1966 Batman DVD Coming! See Post 649 (1 Viewer)

[Ruz-El]

It's cute how now that we have a price that appears to be a bit high, we are all pretending that this wasn't a licensing nightmare that prevented it from being released on home video for over 30 years.

I don't think every actor needed to be paid. There was extensive talk of everyone else though. The guy who built the car wanted a royalty, the music guy, this gut, that guy, families of guys. royalties per episode available, all due to lazy contract writing that most shows had protected. Hence many of us wrote this release off as never going to happen. I remember a report that Adam West recorded some commentaries in case he died before it came out, as a fan service.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

In general, the old contracts gave the show owners the rights to do anything they wanted with the show.

Pretty much. That definitely changed at a certain point -- I think in the 1970s. Wikipedia would seem to back that up:

"The original residual agreements for television shows never anticipated the number of repeat broadcasts that some well-loved television series would eventually see in syndication. As a result, the residual payments were generally limited to about six broadcasts. This was changed in the mid-1970s, when contracts for new television shows extended residual payments without limit on the number of repeats."
--source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residual_(entertainment_industry)

My experience in a past life working for a small label fits with that -- for shows from the 1960s where I worked on the DVD release, if we owned the master, we owned the show. You might have to pay the cast to appear in a newly created bonus feature, but their rights were pretty limited (read: non-existent) for the actual show. For shows from the late 70s that I did work on, however, there would sometimes be a lot of paperwork to go through, original contracts, etc, to determine who had to be paid for what. But in my experience, and it may be different for other shows and/or other distributors, it wasn't a question of needing people's permission to put out those shows -- it was just a matter of, if we did put it out, they had to be paid for it. The individual actors had no ability to flat-out prevent the release of the title, and our releases weren't held up waiting for someone to go out and resign the actors to new contracts. We might have occasionally had an issue where the show was co-produced with an outside production company, before the advent of home video, so we only had television broadcast rights, and we'd need to go back and do a new deal to cover home video. But that was between the other production company that co-owned the material, not with an actor or performer.

I can't say with 100% certainty that it's exactly the same with this "Batman" release or any other show. I can only say that my personal and professional experience working on releases of shows originally made during the 60s to the 2000s, along with what Wikipedia and other historical sources cite on residuals and actor's rights, leads me to believe that the major hold-up for "Batman" was the rights issue between Fox (the studio that produced the show) and Warner (the studio that owns the characters used in the Fox production).

 

[Rob_Ray]

As far as getting clearances from guest stars is concerned, it was standard legal procedure going back to the beginning of the studio era to include clauses in actors' contracts granting the studios all rights to an actor's performance in a given film covering its use for television (which was on the horizon as far back as the late twenties) and "any other medium yet to be invented." Normally, rights don't have to be re-negotiated for DVD and BluRay. Music rights were apparently not always so sweeping.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Music rights were apparently not always so sweeping.

That's been my first-hand experience as well.

 

[High C]

I don't suppose that securing an agreement from say Joan Collins was especially cheap.

FWIW, this is semi-OT, but I have it on VERY good authority that Joan Collins wasn't even approached by Warner/DC about paying to use her likeness in the Batman '66 comic. Hence, every appearance by The Siren in the comic has been of a generic Siren and not Joan. So if they didn't approach her for that. . .

 

[TravisR]

FWIW, this is semi-OT, but I have it on VERY good authority that Joan Collins wasn't even approached by Warner/DC about paying to use her likeness in the Batman '66 comic. Hence, every appearance by The Siren in the comic has been of a generic Siren and not Joan. So if they didn't approach her for that. . .

Assuming that you've read that comic book, doesn't every character except Bruce and Dick not look like their actor counterpart? I don't think it has any bearing on the Blu-ray/DVD release of the TV show but I'm guessing that they couldn't use the likeness of anyone other West and Ward for new material or merchandising.

 

[High C]

Assuming that you've read that comic book, doesn't every character except Bruce and Dick not look like their actor counterpart? I don't think it has any bearing on the Blu-ray/DVD release of the TV show but I'm guessing that they couldn't use the likeness of anyone other West and Ward for new material or merchandising.

