Is the b&w era of TV on DVD slowly coming to an end? (7 Viewers)

[Gary OS]

Hey Gary! Is the 1974 Clint Walker TV Show Kodiak owned by Warner Brothers as the Internet Movie Database claims? Is there any news of the Warner Archives releasing Kodiak this year or next year? Thanks!

Robert

I have no idea who owns it, Robert. But I imagine someone here will pipe in with the correct answer. Timeless was also, at one time, looking to release The Loner. That's one I'd have liked to see.


Gary "there were so many neat, lesser known series that Timeless was looking into at one time or another" O.

 

[Gary OS]

I like all of those shows (except Kodiak which I never saw) and I would have bought them all even Kodiak if Timeless released them. Gray Ghost is one of my all time favorites. I even started a Forum for it here at HTF. It ran back to back with Casey Jones here in the New York area on WPIX Channel 11 back in the early 1960s. BTW I 'd be very interested in Kodiak now thanks to Warner Bros. Archives releasing all the seasons of Cheyenne which I've become a big fan of . Maybe WBA will release it too.

The little I've seen of The Gray Ghost I've loved. Same with Casey Jones, which I've seen more of. I'm pretty much in for any and every western from the 50's and 60's. It's just such a solid genre, imho. I realize it's limited in scope, but what it's limited to are things I generally enjoy.


Gary " " O.

 

[Jack P]

Re-releasing "M Squad" I consider another in the "waste of time" category by Timeless.

 

[Gary OS]

Re-releasing "M Squad" I consider another in the "waste of time" category by Timeless.

This is surely a function and decision of the parent company, Shout. I think they are just looking to pull in more revenue off Timeless by re-releasing this set.


Gary "just my two cents, but I wouldn't blame Timeless - they really don't have any say at this point" O.

 

[GMBurns]

This is surely a function and decision of the parent company, Shout. I think they are just looking to pull in more revenue off Timeless by re-releasing this set.


Gary "just my two cents, but I wouldn't blame Timeless - they really don't have any say at this point" O.

Gary - just out of curiosity, if Shout! is not so interested in having Timeless continue in the direction they had been going, why did they buy them? Was it simply the strength of sales of their current catalog?

 

[Richard V]

Gary - just out of curiosity, if Shout! is not so interested in having Timeless continue in the direction they had been going, why did they buy them? Was it simply the strength of sales of their current catalog?

GM - I'm going to butt in here and give you my opinion (and I think Gary will agree) that it was just the age old business practice of eliminating the competition. Buy up TMG, and consumers don't have the choices they once did in how to spend their DVD dollars.

 

[Gary OS]

Yep, I agree with Richard. It's all about eliminating the competition. It wasn't as much a merger as it was a takeover. Every inside source I know has told me this and I'm confident that's the case.


Gary "people in the know immediately predicted what would happen - and it's unfolded just like they told me it would" O.

 

[Neil Brock]

Regarding a couple of shows mentioned above, it looks like all of the rights clearances have been dealt with on The Rebel and that should be coming out. Many different rights holders on that one.As for Hec Ramsey, that's an elements issue as the existing tape transfers apparently were lost in the Universal fire. Unless Universal gets a sale on it, which is unlikely for a 10-episode show, there's no way they'll be going back to the 35s to re-transfer.

 

[Darby67]

Thanks for the update on The Rebel, Neil. I'm really looking forward to that release.

Darby

 

[phenri]

I have no idea who owns it, Robert. But I imagine someone here will pipe in with the correct answer. Timeless was also, at one time, looking to release The Loner. That's one I'd have liked to see. Gary "there were so many neat, lesser known series that Timeless was looking into at one time or another" O.

That one hurts! Besides The Rebel, The Loner is the one unreleased western I'd really love to see. That's a shame.

 

[JoeDoakes]

Yep. I was really looking forward to seeing Trackdown, which as you mentioned was indeed on their radar. So were things like The Gray Ghost, Casey Jones, Kodiak, Hec Ramsey, and The Dakotas, among others. To be clear, I'm not saying the Shout takeover resulted in all those series not being released. That's not at all true. Some never materialized way before that. But Timeless did have some brands in the fire before the "merger", and it looks like some of those have been dropped. The only one I'm still holding out a sliver of hope for is The Rebel. But I'm not sure even with that one.


Gary "we'll just have to wait and see" O.

Grey Ghost was a CBS show. Is it public domain? Was there ever much chance of it's being released? As it's a rare show that takes place during the civil war and even focuses on Confederates, I would think that there would be some demand for it, but my understanding is that it was cancelled due to political considerations originally so I have to wonder if it will be released around the time we see A&A -- The Official Complete Series.

 

[JoeDoakes]

Casey Jones seems to have starred the Skipper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Jones_(TV_series)). I'd sure buy that.

 

[mmyers]

Didn't Timeless consider Wichita Town as a release? Did they ever consider Hotel de Paree, The Californians or Man From Blackhawk as candidates for release?

