HTF Warner Tv/Animation Chat 9/15/08 - summary - to be updated live (1 Viewer)

[Brian Himes]

This correct. The way these originally aired is confusing and they way they have been released on DVD is even more confusing. In a nut shell here's how things went.

Scooby-Doo Where Are You! aired on CBS for two seasons from 1969-1971. These shows were released as Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD. Then CBS ran The New Scooby Doo Movies for two seasons from 1972-73. Then Scooby moved to ABC in 1976. The new show was called The Scooby Doo/Dynomut Hour. 13 episodes were run under this title as The Scooby-Doo Show. This title would be used until 1978 when the show would return to the original title of Scooby-Doo Where Are You! The final three segments for Scooby & Dynomut were aired as the Scooby-Doo/Dynomut Show with an additional rerun of the 69-71 Sccoby-Doo Where Are You segments. These three Scooby-Doo/Dynomut segments were released on DVD as part of the Scooby-Doo/Dynomut Hour set. Then in 1977 Scooby's All Star Laff-A-Lympics began its run on ABC with 8 new Scooby-Doo segments. These are the 8 missing Scooby-Doo segments that have not been released on DVD. Finally in 1978 Scooby's All Stars began its run with 16 new Scooby-Doo segments. These have been released on DVD as Scooby-Doo Where Are You season 3.

Now mixed in with all of these Scooby-Shows were things like Captain Cave Man, Dynomut, The Laf-A-Lympics and others. Also mixed in were reruns of the original Scooby-Doo Where Are You! shows from 69-71.

Scooby would change his name again in 1979 when Scrappy was introduced and the show became Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.

As you can see quite a confusing show to keep track of. Hopefully we'll get those 8 shows from 1977. What they might call this on a DVD release is anyone's guess. I would like for them to call it Scooby-Doo Where Are You! Season 2.5, but I don't really know. They might just keep the first 8 Laf-A-Lympics segments with Scooby and call it Scooby's All Star Laff-A-Lympics season 1, but that might prove to be a problem as there were 16 Laff-A-Lympics segements vs 8 new Scooby segments. I'd really like both the final 8 Scooby shows and the Laff-A-Lympics get separate releases.

They could also release these 8 Scooby shows as The Scooby-Doo/Dynomut Show and pair them with the 2nd season Dynomut shows. These Dynomut shows consisted of 4 two part episodes. They would pair up quite nicely with the missing Scooby shows.

 

[MatthewA]

Like they're really opening the floodgates for the stuff made between the end of M*A*S*H and the beginning of The Simpsons.

Except for CBS/Paramount, 1990 appears to be year zero for most of them.

 

[darkrock17]

Brian Himes wrote:



WB could do that, but I think they'll go in the direction of "The Complete 4th and 5th Seasons". I think these are the last 8 episodes, correct if I'm wrong here.

The Curse of Viking Lake
Vampire Bats and Scaredy Cats
Hang in There, Scooby-Doo
The Chiller Diller Movie Thriller
The Spooky Case of the Grand Prix Race
The Ozark Witch Switch
The Creepy Cruise
The Creepy Heap from the Deep

And these I think are from the Scrappy Season, feel free to correct if I'm wrong here again.

The Scarab Lives!
The Night Ghoul Of Wonderland
Strange Encounter Of A Scooby Kind
The Neon Phantom Of The Roller Disco
Shiver And Shake, That Demon’s A Snake
The Scary Sky Skeleton
The Demon Of The Dugout
The Hairy Scare Of The Devil Bear
Twenty Thousand Screams Under The Sea
I Left My Neck In San Francisco
When You Wish Upon A Star Creature
The Ghoul, The Bat, And The Ugly
Rocky Mountain Yiiiii!
The Sorcerer’s A Menace
Lock The Door, It’s A Minotaur!
The Ransom Of Scooby Chief

 

[DeWilson]

Scrapy Doo - The ONLY Bad idea H-B Ever came up with!

