Most TV shows out on DVD? (1 Viewer)

Fellow tv-philes:

A few months ago, I had a friend (who after purchasing the Rat Patrol season 2) mentioned that he believed that MOST or the MAJORITY of all television programs were now out on DVD. I didn't argue with him, but I felt just the opposite. That at this time, we're merely scratching the surface.

But what do you guys think? I think he was talking mostly about scifi shows, dramas, and comedies? Do you think we've reached 60% of all scripted shows since the late fifties?

Again, I would love to hear your opinions.

JThree
[email protected]

Not even close. Then again, I'm pretty OK with that, considering there are tons of real crap that isn't out on DVD for a reason. I mean, is there a real buyers audience for "Cop Rock" DVDs? Or a real crowd hunting for all two episodes of "Viva Laughlin" now that it's over? Wow, I didn't realize I had picked on two musicals.

I just can't picture people lining up for "Bram and Alice" DVD Set. The day "Chaotic: the Britney Spears / Kevin Federline Experiment" (UPN) comes to DVD, the format may die.

Not everything on TV even deserves to be on DVD. Definitely not 50%. As to SciFi: Manimal.

I have to agree. We are nowhere close to having to having everything out yet. In the last few years a lot has come out including some stuff I never thought would see the day but we aren't close by a long shot.

Oh, annd Chris I hate to break it to you but Britney & Kevin has been on DVD for the last two years. Probably released to cash in on the show.

My world has now changed for the worse. :frowning:

Except for "The Cisco Kid" (MPI Home Video) and a few public domain releases here and there ("Lock Up," "Meet Corliss Archer"), the entire catalog of ZIV TV (1950s/early 1960s) remains unreleased, chief among them being "Sea Hunt" and "Highway Patrol." MGM has the rights but hasn't done anything with them to date. Besides ZIV, there are plenty of shows from the 1950s, 1960s and beyond that haven't been released. But more and more, for any of these older shows to get released, it's going to take the independent DVD releasing companies to do so, i.e., Shout! Factory, BCI Eclipse, Infinity Entertainment, Image Entertainment, S'more Entertainment, Timeless Media, etc. Outside of CBS/Paramount, the major studios have pretty much abandoned the vintage series.

Hard for me to believe that someone would think the majority of TV shows have been released but that's coming (me) from a primarily "vintage" TV/DVD collector. I guess it depends on what decade someone looks at for DVD releases.

As Bob mentioned, there's a lot of older series that haven't seen any official release. We, who are wanting more of the 50's/60's shows, sure wish that the home-video formats and technologies of today were in existance then.

I've been fairly fortunate in that I've seen several of my favorite older shows released, or some at least partially released. There's some here that are a long way from seeing that, from reading their posts and "sig's".

My list was short until I got to talking here with these "computer banks" of knowledge of the late 50's-early 60's shows Seriously, the guys have brought me a lot of great viewing, ie The Fugitive, Untouchables, Decoy, Route 66 (waiting for Santa for that one), Voyage To the Bottom oft the Sea, Honey West, The Saint (early B/W set), Danger Man ("Secret Agent").

I've also had the memory jogged from the HTF'ers for some great 80's miniseries, like Masada, Winds of War/War & Rememberance, North & South, etc.

Like Bob said, it seems that most of the major studios have either given up on the older show releases or are waiting longer between season releases for some of our older series.

If we posted a "one & done" list or shows that have seemingly fallen into the "Black Hole", the list would be long.

But, just when it seemed sure that a series was abandoned (Sony's "Barney Miller", for example, after a 4-yr wait), along comes TSoD to give us a "New Hope"

with their release news posts. Some of the news posts during the past couple of years have really surprised me.

James' post indicates to me something that we've known here for a long time, that the information about a lot of these releases isn't widely-known except for us here and the other online-store surfers. I remember mentioning to a guy at work that's an U.N.C.L.E. fanantic that the entire series is getting released on DVD. He was speechless

My belief is that the majority of extremely popular tv shows have had at least one release. As far as the complete output of television since the dawn of the medium? I'd say so far we've seen about .005% of all tv shows on dvd.

It just shows you.

I'd say that less than 10% of the shows from the 1950s and 1960s have been released on DVD.

In fact, there are even shows that hit Number One that haven't had official season sets yet, such as "Wagon Train," "Bonanza" and "The Beverly Hillbillies," and many Top Ten Shows such as "Father Knows Best," "December Bride," "Dennis the Menace," "The Lucy Show," and actually the complete list would take me an hour to type in here.

Fantastic!

Well there's 10 major reasons why certain shows don't get put on dvd. But one reason we rarely discuss is market saturation. I actually do feel that there's an adequate number of releases every month. Some here will disagree. But what I'm saying is that there's only so many shows that can be released every month. The studios can't suddenly produce dvds for every single show they own. We have to be patient and buy up the shows they do put out. I always ask why Dennis the Menace isn't on dvd, or Rhoda, or any number of shows that made a difference; well maybe they're thinking about them, but they've got their resources concentrated on other shows right now.

They could put out more shows but then they'd risk competing with themselves for a limited amount of dollars (from us). I personally am not prepared to budget any more money into the number of dvds I buy every year. I already buy more than I can actually watch. The rest can wait. Some people on these forums seem to want every show in the world out on dvd NOW. Relax--it's not the end of the world. Leave something for next year, and the year after that.