 

[Darby67]

Grey Ghost was a CBS show. Is it public domain? Was there ever much chance of it's being released? As it's a rare show that takes place during the civil war and even focuses on Confederates, I would think that there would be some demand for it, but my understanding is that it was cancelled due to political considerations originally so I have to wonder if it will be released around the time we see A&A -- The Official Complete Series.

I am truly intrigued with this discussion on The Gray Ghost television series that ran during the 1957-1958 season. I had never heard of it before reading this forum, but I do remember that Disney had broadcast a production called Willie and the Yank back in January 1967. It was comprised of three 50-minute episodes titled The Deserter, The Mosby Raiders, and The Matchmaker; these were edited into a single theatrical film that was released in Europe in May 1967 under the title of Mosby's Marauders. I've been hoping that Disney would release the full three 50-minute episode version on DVD as a Disney Movie Exclusive, but that has not happened so far.

Darby

 

[HenryDuBrow]

GM - I'm going to butt in here and give you my opinion (and I think Gary will agree) that it was just the age old business practice of eliminating the competition. Buy up TMG, and consumers don't have the choices they once did in how to spend their DVD dollars.

So TMG took the dollar rather than continue doing what they did? That's sad, for all of us.

 

[Richard V]

Didn't Timeless consider Wichita Town as a release? Did they ever consider Hotel de Paree, The Californians or Man From Blackhawk as candidates for release?

Sure would love to have The Californians and Hotel de Paree.

 

[LouA]

Yep, I agree with Richard. It's all about eliminating the competition. It wasn't as much a merger as it was a takeover. Every inside source I know has told me this and I'm confident that's the case.


Gary "people in the know immediately predicted what would happen - and it's unfolded just like they told me it would" O.

Hi Gary,
I don't doubt what your saying , but I'm having trouble understanding Shout Factory 's logic in this. Once SF bought out Timeless, they would have almost a monopoly on B&W Westerns . So they could have kept on releasing those planned shows , some of which might have proved to be profitable. And why are they re-issuing so many of these show like the Texan , State Trooper. You would think that would be deleting these sets. It's hard to figure thier motivations for buying a company , and than ruining it . You would think they bought Timeless to take advantage of their customer base , who I think were loyal.
Gary , any comments ?

 

[ChrisALM]

Hi Lou,
I'm thinking along the same lines as you. At the time Shout bought out Timeless, it was an up and running profitable business, or so I assume. It had its employees, its operation of acquiring properties, producing DVDs and distribution of them, their business model, everything in place. So Shout comes along, and initiates the end of all of that? If Shout now owns Timeless, it is no longer their competition. Warners has different entities releasing material. You simply coordinate between the two, managing each division to enhance their profitability.
I'm not disagreeing with what Gary has stated, because I think he is correct. I don't know any industry insiders, but from my perspective outside the business, it looks exactly like Shout wants to phase out Timeless. My comment is that it doesn't make sense to me. Seems to me that Shout could have kept Timeless humming along, making money for the entire Shout entity, or the parent company to both.
If Shout wanted to do away with the Timeless brand and bring out the Timeless material under the Shout banner, I can understand that. But that's not what I see happening. We are getting left with Shout phasing out Timeless and the 50s and 60s material it was releasing. FWIW, I'm not happy about this situation.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Maybe I'm remembering this wrong, but wasn't the former head of Timeless, before Shout took them over, getting up in years and planning to retire anyway? Seems to me Gary or someone else in-the-know said something to that effect when all this was originally going down. If so, unless he had a successor (or buyer) all picked out, who wanted to continue as they had been, I'd think we'd pretty much be in the same position that we're in now, even if Shout hadn't absorbed them.

Still, it's really odd, though. While both companies specialized in classic TV, they served two different sub-sets of that market, with little, if any, crossover in the particular type of material they released, mostly serving two different audiences, though not exclusively so. It's not like Timeless was branching out into releasing sitcoms, dramas or cult/sci-fi material, and Shout definitely wasn't courting western or '50s detective fans. It's like if K-Tel suddenly decided it had to acquire/dissolve a pesky little label that was dedicated to baroque chamber music.

 

[ChrisALM]

Maybe I'm remembering this wrong, but wasn't the former head of Timeless, before Shout took them over, getting up in years and planning to retire anyway? Seems to me Gary or someone else in-the-know said something to that effect when all this was originally going down. If so, unless he had a successor (or buyer) all picked out, who wanted to continue as they had been, I'd think we'd pretty much be in the same position that we're in now, even if Shout hadn't absorbed them.

That is my basic understanding of the situation.
So if Shout had not purchased Timeless, and there were no other buyers, Shout might have had the same result they're getting now by not spending anything - assuming Timeless had no succession plans. Maybe Shout wanted to be certain to eliminate Timeless, by owning the company, they can accomplish that goal.
Still, the whole deal just seems odd to me, and I don't understand it. However, I admittedly do not know all of the details, so maybe somewhere in that unknown lies an answer that explains everything.
What is clear is that we fans of 50s and 60s TV are seeing less releases because of this deal, and that is very unfortunate.