20th century fox TV archives MOD program (1 Viewer)

[Vahan_Nisanain]

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Look, we all have our favorites among shows that either failed originally or have been forgotten over time. Yeah, it would be nice if we could all have access to all of the shows we wanted and there was a gigantic internet site where every show was archived and available for viewing. Just not possible nor economically feasible. UCLA and Library of Congress have the 2 best archives in the country but neither are accessible to the general public so their collections are no different than shows locked in studio vaults. Not sure how Wisconsin Film Archive works but they have every episode of every show Ziv produced in their collection. As for the Fox shows, they aren't remastering Peyton Place so even if they did do something with it, which is extremely unlikely, it won't look any better than your recordings from Romance or FoxNet.

And another reason to hate Fox (as if there wasn't so many of them):


They junked the nitrates of all their vintage movies, and kept only the acetate copies.

 

[John Karras]

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Yet for some, it hasn't clicked that Fox's interest in remastering and releasing classic shows is Finn-ished.

 

[DeWilson]

Not sure how Wisconsin Film Archive works but they have every episode of every show Ziv produced in their collection.

I believe this is just a duplicate of what MGM's holding are - but does wonder what the shape of the color material in Wisconsin is in comparison with MGM's holdings.

 

[Tony J Case]

Wait - isnt the Starlost already on DVD?

 

[Frank Soyke]

Just to make you guys aware, i wrote to Mr Finn today asking him about the status of any releases of classic stuff on DVD through MOD. I specifically mentioned the titles Peyton Place, Julia, and 12 "O" Clock High although my question was general enough to imply similar releases. I was surpised to get a response back very quickly. It simply said.


"No plans at the moment"


It was nice of him to respond but of course I'm very disappointed, albeit not surprised. But maybe now, we can take all these hopes off the table. It ain't ever happening folks. I won't hang my hopes on the words "at the moment." The longer they would wait to release this stuff, the more the core audience ages and "fades out." It's now or never IMO..... I guess it's never.

 

[FanCollector]

Thanks for the update. I fear that Fox is all but out of the TV on DVD industry completely. Their older titles have never been a priority, but now they are delaying and abandoning current titles also. The most recent season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was announced and then delayed indefinitely. I wrote to ask them about it and they said they have no information on a release date for it. They've stopped their Simpsons releases also, as has been covered everywhere.

I think the only hope for any Fox-owned classic television shows is a licensing company that is able to come to terms with them, which seems to be rather more difficult than with the other major studios.

 

[John Karras]

I think the only hope for any Fox-owned classic television shows is a licensing company that is able to come to terms with them, which seems to be rather more difficult than with the other major studios.

There have been some unfortunate disappointments for those who have licensed Fox older titles. Burke's Law faded away, and Shout had to drop The Paper Chase and L. A. Law due to poor sales. As the market continues to get softer, licensees are less prepared to take risks at the premium prices I understand Fox commands, especially since so much of Fox's back television catalog also requires costly remastering before an acceptable release could be considered.

 

[FanCollector]

While there's no denying that some of the shows we want have very long odds of being profitable, and also that the market for classic shows in general is shrinking, there has still always been a wide variety of profitability standards among the major studios. Somehow CBS/Paramount, for example, found a way to make the classic TV market profitable to a much greater extent than Fox ever did. Universal and Sony had good starts and then stopped, but they were much quicker than Fox to license out older shows to willing companies. Warner was as bad as Fox for a long time, but then their Archive program made surprising and wonderful strides.

Yes, the market bears some responsibility for the status of Fox-owned classic shows, but comparing them to their competitors, the studio bears some responsibility also.

 

[JayHink]

Ehh, I'll keep buyin' till they stop sellin'.

 

[Silverking]

Are there actually any 'independents' out there who are interested in licensing stuff though ?

Shout no longer involved with vintage stuff & their takeover of Timeless killed the real champion of older b/w TV.TGG after a brief flurry seemed to have vanished. VEI going forward, will probably rest on how the CBS material sells, maybe not that well I suspect.

