Does anyone work at these studios over the age of 40? (1 Viewer)

[Randy A Salas]

I was wondering if I'd be able to sneak Alfred Hitchcock Presents in there. It also wasn't part of my article Tuesday.

It wasn't for publication, but I had an email exchange with Universal on Friday about the show (among other house cleaning with the studio) and was told that "consumers will shortly be able to purchase at least the first season separately of Alfred Hitchcock Presents on DVD." The "separately" means outside of the movie boxed sets, where three volumes are available now; that was the context of my question. There is no date or details, but that's as much as we know about other titles on my list, such as Happy Days.

 

[peggy]

I certainly hope so!


I have to agree with something that Mark pointed out very early in this thread about those shows that had teen idols in them. I belong to a tape trading group and that is what we do, we search for people who have those shows, and at times pay more than I wish to admit for the episodes. In other words we have money to burn now that we are older and have some money. It would be great to just be able to buy these series on dvd, the better quality alone would be worth the price.

 

[Jeff_HR]

That is your very informed opinion, even if the Studios consider the shows remaining in the vault unprofitable or marginally profitable? The Studios won't just "turn off the Spigot"?

It seems to me (My Very Uninformed Guess) that instead of "older Fare" getting released under the circumstances you mention, that the Studios will just keep on releasing their "Latest but not so Greatest TV Shows.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

If Universal does indeed make available stand-alone DVDs (or a set) of the ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS discs that were previously exclusive to the Hitchcock movie box sets of several years ago, that's good, and belatedly rectifies a major marketing blunder by Universal Home Entertainment.

However, if they call those four DVDs a "Season 1 Set", they would be in serious error. The episodes on those four DVDs were the episodes that Hitchcock directed himself, and were culled from various seasons of the series (4 of his episodes were from Season 1).

 

[Mark To]

I agree that assuming the studios will turn to older shows as they exhaust the supply of new shows is false logic. There are always going to be new shows, popular or otherwise, that they can put out. It is also easier to put out recent shows as no restoration work has to be done. I'll tip you off to a little secret I recently discovered, which people may or may not be aware of. I had been under the impression that all of the studios over the last 10-15 years had pretty much mastered all of their libraries to tape. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hundreds of series have never been transfered and (if they can even lay their hands on them) are still sitting on film. Rule of thumb is if something hasn't aired anywhere since prior to the 90s then chances are its still on film. That would mean for a DVD release, a complete remastering job would have to be done and for shows that are not that popular, its just not going to happen. Some examples of shows that have not been transferred:
December Bride, Our Miss Brooks, M Squad, Dragnet (1950s version), The Lineup (aka San Francisco Beat). Some shows, for example Oh Susannah (aka Gale Storm Show) which is owned by ITC, they don't even know they have or where they have it. ITC had changed hands about 4 times and when it comes to their US produced shows from the 50s, they haven't the slightest idea about these things. For better or worse, at least most shows in the 60s were produced by major studios so at least (one hopes) they know where they are. Whether they care or not is an entirely different matter.

 

[Steve...O]

As a fan of "classic" shows I know where Mark is coming from.

Still, I have to agree that the various studios have done an excellent job of starting to get their classic shows out. True, some of my "most wanted" are still MIA, but my pocketbook appreciates that. It'll give me a chance to catch up from getting all the other great stuff that's already out.

Steve

 

[Mark Oates]

With regards Man From UNCLE in the UK, although I have no figures for sales, I can only assume that they weren't quite good enough for somebody as there has been no news of the three films not included in the movies pack being released. Unfortunately Warners UK are completely incommunicado to enquiries, and their PR company only has the information they are given, nothing more.

The UK tv-on-DVD market appears to split into two distinct camps - recent programming and cult programming. Recent programming is mostly comedy and occasionally drama; UK schedulers rely on home improvement shows, reality shows and soaps. Comedy and drama series (of the US style) are unknown, as either type rarely numbers more than six shows to a season. Cult programming on the other hand depends on independent labels licensing titles from tv libraries as the major broadcasters (BBC and ITV) are loath to gamble on releasing titles. The BBC favours releasing selected episodes from comedy shows made between 1970 and the present (a quite limited range), but only dabbles in drama releases (such as Dr Who, Blake's Seven, etc.) and doesn't seem to take any corporate pride or care in the work on the programmes carried out by its restoration and authoring staff. ITV (formerly Carlton) has its own label which has released a number of the ITC series, with varying success while ITV (formerly Granada) has always subcontracted its DVD releases to a bargain-basement label.

There aren't many complete series released in the UK. There are a few short-run shows (like Fawlty Towers) which are available complete, and a couple of ITC shows. The UK release of The Avengers was incomplete because the French copyright-holder pulled the show out from under the licensee. Bad sales have meant a number of shows have only seen a selection of episodes released, while a lot of shows perceived as limited interest have never seen the light of day. Then of course a lot of pre-colour material has been allowed to be lost by penny-pinching archiving practices.

From the problems the BBC's restoration team encounters bringing out the Dr Who episodes, I wonder if having mastering materials on videotape is any real benefit as they are always having to tweak their source material while making digital masters for DVD.

