Looks like Maverick will head to DVD... (1 Viewer)

Warner Home Video Celebrates 50 Years of Television History from Warner Bros. Television with a Year-Long Promotion Featuring Today's Hit Shows and All-Time Classic Series

BURBANK, Calif. -- Dec. 27, 2004 -- In 2005, as Warner Bros. Television (WBTV) celebrates 50 years as the leader in television entertainment, Warner Home Video (WHV) is launching a year-long promotion featuring first-time-available and catalog DVD releases of WBTV hits. The studio-wide campaign will include DVD releases of series that date back to Maverick, one of WBTV's earliest series, continuing through to recent hits, and will feature special promotions for retailers and consumers.

Warner Bros. Television is the #1 supplier of scripted series programming with 1,700 television properties, including episodic series, telefilms and miniseries. WBTV supplies two or more shows to each of the six broadcast networks and produced 25 series on the primetime 2003-2004 schedule -- a record for the television industry.

Warner Home Video has been a market leader in DVD since the inception in 1997 and is the market share leader of TV on DVD.

Showcasing more than 30 television series from WBTV's historical run, the 2005 DVD campaign includes star-making shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which catapulted Will Smith to fame, and Full House, which debuted Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. The first time release of highly rated shows such as Night Court and Murphy Brown, as well as subsequent season releases of Friends, West Wing and Smallville are included in the yearlong promotion.

"Warner Bros. has been a leader in producing exceptional television since the medium's inception," said Mike Saksa, WHV Senior Vice President, US Marketing. "Now, with the market growth of TV on DVD, retailers participating in the WBTV 50th Anniversary will benefit from a new generation of consumers who will experience these shows for the first time on DVD. TV on DVD offers retailers a unique commercial proposition of fast turning inventory with healthy margins. The 50th Anniversary is a retail solution to establishing dedicated space for the fastest growing segment of the packaged entertainment department."

WHV's year-long promotion will be driven by four promotional waves throughout 2005, each backed by comprehensive marketing efforts. The February 8th release of sitcoms from the '80s and '90s comprises the first wave and includes the complete first seasons of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Full House, The Jamie Foxx Show, Murphy Brown, Night Court and The Wayans Bros. Additional promotional waves will follow in June, September and November.

The promotion, branded as "50 Years of Quality Television," will enable retailers to bring together large quantities of WBTV titles in 24- and 36-unit corrugate merchandisers. Permanent fixtures will also be made available to create in-store excitement.

Saksa commented, "Limited retail shelf space has challenged retailers to find unique ways to drive continued DVD category growth and profitability. These colorful WBTV 50th Anniversary displays will enable retailers with limited space to merchandise large quantities of TV on DVD titles without cannibalizing other DVD segments. Additionally, the unprecedented marketing support will drive awareness for these displays and enable a wide consumer demographic to effectively shop for their favorite TV on DVD title."

Consumers will be motivated to purchase multiple titles as they can earn up to $50 in mail-in rebates with specially marked DVD sets.

The excitement of the WBTV 50th Anniversary continues for consumers as WHV will feature free commemorative TV compilation DVDs, on pack select new releases throughout 2005 that contain never-before-released WBTV episodes. These commemorative discs will contain up to one hour of content and will feature episodes from top-rated WBTV classic and contemporary series to showcase the breadth of WBTV's library.

The studio-wide campaign will leverage the strengths of other Time Warner divisions with WHV to extend awareness for the expanding WBTV on DVD library.

-- AOL will create a destination site to include a variety of interactive content and streaming clips.

-- WBTV will execute "programming stunts" including an all-day marathon that features some of the top-rated shows from the 50 years of WBTV.

-- Warner Bros. Consumer Products and WHV will partner to cross-promote the newly licensed "Scene-It" trivia game, exclusively themed to the 50 years of WBTV, through radio promotions.

WHV has developed a multi-million dollar advertising campaign to reach the core TV on DVD consumers including:

TV: NBC, Fox, The WB, Nick at Nite, TV Land, TBS

Print: People, Entertainment Weekly

Online: AOL, yahoo.com thewb.com

With operations in 89 international territories, Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video's film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.

