Cancelled TV Shows DVD Release Dates (1 Viewer)

[Neil Brock]

Firstly, to people who were in the first wave of collectors, for lack of a better term, classic would consist of everything prior to the VHS/Beta era. That started in the late 70s but not too many people were consistently recording TV shows at that point. I would say that by the mid-80s, many were. So shows like The Wonder Years for instance, I know 3 people just among my friends who recorded the whole series off ABC. The same would hold true for just about any show from the last 25 years. So "classic" would be, prior to the era when home recording became common.

Regarding companies, we have CBS/Paramount, Timeless, MPI, Virgil Films (or whatever they are calling themselves this month), Infinity and Shout Factory as the most active. Image is working on Thriller but I don't think I've bought anything from them since Naked City and that was at least 5 years ago. Smore is pretty much dormant. VCI puts out nice stuff but their release schedule is on a snails pace. The other "majors" Warner, Fox, Sony and MGM are all out of the business of releasing pre-1980s shows. At least Fox (and MGM, whom they control) are willing to license stuff out. Warner won't even do that. I think our only hope is if this burn on demand thing someday takes off but that could be years from now.

 

[Robert13]

Originally Posted by Neil Brock /img/forum/go_quote.gif
The other "majors" Warner, Fox, Sony and MGM are all out of the business of releasing pre-1980s shows. At least Fox (and MGM, whom they control) are willing to license stuff out. Warner won't even do that. I think our only hope is if this burn on demand thing someday takes off but that could be years from now.

It's very true about Warner. It would be nice if they licensed out their shows. Unless they are holding out for their burn-on-demand service through their archives site. They've released a couple of shows already on there. It would be nice to see shows like "Alice", "Flo", "It's A Living" and so on pop up on their archives site for sale.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Added Matt Houston to the Rumors section; too bad though--there's been little other news in the 3 weeks since I started this thread!

 

[Jeff Willis]

Steve Canyon Vol 3 coming in March '10 according to the blog site here . TSoD also posted a news item about it today.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Originally Posted by Jeff Willis /forum/thread/294898/classic-tv-release-date-thread#post_3634094
Steve Canyon Vol 3 coming in March '10 according to the blog site here . TSoD also posted a news item about it today.

Thanks! I also removed "The Virginian" from the Rumors section and put it on the schedule. It's always a good thing when shows of this vintage get added to this list!
EDIT: Also got to add Matlock and My Three Sons to the schedule; guess it was a good news day after all!

 

[Ethan Riley]

Dec 7: Added Designing Women season 3.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Added all of Shout! Factory's direct sales titles to the list. I noted them in [COLOR= rgb(255, 0, 0)]red [/COLOR]so that you know not to look for them in stores. If you want the dvds, you gotta order them from Shout!

 

[Dave Scarpa]

While I'm glad that CBS has added Barneby Jones to the list of releases, but I wish they would finish i.e what they've started with shows like HGWT, Bonanza,Rawhide, Gunsmoke etc.

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Scarpa
I'm glad that CBS has added Barneby Jones to the list of releases, but I wish they would finish i.e what they've started with shows like HGWT, Bonanza,Rawhide, Gunsmoke etc.

I have a theory that may be all wet, as they say, but here it is. I have to wonder if CBS/Paramount, knowing that a first volume of any series is bound to sell better than subsequent volumes, isn't just throwing things up against the wall to see what sticks. We've heard time and time again, from multiple sources, that first season sets always sell better than subsequent season sets, and that often times the reduction in sales from Season 1 to Season 2 is drastic. So my thought is they are just throwing Season 1 sets out instead of continuing with current sets that are apparently bringing in diminishing returns with each subsequent season.

After all, it's hard for me to believe they think Barnaby Jones (a set I will buy and do look forward to) has more "Sales appeal" than The Beverly Hillbillies. That just makes no sense to me, so it has to be more about them throwing out as many first season sets as they can versus continuing series that have already been released.

Gary "while I'm excited about Barnaby Jones coming to dvd, I'm like Dave in that I'd rather see Rawhide, The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and other shows finished off first" O.

 

[Neil Brock]

Gary, from what I have heard, Beverly Hillbillies did not do very well. Petticoat Junction actually did better. Perhaps that's due to all of the crappy PD releases floating around. I have no idea. I was just glad to get those first 2 seasons of PJ which had never been rerun anywhere.

 

[Corey3rd]

Didn't help the Hillbillies that there was no Season One - sure you had the MPI releases - but they went into season 2 and you had to buy an extra DVD to get the Christmas episodes.

How many people didn't pick up Season Two at Wal-mart cause they couldn't find season 1 on the shelf?

