All of my favorites are tanking.... (1 Viewer)

[AndyMcKinney]

I can go back a bit further on this: I remember being about 12 years old when I saw what looked like a record album with Star Trek artwork on it in the TV section of Sears. Imagine my amazement when I saw it wasn't a record, but a video disc with the famous 2-part episode of Star Trek on it! Since I lived in an area where Trek reruns hadn't been played in several years, and we only had the three networks + PBS, I thought to myself "I must get this gizmo!"

I mowed yards all that summer and saved up money (with some help from my granparents) to buy the RCA (actually, the Sears model) SelectaVision CED videodisc player (not laser discs, CED discs). My first disc was, naturally, a Star Trek one (I think the one that the Sears catalogue had was actually Tribbles/Tholian Web).

Imagine the excitement of having two unedited Star Trek episodes to play whenever I wanted! Sure, the disc was about $30 (in 1982 dollars, mind), but I didn't care! I remember making many shopping expeditions to a TV store that specialised in CED discs to see if any new Star Trek titles had been released (RCA put out a total of six and I bought all of them).

Flash forward to today. $30 for two hours of TV? You must be mad! Plus, look at all the choices of TV on home video as compared to the early 1980s (you could probably count the total of TV releases on your fingers and toes in 1982, maybe even just on the fingers). And then, it was only a few episodes of each show. Never a complete season, let alone a complete run of the show itself.

Despite the (at least, perceived if not actual) distaste the general public seems to for vintage TV, just look how good we've got it now compared to the '80s! And just think what people did before the arrival of VHS/Beta! Can you imagine buying a projector and film prints?

 

[DavidofLondon]

I also live in the UK and RCE bothered me for a brief while. Then I decided to resolve the situation, went to my DVD retailer and got my machine sorted. Now it plays RCE disks just fine.

Speak to your retailer there's loads of multi-region machines out there that ignore RCE. It may even be possible to get your current machine chipped to handle RCE.

 

[DavidofLondon]

For reference shows that appear to have stalled that I'd like to see complete are:

Mork and Mindy (Season 1 released, need 2 and 3)
Forever Knight (Season 1 and 2 released, need 3)
Airwolf (Season 1 released, need 2 and 3, at a push I might buy 4 just to complete the set)
Six Million Dollar Man (Season 1 released, need 2-5)
Bionic Woman (Season 1 released, need 2 and 3)


But there's always hope. After a very long delay A&E have finally announced Season 2 of The Avengers (having released seasons 3 onwards a long time back - Season 1 no longer exists)

 

[Jason_V]

It's been mentioned once here already and it's not that "old" of a show, but I never thought seaQuest would get released in any way, shape or form. We got S1 back in December and three months later, nothing. Granted 3 months is nothing compared to a couple years, but S1 is considered the best of the 2 1/2 seasons the show aired.

It is disheartening to see a S1 and nothing else on the shelf. However, the studios are all businesses designed to make a profit. If their bean counters project $0 profit, the chances of that show coming out are slim (we all know that). Even in order to license them out, there needs to be interest from a speciality studio. Some might feel overworked or that they don't want to spend the license fee on X show.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

I personally have purchased so many tv-on-dvd sets, that there is no way I could afford to buy the whole series of each and every show I like if it was released at a faster pace--let alone watch each episode. I couldn't keep up. There's not enough time in the day. I'm satisfied with what I got. It will take me a long time to watch each episode of every series I have on dvd right now--but I keep adding more and more as new series that I like are being released for the first time. For example, I plan on buying the upcoming releases of That Girl, Big Valley, and Facts of Life, but I still have a lot of stuff right now that I need to watch. And I'm confident that the studios will eventually get around to finishing other series they started in the future after their wells start drying up.

 

[RoryR]

I am a sitcom guy, don't buy much else and these shows are generally released very slowly. Home Improvement - twice a year, there is no excuse for that it uses pretty much no music, Disney just don't treat it well (like Golden Girls & Boy Meets World, BMW taking.).

Disney have stopped selling those shows over-seas, why because they don't promote it and change the very inventive packaging of Home Improvement and it works out cheap to buy it from the US anyway.

 

[Chris Wall]

I think that what is most frustrating is when a show is abandoned before it gets to its best seasons and often it only has the first one or two seasons which can often be bland when compared to its peak years. Such as Boy Meets World, which I felt was best from season 3 on, had seasons 1 and 2 within three months then season 3 was 9 months after being pushed back from spring and season 4 being originally anounced for January and being pulled without a date in sight.

 

[Sean D.]

I'm 14 and my favorite type of tv is from the 60s. However most people my age won't give these shows a chance saying they won't watch it just because it is in black and white. This eliminates the market for these shows a good bit. Althogh there is a market for a lot of them teenagers and young adults would not get these shows. I think there should be just one company that puts out these older shows.

 

[Dan*T]

Yes, case in point is NIGHT COURT!!!

 

[RobertSiegel]

Ditto on the Bionic Woman Jeff, I';ve been waiting and waiting. I have read on several fan sites that there are rights problems, but if you ask me, Universal is waiting for the Six Million Dollar Man (with Jim Carry...oy vey). I've been lucky to have some of my fave tv series on disc, especially the entire Dark Shadows series, that's over 1100 episodes, hats off to MPI Home Video for that.I'd also love to have MAUDE.

