Cannon And Others Coming Back Courtesy Of VEI (1 Viewer)

[JoeDoakes]

Based on all these announcements, it does give me a bit of hope that My Three Sons could follow at some point. My Three Sons is on my short list of seven titles I would really like to see released someday, but have shown little chance of happening to date.

The entire run of My Three Sons would be daunting. My recommendation would be to stick to the b&w years, which could be released in a size comparable to many complete series (like Mr. Ed) and priced accordingly.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

What great and unexpected news! Especially with last week's discussion about Shout Factory maybe taking a break from big releases for a little while, it's good to see VEI stepping up with so many offerings.


On the current list of 12, I'm definitely in for Barnaby Jones, Cannon, Angie, and Petrocelli. (There are a couple more in the "maybe someday" category, but these 4 are definite purchases.)


Petrocelli would be a blind buy; but I'm open to trying a new-to-me lawyer series. Plus, it co-stars a pre-Dallas Susan Howard and was produced by Leonard Katzman, who went on to run Dallas for most of its original run; so I'm willing to take a chance.


I like that VEI is showing some variety with its selections rather than focusing all efforts on one particular era or genre. Would I prefer to see these shows remastered? Of course. But at this point, I was thinking nobody was going to release any further seasons of Barnaby Jones. So even if the prints aren't pristine, I'm at the stage where I'm just happy someone is willing to release it at all. (And hopefully unedited.)


Like Kasey, so far I've never had a problem with a VEI disc. Doesn't mean it couldn't happen in the future of course, but no complaints so far out of the 5 complete series sets I've bought from them. (Actually, 6 series, since The Snoop Sisters complete set was a bonus within the McMillan & Wife box.)


I'm curious to see what other sets they're planning that haven't been revealed. I agree with others on the thread that a My Three Sons set would be nice. The Magician, too.

 

[kingfish]

i wonder if we wll see t.j. hooker down the road. my favorite seasons of matt huston were 2 and 3.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

I would still like to believe that there is some hope for a US release of McCloud.

I've been thinking for awhile that probably the only way we'll see a continuation/complete release of McCloud in Region 1 is through VEI.


So far I've held off on getting the Australian sets for McCloud as well as the rest of the Hitchcock (Presents & Hour) seasons. But if nothing happens this year, I'll probably go ahead and start ordering those Region 4 versions.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

My issue with VEI Is compression of their discs and disc space. I own the Cagney & Lacey box set and I am gratful for the relase but I just wish the bit rates would be higher and compression better. Lots of blockiness and low bitrates that go from disturbingly low but never as high quality as other TV shows that CBS / Paramount released. So I'm being cautiously optimistic.

 

[Hasslein]

I hope Barnaby is complete series, I mainly want an episode from later season w/ Dee Wallace Stone. May pick up Angie, I don't really remember it, & I picked up first couple seasons of Cannon at big lots, but was going to dump them when it went MOD. So will be in for Cannon as well...

 

[Steve...O]

Petrocelli would be a blind buy and I have no real memory of Barnaby past the S1 set. Cannon was always a first rate show due to Conrad's presence. What a terrific actor. I still believe CBS/P killed those releases by using unremastered prints coupled with premium pricing. It's not a long running series and had they followed the Five-0 model Cannon would have had a decent chance of coming out in its entirety.

If VEI prices right and quality isn't bad I'll be in for at least Cannon and Jones.

 

[smithbrad]

My issue with VEI Is compression of their discs and disc space. I own the Cagney & Lacey box set and I am gratful for the relase but I just wish the bit rates would be higher and compression better. Lots of blockiness and low bitrates that go from disturbingly low but never as high quality as other TV shows that CBS / Paramount released. So I'm being cautiously optimistic.

The Cagney & Lacey releases appear to be based on four episodes a disk, the same as the standard CBS/Paramount releases, so the bitrates are most likely similar. I think you may be confusing bitrates and compression with just soft and overly used/duped prints. Remember for those other releases CBS went back to the original film elements and created new digital HD prints that were downgraded for SD DVD's. The quality differences between those and the older video masters that they are most likely shipping out to independents is vastly different.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Angie and Marshal Law? Those two make my list of "short-lived shows we'd like to see," every time someone posts such a list. I am looking forward to those.

