Is the b&w era of TV on DVD slowly coming to an end? (12 Viewers)

[Regulus]

Quoting Mark Twain - "News of my demise has been greatly exaggerated".

 

[HenryDuBrow]

Pre-ordered, couldn't resist that Star Trooper price...

 

[Gary OS]

Quoting Mark Twain - "News of my demise has been greatly exaggerated".

Absolutely agree. As long as dvds are being manufactured and released, there's always going to be a stray b/w release. So "demise"? No. Life support with need of the occasional use of a defibrillator (in this case courtesy of VCI)? Yes.


Gary " " O.

 

[Dave Lawrence]

I'm happy for those interested in Annie Oakley, but, from a purely selfish standpoint, I can't help feeling frustrated with VCI. This show suddenly gets a complete series release, while I Married Joan gets a simple 1-disc volume with 10 episodes jammed onto it. Admittedly, since it's their 1st new Joan release in almost 10 years, I'll take what I can get. But that upcoming anthology series release (The Star and the Story) is also just a single volume. I guess they got a really good deal with Annie Oakley, but I wish they would do similar complete sets for some of their other shows.

 

[JoeDoakes]

I'm happy for those interested in Annie Oakley, but, from a purely selfish standpoint, I can't help feeling frustrated with VCI. This show suddenly gets a complete series release, while I Married Joan gets a simple 1-disc volume with 10 episodes jammed onto it. Admittedly, since it's their 1st new Joan release in almost 10 years, I'll take what I can get. But that upcoming anthology series release (The Star and the Story) is also just a single volume. I guess they got a really good deal with Annie Oakley, but I wish they would do similar complete sets for some of their other shows.

I generally agree with you that I would prefer complete series or at least season sets of the other shows. However, I have no idea what is even in the realm of possibility for VCI, so I am not sure that frustration directed at them would be fair.

 

[ChrisALM]

There have been previous partial releases in volumes of Annie Oakley. I'm not familiar with them, but at this point in the DVD era, I prefer to get complete series releases. There is too much that can go wrong when series' trickle out season by season. Maybe I Married Joan will get a "complete series" kind of release and that would be great. My concern is, with the slow pace of these releases, there is going to be too many good, older shows left untouched. I hope I am wrong about that but this year has been a very slow year.

 

[LouA]

I'm happy for those interested in Annie Oakley, but, from a purely selfish standpoint, I can't help feeling frustrated with VCI. This show suddenly gets a complete series release, while I Married Joan gets a simple 1-disc volume with 10 episodes jammed onto it. Admittedly, since it's their 1st new Joan release in almost 10 years, I'll take what I can get. But that upcoming anthology series release (The Star and the Story) is also just a single volume. I guess they got a really good deal with Annie Oakley, but I wish they would do similar complete sets for some of their other shows.

I'm not 100 % sure of this , but I think VCI mostly releases TV show that are in the public domain , and depends on whatever prints are available to them. So for example they've only issue 34 episodes of My Little Margie. With the Annie Oakley they most likely had access to the entire run. Maybe if this sells, VCI will more aggressively explore the vintage B & W market. Besides finishing Margie , and I Married Joan there are lots of deserving old series : People's Choice , Mr And Mrs North , Trouble With Father , Topper , Adventures Of Wild Bill Hickock, Love that Bob, Bachelor Father , Tightrope , Adventures in Paradise, Andy's Gang etc etc . Maybe VCI will look into releasing some of those . I wonder if they ever look at this site?

 

[Silverking]

VCI do generally PD material. They did Zane Grey Series 1 though which I think they would have to licence.. Haven't seen this so I don't know what the prints were like.

Annie Oakley seems to be a series that has partially fallen into PD, hence all the Alpha releases , some of which I understand were pretty poor quality .Some years ago a company did start to put out the series with prints sourced from the daughter of Gail Davis. Only one volume of 4 episodes so I guess it was a failure.

Hopefully, as this new release will be the complete series they have sourced decent prints.

 

[LouA]

VCI do generally PD material. They did Zane Grey Series 1 though which I think they would have to licence.. Haven't seen this so I don't know what the prints were like.

Annie Oakley seems to be a series that has partially fallen into PD, hence all the Alpha releases , some of which I understand were pretty poor quality .Some years ago a company did start to put out the series with prints sourced from the daughter of Gail Davis. Only one volume of 4 episodes so I guess it was a failure.

Hopefully, as this new release will be the complete series they have sourced decent prints.

I have Zane Gray , and the quality is pretty good . Maybe VCI did license it , which would be a good sign for further releases . I'd guess that the area of PD releases has been mined pretty thoroughly by many companies. A company like VCI needs to release things to stay in business. So maybe VCI can look into licensing some older shows like the ones I mentioned cheaply.

 

[oldtvshowbuff]

Maybe a licensing deal with NBC Universal could be something they could explore, by gaining access to complete sets of 16mm prints of possibly some even obscure Revue shows, e.g.

