Angie: The Complete Collection Coming from VEI (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

The irony of this show's year-and-a-half on the air* is that in its first season it was rated #5, even beating Diff'rent Strokes which was only rated #27. Mork and Mindy was its lead-in**, and that was #3 for the year. But then next season they moved Mork to Sunday compete with the newly rechristened Archie Bunker's Place, moved Angie to the post-Happy Days timeslot, with Laverne & Shirley moving to Mork's old Thursday at 8 time slot (Benson premiered at 8:30). ABC already moved it off of Tuesdays at 8:30 for Detective School, another two-season wonder that happened to be from Diff'rent Strokes creators Bernie Kukoff and Jeff Harris but without Tandem's involvement. That ended up on Saturdays and quickly died, while in early 1980 L&S and Angie moved to Monday nights at 8:30 and when the latter show ended, they found L&S's ratings had also collapsed from #1 outside of the top 30 altogether, leading to the move to California from Milwaukee.

After having turned them from the Almost Broadcasting Company to the #1 network in all of TV, Fred Silverman was over at NBC keeping Hello, Larry on life support during this whole time, trying in vain to keep more of the post-Strokes audience than they did***, even putting SNL reruns after them. But that show was never a hit, just something they tried to make happen that just never gelled like it should have.

*Which just happened to overlap with the courtship and marriage of my mother and father.
**Previously in its time slot was What's Happening!!, rated #28th for the year and the 17th highest rated show on ABC at the time out of 17 shows in the top 30, got moved to Saturdays where ABC cancelled it and the two other Yorkin-without-Lear shows on the air.
***They recast the daughter who wasn't Kim Richards, and they fired George Memmoli, who was mainly there to bear the brunt of fat jokes from Joanna Gleason which seemed needlessly cruel in a way they didn't on What's Happening or Gimme A Break!; It's one thing to actually be overweight or obese and to make jokes about it, it's another thing entirely to do so if you aren't and have never been, and even if the latter two shows could make the distinction, Larry couldn't. They replaced him with Meadowlark Lemon and Ruth Brown hoping to retain more African-American viewers, and as a reminder that Oregon's Black Exclusion Laws were but a shameful memory of the past. It didn't work, but if it had, that could have affected the fate of The Facts of Life.

 

[Neil Brock]

CBS/Paramount could have gone back to whatever film elements still exist and remastered it. They simply chose not to. They went with what was off the shelf because it was there and easier to transfer to digital. Even if the interest in the show is limited there are still not as many episodes to transfer.

And who was supposed to pay for it?

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

And who was supposed to pay for it?

VEI... I do agree if you want the best, you've got to pay more for it...

~Ben

 

[smithbrad]

VEI... I do agree if you want the best, you've got to pay more for it...

~Ben

Most likely the cost for VEI would be more than they would get back in sales. Therefore, it would probably have to be the studio because at least they may have an option to get the expense back through syndication, but since the studio didn't do it they may even question whether the cost is worth the effort. There is a reason it ended up the way it did.

 

[MielR]

Wow---I've been asking for an Angie DVD release for years, but never thought it would happen. It was one of my favorite shows as a kid. I hope the episodes aren't too butchered....

 

[MatthewA]

Most likely the cost for VEI would be more than they would get back in sales. Therefore, it would probably have to be the studio because at least they may have an option to get the expense back through syndication, but since the studio didn't do it they may even question whether the cost is worth the effort. There is a reason it ended up the way it did.

What you call a reason I call a self-fulfilling prophesy. If it is Paramount's responsibility to have up-to-date masters available not only for DVD but for HD broadcasters as well, they thought it was worth the effort to remaster for TV Land 20 years ago, and if the sets had come out in say, 2003, that would be one thing. But it's 2017.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

We must nonetheless buy it regardless of any notable edits within these episodes... if we want VEI to continue to release all these classic shows and TV movie specials.

~Ben

 

[smithbrad]

What you call a reason I call a self-fulfilling prophesy. If it is Paramount's responsibility to have up-to-date masters available not only for DVD but for HD broadcasters as well, they thought it was worth the effort to remaster for TV Land 20 years ago, and if the sets had come out in say, 2003, that would be one thing. But it's 2017.

By looking at the CBS Syndication Bible it is pretty clear what CBS considers a priority and what they don't. Many CBS controlled shows have been transferred to HD and released on DVD, with a few even making it to blu-ray. Of those that haven't many were either never transferred to tape or transferred 20 or more years ago. For along time CBS wouldn't even license these shows out but recently they have, and from what we have seen most are based on very old tape masters in questionable shape. It's unfortunate for fans of those shows, but it is what it is, you can support them or not, but it doesn't appear as if they will get any better treatment.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

By looking at the CBS Syndication Bible it is pretty clear what CBS considers a priority and what they don't. Many CBS controlled shows have been transferred to HD and released on DVD, with a few even making it to blu-ray. Of those that haven't many were either never transferred to tape or transferred 20 or more years ago. For along time CBS wouldn't even license these shows out but recently they have, and from what we have seen most are based on very old tape masters in questionable shape. It's unfortunate for fans of those shows, but it is what it is, you can support them or not, but it doesn't appear as if they will get any better treatment.

