Why are so many series stalled or stopped? (1 Viewer)

I have a massive collection of classic tv series on dvd. I am very frustrated that recently released shows such as Gunsmoke, Here's Lucy, and The Lucy Show seem to have stopped after two or three releases. Anyone have any info if they are dead?

Gunsmoke is stalled at the moment, but there is more Lucy Show in 2010, and probably more Here's Lucy.

Gunsmoke is not stalled. Now Rawhide... that's a CBS/Paramount dvd series that's stalled. As is The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, Happy Days, Love American Style, and Family Ties. But Matt Dillon and company are still coming in 2010.

Gary "at least Perry Mason is still going strong" O.

here's Lucy Season 2 came out Nov 2. seeing how it is being put out by MPI with the assistance of the estate, it's hard to think they're going to abandon it with 4 seasons to go.

there does seem to be a problem of distribution. Walmart, Target and other stores are consolidating their DVD sections. They don't want to carry the vintage show. Of course the good part is that you can go online and buy them. But the problem is that the older audience who might have picked the show up on DVD at a store aren't known for ordering stuff online. Even if they get put in a store, it's not like they're going to have visible shelf space like the Twilight DVD. You have to hunt and peck. which isn't something older folks enjoy doing

does seem that some shows given up for dead do get completed like Cheers and Taxi. CBS DVD might be coming back to complete certain shows after a while - especially as other titles wrap up in 2010 - which should include Girlfriends, JAG, Beverly Hills 90210, Walker Texas Ranger, The Untouchables and The Fugitive.

The overall health of the economy is also contributing to the dvd releases. I think the studios pushed dvds back in 2003-2007 time frame and then the market kind of dried up. The retailers like best buy/future shop/walmart have cut down their shelve space around tv shows.

I have enough current release to keep me busy, plus, i have so many shows now that it would take 3-5 years to watch them all. I only watch maybe 2hrs of tv a night and it is all on my dvds. I am really just collecting them as hobby.

I am happy that shows like Matt Houston/Barnaby Jones/Falconcrest are being released in 2010. I hope to complete my emergency!, Dallas, Star Trek Enterprise, Good Times, Man from Uncle, Sanford & Son, etc in 2010/2011.

Thanks for the reply's! I have been watching for months about news regarding another"Gunsmoke" release and have found nothing, while other series I collect like 'Hawaii 5-0 have been coming out regularly. I had heard nothing about "Here's Lucy" after the second season which came out on the heals of the first, and nothing about 'The Lucy Show" after the first was released. I have several other series including "Streets of San Francisco" that just seem to dis appear and never get finished. Why the studios don't seem to understand, that when customers can't complete a series collection, they are reluctant to start buying another series for fear of not getting it complete just amazes me.

Originally Posted by Gary OS

Gunsmoke is not stalled.

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Gary, that's news to me... and good news at that. Every thing I've been reading here led me to believe that there wasn't more Gunsmoke on the way.

I wanted to check CBS's syndication bible to see if there was anything new for Gunsmoke, but it's apparantly been removed or relocated somewhere else with restricted access. Was active and at it's usual location just a couple of weeks ago.

But even then, Gunsmoke last saw a release in May. Here's Lucy last saw a release this November. And The Lucy Show last saw a release at the end of July, with additional season releases basically already confirmed.

So I'm not sure I follow the examples you used as stalled series. What makes you think any of the three are now stalled? Sadly, releases are usually pretty far apart for most classic series, with annual releases and biannual releases being extremely common.

Seems rather premature to me to think that series that last saw releases 1, 5 and 7 months ago are stalled and done. The last release of Here's Lucy has barely even had a chance to cool off after being pressed by the manufacturer...

Originally Posted by jamesmcaw

I have a massive collection of classic tv series on dvd. I am very frustrated that recently released shows such as Gunsmoke, Here's Lucy, and The Lucy Show seem to have stopped after two or three releases. Anyone have any info if they are dead?

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The half hour Gunsmokes are coming to Encore Westerns so even if the DVDs come to a halt, you can get them off of there. Rawhide is coming on soon as well as is The Virginian and Have Gun Will Travel. And they run shows complete and commercial free so it's a decent alternative.

Originally Posted by Corey3rd



does seem that some shows given up for dead do get completed like Cheers and Taxi. CBS DVD might be coming back to complete certain shows after a while - especially as other titles wrap up in 2010 - which should include Girlfriends, JAG, Beverly Hills 90210, Walker Texas Ranger, The Untouchables and The Fugitive.

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Let's not forget that maybe, just maybe, Sabrina the Teenage Witch might finish up in 2010, since the next to last season is already on the schedule. CBS Paramount has made a habit recently of announcing the final season of older shows about a week before or after the next to last season is out (Taxi and Cheers, for example).

But CBS/P does at least re-visit shows after a while. It's the shows from Sony and Fox and WB that you have to worry about. Facts of Life, All in the Family, King of the Hill, Green Acres, Welcome Back Kotter, Drew Carey Show, Maude... those are shows that are stalled and unexpected to be seen again unless a company like Shout gets a shot at them.

Even the Mary Tyler Moore Show would probably still be stalled if not for Oprah.

Originally Posted by Neil Brock

The half hour Gunsmokes are coming to Encore Westerns so even if the DVDs come to a halt, you can get them off of there. Rawhide is coming on soon as well as is The Virginian and Have Gun Will Travel. And they run shows complete and commercial free so it's a decent alternative.

