Rocky, Bullwinkle and Friends (1 Viewer)

[David Lambert]

Nope.

Rumors earlier this year among my industry sources are that sales of the 3rd season absolutely tanked, discouraging Classic Media from continuing with S4 and S5.

They tried the single-disc "best of" route, and I guess that didn't work well enough for them, either, since eve those have now stopped. Crazy.

 

[Mike*HTF]

This is really disappointing - were there any overseas releases?

 

[Matt Hough]

I agree about the abandonment of this masterful series on DVD being disappointing. Only two seasons left from completion! Very hard to take.

 

[chadHobbick]

I think Shout! should take over this series and re-release the first three seasons w/new artwork and the existing extras and maybe a few more, interviews perhaps...idk really. Heck, if Shout! would do a complete series I would happily fork out the money just to complete the series.

 

[MatthewA]

If S3 tanked I can understand why. The generic credits (complete with a William Conrad impersonator) and worst of all, the bug that says "R&B" at the corner of the first 10 seconds of EVERY segment probably did more harm than good.

Who's doing Classic Media's releases now that Sony Wonder is no more?

 

[David Lambert]

Genius Entertainment is.


I've suggested to several of my industry contacts that if Season 3 tanked, then it was basically because it deserved to, for the reasons mentioned above. Whether that feedback got back to Classic, I have no idea. I have no direct contacts there.

 

[Mike*HTF]

Yes, I'd forgotten about that appalling watermark - still the show was really clever!

 

[Paul Miller]

I wonder if Sony took into account that there were two releases of Season 3, the Time Life exclusive one that was priced a lot higher that came out first and the second non exclusive one that was sold in stores.

 

[Mark Y]

I can understand that too, but then, all the issues mentioned also apply to all the other Rocky & Bullwinkle DVDs that have been released. However, the third volume was one I anticipated most eagerly, since it contained all Rocky & Bullwinkle storylines that are not included in the syndicated version of The Bullwinkle Show. I was very glad to see these segments made available. The history of these shows being repeated in different venues is an absolute mess. As I understand it, the DVDs were compiled from an international syndicated rerun package which seems to be more comprehensive than what we have in the US. In the US, there are two separate packages: one called The Bullwinkle Show, which mostly includes storylines originally aired under Rocky And His Friends, and another called Rocky And His Friends, which mostly contains storylines that originally aired on The Bullwinkle Show. The syndicated Rocky And His Friends package (that's how it's promoted, though the on-screen titles actually say The Rocky Show) has not been shown in Chicago since the late 1970s.

Nostalgia Family Video has released the entire US syndicated Bullwinkle Show on DVD (98 half-hours). They aren't out on DVD, though. They are public domain releases of variable quality from old syndicated 16mm prints. The final 20 shows contain storylines not out on DVD yet (apart from a few included on some of the "best of" single discs). Worth checking out, but don't expect digital restoration. No logo bugs, though.

 

[Corey3rd]

All the remaining segments could nicely fit in a final boxset.

But a problem this show has is a lack of exposure to new eyeballs. The last place it aired was the Black Family Channel before it went off the air.

 

[Mike*HTF]

Did you mean they are available only on VHS? or some other format?

 

[Mark Y]

Sorry! I meant to say they are available on VHS, not on DVD. (I am thinking that may be a way of keeping them "under the radar.") Some of the shows have appeared on those Digiview "Dollar DVDs" too.