Finally, some classics are coming! (1 Viewer)

[Mark To]

I just got off the phone with a certain company and while there has not been an official press announcement, I can tell you that the following series are in production for season box sets for later this year:

Make Room for Daddy
The Real McCoys
Joey Bishop Show
Mr. Peepers
Flip Wilson Show
Ozzie and Harriet

The beauty of an independent - they won't be "disappointed" if the sales aren't in the six figure range. They don't have to make millions more to be satisfied by shows that have already made back their costs 100 times over. They can actually be happy with modest sales and a modest profit.

 

[CherylWI]

I'm definitely going to get Make Room for Daddy and Ozzie and Harriet. I may get some of the others as well. I almost bought the Rhino set of the Real McCoys. I'm glad I waited now because I would prefer the entire season one of this show.

 

[alan halvorson]

Well! If these shows can make it to dvd, can my favorite, Dobie Gillis be far behind?

 

[Tom.W]

This is great news! I will definitely support this company with early purchases of several of these shows. I wonder if they actually have the entire Ozzie and Harriet series. There are a whopping 435 episodes over the 15 years of its televised history, more than half of which are not in syndication. Those fortunate enough to have a Total Living Network outlet on their cable system can see a relatively small sample of O&H and Make Room for Daddy at 4am and 4:30am (EDT) Saturday Mornings. The MRFD's are from the 56 and 57 seasons, currently.

 

[Randy Gray]

Are they going to do any restoration on these shows? What company is it and how did they get the rights to the shows? Will all the music segments from The Flip Wilson Show be intact? I ask these questions because small independent companies worry me a little. There are some that are really great and others that don't give a rip about quality and completeness. The company that's putting out Little House On The Prairie is one that I think should be avoided. There's edits all over the place in that series.

Randy

 

[Eric Paddon]

I have a feeling the company in question is Image, and what they've done on the Dick Van Dyke Show has been outstanding, tying Battlestar Galactica for the best DVD release of a TV show.

 

[Randy Gray]

Well if it is Image than I'm in there. Especially for The Real McCoys. I agree they did a fantastic job with Dick Van Dyke.

Randy

 

[Greg_S_H]

If it's Image, that would mean they're licensing Make Room from Paramount, right? I wonder what that would mean for the Andy Griffith episode. One would assume Paramount would be able to include it with their own TAGS set in addition to having it appear on the Image disc. I hope that's the case.

 

[Eric Paddon]

Just because a character from one show appears in another that is owned by a different company does not necessarily mean that licensing is involved. Image clearly already has rights to Make Room For Daddy/Danny Thomas since they already included the one episode that features an appearance by Morey Amsterdam as Buddy Sorrell from the DVD Show in one of the Van Dyke Show boxed sets as a bonus.

 

[Randi]

I sincerely hope they start with season 1 of The Joey Bishop Show. This sounds like a strange request but it isn't. You see, Mr Bishop has never allowed season 1 to be aired since it's original run. All of the episode guides I've seen and the TV land airing all start with season 2, which is said to be season 1. This is not true at all!

The true season 1 does not have Abby Dalton or Joe Besser. Instead it has Bill Bixby and the guy from McHales Navy that died- it is early so I can't remember his name. Anyway, these 2 guys were funnier on the show than Bishop so when the season break happens, Bixby & forgotten name guy are fired by Bishop and the episodes never aired again! I have read in certain publications that the eps were destroyed on orders from Sinatra. I have only seen 1 16mm episode that was saved at a library, who later sold it on ebay and the last half of an episode that had been salvaged.

I'm very curious how this is going to play out on dvd or if the same lies will continue.

Many thanks!

Miss Randi

 

[Randy A Salas]

This is a false assumption. Paul Brownstein, who produced The Dick Van Dyke Show DVDs (Image is just the distributor/manufacturer), sought and received permission to use that one episode. He doesn't have the rights to the whole Make Room for Daddy/Danny Thomas series. It was just a one-time arrangement for one episode.

 

[Jeffrey]

I'm thinking it could be Shout! Factory working on these shows....Since some of the Rhino Records people founded that company, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they would be seeking/putting out golden television gems in much the same classy fashion as they did classic oldies....

Jeffrey

 

[Eric Paddon]

I stand corrected. Thanks.

 

[David Lambert]

2 previous Real McCoys releases from Rhino


2 previous Flip Wilson releases from Rhino


Gee, I wonder if the mysterious unnamed company could be Rhino?

They're revisiting a lot of shows they previously released in single-disc versions: Monkees, HR Pufnstuf, Land of the Lost, My Favorite Martian, etc. So some of this makes sense, unless they lost their rights to Flip and McCoys and now someone else (like Shout! or Image or whoever) now has them.


Mark, is there a reason you simply won't name the company? Is it a secret?

 

[Mark To]

Answering some of the above posts:

1 - They will not release season one of Joey Bishop. The show is owned half by him and half by the Danny Thomas estate. Joey hated the first season. He didn't like the format and he especially didn't like that Joe Flynn was funnier than he was. Also Marlo Thomas was his sister in the first season and she hadn't had her nose fixed yet so she won't allow it to be seen either. Under no circumstances will first season episodes get out, either for DVD or broadcast. Sorry.

2 - I'm not sure myself who is doing the actual DVD releases. The shows are all owned by SFM Media. Whether or not they are doing the DVDs themselves or licensing them out, I don't know.

3 - As for the question about Dobie Gillis, I love that show as well but that's owned by Fox. So I would say there is no chance of that coming out. I don't know the numbers but if they weren't happy with what a show like Lost in Space sold, and that had to sell well into 5 figures, there is no way in hell they would bother with Dobie Gillis. They obviously are only happy with huge numbers so that something that would sell in the thousands wouldn't interest them if shows that sell in the tens of thousands are marginal in their eyes.

 

[Charles Ellis]

Well, I wouldn't mind seeing the second and subsequent seasons of the Bishop show- it was one of the first sitcoms filmed in color (starting with Season 2- it was on NBC, which was ahead of the other two networks in color for a simple reason: its parent company RCA wanted more color shows for the color TV sets they sold!), and it's rare to see anything prior to 1965 in a sitcom that's filmed in color. (BTW, when the Bishop show got cancelled by NBC, it moved to CBS for one last year- in B/W!!!). Besides, Abby Dalton was one of the best-looking sitcom wives ever.....

 

[MatthewA]

The Flip Wilson Show DVDs are worse than a travesty, as they are the cut-down 22-minute syndication versions, not the 50-minute network versions. I really hope the complete versions return to circulation (they're owned by SFM, the same people who own syndie rights to Laugh-In).

 

[Rodney]

Anymore news about these season sets? Would love to have The Real McCoys!

 

[Mark To]

Make Room for Daddy season 5 and Joey Bishop season 2 are both due out on Sept. 28th. Shame about the first 4 years of MRFD as I always thought Hagen was better as his wife since she stood up to him more. Also you lose most of Sherry Jackson's run as she was gotten rid of after 5th season. But, hey, maybe down the road.

 

[DaveyM]

I'm still waiting for Ozzie and Harriet to come out on Dvd. Has anyone heard anymore about it?