 

[JoeDoakes]

I've been thinking for awhile that probably the only way we'll see a continuation/complete release of McCloud in Region 1 is through VEI.


So far I've held off on getting the Australian sets for McCloud as well as the rest of the Hitchcock (Presents & Hour) seasons. But if nothing happens this year, I'll probably go ahead and start ordering those Region 4 versions.

The issue with the Madman releases when I have looked at it has been the difficulty of getting discounts off the retail price plus the high cost of shipping from Australia. Deep Discount has sometimes had the final two seasons as imports priced around $30, but they have never stocked the earlier releases for some reason. When I have thought about buying the series for Australia, I add it up, and it would cost around $260 or something. Sometimes I don't mind paying a little more, but that's really too much for me.

 

[TVonDVDJunkie05]

WOW,


VEI has officially become a real player in the TV on DVD market- with all these pending releases I think its safe to say they will be right up there with Shout! Factory now. I wonder how they are able to afford to acquire the rights to all these series, they must have gotten an infusion of capital from somewhere recently as I was under the impression that they were just a small budget outfit?!


As for the list of shows, I am surprised to see Grace Under Fire on there, thought perhaps Mill Creek might snatch that up- hopefully they have acquired A Different World as well. It would have been great to see VEI release The Cosby Show as their releases would have been better than the compressed crap we got from Mill Creek.


I hope the 'much more to come' comment means there are still other releases that have not been announced. It looks like CBS opened the vaults and said 'pick what you like'. There are still several other stalled/unreleased shows that should be released:


Ben Casey

Brooklyn Bridge

Caroline in the City

Dave's World

Dear John

Jake and the Fatman

The Love Boat (why has this show not recieved any other releases?!)

Seven Days (UPN show)

I would still like to believe that there is some hope for a US release of McCloud.

I am surprised that VEI has not picked up McCloud?! After releasing McMillan & Wife and The Snoop Sisters, I thought for sure they would look at releasing McCloud as well.

 

[TVonDVDJunkie05]

With VEI acquiring the rights to all these CBS/Paramount shows, I wonder what this means for Shout! Factory?! They appear to be at an impasse with Fox once again so that leaves them with only Sony & Universal for sources of future potential releases. Warner Bros. has their MOD program so I don't see them sub-licensing out much (if anything).

 

[Jack P]

I really believe what's scared other labels off from "McCloud" is the inconvenient matter of the 60 minute Season 1 episodes surfacing after Univeral released S1 and S2 without them. People would not accept a "McCloud" startup in R1 without those episodes so that would necessitate another label to in effect go back to what was already released first and *that* might not sell well since many who bought the S1-2 set may not want to double dip for those. It's kind of put anyone who might want to release it in the ultimate Catch-22 situation (of course if Universal had just found the original S1 episodes in the first place before they released S1-2 we wouldn't have this problem and another label could have just started with S3).

 

[LeoA]

Nothing for me with this round, but promising news just the same to see more CBS licensing going on. Hopefully My Three Sons will be joining The Phil Silvers Show one of these days and be released by an independent.


While I guess you can't dismiss the possibility of Our Miss Brooks appearing thanks to the remastering that has gone on for that series, this is perhaps the last B&W CBS owned series with enough commercial potential to be attractive to a publisher like Shout Factory.


And it would make for a great pair of "complete" sets, with 184 B&W episodes and 196 color episodes making for a natural divide for what otherwise would be far too large and expensive of a complete DVD set. You can't just skip the popular color seasons with Tina Cole, like suggested above.


And while I'm not a big enough fan of The Beverly Hillbillies to have been buying it on DVD, it's nice to know that this avenue likely will be available for the two Paul Henning sitcoms if CBS decides not to continue it themselves.


Both deserve to be finished, and I definitely want the last four seasons of Petticoat Junction for my own library.

 

[JoeDoakes]

I really believe what's scared other labels off from "McCloud" is the inconvenient matter of the 60 minute Season 1 episodes surfacing after Univeral released S1 and S2 without them. People would not accept a "McCloud" startup in R1 without those episodes so that would necessitate another label to in effect go back to what was already released first and *that* might not sell well since many who bought the S1-2 set may not want to double dip for those. It's kind of put anyone who might want to release it in the ultimate Catch-22 situation (of course if Universal had just found the original S1 episodes in the first place before they released S1-2 we wouldn't have this problem and another label could have just started with S3).