 

[ChrisALM]

Does anyone know anything about the "new?" The Golden Age of Television (Criterion Collection) pre order listing on Amazon? It looks like the original release is OOP. Is this a re-release of the original set or a new set of shows entirely?
I never got around to getting the OOP set, and I was really hoping to get that. How did I miss this?

 

[LouA]

Thanks for the info, Lou. I'll have to check these out.


Gary "VCI gets props for at least giving us a little vintage TV on DVD" O.

I sent an email to VCI thanking them for the My Little Margie , and I Married Joan releases .I asked if there would be any further releases on these two shows. So far no answer.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Does anyone know anything about the "new?" The Golden Age of Television (Criterion Collection) pre order listing on Amazon? It looks like the original release is OOP. Is this a re-release of the original set or a new set of shows entirely?
I never got around to getting the OOP set, and I was really hoping to get that. How did I miss this?

Looks like it's just a rerelease, since Criterion's website doesn't mention anything about a new volume, and even Amazon takes you to the page for the upcoming release from a "see newer version" link on the page for the original.

And if you want it now, Criterion's website seems to have it in stock for $39.99, which is less than the amazon pre-order price for the upcoming release.

 

[ChrisALM]

My biggest concern was it would be OOP and unavailable. It's one of those releases I planned on getting, and the next thing you realize a bunch of time has gone by, and suddenly, it's OOP. I have the Studio One Anthology enjoyed that and assume it is something similar. Thanks for mentioning the Criterion website, Robert.

 

[ChrisALM]

It seemed like the ZIV catalog was finally starting to come to DVD a few years ago, but then it dried up. Does anyone know what has happened to TGG Direct? They came on like gangbusters and then disappeared. Someone on one of the threads mentioned they were planning to release Home Run Derby next (a real head scratcher), but I haven't heard anything more about that. Did they lose money on Bat Masterson, Sea Hunt and Highway Patrol?

 

[LouA]

You may have read my post about Home Run Derby where I was quoting someone else. I read it here on this Forum. Someone posted that they contacted TGG by phone and were told that TGG had no plans to release further ZIV shows other than Home Run Derby. That was back in the spring . Home Run Derby ( a fun show) never showed up - no big loss since it's widely available form it's previous release. I think that releasing 24 Hour Marathon box sets at almost the same time as the season box sets may have hurt overall sales. Timeless was also releasing ZIV shows , but we've been advised not to expect much from them in the future.

 

[Silverking]

Annie Oakley - Further DetailsAmazon is now showing the artwork for this complete series October release.11 Discs. Extras include a one hour documentary on Gail Davis, episode guide + photo galleries from her personal collection. This might indicate VCI have sourced the prints from her daughter so they should be decent quality. The original pilot with a different boy in the part of Annie's brother is also included.Not top of anyone's list of old black & white shows awaiting release I am sure but an oasis in the monochrome desert at present.

 

[LouA]

Annie Oakley - Further DetailsAmazon is now showing the artwork for this complete series October release.11 Discs. Extras include a one hour documentary on Gail Davis, episode guide + photo galleries from her personal collection. This might indicate VCI have sourced the prints from her daughter so they should be decent quality. The original pilot with a different boy in the part of Annie's brother is also included.Not top of anyone's list of old black & white shows awaiting release I am sure but an oasis in the monochrome desert at present.

It will be nice to have all of the episodes in one place , hopefully in decent " non-Alpha " quality. Let's hope this is just the beginning for Complete Series box sets from VCI.

 

[ChrisALM]

I have Home Run Derby, the three releases previously made available (baseball fans should have this!). It just seems weird that a company enters into the DVD market, in this case TGG Direct, seems to find a way to release a few shows that were never available (talking about ZIV here), then exits with a release like Home Run Derby. And, then, that's it. It all doesn't add up to me.
I don't mean to be critical of TGG Direct (or anyone), I'm just trying to make sense of it all, (If that is possible).
Meanwhile, let's hope Annie Oakley is a quality release.

 

[Randy Korstick]

That was actually me. I had a contact by e-mail that seemed pretty friendly for replacement discs for Seahunt and Ripcord that had duplicate episodes. I asked them about future ZIV releases and their reply was that they didn't have the rights to anymore ZIV shows except for Home Run Derby. Since they have not released Home Run Derby yet they may have reconsidered that as this answer was from late last year. There answer seemed to imply that they currently did not have the rights for any more ZIV shows it did not say that they couldn't get the rights to more in the future so there is still hope. It probably all depends on how profitable the ZIV shows were for them.

You may have read my post about Home Run Derby where I was quoting someone else. I read it here on this Forum. Someone posted that they contacted TGG by phone and were told that TGG had no plans to release further ZIV shows other than Home Run Derby. That was back in the spring . Home Run Derby ( a fun show) never showed up - no big loss since it's widely available form it's previous release. I think that releasing 24 Hour Marathon box sets at almost the same time as the season box sets may have hurt overall sales. Timeless was also releasing ZIV shows , but we've been advised not to expect much from them in the future.