With all the other studios out of the game leaving Warners as the last man standing and they appear to be slowing down ,unable to clear some of their old stuff, we are more or less all done, particularly 50's, 60's to mid 70's.
Where did all the buyers actually go ?

 

[bmasters9]

Are there actually any 'independents' out there who are interested in licensing stuff though ?

Shout no longer involved with vintage stuff & their takeover of Timeless killed the real champion of older b/w TV.TGG after a brief flurry seemed to have vanished. VEI going forward, will probably rest on how the CBS material sells, maybe not that well I suspect.

With all the other studios out of the game leaving Warners as the last man standing and they appear to be slowing down ,unable to clear some of their old stuff, we are more or less all done, particularly 50's, 60's to mid 70's.
Where did all the buyers actually go ?

It's because most everybody wants DVDs of what's on today, thinking that if it's not on today, it's not worth watching. That's just speculation on my part, though.

 

[MatthewA]

While there's no denying that some of the shows we want have very long odds of being profitable, and also that the market for classic shows in general is shrinking, there has still always been a wide variety of profitability standards among the major studios. Somehow CBS/Paramount, for example, found a way to make the classic TV market profitable to a much greater extent than Fox ever did. Universal and Sony had good starts and then stopped, but they were much quicker than Fox to license out older shows to willing companies. Warner was as bad as Fox for a long time, but then their Archive program made surprising and wonderful strides.

CBS/Paramount does a great job remastering film-based shows and a horrible job clearing music unless someone else is footing the bill. A lot of their shows are on Hulu now, but the only episodes available happen to be the ones that don't have music rights issues. Warner used off-the-shelf masters for awhile, likely because they wanted stuff out ASAP, but they've started remastering stuff. Sony used to be all over the place in picture quality and completeness, but now Shout! is trying to get as much of their stuff as possible and whatever they don't want, Mill Creek will take.

But Fox, frankly, can go take a long walk off a short pier if they think they can pass off some of the crap they've tried to pass off as being acceptable for DVD. And I wonder how many shows aren't on DVD just because the existing masters were good enough for cable TV 20-25 years ago but aren't good enough for DVD. Bad enough the studio that gave us CinemaScope is still releasing pan-and-scan versions scope films in 2015. They're constantly complaining about poor sales, well maybe the reason the sales are so poor because the quality of the product is poor to begin with. Garbage in, garbage out.

 

[Frank Soyke]

Are there actually any 'independents' out there who are interested in licensing stuff though ?

Shout no longer involved with vintage stuff & their takeover of Timeless killed the real champion of older b/w TV.TGG after a brief flurry seemed to have vanished. VEI going forward, will probably rest on how the CBS material sells, maybe not that well I suspect.

With all the other studios out of the game leaving Warners as the last man standing and they appear to be slowing down ,unable to clear some of their old stuff, we are more or less all done, particularly 50's, 60's to mid 70's.
Where did all the buyers actually go ?

It's a just a matter of demographics that all. Where did the buyers go? The ones interested in the older stuff, particularly the real old stuff (1950 to about 1962) aged out of the market and some have died off. The studios messed around too long haggling music rights and such on some of that real old stuff (see Warner detective shows) that now there probably isn't the buying pubic left to make it profititable for them considering the licensing fees, remastering, etc.

Let's just take 77 Sunset Strip as an example. The show left the air more than 50 years ago. It didn't run much in syndication despite it's popularity so generally speaking outside the collecting world and a small handful of blind buyers (not a big chance for a 50years+ b/w show with forgotten stars) Warners would be primarily depending on we collectors (a relatively small group) and people who remember watching it first run. Now considering the type of show it, I'm estimating a person would have to be at least 8 years old (and that's kind math) when it left the air in 1964 to have any kind of decent recollection of watching it. That would mean in 2015 outside the collecting world, Warners would primarily be depending on persons 60 and above as their target market. Now while people that age do buy DVD's, they are certainly not a big piece of the pie when it comes to the DVD buying public compared to other age groups. Further 77 Sunset Strip is even one of the more popular shows of that era, imagine how much the selling potential for them shrinks when you start talking about even older lesser known (or one season) shows. Sad part is, mid to late 60's shows will be in this prediciment in about 5 years as well. That's why I continue to say It's now or never for most of this older stuff. They mess around another 5 years or so with Strip, Hawaiian Eye or some of the others, there won't be hardly anybody left to buy them.

