Where Are The Good Shows? (1 Viewer)

I can't believe all the crap that's being released,on DVD.Where are the good shows?It seems that the studios take more pride in releasing all these terrible shows,which are pretty recent,than they do in releasing older shows,from the 70s & 80s,which are far better.

That's because they think today's society works and makes money to buy the stuff they watched on TV just last night. We older folks who enjoy stuff from the 70s and before are supposed to be on our last legs. They probably figure we don't spend money on DVDs, only on Depends. Too bad because I have several hundred dollars just waiting to spend on shows like Get Smart, The Odd Couple, Batman, Love American Style, The Mothers-In-Law, etc...But alas, no one cares about us old folks...Guess I'll just have to stock up on Depends instead.

The one I liked is that we are too busy spending money remodeling our kitchens. Actually, I spend my money on 1) Blank DVDs to transfer over my shows from tape that I know will never come out and 2) Buying bootlegs on ebay of the shows I don't have on tape that I know will never come out.

Except that Carlos, some of the newer shows never made it. Where is Season 2 of 'Joan of Arcadia' and Seasons 2 & 3 of 'American Dreams'?

Meanwhile, the complete series of 'Tabitha' comes out. This is all in good fun, but can you explain THAT?

No, I think that the entire TV on DVD market is a crapshoot. They are picking titles and seasons out at random (Law & Order is the best example of that).

I have slowed down biuying TV seasons until I can at least understand their plan.

Glenn

Where's The Untouchables?

Glenn: it's clear that "Tabitha" came out only because they were (feebly) trying to tie it in with the (stupid) "Bewitched" movie that came out last year. American Dreams seasons two and three didn't come out because there's allllll those music rights issues and the fact that the show didn't do too well; sales on vol. one weren't nearly enough to continue it on dvd. It totally sucks, but what can we do? Speaking of American Dreams, have you found a bootleg of that? Cause believe me, I'm prepared to get it at this point!

Sorry Ethan - I don't go in for boots. I have learned my lesson, though - I'm recording everything I would like to get on DVD, so if it doesn't come out or gets cancelled, I'm covered. When a show does come out, my copies get trashed.

Getting the rest of 'American Dreams' would be nice, though. What is truly sad is how shows get cancelled thesee days. What if all of the rating systems were not really correct? How many people have just given up on TV shows for fear they will get into it, and then find out that the show got thw axe?

Glenn

One of my taping partners recorded them all to DVD when they originally aired, as we have been doing with any shows we cared about for several years, so it's not an issue for me. Record it, and then if it comes out and you buy it commercially, not a big deal as GOOD Japanese blank discs run about 30 cents now. I can afford the $3.30 to record a season of 1 hour shows and chuck them if it gets released to DVD. If not, I know I have it. Only way to go.

As we have seen from postings on this board, many people are too lazy to do this and then whine when they don't get the shows put out for them. Much easier IMO to be pro-active and do it yourself.

I'm about to the point of buying a bootleg of Daria i've got both movies and have been waiting ever since MTV canceled it for the box set as far as taping it off theN they have cut so bad it's not worth it ,But getting back to the subject most DVD's are aimed at younger buyers not the people who remember how great TV use to be.

Their plan is to maximize profits through marketable products. What's so difficult to understand?

How about this from an old geezer, on the top side of 50. I really think TV is in a golden age right now. There is as much if not more excellent product being put on the air now as there ever has been. I'm tired of reading these posts from people that say everything now is crap, let's bring back the good old days of The Mothers-In-Law, Love American Style, My Mother The Car and all that other old crap.

Geez, wake up and smell the coffee, people, and open your eyes to something new and fresh.

Ummm -- I think I'll remain asleep. Yeah, I smell the coffee. And it's stale.

Yes. Why waste your time with "Naked City", "Mr. Peepers", "MASH", "The Defenders", "Studio One", "Playhouse 90", "Route 66", "Stoney Burke", "He & She" etc. etc., when you can wallow in the golden age of "Pepper Dennis", "The War At Home", marketing-driven teen-angst classics ("The O.C.", "One Tree Hill", "Everwood", "The Bedford Diaries"); a wealth of scripted "reality shows" (repleat with "golden" segments of bug-eating and vomiting); the endless glorifying of dysfunction with "Maury", "Jerry Springer", "Montel Williams", "Judge_____ (fill in the blank); sitcoms that can't survive without an endless string of sex jokes underscored by an overactive laugh track.

It's interesting that when GSN attempted "something new and fresh", they had to scramble to regain the rights to the classic Goodson-Todman library of 1950's-60's game shows. The audience and the ratings clearly indicated that these classics were what the audience wanted to see.

If today represents "the golden age", I shudder to think about how low television will stoop tomorrow.