I may be wrong but I'd guess by now many of the original 16mm syndicated film stocks Paramount had used before for its older shows have now turned into "pixie dust."

~Ben

 

[MielR]

Angie always gets compared to Dharma & Greg because of the poor girl/rich guy story---I liked both shows, but Angie did it first.

 

[Neil Brock]

I may be wrong but I'd guess by now many of the original 16mm syndicated film stocks Paramount had used before for its older shows have now turned into "pixie dust."

~Ben

Nobody has sent out 16mm prints to stations in 30 years.

 

[Neil Brock]

Neil, Betamax and VHS players were around but hardly anyone could afford the luxury at the time to have them, so how would they be able to record shows in the late 1970s and early 1980s then? Via reel to reel machine or U-Matic 3/4" tape machine? Just saying.

I have a few friends who had VHS in late 1977, early 1978 and others who had Beta, reel-to-reel and U-Matic earlier than that. None of them were rich.

 

[MatthewA]

We must nonetheless buy it regardless of any notable edits within these episodes... if we want VEI to continue to release all these classic shows and TV movie specials.

~Ben

No we musn't. They do not deserve to be rewarded for cutting corners.

 

[Worth]

I have a few friends who had VHS in late 1977, early 1978 and others who had Beta, reel-to-reel and U-Matic earlier than that. None of them were rich.

A VHS VCR cost around $1500 in 1977, which is about $5000 adjusted for inflation.

 

[Jack P]

About one half the price of a fairly good car in those days. And why most people who were middle-class in that era did not own VCR's. 1985 was when we got ours and that was when the prices had dropped to $400.

 

[Neil Brock]

About one half the price of a fairly good car in those days. And why most people who were middle-class in that era did not own VCR's. 1985 was when we got ours and that was when the prices had dropped to $400.

Not sure where you are getting numbers from. Friends that bought them paid $1000 in late 1977 for VHS. I got mine in Jan. 1980 for around $775 with the tax.

 

[smithbrad]

No we musn't. They do not deserve to be rewarded for cutting corners.

This is VEI's business model to license prints (as they are) and release them on physical media. I don't think they cut corners since they are sticking to form for what they do. It may be unfortunate for fans that the studio didn't create newer higher quality prints, or that someone like Encore didn't commission new prints. Others could have stepped forward to put up the funding required, but apparently none did. That leaves us with VEI and what was available. This has more to do with the perceived marketability of the show than rewarding or not rewarding VEI for doing what they do. Supporting or not supporting isn't going to change anything.

 

[Worth]

Not sure where you are getting numbers from. Friends that bought them paid $1000 in late 1977 for VHS. I got mine in Jan. 1980 for around $775 with the tax.

The system was called Vidstar. The VCR would cost $1,280. That's about $4,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars. Blank tapes were priced at $20 ($72 these days).

https://www.wired.com/2010/06/0604vhs-ces/

Adjusted for inflation, $1000 in 1977 works out to about $4000 today. The point being, it wasn't exactly something affordable for the masses.

 

[smithbrad]

The system was called Vidstar. The VCR would cost $1,280. That's about $4,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars. Blank tapes were priced at $20 ($72 these days).

https://www.wired.com/2010/06/0604vhs-ces/

Adjusted for inflation, $1000 in 1977 works out to about $4000 today. The point being, it wasn't exactly something affordable for the masses.

I think Neil's point is that it could be considered affordable to the middle class if they made it their main point of interest, which he and his friends obviously did and still do today. I equate it to the personal computer at that time. I had a friend that had an original Radio Shack TRS80 Model 1 computer. His family was definitely middle class, but he had a high interest and gave up other things to have that computer.

 

[Jack P]

Not sure where you are getting numbers from. Friends that bought them paid $1000 in late 1977 for VHS. I got mine in Jan. 1980 for around $775 with the tax.

$1500 was about one-half the cost people would pay for a reasonably good (not top of the line) car in those days. The idea that a VCR was somehow part of a normal middle-class family budget (even at $775) in the era of high inflation and interest rates and gas lines is really a dubious proposition. Not to mention the fact that blank tape was a lot more expensive in those days which would limit your mindset in terms of how much you would tape ESPECIALLY if you were interested in building a library. VCR's were first being marketed as a way to watch something you missed live because you were out or watching another channel with the general thinking you'd then erase the tape after you were done watching (this was the underlying silent thrust before the Betamax Supreme Court decision made it clear there were no copyright violations in home taping to keep the material permanently).