60's TV Shows Why is this Era Ignored? (1 Viewer)

[Sam Favate]

I don't recall hearing about any rights issues for GS, and reports are that it is being considered for release between Sept. 2005-June 2006 (to conicide with the 40th anniversary of the 1st season). Check this forum for the GS thread.

There are even reports, albeit sketchy ones, that say Batman is being readied for release to tie into its 40th in 2006.

Both series are now on TVShowsonDVD.com's list of the 10 most wanted shows. They are the only shows from the 60s on the list.

 

[Charles Ellis]

Sam, I'm a regular visitor to the TVShowsonDVD.com site, so I'm already aware of everything you just posted.


As to the rights issues-
For Batman: Fox owns the show, but DC Comics/Warner Bros. owns the characters, hence the ownership dispute. Also, I've heard that the heirs of the show's producers may have raised a royalty/residuals issue.

Regarding Get Smart: Paramount had the rights, but according to show creator/producer Leonard Stern, the rights were recently acquired by Warner Bros., probably in connection to the proposed feature film. And yet, some Warner TV people have gone on record that WB doesn't own the DVD rights to the show! So someone must know what the story is. September (the 40th anniversary) is just around the corner, so I'm hoping we will be hearing good news soon.......

 

[Jeff Willis]

Funny...classicly said (unless, you happen to be a "Buffy" fan....I'm not )

I hope that this isn't true (about the execs/decision-makers not caring about the 60's series). There's a lot of them that I'd get the minute they'd get released.

 

[Michael Alden]

It really has to do with public awareness and visibility of the programs. In the 60s and 70s, you could see many of the older shows running in syndication on local stations. In some markets, even well into the 80s. Then you had the 80s cable explosion and CBN, Nick at Nite and many others ran tons of older shows. But except for the very early years of TV Land, when few people could get them, most of the older shows disappeared about 15 years ago. Out of sight, out of mind. So the market for older shows is unfortunately not as great as it should be. Also, there is the attitude that's seemingly prevalent among younger people today that anything that came before them is crap so why bother with it. Things will continue to dribble out but another problem is that the majors don't like to license shows out. They are afraid that if they let someone else put out a show and it does really well, they'll look bad. Even if its something they would never put out themselves in a million years.

 

[LizH]

Warner/DC may own the characters, but Fox owns the DVD rights to the show (IIRC, Warner Home Video said as much during the chat in March.)

I've heard nothing about a royalty/residual dispute.