LOL! Well said! Though as funny as it is, it still makes you want to cry. I imagine there's nothing as "wonderful" as being a child today and getting to decide between Jerry Springer or COPS at 9 in the morning these days!

I'm personally more pleased with vintage TV on DVD now than I was a year and more ago. I can buy VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, the remaining 1961-62 episodes of THE AVENGERS (thus completing the series, plus a disc of extras I've been wanting for years), the 1950s INVISIBLE MAN, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS Season 1, the first two seasons of LEAVE IT TO BEAVER, TIME TUNNEL, the first two seasons of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, more MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, RIPPING YARNS, DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET, AT LAST THE 1948 SHOW, the 1974 Japanese series TALES OF ZATOICHI, the final volumes of URUSEI YATSURA, three especially good episodes of MAVERICK --and provided they're not delayed/cancelled, I can preorder THE WILD WILD WEST Season 1, RAWHIDE Season 1, ULTRAMAN, SCTV Season 3, the rest of the run of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, more VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, more TIME TUNNEL, POLICE SQUAD...

And at the same time, I'm living in an age when there are new/recent shows that I actually enjoy and would seriously consider buying and re-watching, like LOST, DEADWOOD, DEAD LIKE ME, THE SOPRANOS, VERONICA MARS, CARNIVALE... --this really hasn't been true for me (with some isolated exceptions, like WKRP and THE SIMPSONS) for about, oh, MY ENTIRE 38 YEAR EXISTANCE!

I'm just not seeing a downside here (except chronic wallet pain).

Sure, there are some key series that are currently MIA, like THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE FUGITIVE, BATMAN (Adam West), Boris Karloff's THRILLER, THE UNTOUCHABLES, ROUTE 66, THE INVADERS, WKRP, season sets of MAVERICK... --but I think we'll see most of those sooner or later, if serious rights issues aren't involved. And some of the more obscuro stuff I want (SUSPICION, CORONET BLUE, M-SQUAD, WAY OUT, SPACE GIANTS, BUS STOP, T.H.E. CAT) probably doesn't have the proverbial snowball's chance in hell, so I can't get too worked up over the fact that they're not resting in my hands right this minute. Besides, not long ago, I thought getting DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET and THE INVISIBLE MAN and TIME TUNNEL on DVD was never going to happen, so who knows what the future will bring?

Wow, if you really feel that way, then you probably either

A) Have a bad memory and don't recall all of the really good shows that aired in the 50s and 60s or

B) Spent your time watching My Mother the Car, It's About Time, Gilligan's Island, Ugliest Girl in Town and just about anything produced by Aaron Spelling.

Hey, I knew there had to be a few folks from our generation to have joined that whole Buffy, Angel, Alias, Lost crowd. Well, hey, to each his own. Personally, I'd turn off the TV for good if I had to watch those shows. If I wanted continuing stories I'd go watch daytime soaps. Amazing how with so many networks there are so few options. Crime procedurals, bad sitcoms with nothing but sex jokes. Great. Where are the westerns, war shows, family (not disfunctional) sitcoms, or anything innovative?

I'll take my coffee like I like my women thank you, about 40 years old and fine.

Cable. And someone tries the odd genre shows every couple of years and they don't make it to series or get yanked before thirteen episodes. They're just not surviving.

You can make any era look good or bad by comparing it against the worst/best shows of another era. Doesn't make it a particularly valid comparison.

Well, that's wishful thinking and trying to rationalize today. If you really just look, you can feel the general "climate" is far more agressive, negative and dysfunctionally depressing.

(1) So the fact that there's programming available for adults is a bad thing?

(2) True. That obscures the point, though, that even if the options available for children aren't the same ones as the same channels as you had as a kid doesn't mean there are fewer options available - there's actually more.

(3) No, that's simply commenting on the clearly biased selections being offered up as arguments. Compare the best of today to the best of yesterday, and today will generally look pretty competitive.

It isn't new or old, it is just being consistant. When a TV series comes out on DVD, you expect to see the next season - within a reasonable amount of time, but that is what is NOT happening.

I picked 'Tabitha' before for a reason. Sure, I knew that it was coming out to hopefully boost sales on the new movie (which I have no intention of seeing, ever), but I got that because I liked it, even if it never even completed a whole TV season. If it got cancelled, then why don't they come out with other cancelled shows? That's what I miss about 'American Dreams' and 'Joan of Arcadia'. They started it, so why can't they finish it?

Look at Law and Order. Trial by Jury, which got cancelled so fast it even made my head spin, came out in no time at all, but try and pick up the others? SVU has 1, 2 & 5 out. Why no 3 & 4? CI has 1 & 3 out. WTF happened to season 2?

Like I said before, it's a crap shoot.

Glenn

It's not biased when you consider what I wrote above about randomly channel surfing and easily spotting all sorts of garbage in a heartbeat. I think there was much more "best" yesterday.

Time will tell.