 

[Chris Wall]

I was thinking on a related note how only 8-9 years ago going into Suncoast and buying a couple of Paramount's two episode Brady Bunch tapes thinking how neat that was never envisioning having the entire series all five seasons collected.

 

[ethanTo]

I've completely (99%) given up on seeing the second and final season of The Adventures of Sinbad on DVD. :frowning: Not sure how many people have seen it, it was a Hercules-Xena-ish syndicated hour show, but with worse acting, worse special effects, etc. Despite all this, I really liked the show, and never had a chance to see the second season (school interfering and what not).

The first season was released only in Canada (bought it from amazon.ca, shipped to the US), and its amazon entry never even got an image to go with it. It was a bare bones release: a cardstock sleeve which encased 6 of those cheapo black DVD boxes, not so much as a picture on each disc. Obviously no extras.

But I will still maintain that 1% shred of hope. Zen Gesner, the star of the show, never really 'made it big,' though every now and then you see him playing a bit part in a movie. I'm hoping that someday, he'll find his way into something and pick up a little bit of fame, just so that the second season might surface.

 

[ethanTo]

To be frank though, the ones I'm more concerned about, having given up on Sinbad:

the Disney toons

Duck Tales and chip and dale also got fairly poorly-marketed, bare bones, releases. And Goof Troop and Quack Pack got completely screwed (more info on TVShowsonDVD.com or ultimatedisney.com). Just terrible for fans of those two. The Gargoyles creator (Greg something) made a public statement about the second half of Gargoyles season 2 being in jeopardy due to poor sales.

I worry for the future of all of these. Sigh, Disney.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Not to mention all the other Disney toons that haven't been released as season set: Aladdin, Lilo & Stitch, etc. I can't BELIEVE Disney can't properly market their own popular products!!

 

[Duane Alford]

I was talking to my mom about some of the old B&W shows that I love and she says "why would you watch any of that, it's all in black and white!" I'm 35 and my mom just turned 70.

A lot of the posts in this thread point out one thing. Too much stuff is being released. I was buying season sets the day they'd be released until two things happened. One, I ended up getting backed up. Two, Season 4 of In Living Color sat for many months until I could get around to watching it. Turns out one of the discs is defective, unless I can find a way to contact Fox and get a replacement, I'm stuck with it. Because of that I decided that I will no longer buy sets the day they come out until I can get caught up with what I have. That way I don't get stuck with anything defective. Right now I have 3 left to watch through, then 11 to get, with 5 more coming out between next week and the end of next month!

 

[Doug^Ch]

If I had to watch everything in my collection that I have yet to watch before purchasing any more sets, I wouldn't buy another set for at least 5 years, and that is a conservative estimate. I guess I need an intervention; I can't stop buying these season sets. I don't know if it is for sentimental reasons or the stupid collector in me. Eventually it has to stop or I'll have to take them all with me to the poor house

 

[Bob Hug]

It's not quite that long for me, but I'm in the same general situation. Since I buy mostly vintage TV shows (my definition: 1970s and earlier), part of the reason that I buy them when they are first issued (or soon thereafter) is the perceived fear (either real or imagined) that they'll go out of print and I won't be able to get them down the line. I'm especially concerned about series from the 1950s and 1960s as the market for most of the shows from this era shrinks with each passing year, i.e., there's less of a reason for the studios to release them. For example, I acquired collection 1 of the early 1950s Sci-Fi series "Tales of Tomorrow" some time ago, but have yet to really sit down and watch it. I did give both discs in the set a quick "once-over" to make sure that the discs weren't defective but it'll take me at least six months before I really get some time to watch and enjoy it. I'm actually focusing more of my recent buying on the independent releasing companies that have rarer series and have passed on some very good vintage series released by the majors (specifically season 2 of "The Adventures of Superman" and season 1 of "The Rat Patrol") with the thinking that the major studio releases may be a bit easier to find in the long run over the releases from the independent studios like Image, Rhino, etc. Incidentally, Rhino did a really great job with their release of "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" as a "best of" collection. "Wyatt Earp" is probably too old a series to successfully sell season sets, but Rhino did a mostly great job in selecting key episodes for their collection. I'd like to see this approach used for some of the older, but less popular series.

 

[michael_ks]

Same here. Some 'Johnny Yuma' is better than no 'Johnny Yuma' at all. I used to be more greedy and impatient, but I see the writing on the wall with DVD releases for shows from the 50s and am pleased to get anything I can that strikes my fancy. I'm still confident over the release of season sets for "Route 66" and "The Fugitive" though.

 

[Bob Hug]

. . . you and me, both. Pure speculation on my part, but I'm hoping that Image Entertainment gets the license for "Route 66." With the release of collection 3 late last month, Image has to be getting near the end of the full run of hour long "Naked City" episodes that were licensed to them and "Route 66" had the same executive producer, Herbert B. Leonard, so I think that's there's some hope for this one in the future.

 

[michael_ks]

In many ways, Route 66 and Naked City are sister shows. Howard Rodman, who penned many of the great NC episodes was story editor for R66 and Stirling Silliphant, who wrote 31 of the 39 half hour NC shows, wrote nearly three-fourths of the ones for R66. If you like the writing in one show, you're bound to like the writing in the other. It's because of Image's great job with the NC releases that I feel confident about it getting released--quite probably as boxed sets as well.