Is the b&w era of TV on DVD slowly coming to an end? (7 Viewers)

[Capt D McMars]

I'm rich!!

View attachment 184371

It's in the eye of the beholder, as with most things, as to it's value that it holds...Treasure or Trash.

 

[Gary OS]

Watched the first episode of 21 Beacon Street today. I’m really pleased with the video and audio quality. Also a wonderful episode on its own merits. Well written, and of course well acted by all involve. My plan is to only watch one episode per week, hoping that by the time I finish this series World of Giants will either be out or coming soon.

Making my way slowly through the Ozzie & Harriet sets as well. Really relishing all this great black-and-white TV!


Gary “thanks again to ClassicFlix And MPI for keeping vintage TV alive” O.

 

[Neil Brock]

Watched the first episode of 21 Beacon Street today. I’m really pleased with the video and audio quality. Also a wonderful episode on its own merits. Well written, and of course well acted by all involve. My plan is to only watch one episode per week, hoping that by the time I finish this series World of Giants will either be out or coming soon.

Making my way slowly through the Ozzie & Harriet sets as well. Really relishing all this great black-and-white TV!


Gary “thanks again to ClassicFlix And MPI for keeping vintage TV alive” O.

We have to stop agreeing on things and go back to our usual relationship!

 

[Purple Wig]

Watched an episode of Shannon recently, would be nice to see a release in decent quality. A few interesting, recent in the grand scheme of things reviews:

BLOG TO COMM

black2com.blogspot.com

Joe Shannon (Shannon)

Created by… In the 1961–62 season, George Nader appeared as stand-up insurance investigator JOE SHANNON in the syndicated crime drama Shannon. Joe worked for the Los Angeles branch of the Tra…

thrillingdetective.com

Note: meant to post this in what did you watch this week in classic tv on dvd; sorry for the off topic posting

 

[Gary OS]

Let me know if I'm missing something...

We have only a couple of releases left for the year (up to this point in the announcement schedule):

The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet S13 & S14 (and yes, I know S14 is in color, but you get my drift)

World of Giants

A&C Show Season 2 (possibly by the end of the year)

Is there anything else set for the rest of 2023?


Gary "very thankful for the two companies keeping us flush in b&w glory - MPI and, of course, the ever reliable ClassicFlix" O.

 

[The 1960's]

David just announced the ClassicFlix Super Summer Sale over here which includes The Abbott and Costello Show - Season 1 @ $19.98. Best price ever. Howie will be buying a Besser backup copy!

 

[Gary OS]

The Last Dinosaur…

Not the Richard Boone 70’s film. The few of us remaining who wish we would see more glorious black-and-white TV released. Things look really grim. Perhaps worse than ever.

Kino has gone hog wild on 70’s and up stuff. MPI finishing up O&H and no indication of further classic fare. Shout Factory giving up on the good stuff years ago. The major studios doing little to nothing with their vintage libraries.

ClassicFlix seems to be our last gasp hope. And that’s why they will be getting all of my money.


Gary “so thankful for my personal collection” O.

 

[Purple Wig]

The Last Dinosaur…

Not the Richard Boone 70’s film. The few of us remaining who wish we would see more glorious black-and-white TV released. Things look really grim. Perhaps worse than ever.

Kino has gone hog wild on 70’s and up stuff. MPI finishing up O&H and no indication of further classic fare. Shout Factory giving up on the good stuff years ago. The major studios doing little to nothing with their vintage libraries.

ClassicFlix seems to be our last gasp hope. And that’s why they will be getting all of my money.


Gary “so thankful for my personal collection” O.

Not the most cheerful post but it does remind me I'd like to revisit The Last Dinosaur.

 

[Gary OS]

Not the most cheerful post...

I know. Wish I could be Pollyanna on this topic. But other than a few choice morsels from MPI (O&H) and ClassicFlix (several fantastic releases) - and they have been wonderful morsels - the overall landscape hasn't been trending in our favor at all recently. And nothing on the horizon looks to change that situation. I guess if one takes out the physical media part, and includes streaming and subchannels, it's not quiet as bleak. But owning discs of our vintage favorites... That's just not looking good at all.

