Is the b&w era of TV on DVD slowly coming to an end? (5 Viewers)

[smithb]

"Maverick" is probably one of the "caught in the middle" shows. It seems like there are some shows that a studio just can't seem to pull off releasing themself, but at the same time they have too much merit to license out to someone else. As a result, they just sit in limbo. I would have thought "Maverick" would have been released before "Cheyenne", but maybe the feeling is that "Maverick" is too good for WBA but does not yet merit a commercial release.

 

[Randy Korstick]

"Maverick" is probably one of the "caught in the middle" shows. It seems like there are some shows that a studio just can't seem to pull off releasing themself, but at the same time they have too much merit to license out to someone else. As a result, they just sit in limbo. I would have thought "Maverick" would have been released before "Cheyenne", but maybe the feeling is that "Maverick" is too good for WBA but does not yet merit a commercial release.

I've been thinking the same that Maverick should have come before Cheyenne and I think its one of two reasons.
1.) As you mentioned they may still be considering it for retail and are not ready to pull the trigger yet.
2.) There are some music rights or some other clearance issue they have not yet got past.
It will probably still end up in the archive eventually.

 

[Steve...O]

The CBS/P Syndication "Bible" website was updated today (1/24/12):

Untouchables: Network 4x3 HD (episodes 1 to 88, Seasons 1 – 3. Season 4 due February 2012.)

Looks like that one will be coming to DVD eventually.

For color shows, another update for Streets of San Francisco says " Network 4x3 HD (episodes 1 to 72 only.) Seasons 4 & 5 in progress.". Vegas is also having S3 transferred.

 

[DeWilson]

In the early '50s, CBS and NBC (owned by RCA) had one of those "new product" wars we know so well. It was the same old story: They introduced two different, incompatible systems of color television broadcasting and reception. RCA-NBC won out, and by 1954 they were ready to sell color sets to the public and start broadcasting color shows.
When first put on sale in 1954, a 12-inch color set cost $1,000. Larger screens cost more, of course. The Inflation Calculator says that $1,000 in 1954 is the equivalent of $8,000 today! It goes without saying that very few color sets were sold in the early days.

I always felt that CBS' "Field Sequential" Color system (Spinning Wheel) was much better than RCA's NTSC Chroma-Dot B&W NTSC Compatible system. Given time CBS's Engelbert would have found a way to do electronically what was being done mechanically. Not surprsingly, the CBS system (as the first one out of the gate) was used for years in the medical field for close-circuit broadcasts of medical procedures!

I've been thinking the same that Maverick should have come before Cheyenne and I think its one of two reasons.
1.) As you mentioned they may still be considering it for retail and are not ready to pull the trigger yet.
2.) There are some music rights or some other clearance issue they have not yet got past.
It will probably still end up in the archive eventually.

It the are having these types of issues with incidental music on the westerns, who only knows that headaches the Detective shows (including "The Roaring 20's" in this group) With one or more musical performances in every episodes!

The CBS/P Syndication "Bible" website was updated today (1/24/12):
Untouchables:  Network 4x3 HD (episodes 1 to 88, Seasons 1– 3. Season 4 due February 2012.)
Looks like that one will be coming to DVD eventually.
For color shows, another update for Streets of San Francisco says " Network 4x3 HD (episodes 1 to 72 only.) Seasons 4 & 5 in progress.".  Vegas is also having S3 transferred.

Has is ALWAYS been an indicator for upcoming DVD releases?

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

/t/317650/is-the-b-w-era-of-tv-on-dvd-slowly-coming-to-an-end/60#post_3890962
Has this ALWAYS been an indicator for upcoming DVD releases?

Just about every single time, Denny. It's a very solid indicator.


Gary "CBS is now very close to finishing out several series that are high on my list" O.

 

[Jack P]

The one time where it hasn't proved to be a reliable indicator is "Love Boat." Since last summer, the guide has listed HD transfers for the first seven seasons, but it's remained stuck on "two and through" for two years now.
"Mannix" was fast-tracked to completion in HD transfers a couple years ago so we already knew that the show was ready for more DVD releases and I think it's inevitable that will be finished.
I'm glad "Streets Of San Francisco" will be restarted because with "Hawaii Five-0" finished, that makes it the one other notable 70s cop show that benefited so much from location shooting and letting the city and locales be part of the storytelling.
Seeing "Barnaby Jones" still stuck at a half season of seven and a half seasons total though remains the most infuriating thing about CBS/Paramount for me.