 

[LouA]

It's a just a matter of demographics that all. Where did the buyers go? The ones interested in the older stuff, particularly the real old stuff (1950 to about 1962) aged out of the market and some have died off. The studios messed around too long haggling music rights and such on some of that real old stuff (see Warner detective shows) that now there probably isn't the buying pubic left to make it profititable for them considering the licensing fees, remastering, etc.
Let's just take 77 Sunset Strip as an example. The show left the air more than 50 years ago. It didn't run much in syndication despite it's popularity so generally speaking outside the collecting world and a small handful of blind buyers (not a big chance for a 50years+ b/w show with forgotten stars) Warners would be primarily depending on we collectors (a relatively small group) and people who remember watching it first run. Now considering the type of show it, I'm estimating a person would have to be at least 8 years old (and that's kind math) when it left the air in 1964 to have any kind of decent recollection of watching it. That would mean in 2015 outside the collecting world, Warners would primarily be depending on persons 60 and above as their target market. Now while people that age do buy DVD's, they are certainly not a big piece of the pie when it comes to the DVD buying public compared to other age groups. Further 77 Sunset Strip is even one of the more popular shows of that era, imagine how much the selling potential for them shrinks when you start talking about even older lesser known (or one season) shows. Sad part is, mid to late 60's shows will be in this prediciment in about 5 years as well. That's why I continue to say It's now or never for most of this older stuff. They mess around another 5 years or so with Strip, Hawaiian Eye or some of the others, there won't be hardly anybody left to buy them.

As a big fan and collector of this type of programming , it appears to me that it's now "never". I get the feeling it's pretty much over for black and white TV on DVD. I wish I was wrong about that , but I can't think of anything that's about to be released or has been announced .

 

[Frank Soyke]

As a big fan and collector of this type of programming , it appears to me that it's now "never". I get the feeling it's pretty much over for black and white TV on DVD. I wish I was wrong about that , but I can't think of anything that's about to be released or has been announced .

It does certainly appear that not only b/w stuff but also anything pre 70's that isn't already out there is pretty much a foregone conclusion with very limited exceptions. Other than a Warner title or two, the window is pretty much closed at this point. All I can say is, thank goodness for "alternate" sources. I'll leave it at that.

 

[FanCollector]

While we're on the subject, and without starting a new guessing game that will get us in trouble, is that one major unreleased classic series still in the works, Neil? (I promise not to try to figure out which it is in public. Just hoping that it hasn't been canceled amid all this other bad TV-on-DVD news.)

 

[Neil Brock]

While we're on the subject, and without starting a new guessing game that will get us in trouble, is that one major unreleased classic series still in the works, Neil? (I promise not to try to figure out which it is in public. Just hoping that it hasn't been canceled amid all this other bad TV-on-DVD news.)

No news to report but at last communication, the rights are still being negotiated. Haven't heard otherwise so I would say in this case, no news is good news!

 

[FanCollector]

Very glad to hear it. I agree with everyone that things have slowed down a lot, but still looking forward to the occasional pleasant surprise. I do also hope that The Alfred Hitchcock Hour is still a realistic possibility.

 

[Neil Brock]

Very glad to hear it. I agree with everyone that things have slowed down a lot, but still looking forward to the occasional pleasant surprise. I do also hope that The Alfred Hitchcock Hour is still a realistic possibility.

Its more than that.

 

[Jack P]

Well I like that indication, but only when I see the announcement will I believe it. An individual S7 release and a complete Hour set would be the best solutions from my standpoint.