50s sitcoms - Buried Forever? (1 Viewer)

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Lugoff

Gary OS, you've confused me. You've been saying quite a bit on this Forum that the days of Classic TV on DVD are over, for all intents and purposes --- and now you're saying there are "several neat series coming."

I can see where what I've said could be confusing, and I don't wish to do that so I'll try to clarify.

On one hand I have been vocal in my belief that the better days of classic TV on DVD are behind us. I make those statements based both on what I've seen, quantity-wise, released in 2009 vs. '08, '07, etc. and what I know is and isn't coming next year. It's indisputable that there were far more 50's and 60's series released last year as compared to this year. The 4th quarter of '08 saw nearly 3x's the amount of vintage series released as '09. It just is what it is. Add to that the fact that we are seeing some vintage shows being stalled out (especially by CBS/Paramount - one of the few we all counted on to keep delivering older material) and it makes for a dim picture. Therefore I came to the conclusion quite some time ago that our best days are now behind us (as far as classic material being released on dvd goes). I stand by those comments and still feel the same way.

On the other hand, we do have some good things coming for 2010. Much of it we've already heard about (The Goldbergs, more My Three Sons, The Virginian, Father Knows Best, and Steve Canyon). And now we've gotten word that Shout will be making some previously stalled series available via online exclusives (Bill Cosby Show, Ironside). This was a development I did not see coming and am happy about. Also, don't forget that many of us have been able to look at that online CBS Syndication Bible and correctly predict that a few things would probably be released. For instance, I'd be shocked if we didn't see Have Gun, Will Travel picked back up and released early next year because that online source tells us that it was being remastered in HD, starting with Season 4. Add to all this the fact that I do know of a couple of things left to be revealed that should make some classic fans happy and we have a rosier picture than I thought we'd have a few months ago. I wish I could be more specific about upcoming titles and I'm honestly not trying to tease anyone. I wish I could hint that a vintage show like Leave it to Beaver was being picked back up, but the news I'm aware of isn't nearly that good. Keep in mind though that LITB is a holy grail for me and just about at the top of my wish list, so regardless of what I know is coming it's not gonna measure up to something like that. Almost all the stuff I know about that's in the pipeline is what I'd call good but not hugely recognizable, with one exception. And that's the one that I'm guessing Neil alluded to. But then again, we may know about two entirely different things.

I will say this: the three companies that I've been saying were the only ones doing much of anything in the vintage market are still the ones I'm confident will release good stuff next year - Shout Factory, CBS/Paramount, and Timeless. I imagine some of the others will surprise us with a couple of offerings, but I don't expect much out of them as far as quantity.

The bottom line, and I'm only speaking for myself, is that I still do believe we are on the back side of seeing vintage TV being released on dvd. Some things that were scheduled have been dropped and stalled out so my opinion about the state of classic TV on DVD, overall, is the same and I stand by those opinions 100% - but we are going to be seeing some nice things from the 3 companies I mentioned and so my addendum is that things aren't quite as dire as I thought they might be.


Gary "hope that clarifies things some, Joe" O.

 

[AlanP]

[SIZE= larger][COLOR= rgb(255, 0, 0)]And who dropped the ball on "MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY", two sets of that series four years ago, and nothing new ??
What happened ??[/COLOR][/SIZE]

 

[Jack P]

Two different companies did that several years apart. First there was the now defunct Questar video which did S5 using butchered syndie prints without even letting us see the opening title except when you load the disc (they also did this for S2 of "The Joey Bishop Show" although the episodes themself were uncut), and then several years later Smore! which did several other titles ("Good Morning World", "Lotsa Luck") picked up the rights and did uncut prints of S6 but nothing since then.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

To Gary OS: Thanks for the explanation, and yes, it does clarify things.

Now I'm wondering how you get your information. From reading your contributions on this forum, I think you're just a fan and don't work in the industry. From things you've mentioned, my guess is you're in contact with someone with inside information who tells you things on the condition that you don't repeat them.

But what do I know? This all reminds me of my playground days when kids would say, "I know something you don't know, nyah, nyah, nyah!" But that's ok. I was usually one of those kids.

