Is Sony out of the TV DVD business? (1 Viewer)

[Hank Dearborn]

I know we read about a year ago about one person leaving and that causing the whole department to be at a standstill. But that's a long time ago and they are still at a standstill. They started all of these shows and left them hanging. They can't even complete All in the Family for crying out loud. Not to mention Family, Police Woman, Here Come the Brides, Partridge Family, Flying Nun and I'm sure a dozen others. What gives? Have they just gotten out of the game?

 

[Bleddyn Williams]

Well, only a few weeks ago, they reissued all 5 seasons of The Shield that had previously been available via Fox. Sony's new editions are widescreen, whereas Fox's were 1.33:1, the creator's favored ratio.

 

[Bob Hug]

They did manage to get season 2 of "Barney Miller" released a few months ago, and so while they don't appear to be completely out of the TV-on-DVD business, their output surely has slowed.

 

[Robert13]

Their list of unfinished shows goes on and on....

The Facts Of Life
Hart to Hart
All in the Family
The Jeffersons
Hazel
Archie Bunker's Place
The Flying Nun
What's Happening Now!!
I Dream Of Jeannie
Maude

I gave up on them a few months ago and decided to finish my collections through other venues . Afterall, I would like to see the rest of the episodes at some point. And they show no promise of releasing anything further in any series, even the ones that sold really well.

 

[MatthewA]

Until we start seeing some more releases, Sony does not exist as far as I'm concerned. Period.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

That kind of reminds me of a story. When the CD format came out, there were no releases for The Dave Clark Five. My friend has a CD store and he sold many copies of "gray area" DC5 CDs. When Clark finally put out a 2-CD best of some time in the mid-90s, it sold poorly because most people had already given up and sought the material elsewhere. You snooze, you lose.

 

[MatthewA]

There's a problem with that analogy: the material was already available for sale on LPs and 45s. If you looked hard enough at a place that sold used records you might find them.

We are talking about material that mostly has not been available commercially ever, save for long-OOP Columbia House tapes of less than half the episodes, some of which go for hundreds of dollars each used.

 

[Jeff*H]

They seem to be more interested right now in putting their old TV shows out on the internet via streaming video on sites like hulu.com. They seem to offer a number of episodes that aren't even available on DVD among various shows.

 

[MatthewA]

Minisodes don't count. Yes I know they have full episodes of some shows but if they can put full episodes of a bomb like "The Munsters Today" up and they can't put up full episodes of shows that people actually watched during their network runs, then what is up?

Someone suggested the problem is that Sony simply owns too many shows. Heck, they bought practically every game show not made by Goodson-Todman. Perhaps they were right.

 

[MatthewA]

Here's what Sony has left hanging, with the number of seasons released compared to the number produced, with shows that made it halfway through their runs italicized:

Hazel (1/5)
I Dream of Jeannie (4/5) (this would be the most likely to be finished next)
The Flying Nun (2/3)
Here Come the Brides (1/2)
The Partridge Family (2/4)
All in the Family (6/9)
Maude (1/6)
The Rookies (1/4)
Police Woman (1/4)
The Jeffersons (6/11)
One Day at a Time (1/9)
S.W.A.T. (1/2)
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (24 episodes out of 325, one of which screwed up pretty badly)
Family (2/5)
Charlie's Angels (3/5)
Fantasy Island (1/7)
Diff'rent Strokes (2/8)
Hart to Hart (2/5)
The Facts of Life (3/9)
Benson (1/7)
Archie Bunker's Place (1/4)
T.J. Hooker (2/5)
Silver Spoons (1/5)
Who's The Boss? (1/8)
227 (1/5)
What's Happening Now (1/3)
The Larry Sanders Show (1/7, possibly held up at Garry Shandling's request)
Mad About You (3/7)
The Nanny (2/6)
Ned and Stacey (1/2)
Just Shoot Me (2/7)

31 shows left out to dry, and only 8 made it to their respective halfway points. Not a pretty picture.

 

[Bob Hug]

I doubt you'll see any more of "227;" it's being remaindered at one site for $7.00 -- not a good omen for future releases.

227 - The Complete 1st Season (3-DVD) - Television on DVD (1985) Starring Marla Gibbs, Hal Williams & Jackée; Sony Pictures : OLDIES.com

 

[TravisR]

Yeah and they released Married... With Children: Season Eight a month or two ago. There aren't many more than that though.

 

[Tony S]

They also released S3 of party of five and S6 of Bewitched is coming.

Here is a list of shows that Sony has completed with the number of seasons:

Sanford and Son - 6
Seinfeld - 9
Good Times - 6
What's Happening - 3
The Critic - 2
Soap - 4
Square Pegs - 1
King of Queens - 8
Newsradio - 5
Tour of Duty - 3
Tabitha - 1

I'm sure there are others, but that is an impressive list. Sony may be slow but they do eventually get the job done. Hopefully this slow-down will end soon and they can get some of the others completed.

 

[LizH]

As is S5 of "I Dream of Jeannie."


They've just released Complete Series sets of both Soap and What's Happening. They're not going out of business.

 

[MatthewA]

Those complete season sets of Soap and What's Happening are just repackaging existing products (and supposedly in a way that may harm the actual discs). No new extras, and I doubt they'll fix cut episodes.

 

[nikkif99uk]

I wonder with the release of the complete series of what's happening, we might see another release of What's Happening Now, maybe.

 

[JohnMor]

They are hardly out of the TV on DVD business. "Slow" does not equal "never." Bewitched S6 is coming out. They finally put out Barney Miller S2. And they are just now putting out box sets of completed series. They are hardly leading the way, but they aren't at a standstill either. Why assume that if it hasn't been released or announced by 4/17/08 that it will never see the light of day? It's not a race.

 

[Jay_B!]

well, I think people are at wits end with Sony because Sony.... can't.... possibly.... go......... any..................... slower........................

We've been waiting for them to get back in gear for nearly a year, even last Christmas they were below speed and only finished Seinfeld and King Of Queens, nothing else.

I mean, back in the day, Sony released something new every other week, now we're lucky to get one good release a quarter. If Sony got back to the pace they were working at in 2005-2006, people might cut them some slack, but they seem to be kings of "well, you have one season already, what else do you possibly need" (which a Sony suit infamously said about Sanford And Son, which ironically is one of their finished shows). They have way too many outstanding shows in their vaults that they seem to be sitting on and doing nothing with.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

Well, if we were all going to live to be 200 then maybe it wouldn't be an issue but since they have a large library that many people want, the glacial pace they are moving at now is unacceptable. They have things that have already been produced that they've sat on for a couple of years like 3rd season Partridge Family and Bridget Loves Bernie. So if they can't even put out the shows that are ready to go, what hope is there for them to do anything?

 

[David Deeb]

I don't know if they are out of it, but I do know what they are "in" and that's Blu-ray.

TV on DVD is a huge segment of the industry. I'm surprised Sony and their BD interest hasn't tested the waters with a Seinfeld or something yet. TV on BD will have to happen before this format hits mainstream. Even if the product is 4x3 it will have to happen in order to be successful.

But I doubt Sony will do this anytime soon.