Grading Shout (1 Viewer)

I was thinking the other day about how negatively I have been feeling lately about Shout Factory. I once viewed them as the great savior of the shows the majors wouldn't touch. My, how things have changed. I think they are the best viewed a "tale of two companies." When they first started releasing DVD's, they came out like gangbusters. They were putting out shows to completion as a rule, there was little lag time between volumes and the quality was good. I'm talking the era of Mchale's Navy and That Girl among others. All looked good as time went on.They picked up more liscenses for stuff like Patty Duke, Webster, Simon and Simon, Ironside and Mr. Ed . Slowly, things began to shift and series began to get stalled. Over time, that became the rule more than the exception and it seemed to me, they were stalling almost every series they started, save a few like Kojak, Adam 12, Designing Women, and Simon. Their select program is a joke as almost no series they start gets finished. Additionally, there started to much longer span between season releases. They seem, all of a sudden, to be more interested in digging up every horrid 90's Nick program that they can find rather than sticking to classic TV. Their dishonesty is also an issue for me. Their rep lied outright to me about future Ironside releases and I have read on this forum that I am not the only one misled. I give them credit for their greats coups on Barny Miller and Dobie Gillis but IMO, but they have really gone downhill overall.

I'm 100% with you. What they've done with Mr ED isn't professionnal. They should have included those last 13 épisodes of season 6 with their release of season 5. Now the chances of seing those last 13 episodes being released on DVD are very, very thin

Since they're not licensing Sony and Fox titles any longer, for reasons that may be beyond their control, I have to judge them on what they're doing with Universal titles. I appreciated the fast-tracking of Kojak, the completion of Hardy Boys and I'm glad Quincy fans are getting a fast-track there. But the refusal to continue Ironside and Marcus Welby in the Select program continues to rankle and is for me their biggest strikes currently.