I'll be patient and wait for the big announcement, and then smile and say, "Yes!!!" and then wait till it's released and read here that they used cut syndicated prints .............

I'm sorry to be so pessimistic, but I'm in a lousy mood today.

 

[Susan Nunes]

I want to know just what is meant by "on demand."

 

[Susan Nunes]

 

[Susan Nunes]

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Originally Posted by Susan Nunes

I want to know just what is meant by "on demand."

You've never seen the "on demand" cable channels?

Okay, basically, the content provider, say Cinemax, HBO, Showtime, Howard Stern, WWE, whoever, they upload programming to a satellite, and a subscriber can download the content from the satellite to their cable box at any time to watch. Stuff like Howard Stern or HBO On Demand is a flat fee per month for the service, but there are channels that show movies for, say, 5 bucks per viewing (kind of like the old Pay Per View movie channels).

Since I'd assume space is at a premium, programs rotate through the system. Most are only on for so long before they're pulled and replaced with new programming. But, they could be put back on at any time.

HBO On Demand has an entire subsection for their TV Shows. They usually have about a dozen episodes of all their shows available at any time. Back in '07, for example, HBO cycled through all of the Sopranos episodes in preparation for the end of the series, then once the series was over, the final episodes were available to watch on demand.

So, if one of the studios were to create a classic TV on demand channel, we'd get, say, a half or full season's worth of episodes per show that would be available to watch for a time, then they would take the first season down and upload season 2, and so on and so on.

Simple.

 

[Neil Brock]

Originally Posted by AlanP

[SIZE= larger][COLOR= rgb(255,0,0)]And who dropped the ball on "MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY", two sets of that series four years ago, and nothing new ??
What happened ??[/COLOR][/SIZE]

What happened is that the show didn't sell very well. Look, I don't understand it at all myself but basically the show has turned into a dead property. In the 80s when a some markets picked it up in syndication, it bombed in the ratings. I know one station, in Philadelphia I believe, that wouldn't even throw it on in the middle of the night to run out the contract because it did so poorly. When Nick at Nite picked it up in the late 80s, it did horribly as well and was taken off their schedule faster than just about any show they ever ran. Not only that, but up until Nick picked the show up, they used to run everything complete and uncut. The syndicator sent them 22 minute cut tapes and when Nick ran the show that way and didn't get any complaints about it, that was when the then started to edit all of their shows down to 22 minutes.
As for the DVDs, the first set was a complete botch job and the second set was done very well and looked great. However, it didn't sell squat. It may eventually break even - in the year 2020. Not only that, but SFM, the company which represents the show, does not give away it's properties cheaply. So you have a show which costs a good deal to license, has to then be mastered from the 35mm prints (as the only existing tape masters are cut) and then on top of everything, the show is toxic and people don't want it. One can never say never but I would say the chances of any more sets are highly unlikely. Which is too bad as it's the second longest running sitcom ever in terms of number of episodes and I still think it's a pretty funny show. But apparently the view isn't shared by the majority of the public.

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Lugoff

To Gary OS: Thanks for the explanation, and yes, it does clarify things.

Now I'm wondering how you get your information. From reading your contributions on this forum, I think you're just a fan and don't work in the industry. From things you've mentioned, my guess is you're in contact with someone with inside information who tells you things on the condition that you don't repeat them.

I don't work inside the industry, so you can figure out easily enough that I just have a few friends that are well connected. That's all it is, and that's all I'm going to say about it. I do hate for it to come across as the kid on the playground-type attitude. I'm not trying to do that. I promise. How about this: I'm going to make an informed decision and say we will be hearing about a long thought dead series coming back to life in March of next year with a release. It's a pretty darned good series (at least I think it is) and it too might fit in with Neil's earlier comment except that it's not a comedy. But I say be looking for some confirmation really soon. It's a 50's show and as soon as you here it you'll know it's the one I'm referencing. Heck, I'll even tell you what genre it's gonna be: western.

Let's just see if it happens. If it doesn't, then that's bad news. Not because I was wrong but because it will mean a certain studio has once again re-evaluated their upcoming schedule and removed yet another b/w classic. But I'm still pretty confident it's coming in March.

