Does anyone work at these studios over the age of 40? (1 Viewer)

I think part of the problem with getting older shows out is that the people making the decisions don't know them. If these bigwigs grew up in the 80s or even the 70s for that matter, they would have no concept as to how popular shows like Man from UNCLE, Mission Impossible, Get Smart, The Fugitive and many more were in their era. Even a show like Here Come the Brides, which made Bobby Sherman a teen idol. Are you telling me that all of the millions of girls who went crazy for him (and the show) wouldn't go nuts if they saw the show on DVD? There's a whole world of people out there that are just not being catered to, either by the DVD market, which is still being geared 95% to recent shows or by channels like TV Land, who think there are about 10 old shows worth running or by Nick at Nite which has abandoned their original audience in favor of gen-x. There are other great comedies from the 50s besides I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver. There was more to the 60s than Star Trek and Batman. Unfortunately no one in charge seems to realize it.

Mostly marketing and targeting the audience who has money to spend and is willing to spend it. Do you really think there are that many people out there who grew up watching the Man from UNCLE who would now spend $50 to have it in a DVD set? I doubt it. Yes, many of us remember it fondly, but not many of us would line up to buy it. I might -- not certainly but might -- but looking around at friends in my age group, I would be in a very small minority by just even thinking about it.

Its funny but when I was in my 20s and trying to get a career going, I didn't have money to spend on hobbies and the like. Its only in the last 15 years that I've made enough that I can afford to indulge myself and I alot about a grand a month to buying what I want, including records, CDs and DVDs. I just find it amusing that now that I have more disposable income than at any time in my life, I'm looked upon as being someone who shouldn't be marketed to and someone who won't buy products targeted at me. Strange.

Seems to me that most 40somethings with all that disposable income, though, don't spend it on TV shows on DVD. They're buying minivans and SUVs and remodeling their kitchens.

Actually, I'm a convention-going type who grew up in the '60s. Man from UNCLE is still a huge fandom, and there are probably a lot more people who would buy this on DVD than you'd expect. I'd be curious to know how the DVD release of the UNCLE compilation movies did in the UK.

Mark, please don't take this as being rude (it's not meant to be) but how many threads do we need compaining about where all the classics are? I think many of us have outlined why we feel the new shows outnumber the classic ones; do we need to do it again?

Gord

"Mark, please don't take this as being rude (it's not meant to be) but how many threads do we need compaining about where all the classics are? I think many of us have outlined why we feel the new shows outnumber the classic ones; do we need to do it again?"


Actually, as many as need be to get the studios off their asses and to start releasing the shows I want to buy. It's the baby boomers that created the TV collecting hobby 25 years ago. While the 20-somethings were still in their playpens, we were the ones buying VCRs for $1000 and blank tapes for $20. And, sorry, but people in the last 20 or so years have had the option (until recently) to record perfect quality off-air network masters of any shows they liked, maybe not as good as DVD quality, but still nice. For shows from pre-1978, that option didn't exist.
I actually don't mind that now that I'm over the 18-34 demographic nothing is targeted at me. What I do mind is that when I was young, no one gave a shit about targeting young viewers. The Monkees (cancelled) would have had huge ratings among young viewers, had anyone even cared about young viewers then. Star Trek (cancelled) was in the same boat. Probably two dozen more shows were in that category. I don't know anyone who was in elementary school thru High School who didn't watch Camp Runamuck and Hank on Friday nights on NBC. Needless to say, adults didn't, shows got cancelled.

I'm sorry you had a rough childhood ;-> But a lot of shows got canceled with good ratings at the whim of the network because there were only four networks and they controled television.

All I can say is that the people who actually spend the money has changed. In this day and age, those shows wouldn't have been canceled. You were just unfortunately born in the wrong age.

But I think you are missing something, a lot of the older shows which aren't on DVD right now are because they didn't do a good job of syndicating their product after the program went off the air.

Dick Van Dyke, Mr. Ed, Munsters, I Love Lucy, Gilligan's Island, Honeymooners, Columbo, Batman, Dallas, Barney Miller, and Green Acres are all out there or are scheduled to be put on DVD in the near future.

If you notice something, they all did a great job with syndication. While a Man Called Uncle was a great show, they did not.

Give the studios time, this TV on DVD thing is still rather new, they have been putting a lot of TV out on DVD and if they believe there is a market for it, they will sell it.

Paul

I would be the first in line to buy the classics as they are released. I just bought Have Gun Will Travel, The Flintstones, The Outer Limits, and The Judy Garland Show. So there is an audience for these shows but they only choose to target the under 30 crowd.

