things that frustrate you most about an abandoned series (1 Viewer)

What are the most frustrating things about a series being abandoned. For me it is when it stops without making it to its best seasons as all you're left with is the early bland episodes, or even worse like Barney Miller or Happy Days where all we got was a shorter partial season. Also, the way Boy Meets World was handled. It would have been one thing had they said right away that the sales dropped and was being abandoned, but to give us a date, cover art and then to pull it and say it was being delayed for marketing and then six months later tell us it's being canceled fro low sales. If the sales were that bad, then why did they make it to that point.

I hate when they abandon short run series. For example SWAT and Baa Baa Black Sheep. Their is only one season left to release.

Look at Malcolm In The Middle- it just ended its network run and still no word on a season 2 DVD release. Futher evidence of how bad Fox is in releasing shows on DVD......

Except to the "experts" in this forum who all think Fox is the best. I agree they are atrocious and if it weren't for their purchase of the MTM and Four Star catalogues, they wouldn't have one show on DVD from the 50s, 60s or 70s except for the Irwin Allen stuff and MASH. That's it, 4 series of all of the ones they produced from those three decades. Even Daniel Boone has to come out through another company. I don't care at all about Malcolm but this is just more proof of Fox's ineptitude.

Not really, we only got the first 1/2 of the first season of Black Sheep. They split it in 1/2 like FOX did for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
I guess to me a 1/2 season is better than nothing. I remember when you could only buy 5 VHS tapes of Star Trek with only 2 episodes a tape. I was so excited just to own 10 episodes, and uncut!

Good Thread topic....one that all TV/DVD collectors share, I believe. Here's my most-wanted "seemingly-adandoned" series:

ADAM-12 (maybe there's hope)
BARNEY MILLER (don't see light at the end of the tunnel for this one)
BIG VALLEY (I know, S1 just released...not sure why, but I'm a little :frowning: about this one making it to a complete-series release)
BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON
HAPPY DAYS (another "dark tunnel")
TAXI (another "maybe)
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT (downgraded from "possible" to "doubtful")
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On the other hand, there's been some surprise series'. to me, that I love that have made it to the Finish Line or are looking promising:

A TEAM (S5 on the way, "around the Clubhouse turn" )
BEWITCHED (IMO, this one will make it)
CHARLIE'S ANGELS (IMO, will get there)
COLUMBO (the Lt will get all the bad guys)
COMBAT! (this one's in my top 10 series of all time. I never dreamed this series would complete the "campaign")
DICK VAN DYKE SHOW
EARTH 2
HOGAN'S HEROES (that tunnel out of Stalag 13 is 2/3 complete )
LOIS AND CLARK (only a Krytonite meter shower or Lex will stop this one)
LOST IN SPACE
NEW AVENGERS
SECRET AGENT MEGASET COMPLETE 1-Hr SERIES
TIME TUNNEL

To give my opinion of what most frustrates me as a TV/DVD collector: The "vast unknowns" in the secret world of "Studio-land". In other words, we don't know statuses or what's in production until TSoD gives us the "word" on things. And they're the best out there with the "word"

For me, if I knew that a particular series was definitely cancelled, or would not be completely released, it would help knowing that information. I know that, in a lot of cases, the studios just don't know due to future sales #'s or various litigations in progress. Just my "wish" if we lived in a world like "I dream of Jeannie" I'd settle for 3 TV/DVD wishes.

I hope you're right, but part of me thinks they decided to just go ahead and suck season 3 up for the "well, at least we want all the Sabrina episodes" fans, I'd like to see season 4 and 5 but I can't imagine us seeing Shelley Hack or Tanya Roberts going "good morning Charlie" anytime in this lifetime unless it goes back into reruns.

Well I don't mind when certain shows are abandoned after one season. Like 227. At least I have one season of 227 on DVD rather than none at all.

But Jem & The Holograms, oh I am furious about not having season 3 part 2 on DVD.

I like completion,...Brady Bunch, complete, Sanford & Son-complete, What's Happening-Complete, Good Times-Complete (august 1), I just don't like getting so close to the finish line and stalling out.

SON OF THE BEACH

half done thru middle of season 2 with NO (official) explanation.

I miss my Johnson.

Jeff Willis: I'm not worried about the Big Valley; I think we'll see at least one more season on dvd. At least there were only 4 seasons to put out, not 8 or 10 like some of these long-running shows. I just got through watching the entire first season of BV and can't recommend it highly enough. So all you Western fans get out there and buy it now! ... It's cheap!