Not true, although it sometimes can depend upon the artist. Print issue #2 had a Penguin/Mr. Freeze team-up that quite clearly used the likenesses of Meredith and Preminger.http://latimesherocomplex.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/batman66_ch_5-2b.jpghttp://latimesherocomplex.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/batman66_ch_5-1a.jpgI also understand that Newmar and Craig agreed to terms as far as Warner/DC using their likenesses, including on toys, dolls, figures, etc.I will agree that characters such as Gordon, O'Hara, Alfred and Aunt Harriet have been drawn as totally generic in the comic.

 

[JoeDoakes]

I haven't seen the comic, but for licensing purposes, I believe that they also have Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Julie Newmar, Vincent Price, David Wayne, and Cliff Robertson.

 

[High C]

I haven't seen the comic, but for licensing purposes, I believe that they also have Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Julie Newmar, Vincent Price, David Wayne, and Cliff Robertson.

That seems to pretty much be correct based on what I've seen of the comic and action figures, etc.

 

[TravisR]

I should have been more specific, I meant the other main cast members and not the guest villains.

I will agree that characters such as Gordon, O'Hara, Alfred and Aunt Harriet have been drawn as totally generic in the comic.

I guess it's just coincidence or the artist but like I said, I think they've captured the look of West, Ward and the villains pretty well but the characters you mention don't seem bear any resemblance to their actors.

 

[High C]

I should have been more specific, I meant the other main cast members and not the guest villains. I guess it's just coincidence or the artist but like I said, I think they've captured the look of West, Ward and the villains pretty well but the characters you mention don't seem bear any resemblance to their actors.

They probably chose not to negotiate with their estates for likeness rights, I would think.

 

[Sam Favate]

Today's Warner's Batman Day, so we should hear the details about the box set trickle out later today (tonight for the east coast folks).

 

[moviebuff75]

Yes.....West, Ward, and Newmar will announce it tomorrow night.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

My mistake, guys.

I thought it was tonight (last night now for East Coast)

 

[JohnMor]

Yes.....West, Ward, and Newmar will announce it tomorrow night.

Now if someone were to deliver a line like that on Batman, it would sound like a cue to the purrr-fect time and place for one of Gotham's Super Villains to plan some big, elaborate caper.

 

[Sam Favate]

Okay, so in a little while, the set will be unveiled, presumably with a complete list of extras, artwork, etc. So, here's to everyone who frequented this thread and others like it over the years. Give yourselves a pat on the back. I can remember checking sites like The Bits regularly back around '02, '03, '04, and so on, thinking "Surely it will be announced this year!" Last year at this time, many of us (me too) were convinced the announcement was coming at ComicCon, only to be disappointed once again. Throughout, the enthusiasm for the show never waned, and now here we are. Congratulations, citizens!

 

[Greg Chenoweth]

Okay, so in a little while, the set will be unveiled, presumably with a complete list of extras, artwork, etc. So, here's to everyone who frequented this thread and others like it over the years. Give yourselves a pat on the back. I can remember checking sites like The Bits regularly back around '02, '03, '04, and so on, thinking "Surely it will be announced this year!" Last year at this time, many of us (me too) were convinced the announcement was coming at ComicCon, only to be disappointed once again. Throughout, the enthusiasm for the show never waned, and now here we are. Congratulations, citizens!

Sam:

I remember when the 1989 Tim Burton film premiered I scanned all the video stores looking for VHS releases of the 1966 Batman series. I thought they would put out cassettes featuring the different villains: i.e., a Riddler set, a Penguin set, etc. I couldn't figure out then why 20th Century Fox didn't take advantage of the all the fanfare around Batman to maximize sales of the classic series. I didn't know about the legal issues at that point.

I wasn't sure that this day would come either, but it is almost here. I am so thrilled.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Gents,

Kind of repeating myself from last evening.

I am returning from a NYC industry event. Going to try to get to bed early.

You guys will probably get the news first. Please share in this thread and I will start
a second thread (or add the press release to the preorder thread) early in the morning.

 

[Sam Favate]

Warner Archive just tweeted this:


https://twitter.com/WarnerArchive/status/492477822602997760

 

[smithbrad]

At least the disks are secured by hubs of some kind. This is great I'm sure for big fans of the show. I will happily wait it out until they re-release season sets in simple blu-ray cases. By that time it should be a fraction of the cost and fit within my budget for this release.