What's new

Interesting Warner Brothers Info (1 Viewer)

Michael Alden

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 5, 2005
Messages
825
I saw this thread going on the American Life (formerly GoodLife TV) forum. This network, which unfortunately few people get, runs a ton of Warners programming ranging from the 50s westerns and detective shows up to modern stuff like China Beach. Anyways, here are a few tidbits I found:


In a dramatic reorganization, Warner Home Video has swept out division topper Jim Cardwell and established a new parent company for the unit, dubbed Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

Ron Sanders, previously executive VP-general manager at Warner Home Video, was promoted to WHV president. He will report to newly upped Kevin Tsujihara, previously a Warner business development and new media exec who has been tapped as president of the new Home Entertainment Group.

The HEG unit will encompass DVD operations as well as digital-delivery activities such as online, wireless, games and anti-piracy systems.

They shit-canned this fool for NOT putting out the TV shows. A cash strapped Warners is going to take an AGGRESSIVE approach to releases next year. You will see everything worth seeing coming out of the Vaults.


There had been pushes to utilize the dormant TV library to generate revenue and Cardwell didn't move in the direction Warners wanted him to go. After the success of Smallville and several other series boxes, Warner wanted to release older shows that they would not have to pay any royalties on released. This didn't happen.. A change was called for and has now occured.
The sales of Adventures of Superman are much stronger than originally thought, proving there is a market for the old B&W stuff.
The Cheyenne and Maverick discs have sold well enough that there will be another set.
If they sell at the same pace or better, Seasons will be released with extras..
F Troop sold better than expected as well.

The folks at Warner are trying to generate cash flow and are willing to use ALL of there resources to get it. You can also look for a string of OLDER movies to come out of Warners next year. Thay are opening up the library and will put out ANYTHING they think will sell enough units to be profitable. So 2006 looks bright for Warner TV fans

According to sources at Warners, the cost of cleanup is negligible. Most of the shows like Colt .45 will need to have NEW prints struck from the negatives. These will then be digitized and transferred to a master. The shows with the higher demand will be done first and then the other stuff will trickle down. Warners took a look at ebay and saw how much money was changing hands for really mediocre quality copies of their product and cracked down. This illicit traffic also showed the profit potential in releasing this stuff legit.
It may be awhile before The Gallant Men, Roaring Twenties, The Alaskans, and other second tier product shows up, but at least the big shows are on track to come out. Don't hold your breath for Bourbon Street Beat to come out any time soon. It's on the same track as Gallant Men etc.
The exception to the rule is the Dakotas. Even though it only lasted 20 episodes, there is a demand for it and it should come out at the end of the top shelf stuff. (77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Surfside 6, Cheyenne, Maverick, etc.) The rule of thumb is, the longer the show lasted and the more episodes there are, the more likely it will be released and higher up in the pecking order. There will be far more shows in 2006 than there were in 2005. Warners is even putting out the Flash which only lasted 22 episodes. You can preorder it now for Jan. release as well as Adventures Of Superman vol.2 (Jan.17, 2006) Also coming next year is Shazam (Capt. Marvel) and Superboy.
You can look for another F-Troop disc as well. If it sells season 1 will follow in late 2006 or early 2007.

On the Maverick side, there is talk of a James Garner best of a Jack Kelly best of and a Roger Moore best of.. Then the seasons.



One thing they don't mention is WB also owns the old MGM library (not to be confused with the new MGM that was previously UA and was bought by Sony). Shows falling under that category would be Man from UNCLE, Dr. Kildare, Daktari, Medical Center, Courtship of Eddie's Father, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Mr. Novak, Thin Man, The Lieutenant, Flipper and many others.
 

todd s

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 8, 1999
Messages
7,132
If this info is true...then great. Its about time. The one show I hope they are going to release is "Superboy". The show wasn't that bad and their were some great episodes. One was a two-parter called "The Road Not Taken". Superboy gets transported to a parralel Earth where he is a dictator and Lex Luthor is trying to stop him.....sorry for the Superboy segway. ;)
 

WillLon

Agent
Joined
Dec 28, 2004
Messages
44
Real Name
Wil
Superboy was actually syndicated by Viacom/Paramount. Don't know if someone else owns it now, though.

It was part the "second hour" of Viacom syndicated weekend shows. "Marblehead Manor" was the first half of it. The first "hour" was Star Trek: The Next Generation. At least on my local station back in '88.