Only us older folk would even know or care about something like Bachelor Father, Boston Blackie, or Rin Tin Tin. Younger folk likely have no idea, and no interest, in such fare. So most companies just aren't incentivized to invest in these older classics. And as each day passes and increasing numbers of Silents, Boomers and even Gen Xers pass off the scene the market shrinks all the more.

We've had a nice run over the last 10+ years when I started this thread. I rejoice greatly that things rebounded a bit after the prospects looked grim in the early 2010's. But with physical media in decline generally, and us older folk also in decline, it just doesn't seem likely that b&w TV on DVD or Blu will prevail much longer. A sad truth in an ever-changing world. I guess all good things must come to an end.


Gary "aren't you glad I changed the tone from the previous post and made this one much more cheery?" O.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Not to dismiss or marginalize Gary's surely accurate thoughts on the dearth of upcoming B & W TV releases, but I thought I'd shift the discussion slightly to the more upbeat side, if I may, by focusing on the wealth of classic black-and-white TV material that we have been lucky enough to receive over the past 20+ years of TV on DVD and Blu-Ray...so to that end, I was wondering what percentage of shows my fellow members here own on shiny disc that are black-and-white, compared to color.

Specifically wondering about your collection, Gary. I know that your preference is heavily centered on B & W shows, but I'm thinking that you surely must also own at least a few color ones, too. Not trying to be facetious, genuinely curious as to how you, and other members participating in this thread, would break down your collections.

Did some brief number crunching, and as regards my own disc collection, out of approximately 370 TV shows (both British and American) I own physical media copies of, 92 of them are completely in black-and-white, and 13 of them I count as "partials," in that they began in B & W and then transferred to color for the remainder of their runs. So that means roughly 25% of my collection is made up of B & W shows. I'm certain that I own a lot more shows from the late '60s, '70s and (and to a much lesser extent) the '80s than Gary, so those statistics track for me. I'm guessing for people like Gary, the numbers would look more like 75-80% B & W.

Thoughts?

 

[The 1960's]

Jeff I just did a quick tally and my physical media collection is comprised of about 80-85% Black & White, however my digital collection has grown so much in the past few years that I'd say including those, the ratio is down to about 65-70% Black & White.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Thanks for that, Neal! I also have a substantial digital collection which would work the opposite for my ratio, probably lowering it down to about 65-70% color.

 

[Gary OS]

Not to dismiss or marginalize Gary's surely accurate thoughts on the dearth of upcoming B & W TV releases, but I thought I'd shift the discussion slightly to the more upbeat side, if I may, by focusing on the wealth of classic black-and-white TV material that we have been lucky enough to receive over the past 20+ years of TV on DVD and Blu-Ray...so to that end, I was wondering what percentage of shows my fellow members here own on shiny disc that are black-and-white, compared to color.

Specifically wondering about your collection, Gary. I know that your preference is heavily centered on B & W shows, but I'm thinking that you surely must also own at least a few color ones, too. Not trying to be facetious, genuinely curious as to how you, and other members participating in this thread, would break down your collections.

Did some brief number crunching, and as regards my own disc collection, out of approximately 370 TV shows (both British and American) I own physical media copies of, 92 of them are completely in black-and-white, and 13 of them I count as "partials," in that they began in B & W and then transferred to color for the remainder of their runs. So that means roughly 25% of my collection is made up of B & W shows. I'm certain that I own a lot more shows from the late '60s, '70s and (and to a much lesser extent) the '80s than Gary, so those statistics track for me. I'm guessing for people like Gary, the numbers would look more like 75-80% B & W.

Thoughts?

Jeff, I really appreciate your idea. I certainly don’t want the thread to devolve into constant discouraging conversation from me.

I haven’t done an actual spreadsheet count at present so I’m not really sure about the ratio in my library. But I’ll look into that and share it here ASAP.