We should start a new topic, on what percentage of shows YOU want are now available to buy. For me, it's somewhere about 35-40%. Meaning, of all tv shows ever produced, and that I want to have, about 35-40% of them are available now on dvd. The only things that really escape me are obscure, short-lived dramas and other unlikely dvd prospects. But I have faith that all the big popular shows will eventually make their way out for sale.

Well, that just sounded like a comment from someone who really doesn't know any better. Just like I'm sure if you asked, people would say "all records are available on CD", which would be an equally ignorant comment. Someone once told me that of all of the music that was available on 78s, only 5% of it ever made its way to 45s and LPs. Much music has made its way to CD but tons haven't and never will. Again, just like with TV, it depends on the company. Warner and Universal only license with guarantees of 20,000 sales or some such figure, making lesser known properties not viable. The same thing is happening here. PD shows and shows owned by smaller entities may see release but as mentioned above, the Ziv catalog is under copyright and owned by a major company that will not release it. Universal has no interest in its 50s and 60s library and it hadn't been for their syndication prints getting into private hands instead of going to the scrapper as they intended, we wouldn't be seeing any of their older shows. Everything? Hardly.

just go over to TVparty and look at a TV schedule from the 60s or 70s, you'll see plenty of titles that haven't come out on DVD let alone been out in syndication for decades.

How many shows are out that I crave for the collection and haven't picked up? A few. Although there have been a couple that I was curious about getting, but after watching the first DVD thanks to Netflix, they came off my wishlist.

I don't see why you think so, considering in my earlier post I wrote "I'd say so far we've seen about .005% of all tv shows on dvd." Good sir, do follow along with the conversation.

One #1 ranked show yet to make the DVD grade:

Marcus Welby, M.D.

Some more season-ranked Top Ten shows yet to be out:

Peyton Place
Mayberry R.F.D.
Bonanza - in a legit release, the same with-
The Bevelry Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction, though the MPI releases are the best we're going to get until Paramount does its duty

Wagon Train
The Virginian
The High Chapparal
Falcon Crest
Daktari
Cannon
Bridget Loves Bernie
Phyllis
The Six Million Dollar Man
Dr. Kildare
77 Sunset Strip
Ben Casey
Julia
Hotel
Empty Nest
The Wonder Years
Major Dad
The Single Guy
Caroline In The City
Grace Under Fire

Quite a lot of Top Ten shows that have yet to be released, and most are from the 1960s!

Went back and looked at the short list I made back in 2000 or so of shows I wanted to see on DVD. Of them, only Batman (1966) hasn't made it to DVD.

Went and looked at the much longer list I keep on TVShowsonDVD.com and there are a bunch, including the Six Million Dollar Man, an obscure David Chase series called Almost Grown, The Beatles' animated series, a bunch of DC and Marvel animated series from the 60s, the official Animal House spinoff Delta House (with Michelle Pfeffier), Ed, the excellent PBS series Eyes on the Prize, the great HBO series Not Necessarily the News, and that's about it.

My comment wasn't directed at you but at the friend of the original poster who believed most shows were out on DVD.

Oh.

Oops!

"bump? maybe there are a few other latecomers out there.

James

The surface has yet to be scratched. Pretty much every show now days is put out because it is fresh in people's minds and sells well. However, from the 90's and earlier decades very few shows have been released (mainly just the prime time hits).

I have a list of shows that I want that still haven't been released and their rank on tvshowsondvd.com

1.Early Edition 9
2.Two Guys and a Girl16
3.Family Matters17
4.Step By Step 37
5.Yes, Dear94
6.Kenan & Kel196
7.Freaky Links206
8.Big Wolf On Campus 256
9.Hang Time263
10.Hangin With Mr. Cooper266
11.Off Centre288
12.Clueless299
13.Two of a Kind302
14.Smart Guy312
15.Martial Law338
16.Quintuplets575
17.Do Over587
18.City Guys701
19.Oliver Beene860
20.Maybe It's Me883
21.Scare Tactics953
22.Raising Dad1317
23.Greetings From Tucson1715


The thing most of these shows have in common are that they are short series. Wouldn't it be nice if they would come out with complete series of shows with 1 season or fewer. Most of these short series and older shows probably aren't worth putting out because of lack of interest or because it is harder to get music & other rights on older shows. So even though most shows now days are garbage they are still getting put out faster than classic shows probably because they are fresh in our minds and easier to put out.

So in short, we really haven't scratched the surface on shows (mostly older) but unfortunately, most of those older shows probably won't get put out.


Edit: It's too bad companies care more about making money than putting out the classic shows. If you don't think it is about money than look at the complete series sets being release a la Seinfeld.... people who collect all the sets individually have to shell out top dollar while if you are patient you can now get the whole series with the booklet and extra reunion footage that you can't get if you bought all seasons individually. You are pretty much forced to either keep the originals and buy the complete series (like I am doing with King of Queens) because you are such a big fan or sell your individuals at a huge loss and buy the complete series (like I did with Seinfeld).

Wow, I forgot about Step By STep and Family Matters. I was sure with Full House being released now that Family Matters would at least get a release, but no such luck yet..hmmm..weird.