Mork and Mindy Season 2? (1 Viewer)

[Mark Lemmond]

Is there any news on a release date for Mork and Mindy season 2? Why is it taking so long?

 

[Mark Lemmond]

No one knows anything about this?

 

[John*D]

Read this article:

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=4309

 

[Paul Miller]

Mork & Mindy wasn't even really mentioned in the article. The Tower Record guy only commented on the sales of Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley.


Paul

 

[David Lambert]

M&M's sales were as bad or worse than that of Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. The article at VB neglected to really talk much about it, true, so I had nothing to relay.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Can we stop to speculate on why three of THE most popular Shows of the 70s did not sell on dvd? Hmm...let's see:


1.) Cheap-looking packaging

2.) Zero extras

3.) Low-resolution transfers, and I judge this just by looking at the PROMOS for these dvds. All the eps in those looked cloudy, grainy or dim.

Perhaps, based on the last comment, we can conclude that more people than ME were turned off by the promo. You'd think that Paramount would show clips from the BEST looking episodes, not the worst. But all in all, those three releases looked cheap and so I steered clear. 3 of my favorite shows, and I didn't bother to get them. End of story.

Now, from Paramount's point of view, they probably blame the poor sales on the SHOWS themselves, rather than their own skills as marketers. They'll say, "Oh, Happy Days didn't sell...guess no one likes Happy Days anymore." What nonsense! Millions of people loved that show and would love a GOOD dvd release of its episodes. I know I would.

Paramount needs to rerelease them in better packaging, or add some decent extras, or try harder next time in restoring these shows to their original broadcast quality (some of the Happy Days stuff looked a little 16mm to me).

 

[David Lambert]

1) Packaging is no different than other Paramount TV releases such as Charmed and MacGyver, which sell like mad.

2) With the exception of all Star Trek and the odd early seasons of Cheers and Frasier, none of the Paramount TV releases - including Charmed and MacGyver - have any extras.

3) Since I agree 100% with them, I will defer to the comments in Gord's review about the video transfer of Happy Days Season 1. He gives it a 7 out of 10, noting several problems, but notes that much of it is a product of when it was shot and the fact that they didn't give it a new high-end cleanup. Why didn't Paramount do that? Because THEY HAD SPENT A TON OF MONEY ON THE MUSIC, and there was no more room in the budget for restoration without jacking up the price to levels they knew would not sell. As it was, their margins were super-thin on that product...even if it sold great guns.

Consider Happy Days (and L&S and M&M) to be the new "Mary Tyler Moore Show Season 1" situation: the studio WANTS to put out more, but can't figure out a way to guarantee the bean-counters that they can make it profitable. Worse, unlike Mary, the fans aren't nearly as vocal about how they are upset that more DVDs aren't scheduled yet. If this VB story stirs things up, great. But if the fans seem to forget again after a couple of weeks and move on, you can bet the studio will be moving on, too.

 

[Mark Lemmond]

So I take it that there isn't going to be a Season 2. That sucks bigtime.

 

[Paul Miller]

It is strange how Mork & Mindy sold the least of the three but has been asked about more than the other two on the board at least.

I think the problem with sales is directly related to the lack of syndication of these shows, Laverne & Shirley & Mork & Mindy aren't anywhere to be found and Happy Days is growing increasing more obscure. If they want new audiences to discover these titles and buy the DVD, they need to get them back on TV.

Paul

 

[Mark Lemmond]

I agree I had no interest in Happy Days or Laverne & Shirley but Mork & Mindy was great. How many seasons did Mork & Mindy run for anyway?

 

[Brian Himes]

As a big 70s TV collector, these three shows just aren't on the top of my list of 'must have'. After the first couple of years of both Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, I just lost interest in the show. The got really old really fast for me. The same thing happened with Mork and Mindy. While I did watch the first three years of the show, by the end of the 2nd season, I had pretty much lost interest. As such, these three shows are not something that I care to revisit on DVD.

 

[Derek K.]

I think Mork & Mindy jumped the shark when Mork dyed his hair blond, started working in a photo developing place and started to stalk his customers.

Oops ... my bad. Correction : That's when Robin Williams jumped the shark.

 

[Derek K.]

Fonzie was the coolest sitcom star EVER.

Here's hoping Paramount comes thru ...

 

[Ethan Riley]

I still stand by my comment above, in thinking the packaging was cheesy. It was and it IS. Don't compare to Charmed's packaging, which is quite colorful and nice to look at; and don't forget the legion of young women who will buy Charmed, seeing as how it's still on the air and popular.

Also, I don't CARE the reasons why an old tv show looks bad, whether it aged badly, was restored badly or neglected by its producers/studios. If it looks bad on dvd, I don't really want it. I don't care about the excuses, I just don't want it. Either break your back restoring these films to life, or forget it. You don't try to sell corked wine to those with taste.

Also, keep in mind that wth the exception of L&V, the other two weren't very good in their 1st seasons. It took till the 2nd or 3rd seasons for these shows to catch on. I didn't like HD until the 3rd or 4th season. With better packaging, better promotion and better restoration a 2nd season of any of these would do fine, as would follow-up volumes.

 

[Steve Phillips]

I wouldn't mind the second season of "Happy Days", but after that I'd quit. The series took a major turn for the worse when they started filming it in front of a live audience. In other words, the series "jumped the shark" several years before Fonzie did it literally.

Truth be told, HD, L&S and M&M did not do all that well in syndication,a nd I'm not surprised the DVDs didn't sell that well. Hopefully they will make it to market at some point.

 

[Craig S]

Wow, I'm of exactly the opposite opinion. HD was best in it's first two seasons, then it became the Fonzie show and began a long decline. When Ron Howard left the show it was over for me.

As for M&M, the 1st season is the only one I was ever interested in. For some reason, ABC felt the need to retool a hit series after the first season, and the show never recovered, creatively or in the ratings. The fourth and final season, with Jonathan Winters as Mearth, was horrendous.

 

[Jay_B!]

someone should relay to Paramount to SUCK UP THE MUSIC RIGHTS FOR SEASON TWO OF HAPPY DAYS!!! This is not a WKRP/Wonder Years case of music rights throughout the entire series... Paramount should just suck it up for season 2 because they will not have to worry about it for seasons 3-11 as there's about 1/10th (if even that much) the music used in the studio audience episodes of the series. There might be losses for the sales of season 2, but I think it'll be balanced out and recouped when the far-less-musical season 3 comes out.

 

[Tony S]

Hopefully when Paramount finishes up some of thier other shows, they can revisit these three.

They are all but done with Trek and will soon finish Taxi, Brady Bunch, & I Love Lucy. By the end of next year they should finish Cheers, Frasier, Andy Griffith, Hogan's Heroes and be caught up with South Park. By then hopefully they will be at least half way done with Family Ties, Gomer Pyle, and Wings.

I am sure that by then they will probably have started others such as The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, Beverly Hillbillies, & Petticoat Junction as well as a few shorter run shows like Bosom Buddies and Mayberry RFD. But by the end of next year, they should be scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as sit-coms go.

Maybe at that point HD, L&S, and M&M will look more attractive to them. And hopefully by then the season on sales for those shows will have racked up a bit more. Maybe they should try lowering the price for those the way Fox and Warner have done.

 

[Randy*S]

I want all three HD, L&V, M&M. I mean I grew up with these shows and they were regular rituals at my house!
And they're 100% better than the disgusting crap on now.
I'd be willing to boycot all of paramount's other shows until these great shows are continued! So if they want my 100 bucks each for all three trek seasons...