FATHER KNOWS BEST - Coming in April '08 (1 Viewer)

TVShowsonDVD.com is reporting that Shout!Factory has secured the rights to FATHER KNOWS BEST and will be releasing Season 1 on April 1st, 2008. Great news!!!

Gary "that made my day - thanks David!!!" O.

WOW!

Fantastic news!! And, knowing that Shout!Factory is producing this for DVD pretty much guarantees it'll be done right!

Gary, I know that you've been waiting for this one for a long time and, as a supporter of vintage TV-on-DVD shows, I'm happy that we are finally seeing this on DVD. The only worry that I have is that perhaps SF! will not have access to complete, unedited prints, as was the case with their release of "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet." That release was a bit of a let down due to the fact that syndication prints were utilized; I just hope that situation does not occur with FKB. I've posted my thoughts over at SF!'s Community pages.

Oh, I completely concur Bob. A friend and I were talking about this very thing just a few minutes ago as we read the news coming down on the wire at TVShowsonDVD.com. The thought definitely ran through my mind that it would be a travesty to have this show released in the same manner as the "BEST OF OZZIE & HARRIET" was, with syndicated prints. Let's keep our fingers crossed that we get full length episodes.

Gary "knowing Shout! is involved actually makes me feel pretty good - on the whole they do great jobs with their tv on dvd sets" O.

Agreed!

Hallelujah!!!! I hope their next conquest is the Donna Reed show!

I'm really excited about Father Knows Best FINALLY being released on DVD. Thank you Shout! Factory.

I know we'll get all the seasons...unlike Leave it to Beaver.

I really enjoyed this show both in its original airing, and in re-runs. One of the all-time classics! Highly recommended.

John

Whoa, hold on pardner. Who said they "didn't have access to complete prints". They could very easily have asked for the undedited film elements instead of chosing to use already transfered to tape cut for syndication episodes. They made a choice to not spend the money. It still amazes me as to how people are always giving these DVD producers the benefit of the doubt and a free pass.

I hope so but what are you basing this on? They have a long way to go to finish Ironside. Still 2 more (unannounced) seasons of That Girl. The Bill Cosby Show is apparently abandoned. What have they finished? Let's hold the backflips until they are deserved.

As the long-time owner of every FKB ep, aside from the Holy Grail(aka, "Not His Type"), let me also say: HOORAY!

I was pretty sure this Christmas gift of news would never come, so what I started doing is basically culling the various syndicated versions of FKB, editing them into a form as close as possible to the original run time. (Sometimes, we're talking shot-by-shot.)

The prints are out there. Let us hope that Shout! does not take the easy way, the way they did with the disgraceful O&H release. (Aside from the ridiculous running times, they chose way too many eps from the "Wally the Giggler" Era -- no doubt to show off the singing of the magnificent Rick Nelson, who just seems to get better and better with every passing season -- rather than the much superior(IMHO) "Thorny" years.

While I am happy that Shout!Factory got the rights to this show (better them than Sony keeping it and never, ever doing anything with it) I will have to say that we are not assured of anything beyond Season 1. Shout!Factory is going to approach this series like they do other vintage shows - they will evaluate after each release to see if they should continue. We need to support this first season set with purchases (I plan on buying two or three). That's always the bottom line to future releases. Unfortunate but true.

Gary "this is a great Christmas present announcement" O.

I don't know if I'm the voice of pessimism or realism, but here goes:

Like "Leave It to Beaver" (a show with which it's often compared), it's unlikely that all six seasons of "Father Knows Best" will be released.

And the odds are 50-50 (I'm bending over backwards to be optimistic here, or I'd say 75-25) that, like "Ozzie and Harriet," we'll get syndicated prints with FKB. I say that for reasons I expressed elsewhere: namely, that these shows were badly re-edited about 20 years ago, and I wouldn't be surprised if the original prints are missing or destroyed.

