Are Some Shows Doomed To Only Be 'Best Ofs'? (1 Viewer)

[Kieran Brown]

Recently a Mad About You collection was released in Australia and it got me to thinking are classics like that show doomed to only be 'Best Ofs', Or could that possibly be just something to tide fans of shows over for a while? Or is it an indefinite action on some shows?
Another example is Providence.

But then I look at other shows it had it happen to like Knight Rider and it had both a best of 2 disc released then season sets started getting released months later.

 

[Ravi K]

I'm waiting on Spin City season sets.

 

[Brian Himes]

Well, unfortunately there will be some TV shows that will only come out as 'Best Of' releases. The ones that come to mind are The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour & The Sonny & Cher Show. While I would buy entire season sets for both of those shows, I know because of music licensing rights these shows and other variety shows from the 70s will never get full season sets.

It's kind of sad, because 70s variety shows are perhaps the most 70s of all 70s TV shows that I have on DVD. There were some good variety shows (Sonny & Cher, Tony Orlando & Dawn, Carol Burnett) and there were some bad ones (The Brady Bunch Hour was dreadful and so was Pink Lady & Jeff). I'd pay extra to get full season sets for my favorite variety shows. The Sonny & Cher set cost me close to $90.00 with shipping. Of course I bought it long before it was released in stores. For a long time it was only available online. Probably to see if there was a market for it before releasing it in stores. I don't know. It seemed to sell well.

As for Mad About You, I think we'll eventually see the rest of the series released in full season sets. I have seasons 1 & 2. As popular as this show was I can see it being a great success on DVD. I don't know why Sony has chosen to shelve it for the time being.

 

[John*D]

Mad about you sold poorly as season sets. That is why nothing has happened, except for the best of...

They should just release the rest of the series as season sets. It sucks for fans that have the first two seasons!

-----------------

SNL is one of those best of only shows... Definitely!

 

[MatthewA]

Maybe if Sony hadn't attempted to cram 11 episodes to a disc...

"The Wonderful World of Disney" is probably better suited to compilation discs because of the large amount of repetitive, pre-existing material.

 

[michael_ks]

It seems as though "The Rifleman" and "Naked City" started off in a way, as "best of" releases because MPI and Image Entertainment were testing the waters for these classic shows, using name actors to sell the product. Now they've both discovered the market is there, but what to do in packaging the remaining episodes? I believe that eventually all episodes for Rifleman will be released, but it'll be intensely annoying to fans like me to have them scattered among 8 or so boxes. For anyone who has these sets, you'll notice that increasingly, MPI is now releasing the episodes more or less in aired order, unlike the first two box sets.

 

[ElijahS]

Part of the reason Mad About You doesn't have any other season sets was because the second season, with an additional disc and three more episodes, had an SRP $10 higher than the first. Many believe that the increase in SRP led to less-than-stellar sales for Season 2.

 

[Brian Himes]

That's too bad about Mad About You. I really love that show and would gladly purchase the rest of the series.

 

[David Rain]

These multi-disc compilations (MAY, Larry Sanders) might ultimately be a good thing. If enough people buy these to get a selection of their best episodes (or because they can't get anything else) then perhaps those sales will lead to further season sets.

 

[John*D]

Which is why you don't buy the "best of" discs, thus the conundrum...

If you buy it, you are screwing yourself over when a season set comes out later.

If you don't buy it, a season set might never happen.



I prefer to buy season sets, and skip the best of's.

 

[John*P]

I am also hoping for Spin City season sets.



Ditto to that!