At last, Donna Reed Show to be released on DVD!! (1 Viewer)

[mrmike898]

Can it really be true? According to a short article entitled "EMA To Honor Donna Reed Son Paul Petersen" from Video Business, it states, and I quote "Arts Alliance America plans to release The Donna Reed Show on DVD in the summer". The article is dated May 13, 2008. Will this be a best of set? Will it be Season 1? Will the episodes be complete and unedited? Has the show been licensed from Sony or the Donna Reed Estate? So many questions!!! All I know for sure right now is that I am beyond excited.

P.S. I'd post a direct link to the article, but unfortunately I don't have that privilege yet... :frowning:

 

[Hank Dearborn]

Here's the link:

EMA to honor Donna Reed son Paul Petersen - 5/13/2008 - Video Business

If this is indeed true it's a very interesting developement. I'm sure that quite a few of the bigger independents like MPI, Infinity and Image have tried to get ahold of this show over the years and failed. I just wonder how a relatively insignificant company would wind up with such an important show. As with any of these other out of leftfield announcements, I'll wait to hear more before getting too excited.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

And here we go again ... will they be syndicated prints? More likely than not, they will. And then we'll start up the old argument whether they're better than nothing. Gary OS will tell us all to support the release because it's all we'll ever get ... and some of us will chime in with, "If you support cut prints, of course that's all you'll ever get! Why should they bother with the extra time and expense, etc. etc. etc."

 

[Gary OS]

God bless you too, Joe.

Gary "I think I'll wait a bit and get more solid confirmation of an actual release before I get into 'defense' mode against the likes of my worthy adversary, Joe - just kidding buddy" O.

 

[MatthewA]

Facts are facts. Telecine is expensive. Sony probably has the negatives and fine grains and won't allow indies access to them. That anything they had a hand in or owned in any way was released at all without them is a miracle in and of itself.

Like FKB, my purchase is hinging on running times.

 

[Steve...O]

I'm also waiting to hear more before considering this to be good news. I don't know who this organization is that's mentioned in the article but any group that gives a "Comedian of the Year" award to Pauly Shore and a "Legendary Duo" award to Donny Most and Anson Williams is suspect at best

 

[Elena S]

Well, I hope it's true. It's one of my most coveted shows on DVD. I was hoping they would come out with it before I'm ready to die.

And yes, I will buy it regardless. If I can't get steak, I'll take hamburger.

 

[Gary OS]

Atta girl, Elena. Go get 'em.

Gary "more than likely this would be my attitude as well" O.

 

[Elena S]

Oh, and I emailed the President of Arts Alliance to ask if this rumor is true. Hopefully I will get a response. If I do I will post it here.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

I won't. I have enough friends who recorded it off Nick at Nite when they ran it complete that I have no need for cut episodes from ANY source. That is except for the 100 or so episodes that were withdrawn from the syndication package. And I don't think those will come out before I'm ready to die.

 

[Bob Hug]

Not that this necessarily means anything, but the only previous DVD release of "The Donna Reed Show" contained two syndicated episodes. It was a promotional disc that was given away with the purchase of General Mills cereals several years ago and was issued by Sony. I have no idea one way or the other if that's going to be an indicator of the new release regarding the use of syndicated episodes.

For what it's worth, this promotional DVD was actually reviewed; details here:

dvdfuture.com :: Review - Donna Reed Show (Big G/Sony Promotion), The

 

[Charles Ellis]

One question though- does the actual control of the show lie with the Reed estate or Sony? Donna Reed and her then-husband Tony Owen produced the show, it was released through Columbia's Screen Gems TV division. Just because a studio releases a TV show, it doesn't necessarily own the DVD rights. Gilligan's Island is a fine example- it was made thru United Artists TV, but the half of the actual ownership went to the procuction company, Gladysya Productions, which was owned by Phil Silvers. the other half wound up in the big Turner buyout of the MGM/UA library, which was then swallowed by Warner Bros. So, now the show is owned by Silvers' daughters and Time Warner. MPI has the video rights to Dark Shadows, but for syndication, it's now the property of CBS/Paramount, which acquired the old Worldvision catalog, which in turn started as ABC Films, but was forced to be spunoff from the network by a court-ordered antitrust action (this is how Viacom was spun off from CBS, but now they're together again).

 

[Hank Dearborn]

Unknown as to where the ownership lies or if it's split amongst the two parties. Sometimes one party buys the other out down the road. I had spoken with Ann Sothern's daughter about the Ann Sothern Show, which she produced. She sold it off years ago to Metromedia which wound up being bought by Fox. The Defenders was partly owned by Herbert Brodkin and Reginald Rose until Brodkin sold his company to Paramount. So now they own like 3/7 of it with the Rose estate controlling the rest. These things can get even more complicated when there are multiple ownerships as sometimes happened. But syndication rights do not mean anything but sales to broadcast stations. The show itself may still be owned by whoever produced it.

 

[Professor_Echo]

I am close to having ALL of the eps that didn't make it to syndication. Only five titles away and they should be here by the end of the month.

 

[Steve...O]

With economic realities being the way they are any purchase of this show will depend on how the final product turns out. With purchasing dollars at a premium, I'm choosing to reward studios that put out first rate product (unedited episodes, solid transfers). The others go into a netflix pool which still rewards the studios albeit indirectly.

DONNA REED is not a grail show for me, but one I really enjoyed in the Nick and Nite days. It holds up better than a lot of 50s sitcoms. Assuming the series makes it that far, it will be interesting to see how the episodes featuring the kids' musical performances are cleared for music or not.

 

[Michael Rogers]

They don't have to be brand spakin' new transfers, they just need to be uncut. I've enjoyed seeing Family Affair on DVD, even though MPI did not use up to date transfers. Much rather see these shows in 90's or even 80's era transfers then to have the lack of a state of the art transfer hold them back from DVD.

Good news overall about Donna Reed. It gives me hope that eventually The Patty Duke Show will finally get to DVD.

 

[Elena S]

Well, how nice for you. I don't. Therefore, I will take what I can get.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

They all made it to syndication initially but at some point Columbia decided it was too big a package and they cut it down by a hundred episodes, eliminating all of the Bob Crane shows and almost all of the Patty Peterson ones. Even the episode where Shelley Fabares does her number one hit, Johnny Angel, got cut from the later day package.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I'd much prefer uncut and complete seasons but like others I'll take what I can get. I love this show.

 

[Gary OS]

I agree, Mark.

I fully understand the reasoning that, especially in view of the present economy, people want to be more discerning with their purchases and they might take cut versus uncut episodes into consideration. But I look at another factor and place it into my personal buying equation. I don't think a smaller independent should be held to the same standard as the larger companies that hold the rights to a series. For instance, it's hard for me to hold SHOUT to the same standard as I would SONY when it comes to a show like "FKB". A lot of times these smaller companies are working with families or estates that don't have access to the same clean prints that the larger studios would have access to. And I just can't see penalizing the smaller companies, working on much tighter budgets, simply because they can't deliver the same quality prints that a CBS/Paramount can deliver. Just doesn't work for me.

Now if Sony were releasing this series and using cut prints then I'd absolutely boycott because they presumably would have access to the best prints and there'd be no reason for them not to deliver a solid, uncut set. But I just can't see penalizing the smaller companies for working with what they have access to - which is often only what estates or families have in their personal vaults, not what the majors have in their vaults. It's just not a level playing field, and I'm not holding the little guys to the same standard. But that's just my opinion.

Gary "seems to me that most people here are expecting the indies to operate like the big boys, and that's not a realistic expectation as best I can tell" O.