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The beginning of the end for classic shows? (1 Viewer)

Jeff Willis

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Gord, Dave....HELP Is it true? We're all seeing the same trend. There might be some hope though, since if I recall, the last 2 years have seen some pretty good release announcements in the 1st quarter, Jan-Mar. That's when "Time Tunnel", "Voyage....Sea", "Rat Patrol" were released, to name a few. Maybe we'll see that again, or maybe Gord and Dave are working on one of those patented "Coming Soon" lists in time for a Christmas present for us HTF'ers :)
 

Bill>Moore

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I agree with those who have said that some profit is better than no profit at all. You'd think that getting something would be helpful, but the big picture is always elusive to us simpletons outside the Big Meeting Room.

With Voyage's releases, I'm near the end of getting my long-time Must Have shows. Hopefully I'll get all of that show. Still waiting on word for the remainder of The Partridge Family. Compared to many other collectors though, I've been pretty fortunate in getting the shows I'd like.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but perhaps there's a future in downloads or something. Probably not in the form we'd like to see them, but if the only alternative is never seeing some of these shows again, there may be little choice. Hopefully the studios will see the light and get back to business on these classic releases.
 

Dave Scarpa

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I tried one dl frm Amazon there were some issues with playing the version they offer for the portable player, licensing issues, but that was in the early days, so maybe they fixed that, the quality of the firefly ep I dl was excellent , much better than the Itunes DL's they were encoded at 720x352.
 

Joe Lugoff

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Well, finally, an announcement on tvshowsondvd.com about a show from the 1960s, specifically "The Big Valley."

But, in announcing half of Season Two, we're told:

"It's clear that the first season didn't sell well..."

So that's some evidence that those of us who said the "classic" shows don't sell well might have been right.
 

Carlos Garcia

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Interesting. However, does anyone know whether these downloads are for DVD quality, and can we burn these episodes onto DVD for keep? Or is this just a rental and destroy thing?
 

Bob Gu

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Right now, THE BIG VALLEY, has a DVD sales rank of 2617 at amazon.com. That rank puts THE BIG VALLEY in the TOP 3.3% of DVD titles selling at Amazon. What is the evidence that it is not selling?
 

Joe Lugoff

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I'm just repeating what TVShowsonDVD said --- they seem to know, but maybe they're wrong.
 

TravisR

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A sales rank of 2,600 isn't exactly huge. Star Wars: Episode III is at 145 and it's been out for nearly a year. Band Of Brothers has been out for years and it's at 76. Granted those are very popular titles but even an overall small title like One Tree Hill S3 is at 96.
 

Bob Hug

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Carlos, here's a partial description from Amazon . . .

"Price for each video includes both a DVD-quality video to watch on your PC or TV, and a video file optimized for compatible portable video players."

Further . . .

"Can I make a DVD from my Amazon Unbox downloads?

You can store your downloaded files on a DVD or other removable computer storage device for the purpose of backup in the same format as the original files. However, any DVDs that you burn with Amazon Unbox files will not be readable by a DVD player. You can only view the files using Amazon Unbox installed on the computer that originally received the downloads.."

Right now, Amazon is selling the LOTG episodes for $1.99 each but, as a special trial, they are offering a $1.99 rebate, so you can get one episode at no cost. Check the system specifications though.
 

michael_ks

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Considering that this is a barely 3 year old soap opera aimed at teenyboppers who will purchase just about any sophomoric entry that features "beautiful people" and that this set was released less than a month ago, I'd say that gooses its sales figures somewhat. "Big Valley" was released back in May, so it's not a completely fair comparison.
 

Bill>Moore

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Thanks for the tip, Bob. Very interesting. I like the idea, but obviously if Amazon goes away, so does your ability to play the eps. Not that I expect Amazon to disappear anytime soon...
 

Gary OS

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Hilarious! And oh how true it is. I think that's the thing that bothers me most about the entire TVonDVD market. I realize all too well that the whole industry is driven by money, and it's hard to complain about that. But it's the inequity of seeing newer shows released that aren't even considered halfway decent by today's viewing audience while classics linger on the studio shelves. For instance, how the devil is a show like "Stacked" getting a release before a classic like "The Fugitive"? It's absolutely ignorant crap like that that bothers me so bad. It's just so unfair, no matter what generation you come from.

Gary "the whole thing is maddening" O.
 

Jeff Willis

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You guys said it....for sure. It's a very frustrating hobby... the TV/DVD collecting game.

- Jeff "Releasing the Fugitive ain't Rocket Science" W. (sig format borrowed by permission of Gary OS :) )
 

MatthewA

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For one thing, I don't think the people running the studios even care for pre-1990s shows. While you may see an occasional set get the TLC that was afforded to Lucy and Dick Van Dyke (The Odd Couple, Get Smart), most shows will have minimal effort put in for an attempt at maximum profits. MGM/Fox won't even obtain the rights to use a song on the Addams Family that Lumivision did go to the trouble to procure on laserdisc.

There are some shows that no one remembers and no one wants on DVD, literally. We aren't talking about those shows.

Independent companies don't have 100 shows to throw to the wall and see which one sticks. Yet with their limited resources companies such as Shout!, Image, Anchor Bay, and others manage to do better work on shows from all eras of TV, including Golden and Silver Age shows than Sony has done on most any show that doesn't start with "Sein" and end with "Feld" (the restorations of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, as good as they look, were not done specifically for DVD, and extras have been negligible). And they aren't abandoning these shows to the wolves after 1 season. Can you see Universal doing the work that Shout! Factory did on The Bill Cosby Show, You Bet Your Life, or That Girl? Would Sony have done justice to The Dick Van Dyke Show or The Twilight Zone the way Image did? MPI isn't going broke from releasing The Rifleman or The Doris Day Show.
 

Charles Ellis

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And let's not forget, MPI first got a name in the business by releasing all 1225 episodes of Dark Shadows on home video!! Let's see Fox, Warners, Sony, Paramount, or Universal top that achievement!
 

MatthewA

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Good point, Charles. I don't think Sony would even start on similar collections of Days of Our Lives or The Young and the Restless.
 

Gary OS

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That's for sure, Jeff. That's for sure!

Gary "as a side note on this discussion about older shows not being accepted by the younger generation - I've shown episodes of THE FUGITIVE to many teens and people in their 20's, and in every single instance they fell in love with the show - it's that good!!!" O.
 

Michael Alden

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I have a friend, not that young, but a little too young to have seen the Fugitive in prime time. Really in NY, it wasn't an easy show to see. It ran on ABC daytime for a while, then one of the stations had it once a week at like 2AM. The only other airings would have been the A&E run in the early 90s. So he had never really seen the show until NBC ran the 3 episodes in the summer in conjunction with the movie. Anyway, he watched those and liked it so I made him up some tapes of episodes. He loved it and told me each one was better than the last. The Fugitive is the greatest drama series that has ever aired on American television (sorry Buffy fans). But hey, more important to put out Stacked and other such nonsense.
 

Dave Scarpa

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Boy compare what A&E used to run with what they are doing now, boy has cable channels gone downhill
 

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