Any news on Welcome Back, Kotter??? (1 Viewer)

[Jack P]

There is news at last!

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Welcome-Kotter-The-Complete-Series/19776

This marks the first time Warner has ever licensed out a vintage (pre-1980) title to a third party that I know of rather than go through the Archive route. I suspect this means they just turned over an old set of transfers to Shout to release at once (the bonus is the same stuff from Warner's Season 1 release).

This now means "CHIPs" is the only Warner title released prior to the start of the Archive program that remains stalled.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Good news but also very pricey especially when you already have season 1. I'll definitely get it on a sale for around $70-$75.00. But not for $100.00 or more. I also suspect that it has not been remastered.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I wonder what made this a case of licensing to Shout, as opposed to getting it released through the Archives?

I'm not complaining, but it just seems odd that this one show (so far) skips the Archives completely.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Well they did just recently release Mayberry R.F.D. to general retail so they do release titles occasionally out of normal procedure. I suspect Mayberry will be finished in the archive just as Maverick and Eight is Enough were. They also licensed the animated Beetlejuice series to Shout.
Everytime WA was asked about this series on Facebook their reply was that it was still with WHV. So my guess is when WHV finally decided they were not going to do it they checked to see what other distributers might offer for it before giving it to the Archive. So Shout must have made a good enough offer.

 

[Jack P]

True, but this is the first time a vintage title has been licensed out to a third party (pre-1980). I have to think Shout was willing to just do it with an old set of masters because usually the Archive will do work on a title themselves before releasing it to improve over the existing set of masters.

 

[John Hermes]

Good news but also very pricey especially when you already have season 1. I'll definitely get it on a sale for around $70-$75.00. But not for $100.00 or more. I also suspect that it has not been remastered.

With 1970s-era videotape, I don't know how much remastering would help anyway.

 

[derosa]

Good to finally see more of these stalled series coming as complete sets!
I'm basically done buying stalled shows one season at a time,
when there is no indication if the show will ever be completed.

 

[David Rain]

So some people still don't get the fact that if you're refusing to buy individual seasons, you're part of the reason that shows don't sell and get stalled.

 

[John Karras]

With 1970s-era videotape, I don't know how much remastering would help anyway.

Actually, 70's era 2" videotape looks quite gorgeous. The problem is that most of the 2" material that has been released has been coming from multiple generations down from the master, as well as having gone through at least one tape format conversion.

 

[BobO'Link]

Good news but also very pricey especially when you already have season 1. I'll definitely get it on a sale for around $70-$75.00. But not for $100.00 or more. I also suspect that it has not been remastered.

When you consider Kotter is only 4 seasons and The Bob Newhart Show is 6 with *both* series having the same MSRP, Kotter is overpriced. You'd think fewer seasons would equate to a lower MSRP. While I *did* pre-order Kotter I'll cancel if the price doesn't drop to ~$55, the current per-season price at Amazon for The Bob Newhart Show. I like the show but it's *not* worth more than The Bob Newhart Show to me. Of course, taking that price breakdown into consideration *many* seasons of other series from Shout! are overpriced and seems that they rarely have "good" sales (50% off MSRP or better).

 

[Mr. Handley]

The price is a bit high, but I think I'll be picking this one up. Now, if we could just get some news on Chico And The Man and Sanford I'd be in 1970s heaven!

 

[AndyMcKinney]

With 1970s-era videotape, I don't know how much remastering would help anyway.

Actually, quite a bit can be done, especially if you can go back to the original 2" master tapes. A good example of how good 2" tape can look when remastered is the BBC's line of vintage Doctor Who releases (all of Tom Baker's era still exists on original 2-inch).

True, you can't get it to high def, but you can make it look a lot nicer than if you just use some off-the-shelf syndication masters from the 1980s.

 

[oldtvshowbuff]

And while Shout! has a licensing deal with Warners for WBK complete series, won't they also consider Colt. 45 as a complete 67-episode series collection that could be released through Timeless. This way C45 won't have be released through the WB archives, BTW make that set avalible through Walmart only.

 

[Randy Korstick]

The issue with Colt .45 like many other 50's-early 60's Warner Brothers shows is music rights issues. Once they get them cleared then they release them. Colt .45 is probably farther down their pipeline of priorities behind 77 Sunset Strip, Bronco, Hawaiian Eye and Lawman. I don't see them licensing this out but eventually releasing it in the archive after the above shows are released. Although these days the home video market is all over the map so anything is possible.
So far it seems other 70's and 80's warner owned shows are more likely to be licensed to Shout since WHV doesn't have confidence in them selling at retail. I would say Chico and The Man would be another strong candidate to get licensed to Shout.

 

[derosa]

So some people still don't get the fact that if you're refusing to buy individual seasons, you're part of the reason that shows don't sell and get stalled.

So how else are we supposed to send the message as consumers that
we want complete sets? I bought 20 or so individual shows that have
been stalled for years, The fact studios are releasing complete sets more
often now instead of going the route of one season (or half season) at a
time just shows that they are getting the message that sales will continue
to drop through seasons 3, 4, 5, 6 etc. The way to get to a complete
run is to release the complete set. duh.

Am I supposed to buy 5,000 copies of Early Edition season 2 to get the
3rd and 4th season released?

 

[MatthewA]

Actually, 70's era 2" videotape looks quite gorgeous. The problem is that most of the 2" material that has been released has been coming from multiple generations down from the master, as well as having gone through at least one tape format conversion.

And MPEG-2 has always had trouble handling video noise and artifacts, making them look worse than they are.

 

[Brian Himes]

I'll be getting this but I'm not expecting much. I've watched the first disc of season 5 of the Bob Newhart Show and the transfers are only passable. Not spectacular. Not much work has been done. The transfers are pretty close to what MeTV is currently showing. While the transfers are not horrible by any means, they are just average. Seasons 1-4 look the best because Shout used the same transfers that Fox has already prepared for those seasons.

I'm sure that season 1 will look just as good as the original Warner release. After that, well....

 

[bretmaverick2]

The price is a bit high, but I think I'll be picking this one up. Now, if we could just get some news on Chico And The Man and Sanford I'd be in 1970s heaven!

I would sooooo like to have a full series release of SANFORD!!! With Maverick stuff apparently finishing up, getting the rest of the S&S material would be great. I'd definitely go for GRADY as well! Sanford Arms might be a harder buy, but I would probably cave in and get it, too!!

 

[MatthewA]

I'll be getting this but I'm not expecting much. I've watched the first disc of season 5 of the Bob Newhart Show and the transfers are only passable. Not spectacular. Not much work has been done. The transfers are pretty close to what MeTV is currently showing. While the transfers are not horrible by any means, they are just average. Seasons 1-4 look the best because Shout used the same transfers that Fox has already prepared for those seasons.

I'm sure that season 1 will look just as good as the original Warner release. After that, well....

Shout has handled videotaped material very well, as long as they get good source material. Punky Brewster had inconsistent picture and sound quality between seasons (they had to cut through multiple ownership issues that don't exist with Kotter), but the other taped sitcoms they did looked fine. Consider the alternative: YouTube versions of multi-generation off-air recordings of edited syndicated broadcasts.

I'm sure it will look no better or worse than the other 1970s taped sitcoms (no one has complained about the technical quality of the Alice DVD sets so far). It's not as though Warner has been keeping the tapes in a damp basement or someone's garage.

 

[Jack P]

Just got the set from Shout today. Packaging is just like that of the Barney Miller set and both actually go great together on the shelf since they were the quintessential late 70s ABC videotaped sitcoms.