I'm no fan of Superboy, but I hope it's released for fans who do like it.

Let's hope Warner releases "Max Headroom" very soon...
 

Rick P

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 18, 2003
Messages
690
I wouldn't mind seeing "Marblehead Manor". Other than some early Michael Richards channeling the future ghost of Kramer, you have an very fine Linda Thorson (The Avengers)
 

Ben King

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Mar 11, 2005
Messages
178
Great news. I think Warners' TV offensive has already started - given that they've stepped up the releases of Dallas.
 

todd s

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 8, 1999
Messages
7,132

You want early Kramer....Try to find episodes of the 1980 SNL clone "Friday's".
 

Ethan Riley

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2005
Messages
4,280
Real Name
Ethan Riley
Geez, it's sick of me to say this, but this actually could start a trend of bigshots being fired for not dipping into the studios' vaults and releasing this stuff. Maybe the biggershots finally wised up to the fact that there's money to be made in releasing old tv shows. Durr...!

I've always thought it was so dumb not to release stuff. How else can they make money off these old library titles if they never do anything with them? I mean, is anyone really making money off "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" these days? I don't think so. Put it on dvd, invite Brandon Cruz to do some commentary and make some money for gods sake. And if you have to fire some smartie in order to make these things happen...well then...good!
 

Rick P

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 18, 2003
Messages
690
I have some on tape.. including the very first appearance any where of Huey Lewis and the News... :D
 

StacyV

Second Unit
Joined
Oct 13, 2003
Messages
279
I can't find the article where I read this at the moment, but what I like to look at as another encouraging sign is the fact that Warner/AOL had a small legal team working on any clearance issues involving old Warner shows in preparation for the In2TV online on demand service AOL is premiering next month. I'm hoping they took potential dvd releases of these shows into account so that there'll be no hurdles in getting them out on the market.
 

Brett*H

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
May 31, 2005
Messages
219
Very good news.

Now,maybe we'll see more releases of old tv shows that are currently being released way too far apart such as "The Waltons","La Femme Nikita" and the already mentioned,"Dallas.

I was wondering what the holdup was on these releases and now we know.
 

Gord Lacey

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2001
Messages
2,449
I spoke to someone at Warner about this and was told most of the comments posted above are incorrect. Take them with a grain of salt.

Gord
 

ScottR

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2000
Messages
2,646
Good, maybe Wonder Woman Season Three will be corrected, and Roots will return in its original eight parts.
 

John Kilduff

Screenwriter
Joined
Oct 27, 2001
Messages
1,680
I'll finally be able to cross "Animaniacs" and "Pinky And The Brain" off my list next year.

Still, I am waiting for the following Warner titles:

-"Tiny Toon Adventures" (PRIORITY #1!)

-"Perfect Strangers"

-Official releases of "Max Headroom" and "Freakazoid!" (I picked up fan-made sets of these shows at the Chiller Theatre convention in October, but I'd like something official anyway.)

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

I would settle for just "Tiny Toon Adventures", though.
 

Tom.W

Second Unit
Joined
Apr 7, 2004
Messages
330
I hope there is more more truth than fiction to what Michael posted, and if so, thanks Michael for this news. My cable company is about to drop ALTV and I had just about given up any hope of seeing releases from Warner Bros. vaults. The Roaring Twenties, Dr. Kildare, and Mr. Novak are at the top of my want list, and if it means waiting a while for these shows, that's ok. I've heard that studios monitor ebay activity, but things must really be changed at Warner Bros. if they are using it as a marketing research tool.

BTW Michael, can you provide info about how to access the ALTV forum? I thought it was abolished when the site was reorganized last year.

This does seem almost too good to be true given Warner Bros.' history of keeping the locks on its vaults.
 

FrancisP

Screenwriter
Joined
Jun 15, 2004
Messages
1,120
I would take anything that Warner says with a grain of salt as well. Even if it were true, they would deny it as well. Maybe the fact that Warner is planning to open their vaults for In2TV indicates that there is a grain of truth in it.
 

Steve...O

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2003
Messages
4,376
Real Name
Steve
Micheal Alden - would you please post a link to these American Life forums? I think you did once before, but it got lost with the server upgrade. I did some google searches but they came up empty.

Thanks!

Steve
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,815
Messages
5,123,854
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top