vnisanian2001
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2008
- Messages
- 678
Why did Danny Thomas only allow seasons 5-9 to be syndicated? Also, on a side-note, was Danny Thomas an egomaniac or not?
Good points made there, Jason. Yes, stations don't usually pick up more than 100 episodes for syndication. For instance, like other long running TV shows such as Bonanza, F.B.I., Gunsmoke, Mannix etc. Although cable networks in Australia (not sure about other countries?) do pick up and rebroadcast a full set of long running shows (over 100 episodes). Although, it is still the exception rather than the rule.JasonPW said:Seasons 1 thru 3 starred Jean Hagen as Danny's wife, with Rusty and teenage Terry as their two kids. Hagen bailed on the show after season 3, and so season 4 was kind of a "rebuilding year"--by that season's end Marjorie Lord was introduced as Danny's new love interest, with her own cute little girl from a past marriage (played by Angela Cartwright).
From season 5 to 9 the show was fairly stable, the ratings boomed with the introduction of the Cartwright and Lord characters. (A network change between seasons 4 and 5, from ABC to CBS, may have helped.)
In season 10 forward, the kids were getting older, and Thomas and Lord reduced their roles considerably--their characters were "on the road" with Danny's nightclub show. Since 100 episodes is usually what a show needs for syndication, I imagine they chose the prime years--the best remembered episodes--to put in the syndication market. The show ran for a whopping 11 years, so by the time syndication came along most viewers didn't remember the first wife.
Hope that was helpful!
Who says they are PD? That's BS. Under the changed copyright laws, anything from Jan. 1, 1964 onward has a 75 year copyright. The first 4 years of the show actually are PD. The Thomas estate tried to do a bogus registration, sending them in to the copyright office after 31 years but at that time, the renewal or initial registration had to be made within 28 years. So even though if you do a LOC search that will bring them up, if anyone ever challenged it there is no way those would hold up.PatrickGoodluck said:Good points made there, Jason. Yes, stations don't usually pick up more than 100 episodes for syndication. For instance, like other long running TV shows such as Bonanza, F.B.I., Gunsmoke, Mannix etc. Although cable networks in Australia (not sure about other countries?) do pick up and rebroadcast a full set of long running shows (over 100 episodes). Although, it is still the exception rather than the rule.
I have a question also...which is kind of related since it is the "Granddaddy" incarnation of the show (that originally aired on ABC from 1970-71)...
Does anyone know if Make Room For Granddaddy will ever see the light of day? From my research, I've only found 3 episodes in existence in the PD - all of which can be found on YouTube.
Make damn sure you burn them to DVD, too, with a decent DVD recorder.AlanP said:Yes and I am dvring each episode
What I don't understand is how the Estate got away with filing bogus registrations.Neil Brock said:The Thomas estate tried to do a bogus registration, sending them in to the copyright office after 31 years but at that time, the renewal or initial registration had to be made within 28 years. So even though if you do a LOC search that will bring them up, if anyone ever challenged it there is no way those would hold up.
.AlanP said:They are so cut it is terrible I think six to eight minutes of each episode is missing,
My guess would be that they ran the credits according to how much time there was left to fill. Varying credit lenghts are nothing unusual. On Route 66 for example, sometimes the credits would last 2 minutes if the show came up short.Harry-N said:I've been catching these from MeTV and am fascinated by the closing credits and theme, which are season 5 episodes. There seem to be varying lengths, some very short - about 30 seconds - and some extended to nearly a minute. The music changes too, with extended parts and riffs not in the short version. Did the theme standardize over time? I can't imagine that this is a syndication-print issue as the music fits and there are no obvious edits.
Harry