom I would like to see completed the most.

I may be wrong on this one, but didn't a similar situation happen with Punky Brewster and NBC/Universal/Sony? After Shout! Factory released the first two seasons with good results, they had to negotiate with them for the final two seasons. It took a long time, and seemed bleak at first, but eventually, they were released (season 3 in 2006 and season 4 in 2008).

Also, I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere, but I have to say that the transfers for Mr. Belvedere look really nice compared to Punky Brewster. I'm guessing the Mr. Belvedere ones are a generation or two down from the original 1'' inch masters. Most likely, they were taken from the transfers made in 1988 or 1989, just as the show was about to enter syndication. I think when a show enters syndication, they make two tape masters, one complete and unedited, and the other at the syndication runtime. Thankfully, Shout! ended up with the complete and unedited ones.
Edited by vnisanian2001 - 8/12/11 at 9:12am
Reply
post #74 of 77
8/12/11 at 9:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vnisanian2001 View Post

I know I've said this time and time again, but Mr. Belvedere is the one sitcom I would like to see completed the most.

I may be wrong on this one, but didn't a similar situation happen with Punky Brewster and NBC/Universal/Sony? After Shout! Factory released the first two seasons with good results, they had to negotiate with them for the final two seasons. It took a long time, and seemed bleak at first, but eventually, they were released (season 3 in 2006 and season 4 in 2008).

Also, I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere, but I have to say that the transfers for Mr. Belvedere look really nice compared to Punky Brewster. I'm guessing the Mr. Belvedere ones are a generation or two down from the original 1'' inch masters. Most likely, they were taken from the transfers made in 1988 or 1989, just as the show was about to enter syndication. I think when a show enters syndication, they make two tape masters, one complete and unedited, and the other at the syndication runtime. Thankfully, Shout! ended up with the complete and unedited ones.


Sort of, but not quite.

 

NBC produced Punky's first 2 seasons, then canned it because it was getting very good ratings in the 2-12 age group but lousy ones in the 18-34 group, which is the one advertisers covet. At the time, fin-syn regulations by the FCC prevented networks from owning any part of TV syndication (that's why Viacom was spun off from CBS). Columbia Pictures Television bought the syndication rights and produced the last 2 seasons. Sony owns TV distribution rights here, but NBC owns them overseas, and they may have had the home video rights to the whole show, as either NBC or NBC/Universal receives credit on all 4 season sets (Columbia had no hand in the cartoon). Either way, the picture and sound quality were all over the place. Season 1 was from international masters that were far from an early generation, Season 2 has pretty bad audio distortion on sibilant sounds, Season 3 looks like it was subjected to heavy DNR, but season 4 wasn't too bad. Two syndicated episodes have bizarre problems with the music underscore; it sounds like they have two different pieces of music playing simultaneously.

 

Mr. Belvedere was produced by 20th Century Fox for the entirety of its run. There are no joint ownership issues there.

Reply
post #75 of 77
8/12/11 at 9:22pm
What's DNR?
Reply
post #76 of 77
8/12/11 at 9:30pm

Digital Noise Reduction
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by vnisanian2001 View Post

What's DNR?


 

Reply
post #77 of 77
8/22/11 at 5:26pm
I never had time to respond to these two posts,before.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil Brock View Post


How is a one-season show "wildly popular"?
I misread the title of this thread. I took the semi colon to mean Or. "Wildly Popular Or Sadly Neglected Sitcoms!" I take it you did the same thing as you can't believe The Ann Sothern Show and Hennesey are wildly popular. While E/R wasn't wildly popular,two cast members went on to become wildly popular themselves,which was the point of my post.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyMcKinney View Post


just having Clooney or Alexander's name on anything in 2011 is hardly a guarantee of a best-seller.
The studio that released the early 80s slasher film The Burning,with Jason Alexander,didn't feel that way.Neither did the studio that released one of the killer tomato films(Return Of The Killer Tomatoes?) that Clooney was in,way back when.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: TV on DVD and Blu-ray