The one I was worried about never seeing a second season was Hart to Hart, but suddenly season two is on its way, so I was wrong there. Good!

The one that baffles me the most is Malcolm in the Middle...when the first season dvd came out, the show was still riding high and was still popular. Why didn't Malcolm sell??

I'm also surprised over the huge success of 3's Company on dvd; guess there's still a huge fanbase for that show out there. Wish the same could be said for a lot of other sitcoms that are stuck at season one or two. Another success story seems to be, so far, the Facts of Life. Hope this same kind of success applies to Wild Wild West, 90210, Melrose Place and a lot of other sets that have just come out, or will soon. I just hope the fans are there to support them all to the end--

If they aren't going to release all of a series - specifically a 2 year run show then why do they release it at all?

I am grateful to have the first season of Ned and Stacey but it is just killing me that I have seen or heard nothing about the second and last season of it.

Robin

yup. For me, this is the problem with Night Gallery.
They release the fairly weak first season (because they can promote Spielbergs association with the pilot), give it a high price tag, lame & irrelevant jacket art, and then we don't get the by far superior second season because the first one didn't sell.
AAAARRRGGGHHHH!

Makes me almost wish they had resorted to an 'ultimate' collection for the show in the first place- that way we could have at least had a shot at some better eps for the majority of the set.


Very frustrating.

What frustrates me the most is all the time we waste bitching about these abandoned shows in threads like this one! I'd rather waste my time watching the damn shows -- if the studios wouldn't abandon them!

I miss my Bergman!

Putting down the cash for the first season expecting to see a second season soon after. I honestly think I have the worst luck with this. Here are some of the first season sets I have that will probably never see another release: Happy Days, Mork and Mindy, Laverne and Shirley, Gimmee a Break, Charles in Charge, and Growing Pains, and even though Different Strokes had a second season release, I have a feeling there won't be more.

Good thread.
The thing that gets me is the limbo. I start buying with the intention of getting all seasons (it's the completionist in me) and then you wait and wait and wait...and wait....and wait.... hoping that there will be word tomorrow that the next/final season is scheduled.
It's disappointing that Airwolf was discontinued after Season 1 but at least we were told not to expect any more releases. I've got three series that I'm waiting on the next release - Randall and Hopkirk(deceased) Season 1 Set 2; Earth: Final Conflict -would like to see season 1 and 2 since 3, 4 and 5 were released back in 2003 and S.W.A.T. Season 2.
To the positive, seemingly out of nowhere, Season 3 for Forever Knight and Season 4 of Starsky and Hutch are back on the schedule which will complete these two series for me.
For example: If I had known that M*A*S*H was only going to have the first 4 seasons released, would have I bought those 4? Likely yes. Better to have those few episodes [not taking into consideration M*A*S*H in syndication - the MASH Channel 24/7 or so it seems ] than nothing at all. Would I been greatly disppointed to miss the seasons with Potter and BJ? H*ll yea. But it wouldn't prevent me from buying the others.
EFC is a perfect example for me. The episodes I want the most are in season 1 and 2. The two seasons they haven't released. I didn't like the direction the series was going in season 5 (that's an understatement) but I bought it in order to let the studios know there was fans out there willing to buy so give us the rest of it.
It has actually gotten to the point that I hesitate before starting to collect a new series because I know that the possiblity that it will not be completed is very high. But then I think about having those few episodes and break open the wallet.

For what it's worth, season 1 has been released in the UK.

While your point is valid (I'm desperately awaiting more MITM in vain myself) the reason I personally consider Fox the best, in both R1 and R2, is that they always include English subtitles. Paramount, Sony, Warner etc. don't. As someone with reasonably poor hearing, it's a pain to find that the shows I collect don't have subtitles (or in Warner's case, some seasons do but later seasons don't). I realise it's not an issue for most people, but I thought I'd just point my personal reasoning out.

don't frown too much, I've heard that VEI is planning on releasing the second season of Gimme A Break in Canada sometime this fall. Which means it'll be available in region 1, shipping might be a pain, but at least there is a shot with that one.

I agree, I think it's all personal taste. I love a lot of shows from the past 20 years, and many of those are Fox series, and they have never let me down with those series on DVD. I think with Fox, you already know you're getting a quality DVD with that logo on there. They pretty much set the standard for TV-DVD's with The X-Files, Simpsons and Buffy. Whether you love those shows or think they suck and represent everything you hate about modern television, you have to admit they all had excellent DVD treatment.