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Major 80's Shows Left Incomplete (1 Viewer)

Frank Soyke

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What are the odds these stalled 80's shows being completed...or series started as the case may be? I know there are many short lived or one season shows from the 80's many of us would like to see (Best Of The West, Open All Night, It's Your Move, etc) but I'm confining this list to major multiple season shows.


1) The 70's carryovers - Different Strokes, Love Boat, Archie Bunker's Place, Fantasy Island, One Day At A Time


2) The Stalled Sitcoms and Dramas - Silver Spoons, Fall Guy, TJ Hooker, Knots Landing, Perfect Strangers


3) The Unreleased - Midnight Caller, Dear John, Head Of The Class, Its A Living/Making A Living
 

Kasey

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I think given Shout's history with Sony/Lear shows, STROKES, ARCHIE and ONE DAY stand the best chance. IT'S A LIVING and ONE DAY are my top two Holy Grails now (along with the rest of ALICE).
 

HenryDuBrow

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Would love T.J. Hooker and Who's the Boss? to continue, possibly from Shout!... If not there, then standard releases from Sony or their own MOD program.
 

Jack P

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Also add "Amazing Stories" which has needed just one season of two for about eight or nine years now!
 

MatthewA

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Whether it was on cable, syndication or network TV, and no matter who the target demographic was, here's everything I could remember that managed to escape cancellation for a year or more between January 1, 1980 and December 31, 1989:

One and Done:
227 (1 out of 5)
Amazing Stories (1 out of 2)

Archie Bunker's Place (1 out of 4)
The Fall Guy (1 out of 5)
Five Mile Creek (1 out of 3)
Hotel (1 out of 5)
Murphy Brown (1 out of 8)
One Day at a Time (1 out of 9)
Perfect Strangers (2 out of 7)
St. Elsewhere (1 out of 6)

Silver Spoons (1 out of 5)

Smurfs (1 out of 9)
What's Happening Now!! (1 out of 3)
Who's the Boss? (1 out of 8)

Two and Through:

Benson (2 out of 7)
Fame (2 out of 6)
Jake and the Fatman (2 out of 5)
Knots Landing (2 out of 14)*
The Love Boat (2 out of 9)
Small Wonder (2 out of 4)
T.J. Hooker (2 out of 5)
Too Close For Comfort (2 out of 6)

Three and Then They Flee:

Falcon Crest (3 out of 9)
Fantasy Island (3 out of 6)
L.A. Law (3 out of 8)
The Muppet Show (3 out of 5)

Four and Then No More:

Alice (4 out of 9)
Diff'rent Strokes (4 out of 8)

Newhart (4 out of 8)


Almost Done:
Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers (1 volume left?)
Ducktales (1 volume left)
The Gummi Bears (1 volume left?)
Mr. Belvedere (4 out of 6)

My Two Dads (2 out of 3)**
Webster
(4 out of 6; some, but not all, of the S5 and S6 episodes are on Hulu***)



They can do better:
ALF (4 seasons cut, some even more than they were in syndication, available uncut overseas in Germany and/or Japan****)



Unreleased:

Amen (5 seasons)
B.J. and the Bear (3 seasons)
The Bronx Zoo (2 seasons)
Brothers (5 seasons)*****
The Cavanaughs (2 seasons)
The Charmings (2 seasons)
Check it Out! (3 seasons)
Crazy Like a Fox (2 seasons)
Danger Bay (6 seasons)******
Day By Day (2 seasons)
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (5 seasons)

Duet (3 seasons)
Empty Nest (7 seasons)

Filthy Rich (2 seasons)
Flamingo Road (2 seasons)
Goodnight Beantown (2 seasons)
Harper Valley PTA (2 seasons)
Head of the Class (5 seasons)
House Calls (3 seasons)
It's a Living/Making A Living (6 seasons)
Just the Ten of Us (3 seasons)
Kids Incorporated (9 seasons; the amount of legal wrangling necessary could kill all potential profits)
Love Sidney (2 seasons)
Major Dad (4 seasons)
Me and Mrs. C. (2 seasons)
Mike Hammer (2 seasons)

The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo (2 seasons)
Mr. President (2 seasons)
The Munsters Today (3 seasons)
Muppet Babies (8 seasons and a myriad of legal clearances)
My Secret Identity (3 seasons)
My Sister Sam (2 seasons)
The New Gidget (2 seasons)

9 to 5 (5 seasons)
Our House (2 seasons)
Out of this World (4 seasons)
Paradise (3 seasons)
Private Benjamin (3 seasons)
Real People (6 seasons)
Rescue 911 (7 seasons)
Ripley's Believe it or Not! (4 seasons)
She's the Sheriff (2 seasons)
Sonny Spoon (2 seasons)
Still the Beaver/The New Leave it to Beaver (4 seasons and multiple ownership issues)
Teachers Only (2 seasons)
That's Incredible! (5 seasons)
The Tracey Ullman Show (4 seasons and probably legal issues regarding The Simpsons cartoons which are what most people want to see anyway)

Valerie/Valerie's Family/The Hogan Family (6 seasons and probably a lot of contracts to sign)
We Got it Made (2 seasons)
You Again? (2 seasons)

Unreleased Sequels and Spinoffs
AfterMASH (2 seasons)
Checking In (1 season, only 1 episode available)
Enos (1 season)
Gloria (1 season)
Open House (1 season)
Sanford (2 seasons)


Three's a Crowd (1 season)

Announced but abandoned
Frank's Place



*Bad enough the Dallas revival wasn't released on Blu-ray despite being shot in HD and made available that way for purchase on iTunes, but what is Warner Archive's answer to the question about this show these days? Music rights? The masters SoapNet used aren't good enough for DVD?

