Shout for Sony! (1 Viewer)

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Lambert

Bewitched (and Jeanie) sold VERY well. Simple as that.

And that's not at all surprising to me. In fact, I'd have been surprised if those 2 shows hadn't sold well.

Gary "I'd have bet the house on Bewitched and Jeannie finishing out on dvd when they first started being released" O.

 

[dhammer]

Out of that above list i would love to have:

1) SWAT season 2
2) Rookies seasons 2-4
3) Here Comes the Brides season 2
4)Flying Nun season 3

Not necessarily in that order. Everyone has their favorites. If a studio who owns the rights to a product and doesn't plan on releasing it, make a deal with someone who will- please.

 

[David Lambert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LizH

Speaking of Jeannie, how about releasing the two TV-movies ("I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years later" and "I Still Dream of Jeannie") to DVD?

I have no clue why Sony hasn't released those either on their own, or else included them with the "Complete" Jeannie release from a couple of years ago. I asked around at the time with my friends in the industry; nobody knew. And apparently the well-connected folks running the IDreamOfJeannie.com fansite didn't act like they knew why, either, so I guess I don't feel bad about not being able to find out. If the reasons for those being kept in the vault are being kept secret-ish, then maybe there's some sort of embarrassment factor somewhere there in the knowing? I dunno, Liz, I just dunno.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Originally Posted by Gary OS

Quote:

And that's not at all surprising to me. In fact, I'd have been surprised if those 2 shows hadn't sold well.

Gary "I'd have bet the house on Bewitched and Jeannie finishing out on dvd when they first started being released" O.

As a fan & collector of both, I'm sure glad they did (sell). As Dave said, it's a mystery why those 2 'Jeannie" TV movies weren't releasled in that complete set. Strange.

 

[whisperintherain]

I am very glad that BEWITCHED sold well and so did MOONLIGHTING, one of my favorite shows from the '80s. I wish DIFF'RENT STROKES and especially WHO'S THE BOSS? had been so lucky. These two shows were very popular worldwide in their time, I can't believe they did not sell.

I could definitely see Shout! taking DIFF'RENT STROKES on, since they've done PUNKY BREWSTER (which IMHO is the same type of sweet-natured, lesson-of-the-week, family-friendly comedy) and are picking up its spin-off THE FACTS OF LIFE but as of this moment, I'm not holding my breath for anything else. I don't want to get my hopes up for nothing, what is meant to happen will happen, I guess.

 

[Robert13]

That's funny, I was just thinking this same thing last night. I know all Jeannie fans would love to see these released as a double-feature set. It would definitely bring in big sales.

Originally Posted by LizH





Speaking of Jeannie, how about releasing the two TV-movies ("I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years later" and "I Still Dream of Jeannie") to DVD?

 

[Neil Brock]

Since we are talking about Sony, besides their long list of unfinished shows, lets also talk about the many shows in their vaults that they haven't touched.

Captain Midnight, Burns and Allen, Jungle Jim, Wild Bill Hickock, Tales of the Texas Rangers, Circus Boy, Casey Jones, Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers, Goodyear Theater, Ivanhoe, Manhunt, Tightrope, Man from Blackhawk, Two Faces West, Behind Closed Doors, Dan Raven, My Sister Eileen, Shannon, Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, The Hathaways, Empire, Farmer's Daughter, Dennis the Menace, The Ed Wynn Show, Adventures of the Seaspray, Camp Runamuck, Occasional Wife, Love on a Rooftop, Second Hundred Years, Grindl, Wackiest Ship in the Army, Redigo, Our Man Higgins, Hawk, The Iron Horse, The Outcasts, Ugliest Girl in Town, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Nancy, The Interns, The Young Rebels, Getting Together, Temperatures Rising, The Paul Lynde Show, The New Temperatures Rising, Ghost Story, Bridget Loves Bernie, Police Story, Girl With Something Extra, Needles and Pins, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, Nakia, The Good Life, Born Free, Hot L Baltimore, Medical Story, Joe Forrester, Matt Helm, Good Heavens, All's Fair, The Quest, The Nancy Wlaker Show, Sanford Arms, Gibbsville, Fantastic Journey, Feather and Father Gang, The American Girls, David Cassidy-Man Undercover, Salvage One, From Here to Eternity, Eischeid, Sanford, One in a Million

And that's only from the 50s thru 70s.

 

[Aryn Leroux]

Just to correct the info on Hart to Hart.. there are only 5 seasons + TV movies. I would love to see Shout! continue releasing this + TJ Hooker & Fantasy Island.