 

[Jack P]

CBS/Paramount has clearly fallen victim to what Universal was doing back in 2005 when they threw out a number of titles at the wall and ended up abandoning many of them after one season (McCloud, McMillan And Wife, Dragnet etc.) The only difference is that CBS/Paramount tends not to be "one and done" with its releases but if a title gets abandoned it's more in the "Two and through" category (the lone exception being "Love American Style").

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil Brock
Gary, from what I have heard, Beverly Hillbillies did not do very well. Petticoat Junction actually did better. Perhaps that's due to all of the crappy PD releases floating around. I have no idea. I was just glad to get those first 2 seasons of PJ which had never been rerun anywhere.

I can't say I'm at all surprised by that, Neil. And I agree completely about being a bit happier to see those 2 seasons of Petticoat Junction because they hadn't been rerun much at all recently.
To be completely honest I will admit that I'd have probably only bought another one or two seasons of the Hillbillies because it did start to get stale after it went to color. Still, I hated to see it get taken off the schedule after it had initially been on for next year.
Gary "dreading the upcoming My Three Sons release as I figure it will be butchered like Season 1 was" O.

 

[DeWilson]

Any word if SHOUT! Will be offering those 'direct purchase' titles to at least the key on-line retailers - Amazon,Deep Discount,Movies Unlimited,etc.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Gary, Neil, Thanks for the Beverly Hillbillies info. I recently tried to look up S1 at Amazon to buy it but after about 5 pages of "Best Of, Vol X, "sign up for S1 when available", etc, I gave up on that one. I'd be interested in a complete set of S1 as originally aired if it's available. I'm guessing that it isn't from those Amazon pages.

Regarding the "S1's sell better than the S2''s" of these older shows (maybe that's a trend for recent TV/DVD's as well?), what's you guy's guess on why that is the case with TV/DVD?

Just me, but if I like a show, I lean on the "complete" side of the fence most of the time although when some shows that, imo, "jump the shark", I won't buy further releases.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Originally Posted by Neil Brock /forum/thread/294898/classic-tv-release-date-thread#post_3636801
Gary, from what I have heard, Beverly Hillbillies did not do very well. Petticoat Junction actually did better. Perhaps that's due to all of the crappy PD releases floating around. I have no idea. I was just glad to get those first 2 seasons of PJ which had never been rerun anywhere.

Beverly Hillbillies unfortunately had endless PD copies floating around. So does Bonanza. I wonder if that hurt the sales of these better releases? Or maybe people were confused because Season Two came out of nowhere, and the Henning estate season one was harder to find in the first place? I don't know...maybe people were just thinking they'd already had enough BH to last them awhile. I can't imagine it's due to a lack of popularity for that show--it remains one of the most successful syndicated comedies out there (and it's still funny). Paramount should have begun both BH and Bonanza ages ago; then they could have knocked out some of their (stupid) PD competition.

 

[Neil Brock]

I think we here are more the exception than the rule. I think there are many, many people who buy a first season because they remember a show, watch the episodes and then either don't think the show is as good as they remember or they are happy to have a sampling and feel that's enough for them. Personally, if I like a show enough to buy it, I want to get the whole run. But the average person I don't feel thinks that way.

 

[bmasters9]

Originally Posted by Neil Brock /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I think there are many, many people who buy a first season because they remember a show, watch the episodes and then either don't think the show is as good as they remember or they are happy to have a sampling and feel that's enough for them.

I've felt that way about several series (that I'm happy with just a taste); those series include, among other things, "Knight Rider" and "Sanford and Son," and most recently, "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil Brock
I think we here are more the exception than the rule. I think there are many, many people who buy a first season because they remember a show, watch the episodes and then either don't think the show is as good as they remember or they are happy to have a sampling and feel that's enough for them. Personally, if I like a show enough to buy it, I want to get the whole run. But the average person I don't feel thinks that way.

I think that's probably spot on correct. I know it's the conventional wisdom based on the numbers. The average "Joe" might pick up a Season 1 of anything, but is less likely to keep up the pace with subsequent volumes. Then again, that holds true for a lot of things, not just TV on DVD.
Gary "Jeff, are you saying you can't find those 1st Season Hillbilly sets anywhere now?" O.

 

[Neil Brock]

Originally Posted by Gary OS /forum/thread/294898/classic-tv-release-date-thread/30#post_3637036

Quote:

I think that's probably spot on correct. I know it's the conventional wisdom based on the numbers. The average "Joe" might pick up a Season 1 of anything, but is less likely to keep up the pace with subsequent volumes. Then again, that holds true for a lot of things, not just TV on DVD.


Gary "Jeff, are you saying you can't find those 1st Season Hillbilly sets anywhere now?" O.

And I think that the majority of consumers are quite content to buy a bad quality, PD release for $5 at Crapmart. Then there's the other factor which comes into play on some shows where the first season isn't really that great as the show is kind of finding it's way. Just off the top of my head, I would say Odd Couple, Night Court and Barney Miller fall into this category as do many other series.