Want more Night Court season sets? Then you'd better purchase the "TV Favorites"! (1 Viewer)

[Ethan Riley]

I had a minor theory why Night Court season one didn't sell: it was psychological. It looked like a single dvd release and yet it cost $29.95. People thought they weren't getting a bargain. If the packaging had been a bit bigger people may have taken it more seriously. Just a theory.

 

[Tony S]

The latest Family Guy episode was called, "The Father, The Son, & The Holy Fonz."

Here is the episode description from tv.com:
When Peter’s dad visits the Griffins, he tries to impose his religious beliefs on the family. But after a mishap leaves Stewie stuck living in a bubble, Peter searches for a new religion finding faith in his television hero the Fonz. But “Happy Days” are not quite here as the newly established Church of the Fonz struggles to retain its members

Lets just say it is filled with plenty of Happy Days references, parodies, & gags. It is scheduled to repeat thursday night at 11:30 eastern on Cartoon Network. This was IMO one of the funniest episodes of FG in a while. You should check it out if you missed it.

 

[tim cat]

I'am a BIG fan of Night Court especially all the episodes featuring super fox Markie Post. Which is why I wish Warner Bros. would just skip season 2 and release season 3 and higher...NOW!!! I was watching back to back episodes of Night Court every Tuesday night on TV Land from 6pm to 8pm. featuring Markie Post until they just pulled the plug on that! Guess I'll be forced to buy the "Best Of" dvd on Feb.28th to see my favorite hottie. Nice going TV Land. Swear to God that they must have a drunk monkey working in a backroom making up there weekly tv schedules.

 

[Nick_TV]

Did anyone else have a hard time finding the TV Favories Night Court DVD at Best Buy? I went to my local Best Buy and they said that they weren't going to carry it in store. It's only available through the website. Fortunately, my local Fry's had it. Anyone else not find it at Best Buy? I'm wondering if it's just my local one or if it's nationwide.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

My local Best Buy didn't seem to have it, either. People are sure going to have a hard time showing their support for season sets if they don't even know this is out.

Honestly, I still don't understand the "testing the waters" theory. The people that want season sets (and don't read websites) are going to wait for season sets and not buy the "Best-Of" collections. And it's likely that most people who buy the "Best-Of" sets are not the ones who would go for season sets.

I dunno; I'm still mulling it over. I don't like this principle. However, I want to "show my support," and if this is the only way to get season sets released, then I may go for it.

But not if I can't find it. :rolleyes

 

[Scott_J]

Normally, I agree with you. But in the case of Night Court, Warner already tried the season set route and it apparently didn't do well - so now they're trying something else. They gave the show's fans a chance at seasons and the fans (largely) didn't get it.

 

[Charles Ellis]

It's all Warners' fault. They should've combined Seasons One and Two into one package and then release Season Three with Markie Post shortly afterwards. Both News Radio and Just Shoot Me did this, and now Sony plans to do the same with The Facts Of Life. This is a rare major gaffe for the otherwise excellent TV division of Warner Bros. Home Video.

 

[ElijahS]

But in those cases, either the first season was extremely short (NewsRadio and Just Shoot Me), or both seasons were shorter than the standard (The Facts Of Life). Going the way you suggest, they would've released a set with, what, 35-39 episodes? There might be a reason Warner Bros. didn't do that.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Right, because - as we all know - if you put 2 seasons in the same box you halve your production costs. Newsradio got a combined S1/S2 box because it was a mid-season replacement and the "first season" was only 7 episodes long. Just Shoot Me's first season was 6 episodes long. It makes sense to do combo release in a case like that, because the per episode cost of doing a 7 episode S1 release would result in too high a retail price, and a bad test for interest in the show. The extra cost of mastering those 6 or 7 episodes to include with S2 wasn't that high.