 

[Tony J Case]

But Doctor Who is a special case - the original broadcast masters held in the BBC archives were destroyed around 1972. The masters we have of the early seasons of the show - the material that needs the most restoration work - are in such bad shape because of how the were recovered. Over the last 40 years, they've been stored in a wide array of places, dank basements, trunks of cars, and so on - hardly ideal conditions to store film.

Compared to masters stored under better conditions - say, something comperable from like Gilligans Island, the repair job must be much more difficult.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Exciting news. Thanks Randy. I've never seen any Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and have long wanted to. Perhaps now I will get my chance.

 

[TheLongshot]

I don't view this as any different than the way studios have handled movies. The newest stuff always gets the priority, since it is fresh in the minds of those who are fans, and is more likely to generate big sales. Next would come the shows that were in syndication for years, and guys like me (30something) would have seen that way.

The problem is, stuff like The Fugitive, Man From UNCLE, and Mission: Impossible were never shown in syndication when I was a kid. Kinda hard to build a desire for it if I haven't seen it. It was lucky for me that FX did a run of Mission: Impossible, so that I could be sold on it.

Jason

 

[Mark To]

"The problem is, stuff like The Fugitive, Man From UNCLE, and Mission: Impossible were never shown in syndication when I was a kid. Kinda hard to build a desire for it if I haven't seen it. It was lucky for me that FX did a run of Mission: Impossible, so that I could be sold on it."

The Fugitive had a good run of several years on A&E in the early to mid 90s. Man from UNCLE ran on TNT from the channel's inception in the mid-80s up until a few years ago, probably about 15 years.

 

[Charles Ellis]

This is nothing new in home video. Twenty years ago the studios were in a rush to release the latest B.O. hit on VHS/Beta well before concentrating on exploiting the depths of their film libraries, but in time they did learn that the public does want the old favorites on video. We just need to remind the studios this point again. Why release the latest dud by Vin Diesel or Angelina Jolie while classics starring the likes of Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Eddy/MacDonald, Astaire/Rogers, Betty Grable, Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Robert Mitchum et al are currently languishing in the vaults, awaiting a digital makeover onto DVD??? You can have your stinking Angel , King of Queens, and Alias - I want "Get Smart", "U.N.C.L.E."- 'Man' and 'Girl', and "The Brady Bunch"!

 

[Mark To]

amen to that. Also, add Buffy to that list. Have you ever tried watching that crap? After hearing all of the hype I tried it a couple of times. Boy did it suck.

To the previous poster: Maybe married people are wasting their money on SUVs and remodeling their kitchens. Single people (and married people who aren't PW'd) spend it on things they actually get enjoyment out of.

 

[Paul Miller]

They need to get a move on with Get Smart while Don Adams and Barbara Feldon are still alive so they can have them do commentary on some of these episodes.

I have no idea why this series isn't out yet.

I guess I'm going to have to tide over my Don Adams fix with the Inspector Gadget DVD coming out.

Paul

 

[Jeff_HR]

Probably the same reason that my 2 favorite series are not out. The rights holder does not believe the DVDs will sell!

 

[Tony J Case]

I'm pretty happy with the state of the universe as it is. Theres more than enough retro stuff coming out to hold me over. The short list off the top of my head - The A-Team, Knight Rider, Wonder Woman, He-Man, Land of the Lost, GI Joe, Gilligan's Island, and the ongoing Doctor Who releases for the next 20 years - that's enough to keep me happy for the moment.

Yeah, I'd love to see some Six Million Dollar Man or Quark as much as the next guy, but I'm a glass-half-full kind of person. With all this good stuff in the pipeline, it's tough to cry over what we're not getting.

 

[Charles Ellis]

Well, there goes our chance for an "Odd Couple" commentary for a DVD release...


Tony Randall passed away today- RIP. :frowning:

 

[Paul Miller]

I seriously think Tony Randall would have done commentaries too, he always loved getting exposure on the Letterman show and seemed to have a lot of fun with his work.

Studio really need to get to work on these older classic shows which have been heavily in syndication before these people pass away. Imagine how much better All in the Family would have been with Carol O'Conner commentary, or The Honeymooners Box set would have been with Jackie Gleason.

Besides doing it for old fans, it is also a good way for these studios to preserve the histories of these shows.

Paul

 

[MatthewA]

Remember, Jackie Gleason died before there was such a thing as DVD. Same with the whole "I Love Lucy" cast.

And regarding Fox, they are a great studio...for shows after 1990, M*A*S*H notwithstanding.

I'm 21, and my cut-off date for general interest in TV shows is around 1990, with a few (very few) exceptions. Of the shows I want most of all, less than 10% premiered in or after 1990.

 

[TheLongshot]

That's kinda my point. Back in the days when syndication on local stations was still king, I had no problem catching up with older TV shows. Now, with all the cable stations that are out there, unless it is on something like TV Land, it makes it hard to find. I didn't even know about the above. I was lucky to run across "Mission: Impossible" and "The Prisoner" on TV. While all of this stuff can now be shown on TV, it can be hard to find, if you aren't looking in the right place.

Jason