CBS - If They Don't Un-Stall Some Shows, What Comes Next? (1 Viewer)

[Frank Soyke]

When I was playing around with the CBC syndication bible the other day, it occurred to me to see what everyone's opinion is on CBS's possible future plans. Let's paint a hypothetical. If CBS doesn't un-stall any of the series they have already started (which is a realistic possibility), what is left to start new pre 90?. Let me make some educated (hopefully) assumptions first. To begin, many of their ongoing series are nearing completion and they should be finished within a year at current release rates (Rawhide, Mason, Cannon, Laverne and Shirley, Family Ties, Touched By An Angel). That leaves basically only Gunsmoke and Bonanza as their only continuing "classic" releases. So what I did next is make an arbitrary assumption that they will either license or shelve for good all series they have currently stalled. So what I did was go to the syndication bible to see what they had left otherwise. Just as a side point, a poster once had pointed out to me that their are many other mostly one season shows (with a few exceptions noted) that CBS owns. I am not including those here since one season shows (save Police Squad which is a cult classic) are not really what CBS historically has looked at for release. This is what's left, minus the almost complete, completed, or stalled shows pre-90.

2 Brady Bunch spinoffs, Ben Casey, Dear John, The Millionaire, Our Miss Brooks, Bad News Bears. I'll throw in The Defenders because someone told me it's a CBS product, but I'm not certain.

Now out of these, Personally I could only see Ben Casey(MOD) or The Defenders (MOD) being considered, and both would be longshots based on CBS's historical release patterns, (IMO).

My question then becomes this. I figure CBS has three realistic opitions at this point:

1) Un-Stall some series.

2) Pick one of the abovementioned (8) to start

3) Finish Bonanza and Gunsmoke and call it a day with classic TV

What do you guys think?

 

[Frank Soyke]

I forgot to mention my own personal opinion. I feel they will license out a bunch of the stalled stuff. shelve the rest, finish the 2 long runner westerns and then proverbally "ride off into the sunset" with regard to classic TV.

 

[maskedmala]

You forgot One of the best sitcom of all time: Sgt. Bilko: The Phil Silvers Show, a 4 seasons Tv series with only the first season released

 

[kingfish]

i would love to see the stacy keach cbs mike hammer tv series[1980's] i believe on dvd. two of the movies already made it to dvd.

 

[Brian Himes]

Hopefully they will unstall The Mod Squad, Barnaby Jones and Love American Style.

 

[derosa]

Love Boat please!

 

[EdG]

Hopefully they will unstall The Mod Squad, Barnaby Jones and Love American Style.

I would like to see Love American Style, Bilko, Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat too. I remember reading that VEI had picked up rights to the Mod Squad.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Mod-Squad-DVDs-Planned/17912

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

I think they might take the final two seasons of ONE STEP BEYOND and either release them as MOD or license them out to Shout/Timeless (or elsewhere), since I think Gary OS or someone else knowledgeable here indicated long ago that Paramount had remastered and prepped Seasons 2 & 3 prior to Season 1's release, but shelved them when retail sales of Season 1 didn't meet their expectations at that time. If they've put the remastering work into them, I'd think they'd want to do something with them, and they haven't streamed anything beyond Season 1 on Netflix... nor, as far as I know, has the whole run been broadcast anywhere lately.

A few Paramount-controlled color series that aren't listed in the CBS bible I could also see being released as MOD or through Shout, VEI or another licensee, since they have cult followings, and have tape masters from cable airings within the last decade or so:

CORONET BLUE (1965/1967)
THE IMMORTAL (1970 - sci-fi variation on THE FUGITIVE, and genre shows have a slight marketing edge)
LONGSTREET (1971 - mainly because Bruce Lee is a recurring character in a handful of episodes)

 

[Regulus]

LONGSTREET (1971 - mainly because Bruce Lee is a recurring character in a handful of episodes)

Why isn't the Green Hornet out on DVD? After all the late Bruce Lee stars in it as well. Oh, that's right, its involved in a F.U.B.A.R. simular to its "sister series" Batman.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Why isn't the Green Hornet out on DVD? After all the late Bruce Lee stars in it as well. Oh, that's right, its involved in a F.U.B.A.R. simular to its "sister series" Batman.

Yup, it's a real shame about THE GREEN HORNET. As far as I know, LONGSTREET isn't plagued with such issues, and even though Lee is only in, I think, four episodes total, it's still sort of like if James Dean or Marilyn Monroe, while in their prime, were in a handful of episodes of an otherwise-forgotten, short-run series... you can bet a show like that would get a release eventually, somehow. With so little filmed Bruce Lee material in existence, they could probably slap a big image of Bruce Lee on a LONGSTREET box, deceptively implying regular equal billing with series star James Franciscus, and it would probably sell a decent amount.

 

[Brian Himes]

I would like to see Love American Style, Bilko, Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat too. I remember reading that VEI had picked up rights to the Mod Squad.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Mod-Squad-DVDs-Planned/17912

I do remember reading about that bit on Mod Squad. So far (and I know it is still rather early in the year to give up on it) there hasn't been any further news. If this does indeed happen, I will gladly double dip to get the last three seasons.

 

[classicmovieguy]

I have a suspicion that MPI will eventually pick up the rights for both "Hillbillies" and "Petticoat" - seeing as they have earlier worked with the Paul Henning Estate on sets of both shows (shortly before Paramount released their 'Official' sets).

 

[HenryDuBrow]

i would love to see the stacy keach cbs mike hammer tv series[1980's] i believe on dvd. two of the movies already made it to dvd.

That one is Sony/Columbia, hopefully they'll release it one day soon (via MOD, presumably).

 

[HenryDuBrow]

It's impossible to predict what they'll do next or their reasons for stalling/unstalling, whether for rights issues or sales numbers and whether to go MOD with those or standard DVD. I hope the latter format, but I'm ready to take anything when it comes to unstalling Barnaby Jones at this point and continuing Cannon. Plus of course starting shows like Petrocelli, Serpico and The Magician. I'll be a happy camper then, one way or the other.