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Good News about Complete Bob Newhart Show (see Post 90) (1 Viewer)

Eric_Bee

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Seasons 1 through 4 of the Bob Newhart Show were released every 6 months, starting in April 2005. I e-mailed Gord last week asking why there has not yet been an announcement for Season 5, which would be out in this April (2007) under the past release pattern.

He told me the news is not good. Due to poor sales of Season 4, Season 5 is not on the release schedule. This is very frustrating, especially as past seasons presented uncut episodes at a very reasonable $29.99 list price. I really wish the remaining 2 seasons will be issued
 

Paul Miller

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This is a real shame, it is a great show and the extras have been the best for any classic show since Image did the Dick Van Dyke show with the Bob Newhart audio commentaries.

Paul
 

MatthewA

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I think I'll be boycotting all future Fox releases. First MTM and King of the Hill get left up in the air, now this.
 

Phyll

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I guess Fox doesn't care that this will generate bad press for them. That will cost way more dollars than just releasing the remaining two sets. And the last three sets of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. All the other major companies are releasing oldies right now and doing fine with them. Please write letters, call them and email them. Put the pressure on them. Fox has really dropped the ball. Season Four of the Bob Newhart Show looked like it was marketed towards kids with the cover art and the menus. Just dumb. And some of the beginning credits were from season six and not season four. It just wasn't done right. What Fox needs to do is let another company handle their MTM catalog. Too bad Image didn't have it or how about letting someone with knowledge and love of the show do them. Not a flunky who knows nothing and cares nothing about the show. Negative press will bury Fox but they deserve it if they keep acting like jerks.
 

Jaime_Weinman

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That's surprising and disappointing (particularly since I read the first season sold well -- could there really have been such a huge drop-off with season 4?). And it's one of several MTM properties that seem to have been abandoned or put on hold (others are Mary Tyler Moore, The White Shadow, Hill Street Blues). I have to think that Fox's marketing strategies and/or their sales estimates are a problem (did they price these too low to make a profit on a certain level of sales, or what?), but I hope that these things can be re-started at some point. It's frustrating because once a show reaches season 4, you kind of figure it's going to be completed.
 

MatthewA

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Other companies releasing sets of pre-1990 shows probably don't have the level of overhead that studios do.
 

Tory

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Wah, I want more Bob and the 80's Newhart series too. Is there no chance of either anymore? This saddens me beyond repair.
 

Jay_B!

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the companies expect way too much. Bob Newhart Show is not going to make the type of profit The Simpsons does, I don't see how Fox can't grasp that
 

Joe Lugoff

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It's funny how we're always so eager to tell companies to go ahead and release a product that will lose them a lot of money, just out of the goodness of their hearts. I want these old shows just as much as anyone, but if they don't sell well, what can we do?
 

Jay_B!

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Joe Lugoff said:
It's funny how we're always so eager to tell companies to go ahead and release a product that will lose them a lot of money, just out of the goodness of their hearts. I want these old shows just as much as anyone, but if they don't sell well, what can we do?
yea, but there's a difference between not turning a profit and "oh, this is only selling 3% of what the latest Simpsons set sold" mentality. Remember that article that pointed out that shows like Who's The Boss and Night Court were being abandoned not because they weren't making profits but because compared to blockbuster shows like Seinfeld, they weren't selling 1/10th compared to them. IMO it was a load of bull, Friends and Seinfeld are two of the biggest shows in syndication and not a day has gone by since either show called it quits that either one of them weren't airing somewhere in reruns. It's not fair to abandon and hold sales for another show against it.
 

Josh LM

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This makes me quite angry. I just started buying the Bob Newhart Show and was hopefully looking forward to getting Newhart once all the seasons were released.
 

Gene M

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I wonder if it's because the disc's were double sided? when I bought it and I saw the disc's being double sided side A side B I went Augghh!!! I really hate them! I was wondering why the sales is getting poor because of that? no matter how many angry letters you send to Fox studios to tell them stop making double sided disc's it's really bothersome! they just don't care!?
 

Ollie

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This is slightly off topic, but does anyone know if Mary Tyler Moore-S5 is "off the schedule" as well? Like Bob Newhart, it was on a 6 month schedule once it was re-started after the 3 yr break between S1 and S2. I've collected each released set of both shows, and was also feeling confident that having gotten to S4 with both, that the remaining seasons would be released.
 

