GREAT TV series from the 80s, 90s yet to see video release (DVD or otherw) (1 Viewer)

[Ron1973]

Okay, I just deleted a bunch of posts. Anymore name-calling or bickering about somebody's choice of a great show will result in further disciplinary action such as banishment from this thread or suspension from the forum. Respect each other and contrary opinions, if you can't do that, then face the consequences to your actions.

Robert, let me apologize. I know I didn't draw first blood so to speak, but I did contribute to the issue. I will do my best to refrain.

 

[JayHink]

Getting back on topic...how about Dear John from 1988-1992 that hasn't seen a release as of yet?

DEAR JOHN has definitely been talked about before, especially since it ran for 4 years. One of those odd DVD holdouts.

You'd think Shout! or someone would have put out a season or two (then stalled it) by now. [emoji4]

 

[Frank Soyke]

That right there is why Diff'rent Strokes has been ineligible for my DVD shelf, and will remain permanently so!

Oh c'mon Ben...didn't you like the season (5th I believe) where every other episode was " a very special" one covering topics like drugs, rape....and of course the iconic episode where Arthur Carlson was denegrated into every child's nightmare... The Bicycle Man?
Seriously, the acting and scripts on DS were already horrendous and they only got worse when they tried to follow suit with the other sitcoms of the day and tackle serious subject matter....the guy that played Kimberly's would be rapist was a particularly horrible actor, even for that show.
As a comparison,some shows like Family Ties did much better with tacking this kind of stuff, better scripts and acting streets ahead of DS (blatant Pierce Hawthorne reference). Particularly the episodes where they tackled Alex's decent into drug addiction and his surviving a fatal car accident that killed one of his best friends.

 

[Frank Soyke]

DEAR JOHN has definitely been talked about before, especially since it ran for 4 years. One of those odd DVD holdouts.

You'd think Shout! or someone would have put out a season or two (then stalled it) by now. [emoji4]

CBS owns it and they don't really seem to want to do anything with it. Shame. Great show.

 

[EricSchulz]

Anybody remember "The Powers That Be" from the early 90s with John Forsythe, David Hyde-Pierce, and Holland Taylor? I remember it being a well written political satire which of course doomed it to an early demise.

There's likely no commercial market for it but I would buy a release.

I remember LOVING that show! Watching Holland Taylor on Netflix's Hollywood made me search to see if it had ever been released. Alas, no.

 

[LeoA]

I'd like to see Major Dad.

If unfinished shows that are partially available are allowed, I'm happy to see Newhart being restarted and hope that Coach will also be restarted by Mill Creek now that they hold the DVD rights.

Still waiting on Major Dad, but at least Coach and Newhart happened.

 

[Mr. Handley]

I'd like to see the rest of Archie Bunker's Place someday.

Also, I'd like to see the entire SNL 1980s run released. I faithfully stuck by the show, bad as it was some years. If the comedy was bad, the musical guests could usually save it.

A few that haven't yet been released:

AfterMASH - Yes, I watched it during the original run and it was pretty bad, but I'd still like to see it released for completeness sake, if nothing else.

Hell Town - Robert Blake series. I remember liking it at the time.

Head Of The Class - Probably never gonna happen, but I can dream!

 

[Jack P]

Still waiting for the four shows I mentioned, but if I could only have one of them, it would be "Crazy Like A Fox."

 

[rmw650]

It's a Living, Dear John and obviously the one I want to see finally released...EMPTY NEST!

 

[bmasters9]

Still waiting for the four shows I mentioned, but if I could only have one of them, it would be "Crazy Like A Fox."

You bet! As I recall saying before, even if Mill Creek puts this as a 5-disc release, w/7 shows to a disc, I'd still love to see it.

 

[MartinP.]

I remember LOVING that show! [The Powers That Be] Watching Holland Taylor on Netflix's Hollywood made me search to see if it had ever been released. Alas, no.

Agree! I just looked up to see when it aired...1992! Didn't realize it was that long ago.

The cast was great. Besides Taylor, John Forsythe was her husband, Senator Powers. David Hyde Pierce was his suicidal son-in-law and his wife Valerie Mahaffey and their son was even played by an 11 year old Joseph Gordon Levitt. Peter MacNicol was an aide to Forsythe.