 

[LizH]

Originally Posted by David Lambert )

Why should they be embarrassed? I think they add something to the franchise (They show the evolution of the character. Jeannie is no longer a giggling teenager. She's matured and is now the mother of a teenage son.)

 

[David Lambert]

All right, I've asked Sony about those telefilms. I've posted about their response to that inquiry at the bottom of TVShowsOnDVD's "What's The Hold-up?" FAQ on our Facebook fan page (no FB acct is needed to view this):

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=129227617732

 

[LizH]

Thanks, David!


Response posted to WeDreamOfJeannie.Com

 

[Ron Lee Green]

Sorta related to topic, and may explain why Sony has abandoned so many TV shows on DVD:

Sony Pictures to lay off 450 as DVD sales fall

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., the studio behind the ``Spider-Man'' movie franchise, is laying off about 450 people and eliminating 100 open positions to cope with declining DVD sales.

The layoffs represent about a 6.5 percent reduction in the 6,800-strong work force at Sony Pictures, which released the Michael Jackson documentary ``This Is It'' and cataclysmic ``2012'' late last year. The studio also recently pushed back the release of ``Spider-Man 4'' by a year until 2012.

Most of the cuts at the studio, which is based in Culver City, will occur by the first week of March and will be in the home entertainment and information-technology units in the United States.

It's the second time in a year for the subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corp. to cut back.

Last March, it laid off nearly 250 people and eliminated nearly 100 open positions. That followed a move in October 2008 to reduce overtime, travel and executive benefits.

Staff were told of the latest cuts in a memo Monday and through videos by the studio co-chairs on an employee Web site.

``Our industry is affected by two things: It's affected by the economy, of course, and it's affected by technology,'' co-chair Amy Pascal says in the video. ``Over the last two years, it's changed people's DVD buying habits, which has had a huge effect on our company and the industry at large.''

The home video market is crucial for studios because that is where they recoup much of the cost of producing movies. Yet the market has been sagging as people refrain from adding to their already well-stocked home collections and turn to rentals, which are far less profitable for Hollywood.

U.S. home video revenue fell 5 percent in 2009 to $20 billion, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, an industry association of studios and electronics firms.

DVD rental and purchase revenues dropped 11 percent to $16.4 billion, the group said. That overwhelmed a 67 percent gain in Blu-ray disc spending to $1.5 billion and a 31 percent gain in online and video-on-demand revenues to $2.1 billion.

Sony Pictures posted a quarterly operating loss of 6.4 billion yen ($71 million) in the three months to Sept. 30, while Sony Corp. as a whole is forecasting a 95 billion yen ($1 billion) loss in the year to March.

 

[younger1968]

Good posting! I think the drop in dvd sales has been going on for a few years. I have been to Future Shop/Best Buy/Walmart and there sections are now only about 1 side of an aisle and about a two years ago there sections were 2 1/2 aisle.. I have budget myself and i have been focusing on some of new releases, but, there is enough of the old series out there or the inventory that i could buy existing stuff for a few years. I think the market will come back, but, maybe not to the degree it was prior to the recession.

The problem with the studios is they are not mapping out a strategy around releases and ended up putting out many releases, which some had very little support well others performed better. I think Sony will re-align it's releases and will watch the inventory levels around the dvds. I do not see much change this year.

 

[bretmaverick2]

Could the drop in sales partly be related to (in Sony's case) the lack of quality in some of the releases that they have put out (referring specifically to the TV material)?

How many times have we read on here that Sony has put out set using edited, syndicated versions of episodes instead of taking the time to restore and remaster material??

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by bretmaverick2

Could the drop in sales partly be related to (in Sony's case) the lack of quality in some of the releases that they have put out (referring specifically to the TV material)?

No. Catalog sales are down for every studio (which is why there's an explosion of MOD programs) so it's not like Sony is the only one not selling titles.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Originally Posted by bretmaverick2

Could the drop in sales partly be related to (in Sony's case) the lack of quality in some of the releases that they have put out (referring specifically to the TV material)?

How many times have we read on here that Sony has put out set using edited, syndicated versions of episodes instead of taking the time to restore and remaster material??

I don't think Sony was the worst offender in those cases. Their dvds seemed, for the most part, intact. I think it's got more to do with the current shift of home ownership of dvds as people are downloading everything instead.

I also think we're witnessing a trend away from tv dvds being placed in stores. We're witnessing a collector's niche market opening up for these older titles. I keep saying that I think Shout has the right idea; pretty soon all these kinds of shows will be available; but just to the people who really want them, not fickle impulse shoppers at Walmart.