Madman apparently got the original S1 episodes. Since the edited Season 1 episodes are still available as part of the Universal set, I would think that a McCloud complete series could be released that relied on the originally run episodes.

 

[jcroy]

I really believe what's scared other labels off from "McCloud" is the inconvenient matter of the 60 minute Season 1 episodes surfacing after Univeral released S1 and S2 without them. People would not accept a "McCloud" startup in R1 without those episodes so that would necessitate another label to in effect go back to what was already released first and *that* might not sell well since many who bought the S1-2 set may not want to double dip for those. It's kind of put anyone who might want to release it in the ultimate Catch-22 situation (of course if Universal had just found the original S1 episodes in the first place before they released S1-2 we wouldn't have this problem and another label could have just started with S3).

My double-sided flipper discs copy of McCloud seasons 1/2, has problems typical of other Universal double-sided flipper discs sets originally released during that 2004-2006 "flippermania" time period. (ie. Freezing, pixelation, skipping, etc ...).


If McCloud is re-released as a single-sided discs set, I would double-dip. Others might also double dip too, just to have problem-free single-sided discs.


(I double dipped on many Universal flipper disc tv season sets, such as the original Knight Rider, Magnum PI, The A-Team, etc ... where I picked up the single-sided discs re-releases for around $10 a pop).

 

[HenryDuBrow]

Well this is good news in general, though the only part of the glass I would consider a quarter empty is that it means we will have to make due with old masters that will not look as good as the remastered "Barnaby Jones" S1. "Cannon" of course was the one title CBS/Paramount never remastered to begin with, so there's no difference there but I was hoping I wouldn't have to see Lee Meriwether on lower quality prints!


But no matter, I will gladly buy these when they come out and it is great that we've had this shot in the arm to the matter of unreleased series on DVD. "Petrocelli" I remember having some reruns on TV Land in the 90s.


Now if only "Love Boat" were also part of this since *that* at least has remastered seasons unreleased by CBS!

There's really no saying what's been done with Barnaby Jones yet. AFAIK, CBS never puts any remastering info up until a title is ready for release and here they're not even releasing it themselves, so it's just too soon to say. I'm guessing it'll look fine even if not remastered, probably somewhat like the last three seasons of Streets of San Francisco (all remastered but not sparkling like the first two), depending on its general state all along. I doubt we can expect Cannon-like material, the Barnaby Jones prints I've seen elsewhere looked okay so the elements should seem acceptable to most viewers regardless.

 

[Ron1973]

I rewatched a couple of S1 episodes last night and I forgot how much they "popped" out. It'll be a shame not to have the other seasons that way but at least we'll have them.


On the other hand, I did post the other day that CBS showed an update to Barnaby Jones in the Syndication Bible but none of us could figure out what the update was. Interesting to say the least considering the newest developments.

 

[phenri]

This is the best DVD release news I've seen in a long lime. This crosses off three shows from my want list (Barnaby Jones, Cannon, Matt Houston). I'm not worried about the quality of the prints, since I've really enjoyed Cannon even with its questionable quality.


This is a big shot in the arm for DVD releases for the year! I'll also purchase Petrocelli for sure. I haven't seen this show since the 70s.


I agree that McCloud and the Love Boat would be two logical next steps for VEI. I'd gladly purchase both.

 

[Gary OS]

Some have mentioned hoping to see things like My Three Sons or possibly even Our Miss Brooks coming from VEI after this latest announcement. I'd love to see those, as well as other CBS titles they've stopped releasing (PJ & BH to name two), but my question is do we have any evidence that they'd be inclined to release older fare like this? Have they released b/w series in the past? While I'd be in for Barnaby Jones and possibly Cannon, it seems like they are focused more on color shows from the 70's on up. So can we reasonably hope they'd actually rent out older series from CBS, or is that more of a pipe dream? Just wondering, because I really have no idea personally.



Gary "glad to see a studio taking up the slack similar to what other smaller outfits have done in the past few years" O.