MatthewA

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Joe Lugoff said:
It's funny how we're always so eager to tell companies to go ahead and release a product that will lose them a lot of money, just out of the goodness of their hearts. I want these old shows just as much as anyone, but if they don't sell well, what can we do?
How do we know what they sold, or for that matter, what it costs to make them? And just saying "poor sales" is probably what they mean in comparison to The Simpsons or any million selling show. And look at it in perspective. Seasons 1, 2, and 3 apparently did not sell that poorly.
I, too, would kill to see the 1980s "Newhart" on DVD. Funny thing is that someone was talking about music replacements across the board on MTM shows in the late 1990s rerun packages and video releases. Here there were almost none (on Nick at Nite), and the only two I know of for sure involves the 1970s Bob Newhart Show theme. In one season 1 episode, Dick is watching a TV show; originally it was Mr. Ed, and we hear the theme. In the N@N version, it's TBNS theme. TBNS theme was heard over the executive producer credit on the finale, but on N@N it was the standard Newhart act II closing cue.
 

RickER

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Gene M said:
I wonder if it's because the disc's were double sided? when I bought it and I saw the disc's being double sided side A side B I went Augghh!!! I really hate them! I was wondering why the sales is getting poor because of that? no matter how many angry letters you send to Fox studios to tell them stop making double sided disc's it's really bothersome! they just don't care!?
I quit buying double sided disc TV series. Most of the time they play fine for me. However, i dont know that i have ever bought any that i didnt have to exchange at least once because of BAD scratched discs. I hate buying new discs that look like rental discs. I dont buy them, and i dont miss the frustration of checking everything in 14 days to exchange, or finding out when i watch them a second time a year later they dont work.
 

Jack Platt

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I'm very disappointed if indeed they are stopping after Season 4,

The modest price and the extras represented excellent nostalgia for the show's many fans. Look at the acquisition of shows older than TBNS on DVD in complete season format:

The Brady Bunch

Gilligans Island

I Love Lucy. (Not sure of complete seasons, but they released almost all of them if not all of them, they are pretty close to it.)

My view is that any show that has a strong enough cult following will have enough fans to release the disks. You can't be marketable as a company (any company not just FOX) by marketing ONLY to the public that watch the current shows. TBNS has great humor, wit, and writing. I can't see how it's gonna kill FOX to release seasons 5-6 to complete the series on DVD. Furthermore, even if they had a slight loss of profit from the release of the last two seasons, FOX could make up the lost revenue by marketing the hit current shows as well.

I don't believe the double-sided disk issue with regards to the lack of future season releases is relevant. Additionally, if FOX is going to take the time to do interviews and extras for the disks, that shows they care about the series to an extent. Let's just hope that this is nothing more than a temporary setback.

Jack
 

Corey3rd

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The thing is, if it is a case that the show doesn't produce the numbers needed to feed the studio's big boffo needs, then they really need to think about licensing the show to smaller companies that think they can get enough sales to justify their costs. NBC-Universal has allowed Shout! Factory to release McHale's Navy and Groucho's You Bet Your Life. Do you not think Genius, Image or Shout! Factory would handle the final two seasons of Bob Newhart.
Of course that's not taking into account, the ego of someone in the DVD section having to admit they are clueless on how to maximize profits out of a title.
 

HenryDuBrow

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Jay_B! said:
the companies expect way too much. Bob Newhart Show is not going to make the type of profit The Simpsons does, I don't see how Fox can't grasp that
Absolutely spot on. I've said it before, but I'll gladly say it again; the studios are going about releasing their TV shows, in the totally wrong fashion. They need to see TV shows like they see their movies, something they put out no matter what the expectations. How many copies, did the expect to sell of lesser known movies like "Night Train To Paris" (1964 Leslie Nielsen thriller) or "The Star Chamber" (1983 Michael Douglas thriller)? Great movies, I have them both, but there were no advance numbers telling them how well they'd do (they're hardly sellers in the millions) and yet they've been released. And similar films were, and continue to be, released. If only they'd lower their expectations with TV shows, much would be alright. Why should television shows be treated differently than feature films, with often unrealistic demands, it only makes my hair gray too soon. :frowning:
 

Dave Scarpa

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RickER said:
I quit buying double sided disc TV series. Most of the time they play fine for me. However, i dont know that i have ever bought any that i didnt have to exchange at least once because of BAD scratched discs. I hate buying new discs that look like rental discs. I dont buy them, and i dont miss the frustration of checking everything in 14 days to exchange, or finding out when i watch them a second time a year later they dont work.
Yeah TV On DVD is frustrating these days. Especially for classic TV Lovers, either the Series is abandon'ed or we are Extorted to buy them in Split seasons.
I'm gonna end up paying the same price for a 1/2 season of Rawhide as I did a full season and that stinks, but at least CBS does'nt screw us and then still put it on Double sided disks
 

MatthewA

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Do they even advertise for their TV show DVDs (I mean, pre-1990 ones)? If no one knows the product exists, how are they going to buy it?
 

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