On the bright side: The first "Make Room for Daddy" season that was released (Season Five) used syndicated prints, and supposedly the upcoming Season Six will be complete original prints. (Only time will tell.) So, with good and bad precedents, I'm putting the odds of FKB being done correctly at 50-50.

Joe, you do realize that I'm now needing some Pepto to calm my churning stomach. Oy vey. It stinks that we are talking about dreaded cut prints instead of being joyous about this impending release. Yes, I realize that we now have a one show precedent (OZZIE & HARRIET) from Shout that causes us to pause for concern. But that's the only example isn't it? Shout has done a great job with other series releases, so let's not automatically assume the worst here.

We may very well see syndicated prints, and if and when that becomes a reality I'll post my disappointment along with everyone else. But until that actually happens or we get verification that it's going to happen, I'm gonna rejoice in the good news.

Gary "come on guys - this is a day to be happy, not sad" O.

I don't think what I wrote "stinks". I think it's a realistic appraisal. If one gets one's hopes up really high for this release, one might be asking for a bad disappointment, mightn't one?

On the other hand, think how joyous I'll feel if come April 1 I read on this forum that the prints are the original, full length versions.

And it should go without saying, but I'm not buying this thing until I read about it here, from people I trust. The split second I get the green light on this, I send in my order for it. This show is an all-time favorite of mine.

Joe, I didn't mean for you to take my comments personally and I'm very sorry if you did take them that way. What "stinks" is that instead of me being able to enjoy this great, great news for even a few hours I had to face the looming specter of syndicated cuts. I've been waiting on news about this series release since TV on DVD first started and so this particular news is much more important to me than news about other releases. And I just hated that this thread took such a sharp turn toward cynicism (even if it's somewhat justified). After all, we've only got the one example from Shout versus many positive examples.

And many of you will want to hang me for this, but I'll say it right here and now. FATHER KNOWS BEST is one of my "holy grail" series and even *if* it's released with syndicated prints I'm buying it. The show hasn't been on in years and I doubt we are going to see it aired any time soon the way things are going. So I'll take what I can get in this instance. The only thing that would bug me is if we got really poor prints (ala the ROUTE 66 set). I know others don't feel the same way, but this set is important to me and I'll take what I can get. I don't feel that way about most other series, but with this one I'll make an exception. So Shout can count on me pre-ordering this as soon as it's made available.

Gary "bring on Season 1" O.

Gary, I have to agree with you on the quality of the prints. If I had a choice between pristine prints that were syndicated versions or the video quality of the Roxbury Route 66 set, I would, as much as I hate to admit it, prefer the syndicated versions.

I hope this series is a success so that hopefully Sony will loosen their iron grip on series they don't want to release.

We will very likely be in the minority here, Doug. And I expect to catch some flack for my comments on this issue. Therefore I'd like to clarify a bit more. I'm fine with some of the episodes on the Roxbury ROUTE 66 set. None of them are anywhere close to pristine, but some of them are at least acceptable to me. But there are a few that are downright PD quality prints, and that's unacceptable for any set that's an "official" release. And then there's the entirely separate issue of audio quality, which at times I felt was even worse than the video quality.

If given the choice, and it does pain me to say it, I'd take pristine syndicated prints over the worst examples of video and audio on the Roxbury sets. Don't get me wrong - I want both in the worst way. But I'm not going to boycott this set if they use syndicated prints. It's just too important a release for me to do that. Most other shows I would do that with, but not this one.

Gary "I just really have to believe that with Shout!Factory in control we will at least get good quality prints - but I must admit the possibility does exist that we might see syndicated prints" O.

Wait -- didn't Robert Young's estate own the rights? So Shout! would have to have obtained the prints from them. If this is so, I would think the estate would have the best prints available.

I think I read that Sony owned the prints, but the estate had the rights to this series.

Shout! thanks for releasing another "classic" (and long-overdue) series on DVD.