Gary "now, that's all I'm saying for sure - nothing else" O.

 

[Neil Brock]

Originally Posted by Susan Nunes

I want to know just what is meant by "on demand."

Are you referring to burn on demand? It is a system started by Warner where they take movies that they don't deem viable enought to release commercially and they make it available through their website. They basically burn a DVD copy on a per order basis, no remastering and they take whatever elements they have available. So the quality can be very hit or miss. I know a movie that a friend ordered and the print had a green line running through half the film because they took it from a crappy film print. But many of us see this as the future way in which we may get obscure titles which would never sell in large enough numbers to justify a widespread release.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Oh, that "On Demand".

Well, I'd take classic TV either way, be it cable on demand or burn on demand.

Burn on demand wasn't necessarily started by Warner, though. Amazon has been doing the createspace burn on demand program for a while, at least before the Warner Archives started up. That's how Charles In Charles got finished out.

 

[Ockeghem]

Cajun,

Both. The series with Jay North ran from 1959-1963. I watched it first-run, and remember several of the episodes quite well. It was a staple of our family's viewing, right up there with Pete and Gladys, which ran nearly concurrently. Those were some fun days to view television.

I recall seeing Harry Morgan in State Fair (1945) and in M*A*S*H several years later, and not making the connection between those viewings and Pete and Gladys until many years after that.

 

[Jack P]

Originally Posted by Gary OS
How about this: I'm going to make an informed decision and say we will be hearing about a long thought dead series coming back to life in March of next year with a release. It's a pretty darned good series (at least I think it is) and it too might fit Neil's earlier comment. But I say be looking for some confirmation really soon. It's a 50's show and as soon as you here it you'll know it's the one I'm referencing. Heck, I'll even tell you what genre it's gonna be: western.

"Coming back to life" would almost suggest that it had a release at some point in the distant past, so I make a prediction you're referring to either "Cheyenne" or "Maverick".

 

[Neil Brock]

Pete & Gladys + Sony + Black and White = No chance, no way, no how.

 

[RickER]

Originally Posted by Jack P
"Coming back to life" would almost suggest that it had a release at some point in the distant past, so I make a prediction you're referring to either "Cheyenne" or "Maverick".

I was thinking Rawhide, or Gunsmoke.

 

[Jack P]

So long as there are no updates to the CBS syndication bible regarding new seasons being remastered for those titles, I don't see any reason to think it could be one of those.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Putting everything together, it sounds as if Gary OS is referring to "Have Gun Will Travel." But Neil Brock was referring to "one of the absolute 50s comedy classics." "Have Gun" wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs.

I wanted to mention that the aforementioned "Pete and Gladys" was a spinoff from the highly successful '50s series "December Bride." (It actually achieved the second-highest ratings of any comedy series of the decade, but mainly because it had the good luck to follow "I Love Lucy" on the Monday night schedule.)

Spring Byington and Verna Felton were a kind of Lucy and Ethel for the senior citizen set, and Harry Morgan played neighbor Pete who was always talking about his dizzy wife Gladys, whom we never saw -- until the spinoff started six years later.

We were so excited to finally see Gladys, but poor Cara Williams couldn't possibly live up to six years' of Pete's descriptions of her. She just came off as a poor man's Lucy, even down to the red hair (although the show was in black and white, as the cover of TV Guide above shows, she was a redhead.)

I still liked it though. At the age of 10, I liked every sitcom on the air.

 

[Jack P]

Since the syndication bible has listed the remastering of S4 of "Have Gun Will Travel" for many months at this point, that would not exactly be much of a surprise if it were the title Gary was referring to (and in a previous post he specifically mentioned that title as one we could expect to see next year).

 

[Ockeghem]

Joe,

I appreciate your thoughts / insights on Pete and Gladys.

"I still liked it though. At the age of 10, I liked every sitcom on the air."

I know it's somewhat tough to quantify quality, but I too can make this same claim. There was just something about television that was so good back in those days. Maybe it's related in large part to one's childhood, or maybe not.