 

[Gary OS]

And while I personally loved the Barnaby Jones release in 2010 and wish we'd get more, and am always happy for fans of any series when their favorites are released, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that none of the shows you mentioned are anywhere close to b/w ones. Just saying.


Gary "still looking at Timeless as my best bet for multiple b/w releases this year" O.

 

[Jack P]

Yes, but the conversation was shifting gears to the CBS Syndication Bible.
Truthfully, there aren't many B/W shows I'm still losing sleep over not being on DVD or not being finished except for "Burke's Law". Finish that, and I'm one step short of B/W nirvana (which would be made complete if the Nassour heirs give us all episodes of "Sheena, Queen Of The Jungle") whereby anything else is pure icing on the cake. "Burns And Allen" I would love to see but because I transferred the old Columbia House VHS releases with original commercials to DVD, I'm not as mad about that as I would be under ordinary circumstances. "Jack Benny" I recognize the problems because of the nature of what kind of show it was, which means there can never be season releases, plus I doubt very much that the filmed shows on DVD will ever restore the integrated commercials which is the only thing that would ever excite me about a DVD release. So with those two eliminated, all I'm left with is "Burke's Law" and "Sheena" on the Grail list, one more year of "Gunsmoke" to finish out the half hour era for the near-Grail list and that's it. Every other Grail title for me is late 60s to late 70s color for starting up and unstalling.
I say this of course knowing that Timeless will give complete versions of "Cimmaron City" and "Riverboat" which will let me upgrade those sets. I also think in time, though it will be slow, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" will be finished.

 

[MCCLOUD]

In addition to the black and white shows mentioned, hopefully Gunsmoke will continue getting released. Hopefully the HD transferring means that The Streets Of San Francisco will have Seasons 3 4 and 5 released. I would also like to see Barnaby Jones continued and off course Cannon. It would be great if someone could ask CBS why they have never shown any respect at all to Cannon. Besides abandoning Cannon after 2 Seasons, they never HD transferred Cannon like they have for just about every other show they own. Name any show CBS has put out the past few years and it seems only Cannon has not been HD transferred. It is a shame that CBS has no respect for Cannon!
Robert

 

[Regulus]

Is the B&W era of TV on DVD coming to an end?
Explain whay the Motion Picture Acadamy has Nominated a B&W SILENT MOVIE (The Artist - The First B&W Movie to come out since Young Frankenstein IICRC), not to mention the first Silent Movie since Silent Movie (Which was produced by the same person as Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks).

 

[Matt Hough]

Originally Posted by Regulus /t/317650/is-the-b-w-era-of-tv-on-dvd-slowly-coming-to-an-end/60#post_3891216
Is the B&W era of TV on DVD coming to an end?
Explain whay the Motion Picture Acadamy has Nominated a B&W SILENT MOVIE (The Artist - The First B&W Movie to come out since Young Frankenstein IICRC), not to mention the first Silent Movie since Silent Movie (Which was produced by the same person as Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks).

Raging Bull was a 1980 release though it did have color home movie footage. Schindler's List did have a final color sequence but was for all intents and purposes a black and white film. The Elephant Man was also all black and white, and it, too, came after Young Frankenstein.

 

[David Weicker]

Raging Bull was a 1980 release though it did have color home movie footage. Schindler's List did have a final color sequence but was for all intents and purposes a black and white film. The Elephant Man was also all black and white, and it, too, came after Young Frankenstein.
 

As long as we're listing modern B&W films, Manhattan also followed Young Frankenstein. Although your list of titles followed it.. More recently, there was Good Night And Good Luck
David

 

[Mark-P]

My goodness, Regulus, you seriously thought there hadn't been any Black & White movies released since Young Frankenstein? There have been a lot!

(The Artist - The First B&W Movie to come out since Young Frankenstein IICRC)

 

[Regulus]

I Stand Corrected!
I do believe The Artist is the first Silent Movie to be released since Silent Movie. (1976)
I wonder, will some Studio Exec ponder about reviving Movie Serials?