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Actually, it would appear that only the 1 hour episodes of Gunsmoke have been licensed by Encore. It would appear to be starting with season 7 and moving up from there. So it doesn't look like the remainder of the 30 minute episodes will be available to us just yet.

Jan 1st begins with a 24 hour marathon of Virginian starting from the first episode.
Jan 2nd adds a 24 hour marathon of HGWT from the first episode.
Jan 3rd concludes with a 24 hour marathon of Gunsmoke starting with season 7.

Afterwards we get the new daily line up.

hart to hart,mccloud,the rookies,mcmillian and wife,the streets of san fransico

Hill Street Blues
Barney Miller
St. Elsewhere

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Tucker

Gary, that's news to me... and good news at that. Every thing I've been reading here led me to believe that there wasn't more Gunsmoke on the way.

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Gunsmoke has been slowed down in its release schedule, but then again the same applies for several CBS/P dvds (economy being the reason, I'm guessing). But it's not dead or even stalled. Look for the next volume in the 2nd quarter of '10.

I'm definitely with Brad and Neil on recording off Encore. The prints they use are generally excellent and it is a nice backup just in case a series does get stalled (like Rawhide definitely is). If I didn't already have great copies of the remaining seasons of HGWT I'd be recording those for sure. I'm probably going to do what Brad does with those hour long Gunsmoke eps coming up. Maybe the Virginian as well.

Gary "happy New Year to everyone" O.

I can sympathize with you about stalled series. I wish Sony would get back to "The Facts Of Life" and "What's Happening Now!!" as well as "Hart to Hart".

As for the Lucy shows and specials, they DO seem to be taking a long time to even announce follow-up sets. I realize "Here's Lucy" Season 2 came out in November but an announcement for the release of Season 3 to be released in March or April wouldn't have been a bad thing. The specials have only received that 1 dvd release last June with no sign of the next one. So I can understand the idea that the Lucy shows are stalled. They are moving at a snails pace.

NYPD blue,archie bunkers place

Originally Posted by smithb



Actually, it would appear that only the 1 hour episodes of Gunsmoke have been licensed by Encore. It would appear to be starting with season 7 and moving up from there. So it doesn't look like the remainder of the 30 minute episodes will be available to us just yet.

Jan 1st begins with a 24 hour marathon of Virginian starting from the first episode.
Jan 2nd adds a 24 hour marathon of HGWT from the first episode.
Jan 3rd concludes with a 24 hour marathon of Gunsmoke starting with season 7.

Afterwards we get the new daily line up.

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I thought the press releases stated that they acquired both the hour long and 30 minute BW episodes of Gunsmoke. Maybe they will start showing the BW 30 minute episodes when they bring out Rawhide, either next year or the year after..

The reason for that is simple.

First, the blu ray association has been moving to get retailers to drop the DVD format in favor of blu ray. Their hope is that it will force more consumers to adopt the blu ray format. With Best Buy and Target continuing to push the DVD format out of their store inventories, it's probably a safe bet that the BRA probably has some kind of financial setup with these retailers to induce them into converting over to the blu ray format. However, there is a problem with this since the physical format may be on the way out. The BRA is facing tougher competition from online digital download sales as well as streaming video.

Added to the fact that studios have been extremely slow to adopt more television shows to the blu ray format and that may be alienating entertainment fans and causing more and more aggravation among fans of television shows.

Secondly, there is still a huge segment of consumers out there who have yet to invest in blu ray, and I consider myself one of them. While blu ray is enjoying more consumers buying the format, it just isn't convincing the rest of the American consumer to invest in the new format. With rising complaints coming out from consumers about every blu ray model that is being released, there are more consumers having more problems with blu ray players and it's currently plaguing the industry. With DVD players having virtually no bugs, since they've been around for some time, consumers are going to hold onto the format for a good long time now.

Finally, as more and more retailers move away from the DVD format, this is going to force those consumers to purchase their DVD titles directly from the studios, purchase online from retailers like Amazon or download from online services and burn them to blank DVD's.

You really have to look at it from the studio's perspective as well. A series that doesn't sell well doesn't always mean the studio makes LESS money from it, it can actually mean the studio LOSES money on it. Its expensive to put out a series. Music licensing, other legal clearances, tracking down the elements, transferring them, sometimes cleaning them up, authoring, creating ancillary features, QC, package design, printing, assembly, shipping, returns, storage, etc. Then factor in that on nearly every series, each subsequent set sells less than the one before it (but is still just as expensive to produce).

So say they have a series that ran 8 seasons. Maybe seasons 1 and 2 make some money, 3 barely breaks even and 4 loses money. Now the studio knows that there are fans that really want the remaining 4 seasons, but they know they are going to lose money on all of them, and its just going to get worse. What are they to do?

Obviously that isn't all shows. Some make tons of money from start to finish, some at least stay profitable through the whole run, some lose money from the very first release. That's why studios are so leery of releasing less popular or obscure shows on DVD.

Originally Posted by jamesmcaw

Why the studios don't seem to understand, that when customers can't complete a series collection, they are reluctant to start buying another series for fear of not getting it complete just amazes me.

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I don't really understand why this question keeps getting asked over and over and over. Why are there so many people who don't understand how basic business works ?