The older show I would love to be released more extensively is the Burns & Allen Show they show on TV Land on Sunday Mornings or maybe even the Jack Benny Show.

With Shout Factory releasing old episodes of You Bet Your Life, it gives me hope that eventually someone will release them.

Paul

I don't watch any new show, so why would I buy them? I've bought Dick Van Dyke, The Flintstones, Jonny Quest, Scooby Doo, The Jetsons, The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, Mary Tyler Moore, Lost In Space, and many more pre-80s classics. In fact, I look forward to the golden oldies. My wallet is loaded and ready to spend on my favorite old TV shows, however Hollywood doesn't seem to want my money. Instead they prefer to dish out today's reality shows which have zero re-watchability. Thanks to Hollywood, I may not have most of the shows I want on DVD, but my wallet keeps getting fatter everyday

In 1966 the Man from U.N.C.L.E. was voted by the Foreign Press Association as the world's favourite television show. It obviously still has an extensive fan base who'd be more than willing to purchase this series on DVD, my friends and I bought region free DVD players just so that we could watch R2 episodes of this series from England along with other hard to see films.
Keep on fighting the good fight Mark, if enough of us kick up a stink maybe it'll finally dawn on someone at the studios that there's gold to be found in many of those unreleased TV classics not just last week's latest so-called "reality" show.

Five TV shows alone from the early '70s and before came out Tuesday on DVD in season sets: The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, The Waltons, Have Gun Will Travel and more three-episode volumes of Naked City.

When have that many classic TV shows ever come out on one day?

As I wrote in Tuesday's paper (with one addition), here are some of the TV shows from the 1970s and earlier that are being planned for release on DVD in multidisc sets, according to TV Shows on DVD and other sources (with release date, if known; most should be out by the end of the year):

• "Adventures of Superman"

• "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"

• "The Andy Griffith Show"

• "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century"

• "Challenge of the Super Friends" (July 6)

• "Dallas"

• "Diff'rent Strokes" (Sept. 14)

• "The Dukes of Hazzard" (June 1)

• "Happy Days"

• "Here's Lucy" (Aug. 17)

• "Hogan's Heroes"

• "Land of the Lost" (June 22)

• "Laverne & Shirley"

• "Mork & Mindy"

• "The Munsters" (Aug. 24)

• "Night Gallery"

• "The Partridge Family"

• "Spider-Man," 1967 (June 29)

• "Taxi"

• "Top Cat"

• "Wacky Races"

• "Wonder Woman" (June 29)

Those are just DVD debuts, and don't include continuing season sets. How can you look at that list and say studios are ignoring older shows? Granted, those are mostly highly popular older shows, but the rest will come.

As Paramount's Martin Blythe said for my article: "The only advice for fans is to be patient like they were for the major film titles like 'Indiana Jones,' " he said, referring to the popular movie trilogy that Paramount finally issued last year on DVD after years of fan requests. "Most of the great TV shows will hit DVD sooner or later, and it doesn't make any sense to issue them all in a rush; the market couldn't support that."

[How can you look at that list and say studios are ignoring older shows? Granted, those are mostly highly popular older shows, but the rest will come.]

Well, yes we can be patient if we know that some people at the studios are sincerely committed to a steady stream of quality releases of vintage, lesser known shows. Those of us familiar with the history of smaller independent television stations know that these old gems often find their way onto program schedules for a year or two. When the station establishes a foundation among viewers, it abandons classic shows in favor of recent popular shows. Witness TVLand on a large scale. From the advertising on TVLand these days, you would think that Cheers or All in the Family are nuggets from the Golden Age of Television (no offense to fans of either show).

Fans of black and white era shows want more than a few bones thrown at them. If studios like Fox can improve on how they handled the MTM Show, there is a potential customer base waiting to be tapped.

When was "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" ever mentioned for DVD?

Yes, I too would like to know this.
My eyebrows were raised when I read that in Randy's post above.

Just checked TVShowsOnDVD.com and there's no listing for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" on the site (not even an initial unsubstantiated rumor that I could locate).

I think that above "To Come" list could also include the great anthology series from the 1950s, "The Loretta Young Show" (aka: "Letter To Loretta").

At least there was a solid rumor re. that show a while back.

I've been waiting for Alfred Hitchcock Presents to hit the DVD market for the last 5 yrs, and I haven't heard anything to date, so I too would like to know where this info came from.