Believe it or not I do have quite a few color shows, but a good portion of those are because I have two adult daughters and a wife. Don’t get me wrong, they love black-and-white TV as much as I do. But we’ve also collected some color shows over the years because we all enjoy them. Things like The Brady Bunch, Sue Thomas FBI, Road to Avonlea, The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Family Matters, and Little House on the Prairie, among others, have all been favorites of the women in my household. There are certainly favorites of mine that fall into the b&w/color categories. Shows that crossed over during their run. The Fugitive, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, Hazel, Lassie, Gilligan’s Island and many others.

My guess is it the ratio of black-and-white to color somewhere in the neighborhood of 75% to 25%. But I might be surprised once I do my inventory.


Gary “I’d say the primary thing for me is that I own somewhere in the neighborhood of 95% of every black-and-white TV show ever released, while color releases would be a much smaller percentage” O.

 

[bmasters9]

Not to dismiss or marginalize Gary's surely accurate thoughts on the dearth of upcoming B & W TV releases, but I thought I'd shift the discussion slightly to the more upbeat side, if I may, by focusing on the wealth of classic black-and-white TV material that we have been lucky enough to receive over the past 20+ years of TV on DVD and Blu-Ray...so to that end, I was wondering what percentage of shows my fellow members here own on shiny disc that are black-and-white, compared to color.

I don't know if I can come up with an actual percentage, but I can name the specific shows (I believe this is all of them) that I have in B/W:

--Medic
--Perry Mason (7 of 9 seasons)
--Have Gun Will Travel
--M Squad
--Wanted Dead or Alive
--The Untouchables
--The Rebel
--Route 66 (1 of 4 seasons)
--McHale's Navy
--The Loner
--Honey West
--The Avengers (half B/W and half color)
--Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1 of 4 seasons)
--The Wild Wild West (1/4 B/W, 3/4 color)

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

For me, currently --most are complete series, although some are samplers or purchases of select seasons:

95 B & W (incl. a couple with a single color episode, + The Andy Griffith Show: Seasons 1-5, the only years I own or want)
25 with both B & W and Color seasons
189 Color (incl. a couple with a single B & W episode or so, i.e. Get Smart, Upstairs Downstairs)

I'm planning on getting 12 Beacon Street, World of Giants and Code 3 before too long, so that'll be three more for the B & W tally.

 

[Lecagr]

I have several black and white TV shows in my DVD collection, here are some that come to mind:

Father Knows Best
Leave It To Beaver
Dennis The Menace
Perry Mason
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Thriller
Naked City
Mister Ed
Dick Van Dyke Show
Addams Family
The Munsters
Honey West
My Three Sons seasons 1 and 2
My Favorite Martian seasons 1 and 2
Bewitched seasons 1 and 2
Hazel season 1
Gomer Pyle USMC season 1
Burke's Law season 1
Mr. Novak season 1
Man From UNCLE season 1
Gilligan's Island season 1
I Dream Of Jeannie season 1
F Troop season 1
Lost In Space season 1
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea season 1
Wild Wild West season 1

I probably have a few more but these are the ones I can think of without looking through the entire collection.

 

[bmasters9]

Honey West

Forgot about that one on mine.

 

[Lecagr]

Forgot about that one on mine.

Here's two more I have that I forgot to mention earlier:

Adventures Of Superman seasons 1 and 2
Lucy Show season 1

This is not an official release but I also have a DVD set of Amos N Andy which has 74 of the 78 episodes.

 

[bmasters9]

This is not an official release but I also have a DVD set of Amos N Andy which has 74 of the 78 episodes.

And that Medic from Timeless has 44 of the 59 outings of that 1954-56 NBC medical series w/Richard Boone.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

There are a few B&W shows I'd like to see be released or finished...
December Bride (1954-1959)
Trackdown (1957-1959)
Pete and Gladys (1960-1962)
Ben Casey (1961-1966) (seasons 2-5)
Breaking Point (1963-1964)
Slattery's People (1964-1965)
The Cara Williams Show (1964-1965)

~Ben