Neil Brock
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2009
- Messages
- 4,325
When it comes to what gets releases, what doesn't or what gets licensed out to third parties, it almost always will come down to what the existing elements are. If there are only film prints with no tape transfers, you can pretty much forget about it.
Universal - They have tape on some series which have aired in syndication as well as 16mm on many others. They at least are amenable to giving access to their 16mm prints, which is where Timeless has been able to release a great many shows. But if there's only 35mm, other than very popular shows, it becomes cost prohibitive.
CBS - Luckily, thanks to TV Land, which bought tons of shows from them in its early days, there are beautiful remastered tapes on a lot of obscure shows. Many other series, there aren't and those go into the unlikely to ever be seen category as well. Put in basic terms, you have a much better chance of seeing Blansky's Beauties or Who's Watching the Kids than you do The Defenders or December Bride.
MGM - As much of a mess as this studio has been, someone over there in the 80s had the good sense to master their entire television library, including the Ziv shows, to 1-inch videotape. While that may be an obsolete format (although easier to deal with than 2-inch), it means that any show that they own is easily accesible, either by them or if they license it out.
Warner - The state of their own library, i.e., the shows they owned prior to merging with Turner, is hit or miss. They mastered most of their "classic" shows from the late 50s, early 60s when they made the big sale to Good Life. Other shows not included in the deal, no. Turner however, mastered all of his TV shows, the former MGM library (as opposed to current MGM which is the old UA) to 1-inch tape from 35mm when he bought the company in the 80s. One would think that would be great except now Warner Archive has decided that those transfers aren't good enough for you people in the HD, 16:9 crowd. So it then becomes a matter of striking new transfers so its a moot point as to whether or not old transfers exist as they don't consider them usable.
Fox - As we all know, and has been proven time and time again, Fox sucks. They have zero interest in their pre-90s TV holdings. Just for example, Fox owns the Metromedia library but they are so clueless, they don't even know it. That's why shows from Metromedia Producers Corp. are treated as PD and sold by anyone who lays their hands on them. Fox either doesn't know or doesn't care or both. As for elements, we've all seen what Room 222 looks like - decades old dirty 16mm transfers. What that means, for people who don't know film terminology, is the prints are run off to tape as is, no color correction, no cleanup, nothing. Just put on the projector and transfered to tape. So when it comes to their older shows which people are desiring, like Felony Squad or Judd for the Defense or Bracken's World, for instance, if there are tape transfers, they would look like Room 222 or worse. And I'm sure many other shows, such as Long Hot Summer or Adventures in Paradise, probably don't even have tape elements. For those who think that Fox will follow Warner's lead in its BOD program and remaster its older shows, please contact me as I have some great land in Florida I'd like to sell you!
Sony - Forgot about them because they've been out of the DVD business for so long at this point. They were very good about getting a lot of obscure shows sold during the early cable days so they do have tape on a lot of series that wound up in various syndication packages. Also, they sold a bunch of short run sitcoms to HA! when that network was around for a short time. So, some of the shows which they would have tape on are Hawk, Joe Forrester, Occasional Wife, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, The Interns, Medical Story and Casey Jones. But if the show hasn't had any sales, its still going to be only on film and therefore subject to the same high transfer costs as at the other studios. CBN bought a lot of old Sony shows but they weren't tapes, they were running them off of old 16mm prints. Shows like Farmer's Daughter, The Young Rebels, Empire, Wackiest Ship in the Army although they did air were never put to tape.
Universal - They have tape on some series which have aired in syndication as well as 16mm on many others. They at least are amenable to giving access to their 16mm prints, which is where Timeless has been able to release a great many shows. But if there's only 35mm, other than very popular shows, it becomes cost prohibitive.
CBS - Luckily, thanks to TV Land, which bought tons of shows from them in its early days, there are beautiful remastered tapes on a lot of obscure shows. Many other series, there aren't and those go into the unlikely to ever be seen category as well. Put in basic terms, you have a much better chance of seeing Blansky's Beauties or Who's Watching the Kids than you do The Defenders or December Bride.
MGM - As much of a mess as this studio has been, someone over there in the 80s had the good sense to master their entire television library, including the Ziv shows, to 1-inch videotape. While that may be an obsolete format (although easier to deal with than 2-inch), it means that any show that they own is easily accesible, either by them or if they license it out.
Warner - The state of their own library, i.e., the shows they owned prior to merging with Turner, is hit or miss. They mastered most of their "classic" shows from the late 50s, early 60s when they made the big sale to Good Life. Other shows not included in the deal, no. Turner however, mastered all of his TV shows, the former MGM library (as opposed to current MGM which is the old UA) to 1-inch tape from 35mm when he bought the company in the 80s. One would think that would be great except now Warner Archive has decided that those transfers aren't good enough for you people in the HD, 16:9 crowd. So it then becomes a matter of striking new transfers so its a moot point as to whether or not old transfers exist as they don't consider them usable.
Fox - As we all know, and has been proven time and time again, Fox sucks. They have zero interest in their pre-90s TV holdings. Just for example, Fox owns the Metromedia library but they are so clueless, they don't even know it. That's why shows from Metromedia Producers Corp. are treated as PD and sold by anyone who lays their hands on them. Fox either doesn't know or doesn't care or both. As for elements, we've all seen what Room 222 looks like - decades old dirty 16mm transfers. What that means, for people who don't know film terminology, is the prints are run off to tape as is, no color correction, no cleanup, nothing. Just put on the projector and transfered to tape. So when it comes to their older shows which people are desiring, like Felony Squad or Judd for the Defense or Bracken's World, for instance, if there are tape transfers, they would look like Room 222 or worse. And I'm sure many other shows, such as Long Hot Summer or Adventures in Paradise, probably don't even have tape elements. For those who think that Fox will follow Warner's lead in its BOD program and remaster its older shows, please contact me as I have some great land in Florida I'd like to sell you!
Sony - Forgot about them because they've been out of the DVD business for so long at this point. They were very good about getting a lot of obscure shows sold during the early cable days so they do have tape on a lot of series that wound up in various syndication packages. Also, they sold a bunch of short run sitcoms to HA! when that network was around for a short time. So, some of the shows which they would have tape on are Hawk, Joe Forrester, Occasional Wife, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, The Interns, Medical Story and Casey Jones. But if the show hasn't had any sales, its still going to be only on film and therefore subject to the same high transfer costs as at the other studios. CBN bought a lot of old Sony shows but they weren't tapes, they were running them off of old 16mm prints. Shows like Farmer's Daughter, The Young Rebels, Empire, Wackiest Ship in the Army although they did air were never put to tape.