I don't see any mention of "Maverick" in the article...You might want to amend the title.

Just quickly, Pavan...Are you privy to the titles they'll be releasing? I'm just eager for any news on the Spielberg/Warner cartoons.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

They are my own TV-On-DVD Holy Grail.

From the first paragraph ...

The studio-wide campaign will include DVD releases of series that date back to Maverick, one of WBTV's earliest series, continuing through to recent hits, and will feature special promotions for retailers and consumers.

I can't get anything out of WHV on the titles. They are keeping it hush it seems. I guess we will have to wait for the official release news from the great TVShowsOnDVD.com

Okay, I see it now...

I thought that "Maverick" would stand out more or at least have its' announcement be more pronounced. Just burying the title in the first paragraph swerved me.

Also, it's too bad you don't have more info. I really have lost all hope that the Spielberg cartoons will come to DVD. Forgive me for repeating myself, but we'll probably get deluxe sets of "Jabberjaw" and "Pac-Man" before we even get a best-of for "Tiny Toons" or "Pinky And The Brain".

Yeah, I know that marketing proves that the titles are popular, but I just wish that Warner would lavish some of the attention they're giving the Hanna-Barbera library onto the Spielberg cartoons. I don't want to be stuck with the edited-for-time-and-content 30 reruns of TTA and 40 reruns of A! that Nicktoons TV airs. It's gotten to the point where I can identify a TTA episode within 5 seconds, that's how repetitive it is.

So, anybody else lost hope for the Spielberg titles?

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

And yes, I've voted for these shows at TVShowsOnDVD.

I can't believe this thread isn't buzzing. Got my set today. This is the last real holy grail DVD series I want and don't have. Hope the prints are good and the episodes whole.

Reviews anybody ?

I watched the first three episodes yesterday (wanted to see the first Samantha Crawford episode). Transfers looked great and even though running time is a hair under 50 minutes, I believe that is uncut.
I was surprised the theme song was an instrumental only this first season.

Wow. Can you believe how literate, fast-paced and clever these stories are? Back when television dramas were still based on books, short stories, and plays instead of recycled and diluted TV series, comic books or half-baked high concepts. There is more story and twists packed into one episode here than most series deliver in three or four. And the first episode was directed by classic western director Budd Boetticher.
How does it look? My first, non-expert impression is that these prints are NOT re-mastered - they don't look as crisp or sharp as, say, "The Virginian" sets, but they still look pretty damn good for a show from 1957. The sound is fine, as well. (So much for my techical reporting). But, even though I've seen these many times in the distant past, I am still shocked just how much story is packed into each episode, as well as the attention to detail in the sets. This was when studios truly were putting their best face forward to attract television audiences. And you don't get a better face (or more charming lead) than James Garner.

Hollywoodaholic said:

Wow. Can you believe how literate, fast-paced and clever these stories are? Back when television dramas were still based on books, short stories, and plays instead of recycled and diluted TV series, comic books or half-baked high concepts. There is more story and twists packed into one episode here than most series deliver in three or four. And the first episode was directed by classic western director Budd Boetticher.
How does it look? My first, non-expert impression is that these prints are NOT re-mastered - they don't look as crisp or sharp as, say, "The Virginian" sets, but they still look pretty damn good for a show from 1957. The sound is fine, as well. (So much for my techical reporting). But, even though I've seen these many times in the distant past, I am still shocked just how much story is packed into each episode, as well as the attention to detail in the sets. This was when studios truly were putting their best face forward to attract television audiences. And you don't get a better face (or more charming lead) than James Garner.

Click to expand...

Yes Maverick is a well written and produced show similar to Cheyenne. I was surprised when watching that show as well that they feel more like movies than TV episodes with the Warner Brothers Polish evident everywhere.