**Can we PLEASE admit this was better than Full House, at least by default?


***Sadly, the episodes with former Chelsea Girl and Eating Raoul co-star Mary Woronov as a prostitute being held in jail isn't one of them even though they were parts 2 and 3 of a 3-part story of which part 1 is up. They went to San Francisco to see an elderly jazz musician complaining about bluegrass clubs, but I can't recall whether they went to Webster Street. And there are plenty other streets with that particular name all over Northern California. Keep in mind this was 1987, the same year Andy Warhol died.

****If you don't mind switching between NTSC and PAL, which might be a bit of an issue for a show shot on NTSC SD tape, you can put an almost complete set together between the German S2 and S4 and the Japanese S1 and S3. If you need a reminder of what happened to this show at Lionsgate's hands: the Tonight Show episode was cut to 39 minutes when it had already been released uncut on a one-disc compilation in Canada.

*****This was the gay-themed Showtime sitcom Stu Silver left Webster for after he got sick of ABC's meddling.

******Canadian adventure show that aired on The Disney Channel in the US. Soap's Donnelly Rhodes was in it.
 

Jack P

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If Fantasy Island is on the list, then Love Boat also belongs at two and through.
 

BobO'Link

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Nice list Matthew!


While there are quite a few titles I'd eventually purchase the three I truly "need" for my collection are Newhart, Murphy Brown (at least a couple more seasons as I mostly lost interest the season she got pregnant) and Frank's Place.
 

Darby67

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Jack P said:
Also add "Amazing Stories" which has needed just one season of two for about eight or nine years now!

Jack:


Amen to that! Universal really should have just released a complete series release in the first place.


Darby
 

classicmovieguy

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I'm really hoping that "It's a Living" is released somewhere, somehow. I have 5 episodes that I managed to download off Youtube (before they were removed) and I'm surprised at the "repeat value" of them. Still very fresh and fun.
 

Kasey

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classicmovieguy said:
I'm really hoping that "It's a Living" is released somewhere, somehow. I have 5 episodes that I managed to download off Youtube (before they were removed) and I'm surprised at the "repeat value" of them. Still very fresh and fun.
The first 2 seasons have plenty of rewatchability (and S3 largely due to Ann Jillian's presence) and sharp writing (for the most part). I am so glad I have my bootleg set but many of the S2 eps are in lousy quality and I would love a nice, bright, crisp official release.
 

classicmovieguy

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Kasey said:
The first 2 seasons have plenty of rewatchability (and S3 largely due to Ann Jillian's presence) and sharp writing (for the most part). I am so glad I have my bootleg set but many of the S2 eps are in lousy quality and I would love a nice, bright, crisp official release.
I only have 1 episode from Season 2 (the one where Jan gets her arm trapped in the wall at Maggie's house). The show is highly underrated in my book.
 

TVonDVDJunkie05

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My Two Dads (1 out of 3)*

Actually, Seasons 1 & 2 have been released for My Two Dads. Season 2 is a Shout! Select release, which might be why you didn't know it had been released?!


Great list, its a bit shocking to see how many 80s series are incomplete and even more how many have only had 1 season released- The Fall Guy and St. Elsewhere should be complete but they are Fox properties so that explains why they are not.
 

Kasey

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classicmovieguy said:
I only have 1 episode from Season 2 (the one where Jan gets her arm trapped in the wall at Maggie's house). The show is highly underrated in my book.
That was one of mine that Youtube shut down; the "Horsing Around" episode from the same season is far superior and one of the best of the entire series IMO. Louise is fantastic in it--so hysterical. Right now I only have selected clips (without posting the show's title) and opening credit sequences from the series posted so I don't get terminated again. My user name there is TeeVeeGold.
 

Jack P

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Add "Goodnight Beantown" to the unreleased list that I'd like to see. I wouldn't mind an R1 release of "The Law And Harry McGraw" even though the R4 release was a pleasant surprise (it belongs in the spinoff category)
 

classicmovieguy

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Kasey said:
That was one of mine that Youtube shut down; the "Horsing Around" episode from the same season is far superior and one of the best of the entire series IMO. Louise is fantastic in it--so hysterical. Right now I only have selected clips (without posting the show's title) and opening credit sequences from the series posted so I don't get terminated again. My user name there is TeeVeeGold.
As a MH fan it's fantastic seeing Louise Lasser and Marian Mercer back together in Season 2 of "It's a Living".
 

Dave Lawrence

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Matthew, that's a good, very thorough list. I also have no memory of Frank's Place being announced and then abandoned, so that was interesting to learn.


I think you covered most 80s shows with 2 or more seasons that I could think of. For now I can only think to add Teachers Only, a 2-season NBC sitcom with Lynn Redgrave. Also, since your Unreleased Sequels and Spinoffs section includes some 1-season shows, I'd add the 1989 sitcom Open House, which was the continuation/sequel to Duet, which you included in the Unreleased section.
 

MatthewA

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Dave Lawrence said:
Matthew, that's a good, very thorough list. I also have no memory of Frank's Place being announced and then abandoned, so that was interesting to learn.

TVShowsonDVD.com announced it along with the disappointing news that we could expect music changes. That's probably what killed it.
 

Dave Lawrence

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MatthewA said:
TVShowsonDVD.com announced it along with the disappointing news that we could expect music changes. That's probably what killed it.

Okay, that makes sense. I was certain it wouldn't be released due to the music. I'm sure I read that article originally and just put it out of my mind since I knew I wouldn't buy it with "a newly re-recorded musical score". I agree that reaction to the replacement music probably killed the deal.
 

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