Night Court had a half-season order for its first season, and did 13 episodes. That puts it more on the bubble for the kind of release you're talking about. You can sell a 13 episode "season" set. It is much harder with 6 or 7. The first season of Facts of Life was 13 episodes - but the second was only 16, for a total of 29. That's not much more than the usual 22 episode season. Sony may just be making a slightly different economic calculation.

NC had 22 episodes in its second and later seasons. To do commit to producing 35 episodes of a series in advance of putting even one on sale is either an act of supreme confidence of total folly. Paramount committed to doing all of the seasons of each of the Trek shows in advance because their 30+ years of merchandising experience with the franchise made them certain they would sell. That's how they maintained such an agressive release schedule (7 seasons of TNG in six months) and why they were able to charge such a high price.)

Warner Bros. initially committed only a single double-feature TV movie release for Babylon 5, then grudgingly green-lit the first season based on that disc's sales. But S1 sold so well that they started producing extras and mastering episodes for seasons 2 and 3 almost immediately, and were thus able to accelerate their release schedule.

WB decided that it would make no economic sense to nearly double their production costs on an untested series and then try to sell the public 2 seasons of a show at a substantial premium over comparable sets. Because, as with all DVD releases, upwards of 70 percent of the production cost of a disc or set comes before replication, packaging and distribution, and would have to be recouped either way.

Regards,

Joe

 

[tim cat]

Here in Northeastern Ohio the Night Court:TV Favorites dvd was not in Best Buy or Circuit City stores on Tuesday. However I did find and purchase it at Wal-Mart. Now if Warner Bros. would just start releasing full uncut seasons of Night Court on dvd. In the meantime at least now I've got episodes featuring Markie Post.

 

[Nick_TV]

Seems like the TV Favorites DVD is hard to find unless you're looking for it. Looks like it's not just my local Best Buy that doesn't carry it. Can someone explain to me how Warner intends to test the waters if the testing DVD set is not widely available? I am mostly concerned with Night Court & The Drew Carey Show. Both deserve season releases and both are being tested with TV Favorites releases now. Does Warner know that only a limited number of stores are carrying these DVDs in store? Will they take that into consideration when determining if the TV Favories releases sold enough copies? Doesn't make sense....

 

[ElijahS]

I seriously don't think that Warner Bros. is expecting for the Television Favorites line to sell as well as the target for season sets. I'm sure there's a lower number of units that need to be sold for consideration for season sets.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Well, it isn't like Warner Bros, can dictate what Best Buy, CC, et. al. stock or how or where they display their wares. All they can do is produce the stuff and try to get it out there. And, again, nobody is suggesting that WB is deliberately doing this as a test, as there is no evidence that they are. The argument is simply that, having abandoned the season sets, the only thing that could make WB reconsider a Night Court release is unexpectedly good sales for this sampler featuring some of the Markie Post episodes.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Elijah:

I must have been composing my reply while you were posting yours. I'm annoyed to see that you made several of the same points I did in far fewer words.

Joe

 

[tim cat]

Warner Bros.: More Markie Post episodes...PLEASE!!!

 

[Al.Anderson]

My local BB also didn't have this, so I ordered through Amazon. (And bought 4 other whim DVDs, I have no self control!)

I had only skimmed this thread and went for the "support the cause" theme. I just noticed the post that said the DVD has only 2 of a 4-part series. Had I seen that I would have passed. Oh well, hope it registers on the sale-o-meter.

 

[Charles Ellis]

Here in NYC it's on sale at J&R Music World for under $10. You can also check out their website- here's a direct link to get the TV Favorites disc:

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4079199[/URL

 

[Charles Ellis]

Let me try that again:

http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4079199[/url]

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Charles:

You can post a link simply by typing the URL without using the bulletin board code. The {URL} tag (wavy brackets used so it doesn't actually do anything in this post ) is used for posting a clickable hyperlink in plain text that hides the URL.

In your example you'd use this (replacing the parentheses with straight brackets) :

(URL=http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4079199)TV Favorites(/URL)

Anyway, that should work, but for some reason I can't get it to work in this post to demonstrate the fact.

Joe