I am so happy to have this product in my hands!!!
MAVERICK is my all time favorite western series.
I purchased episodes of the series when offered by Columbia House years ago but many of those tapes have broken or have 'scratches' in them at this point.
The reviews so far are exactly on the mark regarding how much story is packed into each episode.
Garner and Kelly each do great jobs in their performances of the Maverick brothers. And I have always thought that each one brought their "A" game in the episodes that they shared.
I so hope that this will lead to a Season 2 soon!

Originally Posted by bretmaverick2 /t/200690/looks-like-maverick-will-head-to-dvd#post_3932660
I so hope that this will lead to a Season 2 soon!

Click to expand...

Me too. I've waited years for this one and hope they release the rest without undue delay.

---------------

I've been waiting for Maverick to arrive on DVD for *years* and did a very rare for me pre-order as soon as it was available. My copy arrived yesterday. I watched the first episode last night and am a very happy camper! The video on episode 1 looks very good and the audio is actually audible. There are subtitles available should you want to watch late night, as I often do, without disturbing the rest of the family. It's been decades since I've seen this program. I could be surprised by later episodes but it truly seems that everything that is Maverick is in that first episode and the series just got better over time. My *only* issue is the decision by the film-makers to have the banjo part on the theme song be partially mistuned! I could partially understand had they used a piano as a mistuning would be in keeping with the locations (saloon where there's no one who knows how to keep one in tune) but a banjo would be tuned properly! Other than that the music sounds correct - that is it's the pitch I remember which indicates it's not been sped up. According to IMDB the run time for the episodes is 50 minutes so the lengh is correct as well if their run time is accurate.
Even the packaging is done well! When I first opened it I was expecting another crappy digi-pak due to the slip-case, but discovered a large keep-case with pages inside! It's very nice to *not* receive yet another treasured series in a digi-pak or worse!
I'm now hoping, like the rest of you, that the remaining seasons will be released quickly and on *pressed* disks. If that's the case, as soon as season 2 goes up for sale I'll place an order!

I plan on adding it

Besides the strength of the characters of Bret, Bart and the not seen in the first seasons Pappy, this show is packed with so many strong supporting characters!! Samantha Crawford, Big Mike McComb, and on and on.
I bought the DVD of THE NEW MAVERICK when it was first released years ago.
This is another case when I am hoping that strong sales on this series will see an eventual release of BRET MAVERICK and YOUNG MAVERICK!!
(Yeah, I know - I am still waiting for that release of SANFORD (post Sanford & Son).

I still yearn for more Maverick - and you know the squeaky wheel gets the grease!
More Maverick, please Warner's!

B & W release of the year, as far as I'm concerned. Every episode was a delight. Great stories. Great characters. And I loved all the stock WB western footage they use throughout the series. The quality of this show really puts to shame most television series to date for literacy and what you deliver an audience as full entertainment. Just an outstanding home run of a DVD set (sans extras, though).
Yes, bring on season two.

I don't really mind the lack of extras. I have purchased sets with a lot of extras that I have never taken the time to watch.
And I continue to hold out hope for seasons 2-5 of this series. And then collections of BRET MAVERICK and even YOUNG MAVERICK.
Hey, I can always hope!!!!

The Remaining season are most likely coming out through the Warner Archive just like Eight is Enough. With Season 2 a strong possibility in the 1st Quarter of 2013. Its been hinted at on Facebook but not confirmed.

Releasing these via MOD will be a real disappointment is that is what WHV decides to do. The first season was a fine release and I'd like to see later ones continue that trend. CBS/P has released to retail multiple seasons of their westerns (Gunsmoke, Bonanza, HGWT, Rawhide), and for WHV to relegate one of their flagship series to MOD would be a disservice to the show and its fans.

Steve...O said:

Releasing these via MOD will be a real disappointment is that is what WHV decides to do.    The first season was a fine release and I'd like to see later ones continue that trend.   CBS/P has released to retail multiple seasons of their westerns (Gunsmoke, Bonanza, HGWT, Rawhide), and for WHV to relegate one of their flagship series to MOD would be a disservice to the show and its fans.

Click to expand...

Only if the price is higher. But if the price is the same, I say bring on the MOD!