I remember one particularly hilarious episode where Sen. Powers is accidentally shot in his home, in the derriere. They discover this as the press is imminently to arrive. They don't want to tell the press for the ridicule that would ensue. Amidst the chaos of "what should we do", Holland Taylor offers up, "Well...why don't we shoot him again!"

I would like to revisit this series. In looking up some info now, the show was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman (Friends), produced by Norman Lear, with a theme song written by Marvin Hamlisch and sung by Stephen Bishop.

 

[EricSchulz]

Agree! I just looked up to see when it aired...1992! Didn't realize it was that long ago.

The cast was great. Besides Taylor, John Forsythe was her husband, Senator Powers. David Hyde Pierce was his suicidal son-in-law and his wife Valerie Mahaffey and their son was even played by an 11 year old Joseph Gordon Levitt. Peter MacNicol was an aide to Forsythe.

I remember one particularly hilarious episode where Sen. Powers is accidentally shot in his home, in the derriere. They discover this as the press is imminently to arrive. They don't want to tell the press for the ridicule that would ensue. Amidst the chaos of "what should we do", Holland Taylor offers up, "Well...why don't we shoot him again!"

I would like to revisit this series. In looking up some info now, the show was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman (Friends), produced by Norman Lear, with a theme song written by Marvin Hamlisch and sung by Stephen Bishop.

There are a couple full length (I believe) episodes on YouTube, along with some clips from the show.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Head Of The Class - Probably never gonna happen, but I can dream!

There's a reboot a'coming (Yeah, I know, find an original idea already, Hollywood. Jeez). So, if it's going to happen, I'd figure the Archives would start it fairly soon.


Were there music issues with HOTC that have kept it off of disc this long?

 

[TV_Fan]

There's a reboot a'coming (Yeah, I know, find an original idea already, Hollywood. Jeez). So, if it's going to happen, I'd figure the Archives would start it fairly soon.


Were there music issues with HOTC that have kept it off of disc this long?

I have asked Warner Archives about this series a few times and they said there were music issues preventing a release. Same with Hogan Family.

 

[Rick Thompson]

I'll just add a hearty "AMEN" to what Ron, Jack and Bert have written about the so-called "social-justice" shows. I'm in full agreement with them, and hence not in agreement with certain other posters.

But you have to admit they were always easy to avoid because they were labeled "very special episodes" — you know, something like this: "Hannibal and Mr. T find the meaning of true love in a very special A-TEAM!" (No, that one never happened.)

 

[JamesSmith]

Anybody remember, the Five Mrs. Buchanans?

 

[jayembee]

I'M FAIRLY SURE a similar thread exists but if so, I haven't come across it (probably hiding in plain sight). Obviously, "great" is a very subjective word. However, a number of these were critical, if not ratings hits..

My picks to start
(at least a couple wld probably warrant their own threads, if they haven't yet)

MIDNIGHT CALLER (1988-1990) Gary Cole, Mykelti Williamson

REASONABLE DOUBTS (1991-1993) Mark Harmon, Marlee Matlin

MR. AND MRS. SMITH (1996) Scott Bakula, Mario Bello

EZ STREETS (1996-1997) Ken Olin, Joe Pantoliano, Jason Gedrick
(a few episodes were issued on DVD as a concept-type release called "Brilliant but Cancelled: EZ Streets")

OUR HOUSE (1986-88) Wilford Brimley, Deidre Hall

HERBIE THE LOVE BUG (1982) Dean Jones, Patricia Harty

ENOS (1980-1981) Sonny Shroyer, Samuel wright
(How this much-requested "Dukes of Hazzard" spin-off remains unavailable, even on MOD, is beyond me).

A YEAR IN THE LIFE (1987-88) Richard Kiley, Trey Ames, Adam Arkin

LADY BLUE (1987-88) Jamie Rose, Danny Aiello

THE COSBY MYSTERIES (1994-1995) Bill Cosby, James Naughton
(I know this one looks especially unlikely right now, what with Cosby's impending trial for alleged sex crimes. Then again, they released "Baretta" on DVD, despite its star's (Robert Blake) murder trial.)

Love the first four choices. After that, you lost me.

 

[jayembee]

One in particular I've been wanting for years is Remember WENN which was unceremoniously killed and banished to never-air-land by AMC when new management came on in 1998 who "wanted to attract a "younger, hipper" crowd by showing newer movies, adding commercial breaks, and severing ties with anything that made the channel seemed old-fashioned." It wasn't long before I stopped watching the channel as their offerings were nothing different than anyone else. I'm amazed they're still around. I've read that AMC has been approached by *several* companies wishing to release the series on DVD but have turned them all down. Hopefully, some day, that'll change.