 

[Ron68]

I'm disappointed that Superboy has been dropped but I'm not surprised. I only have two sets of the Superfriends releases so far and plan to buy more, so I'm glad WB is going to continue them. Hopefully the Filmation DC Super Heroes set sell well enough so we get the remaining Batman one. I have all of the DC releases and enjoyed them, especially the Aquaman set. I missed the chat, too bad no one asked about CHiPs season 3

 

[David Lambert]

There was really no need for anyone to ask, IMHO. They're putting those out once a year, in June, and probably will keep that pattern for all six seasons.

 

[Brian Himes]

Yes, those are the 8 from 1977 and the first season of Scooby & Scrappy from 1979. Bommerang is curently airing the 8 shows from 1977 as part of their Cartoons Without A Clue block on Saturday & Sunday mornigns. I have been taping them just in case they are never released on DVD, but I gottta tell ya, these episodes are in pretty bad shape. They are really dark and muddy. Colors are seriously faded and there is quite a bit of bleeding. WB would need to do some serious restoration to these before they could release them. The Scrappy episodes I haven't seen in years so I don't know the condition of the shows. They may look just as bad as all of the others.

I agree that Scrappy was a really bad idea, but ABC was going to cancle Scooby so Hanna-Barbera decided to retool the show to keep it on the air. By the end of the fist season of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Fred, Daphne and Velma were pretty much being written out. In fact, Velma doesn't even speak in the final episode 'The Ransom of Scooby Chief.' By 1979 I was 13 years old and had pretty much stopped watching Saturday morning cartoons. I did still tune into Scooby because he was my favorite, but Scrappy pretty much ruined that show for me. I think after about the first 5 or 6 episodes I gave up. The only thing that I felt Scrappy was good for was to be squished into jelly. He really got on my nerves.

I really hope that they don't release these as seasons 4 and 5. I'd like to see the 1977 episodes released separately from the Scrappy episodes.

 

[Ron68]

I know, I was just hoping WB might speed up the releases they way Universal did with the Incredible Hulk (I know that had to do with the movie but still, there was a one year wait between Season 1 and 2). The rate WB is going with CHiPs, it's going to take another 4 years to complete the series.

I don't think I will still be buying TV on DVD by then, partly I'm hoping to make some life changes. Plus, with the exception of a handful of shows, I'm close (within 1-3 Seasons each) to having most of what I've wanted released and completed, unless some of the stalled series I'm interested in (King of the Hill, Malcolm in the Middle, etc...) start getting released again. Anything else I buy is just a blind buy. I have 150 sets listed on TVShowsonDVD that I own, I would like to be able to start re-watching them soon, I've been planning to since the beginning of the year but haven't been able to yet. So, I would like CHiPs finished sooner rather than later.

 

[Bryan^H]

I thought in last years chat they mentioned Thundarr the Barbarian was being strongly considered.

Wonder why no one asked.

 

[Tom_Tagliente19]

Ok. I see WB stated FALCON CREST will be looked at for release based on KNOTS LANDING's S2 sales. They're joking, right? How is that fair to all of the FALCON CREST fans who want and have patiently waited for FALCON CREST, year after year after frustrating year.

Can Mr. Epstein or Mr. Lambert clarify this thinking on WB's behalf? DALLAS is doing extremely well and FALCON CREST was on after that show...not KNOTS LANDING (with exception of the last five episodes). If the moderators can elaborate on the WB comment about FALCON CREST coming out only if the sales of KNOTS LANDING improves...is this their way of saying NO to FALCON CREST yet again or what?

Why is WB not letting FALCON CREST stand on its own success and giving it a chance now? WB owns both properties. Why not do a two-pack with KNOTS S2 and FALCON CREST S1? At least we could see S1 of FALCON CREST and then go from there.

Look at DALLAS. It's killing 'em in sales. Base FALCON CREST's release and sales potential on THAT WB!!! After all, DALLAS and FALCON CREST were the one-two punch powerhouses on Friday nights in the 80's on CBS and they were back to back...not KNOTS LANDING. It didn't even air on the same night.