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

...all I'm left with is "Burke's Law" and "Sheena" on the Grail list, one more year of "Gunsmoke" to finish out the half hour era for the near-Grail list and that's it. Every other Grail title for me is late 60s to late 70s color for starting up and unstalling.

Jack, that's wonderful that you're interest in b/w TV has just about come to a close and that almost all your favorites are finished. But I started this thread because there are still M-A-N-Y shows from the b/w era that I'm very interested in and if people want to talk about color shows, or b/w movies, there are more appropriate threads for those things. I don't mind an occasional divergence like what my good friend Steve O. did. He brought up the CBS Syndication library but his first comments concerning it were directed toward a b/w show, thus keeping in step with the purpose and title of the thread. He then mentioned a couple of color shows after that. But he didn't exclusively mention color shows like you did. That's why I politely, with an appropriate smiley, tried to make that point. I don't mind if other issues evolve in the thread, but I'd like to see it stay somewhat on track and I fear it has veered off topic over the last day or so.
Without going into details, one studio specific portion of my crystal ball has all but confirmed my concerns over this issue. It's very apparent that we are seeing a release shift that continues to move away from b/w TV and towards a decade (the 70's) that I'm just not very interested in. The same is true for the 80's and beyond. Yes, there are a small smattering of titles I'd like to see from those decades, but those aren't on any release schedules that I'm getting wind of. So I'll have to be content with Timeless (who is clearly committed to the era of series I'm interested in), and the few scraps that Shout, CBS, and the others offer. But I know it's going to be less than last year, which was less than the year before, which was... and so on since the last quarter of 2008.


Gary "still excited about some things that are coming later this year though - we are still going to see some nice shows from the golden age of TV released in 2012" O.

 

[Jack P]

The movie part I agree was off-track, but I honestly don't see where my own comments did that. Sometimes a lenghthy thread will have a few side matters related to it. It stemmed from someone asking if CBS Syndication Bible updates were always reliable leading indicators of a DVD release, and I felt it had to be noted that there are a couple instances where that hasn't happened which I think is necessary to let those not think an update is a 100% guarantee the DVD will then follow.

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack P /t/317650/is-the-b-w-era-of-tv-on-dvd-slowly-coming-to-an-end/90#post_3891368
The movie part I agree was off-track, but I honestly don't see where my own comments did that. Sometimes a lenghthy thread will have a few side matters related to it. It stemmed from someone asking if CBS Syndication Bible updates were always reliable leading indicators of a DVD release, and I felt it had to be noted that there are a couple instances where that hasn't happened which I think is necessary to let those not think an update is a 100% guarantee the DVD will then follow.

Jack, I'm not looking to get into a "he said, she said" type of disagreement. My initial response wasn't meant to be a huge hand slap or anything of that nature, and had you left your first reply at just what you said above and not gone into a long explanation of why you didn't care if anything else b/w got released because you were personally satisfied with the current state of releases then I'd have had no problem. But I felt like you were kind of telling me it's no big deal if b/w TV on DVD is in decline because you don't care and you've got all you want from that era. And I just wanted to re-assert my feeling, which is clearly the opposite of yours in this matter. If I felt like you did I wouldn't have even started the thread at all.


Gary "no harm, no foul" O.

 

[Richard V]

Ummm, getting back on track, sort of, I just watched the first few episodes of Overland Trail in glorious b&w, and must say it is a very entertaining show with old pro William Bendix and a VERY youthful Doug McClure, easily one of my favorite western actors. TMG has done a very good job with the release, and even though the quality is not of The Twilight Zone, it is still very watchable and good quality.

 

[Gary OS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard V /t/317650/is-the-b-w-era-of-tv-on-dvd-slowly-coming-to-an-end/90#post_3891444
Ummm, getting back on track, sort of, I just watched the first few episodes of Overland Trail in glorious b&w, and must say it is a very entertaining show with old pro William Bendix and a VERY youthful Doug McClure, easily one of my favorite western actors. TMG has done a very good job with the release, and even though the quality is not of The Twilight Zone, it is still very watchable and good quality.

Glad to hear about Overland Trail, Richard. I look forward to this one myself. And glad you are getting the thread back on track.


Gary "Timeless has been on fire with their releases recently" O.

 

[GMBurns]

Speaking of b&w shows that I really enjoy, has anyone heard any rumors about Perry Mason being continued in 2012?