There used to be a joke back in the day after that change: "AMC stood for 'American Movie Classics'. Nowadays, they show things that aren't American, aren't Movies, and aren't Classics."

I occasionally come across people who think Mad Men was their first Original Series. I have to explain that Remember WENN was on a decade earlier. Loved that show. I didn't watch it from the start, but with the first episode I watched, I was hooked, and started recording every episode I could get. Don't have a complete set though. There were a couple of VHS releases with 2 eps per that were available, but only via mail-order. I have those, as well as one or two Emmy consideration tapes that I got from eBay before they shut down all action on those (Emmy consideration tapes in general, not specifically WENN ones).

 

[jayembee]

Goodnight Beantown (1983-84) (Her Trek episode made me a Mariette Hartley fan for life so that's why I watched this back in the day)

I didn't think about Mariette Hartley one way or the other until she and James Garner did commercials for Polaroid back in the early 80s that were among the Greatest. Commercials. Ever. Their chemistry was such that everyone thought they were a couple in real life. To the point where, when Hartley was pregnant and had a very pronounced belly, she wore t-shirts that had "Not Jim Garner's" across the belly.

 

[jayembee]

OK, so my choices...other than Remember WENN. I generally go for the shorter-run and more obscure shows, as they are the ones least likely to pop up where you don't expect them.

1980s:
E/R, the Chicago-set medical show sitcom with George Clooney, not to be confused with ER, the Chicago-set medical show drama with George Clooney. Starring Elliott Gould and Mary McDonnell.
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer / The New Mike Hammer. Stacey Keach. Lindsey Bloom. Earle Hagen's "Harlem Nocturne". 'Nuff said.
Murphy's Law, with George Segal, Maggie Han (swoon), and Josh Martel. Has a bad rap, but I enjoyed the hell out of it.
Probe, with Parker Stevenson and Ashley Crowe. A science fiction-y Sherlockian series co-created by Isaac Asimov.
Wiseguy. I want the entire show, dammit! And with the original music. I especially want the short 3rd season arc that was a pastiche of Twin Peaks that aired before Twin Peaks did.

1990s: (oh, I have a lot of them for this decade)
The Adventures of Pete & Pete. One of the Best. Shows. Ever. Paramount released the first two seasons on DVD, but not the third. I need this one. I needs it.
Byrds of Paradise. A Steve Bochco show set in Hawaii, with Timothy Busfield, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Bruce Weitz, and Arlo Guthrie! One of the most beautifully photographed TV shows I think I've ever seen.
Legend. Richard Dean Anderson as a crusty, retired dime-novel writer, who ends up playing a version of one of his characters, Nicodemus Legend, with the aid of John de Lancie as a scientist who's a cross between Nikola Tesla and Doc Brown. A comic science fiction western, similar in tone to the (better) The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
Maggie. One of a batch of Original Series that aired on Lifetime in the late 90s. A rather sweet sitcom starring Anne Cusack and John Slattery.
Mann & Machine. One of those cop-partnered-with-a-robot shows that pops up every 10 years or so. This one from Dick Wolf, of all people. Starred David Andrews, Yancy Butler, and Wolf perennial S. Epatha Merkerson. Had its faults, but it also had an almost-surreal tone that made it feel a bit ahead of its time.
Sisters. I fell in love with Sela Ward.
Strange Luck. An odd duck, about a man named Chance Harper (D.B. Sweeney) who had extraordinary luck. Aired on FOX, and ended its short single season with a remark that told us it was set in the X-Files universe.
Tribeca. A quasi-anthology series (it had two recurring, but minor, characters) co-produced by Robert De Niro. Absolutely gob-smacking drama.
Under Cover. A spy series created by a couple of the folks behind China Beach that had the worst timing ever. A husband and wife spy team infiltrate Iraq in the wake of the invasion of Kuwait in the pilot, which ends with a missile strike on Iraq. While this was airing, in the real world, the Gulf War happened. The series was immediately put on hiatus, and some of the episodes were eventually burned off.
Under Suspicion. A cop drama that was pretty much an attempt at an American version of Prime Suspect. I thought it had a great sense of atmosphere, but I think it was too much of a slow burn for audiences.