Hardly seems fair to screw FALCON CREST's fans out of getting FALCON CREST on DVD if KNOTS LANDING fans do not buy their series on DVD. If FALCON CREST fans did not watch KNOTS LANDING or don't even want to now, why penalize us FALCON CREST fans if KNOTS LANDING's second season set fails? But then, this could just be my view of the already frustrating wait for FALCON CREST.

 

[dana martin]

i cant belive no one ask about a corrected tom and jerry set

 

[Ed Moroughan]

Kind of disappointed that they're only releasing the holiday "Peanuts" specials. If that's the scheme how does "You're Not Elected" fit in? LOL!

 

[TravisR]

I would guess that WB's thinking is that, since they're similar titles, they can make an educated guess as to how well Falcon Crest will sell based upon how well Knots Landing sells. Anyone with a better guess can feel free to hop in.

 

[Aryn Leroux]

That would be a fair way to go about it. Except WB is comparing Falcon Crest to the wrong show. I can tell you that both shows have entirely different fan bases for the most part. WB should be using Dallas as a measure to guage interest in FC. That would be the most fair and objective way of going about it. But, I still think why even go there, just release FC and let stand in judgement on it's own merits. I tried to point this out in the WB-Chat as best i could as it was not really the place for it. I would like to hope someone can convince the powers that be that they are way offbase in using Knots sales to judge if FC is viable to release. Way Off!

 

[MatthewA]

The fact that there is a presidential election in less than two months may have influenced it.

 

[Jo_C]

I am shocked and surprised that THE F.B.I. was not discussed. Is this an issue between WB and CBS/Paramount? I ask this because CBS now owns rights to a majority of the Quinn Martin library.

 

[DALLAS Guy]

Did you know that Warner Bros./WHV hardly promoted KNOTS LANDING S1 DVD, if at all? Hardly any advertizing to inform the public about its release. And this information is from the official Knots Landing forum. It could have been marketed as the "original Desperate Housewives".

With DALLAS, Warner Bros. marketed its first DVD release in 2004 in the press and on TV - "Power. Greed. Infidelity. The Ewings are now on DVD." Actually, since DALLAS was an international phenomenon in the early 80s with the whole "Who Shot J.R.?" worldwide frenzy and was the #1 TV show in the world in its day, I don't think its DVD release really needed much promotion but KNOTS LANDING certainly did need it and so does FC.

WHV should have put the first episode of KNOTS S1 on the DALLAS DVDs to promote it. With no promotion of KNOTS S1 DVD, how did WHV expect to meet their sales target? Will they not promote FC either if they decide to give it a DVD release?

DYNASTY was a rip-off of DALLAS and I'm surprised that it has not sold so well on DVD with PARAMOUNT releasing its third season in two volumes which has angered DYNASTY fans. But at least PARAMOUNT has found a way to release DYNASTY and to make the profit they need to justify its continued DVD release.

And yes, KNOTS LANDING and FALCON CREST are two very different shows despite them being 80s prime time soap operas.

 

[Aryn Leroux]

Yes promotion is a must on Knots, FC and even Dynasty to some extent. But Dynasty to it's credit has a world wide following of sorts, certainly not on the same level as Dallas but it has it's admirers (me being one of them). I would love to see some sorta polls taken on the People that are buying Dallas vs the people that are buying Knots. Which group would buy Falcon Crest, i think i know where it would land without a doubt. But atleast this would be something the WB can look at. Then you can start with some promotion for FC on the Dallas dvd releases. As we approach the end of Dallas and seeing it fully released in the next couple of years. Would it not be great to give Dallas fans reason to continue to support you by giving them Falcon Crest ? That is 9 more seasons on top of the 14 that they have been buying with Dallas. But it makes to much sense for it to ever happen i guess.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I thought the ship had sailed on that one a long time ago (as in, the studio already replied, and pretty much said that the edits, etc. on set three were intentional, not a mistake, and that was the way it was going to be).

Won't catch me buying it, though, unless some sort of reissue fixes the edits/missing stuff.

 

[Kevin Martinez]

Warner said they were looking at everything for their planned remastered MGM cartoon sets. I'd naturally assume Tom and Jerry will be part of that.