Next Tuesday 9/10 Will Tell A Lot About CBS (1 Viewer)

[shoeshineboy]

The only thing that worries me is that they are setting the two shows up for failure. I'm not normally a conspiracy theorist and I hate to rain on the parade. Without a "general" release how will sales be? Look, I'm excited here, I really am. I just hope this doesn't generate low sales figures being what appears a Walmart exclusive, thereby giving them an excuse to not go further and stall out the series.

Could be... Or it could be that Walmart knows its customer base. Where would you send someone who likes hillbilly humour and duck-out-of-water kind of comedy than the giant superfluous box master?

 

[Neil Brock]

They will both be in wide release at a later date. The exclusive is only for a window of time and then they get released fully.

 

[Jack P]

Whereupon a certain website can presumably then take its fingers out of its ears.

 

[Ron1973]

Whereupon a certain website can presumably then take its fingers out of its ears.

Amen to that! If it weren't for this forum I would have no idea this was being released.

 

[derosa]

Whereupon a certain website can presumably then take its fingers out of its ears.

I'm a longtime, big fan of that certain website, but it really does make you wonder what service
it does to the DVD collectors to have this policy, when it's pretty darn clear that the only reason
they don't announce exclusive sets is because they aren't available from Amazon, their major
sponsor. If i'm interested in a set, I don't care where I can buy it, as long as it's available.
The logic escapes me how fans are served by not spreading the news a show is being released.

 

[lj01]

While any news of unstalling classic series is good news, I'm still flummoxed (and have been for years) over the fact that CBS remastered Love Boat and it's still sitting there unreleased. With this latest news, it seems to always logically follow that if you see a show has been remastered, that means DVDs are being released, except in this one particular case. I know a lot of people are not big fans of that show, but does anyone happen to have any idea why this situation exists, such as did the rights get tied up by some possible movie or something like that?

 

[Frank Soyke]

While any news of unstalling classic series is good news, I'm still flummoxed (and have been for years) over the fact that CBS remastered Love Boat and it's still sitting there unreleased. With this latest news, it seems to always logically follow that if you see a show has been remastered, that means DVDs are being released, except in this one particular case. I know a lot of people are not big fans of that show, but does anyone happen to have any idea why this situation exists, such as did the rights get tied up by some possible movie or something like that?

I truly have no idea, but it may have something to do with when they remastered them as compared with sales numbers for season 2. It is possible they remastered seven seasons at one time and then stalled it when season 2 sales figures were poor. That's the only explanation I can think of

 

[Frank Soyke]

As far as I'm aware, rights cannot be an issue here because it is their show and even if it weren't, they would never be able to remaster seasons of a show they didn't have the rights to.

 

[smithbrad]

I suppose there could be music rights that need to be cleared in later seasons that they did not realize until after they remastered the episodes, so while they have them remastered they can't distribute them.

 

[Frank Soyke]

I suppose there could be music rights that need to be cleared in later seasons that they did not realize until after they remastered the episodes, so while they have them remastered they can't distribute them.

That could very well be true. There was quite a bit of music used in that show. I't been a long time since I have seen it, but as I recall a lot of it was generic cover versions though. Honestly, I have no idea

 

[Jack P]

Love Boat did do a number of "musical" style shows and of course had to accomodate lounge singing numbers too (any time Charo was guesting we had to hear her perform) but I noticed that on S1 and S2 that they did seem to clear everything since no episodes were shorter than they should have been.

We need to have more of this released. Love Boat and Fantasy Island (which alas is stalled again by Sony and Shout) should have their full runs out so I can have my total escapist junk fare of this era on DVD represented.

As to that website's policy, I have seen them mention Best Buy exclusives so I have a sneaking suspicion they have an axe to grind with Walmart specifically.

 

[lj01]

Thanks for the replies...I guess I'm thinking, doesn't remastering cost a fair bit? I wouldn't think CBS would just go and spend the $ to remaster and then figure out there were music rights issues, and agreed, there was a fair bit of music in the first two seasons and those all seem to be full-length. Back to the $, you don't see Happy Days remastered past season 4 and the logic follows there. I guess just makes me think that CBS planned on releasing Love Boat but something unusual came up that precluded it.

 

[smithbrad]

As to that website's policy, I have seen them mention Best Buy exclusives so I have a sneaking suspicion they have an axe to grind with Walmart specifically.

That policy may extend to Super D related companies as well (e.g., ImportCDS, DeepDiscount) since they refused to list the WBA "SugarFoot" release at ImportCDs before it became available at Amazon a month or so later for $10 more. In addition, the set I received from ImportCDs had commercially "pressed" disks instead of the DVD-R disks i was told Amazon was distributing.

 

[derosa]

Absolutely! The hold up has been so frustrating. I remember how naive I was back when the
first season announcement was made that it would be split in half season sets, thinking that
it would take longer for the sets come out. I had no idea how long we'd be waiting, given that
was 2008, and here we are 5 and a half years later, still waiting for news of Season 3.

I was very hopeful for more Love Boat on DVD when Fantasy Island started up releases again,
but given that even Shout! seems to have lost interest there, we're left just waiting for news.

We need to have more of this released. Love Boat and Fantasy Island (which alas is stalled again by Sony and Shout) should have their full runs out so I can have my total escapist junk fare of this era on DVD represented.

 

[Ethan Riley]

I remember episodes where old stars would sing medleys. Probably a lot of music to clear.

 

[JoeDoakes]

Love Boat went downhill faster than a lot of other long running shows. Its hard to believe that CBS thought there would be a big market for the mermaids. Perhaps Aaron Spelling or his estate had something to do with the remastering.

 

[Jack P]

The mermaids weren't until S9, the last season. We still haven't gotten through the heart of the period when the show was at its peak popularity.

 

[Jack P]

Shame on them for putting some dubious principle of theirs ahead of acting responsibly.

I'd note also that because David chose to publicly trumpet this policy on *this* site and in *this* forum, it make his site fair game for well-earned criticism as a result.

 

[Ron1973]

Shame on them for putting some dubious principle of theirs ahead of acting responsibly.

I'd note also that because David chose to publicly trumpet this policy on *this* site and in *this* forum, it make his site fair game for well-earned criticism as a result.

Exactly. I always loved their site but not so much now.

 

[smithbrad]

FYI, I contacted the site right after David's post. Since they responded to me directly with their policy I thought I would just post it here. I agree with Jack, they opened the door to the criticism with David's post.

"Retailers pay studios to get an exclusive window for a product. Those timed exclusives are rarely announced to the press, and we usually only find out about them the week before they hit stories - and never with full details, just the name of the set and a price. We decided long ago not to support these types of releases, as 1) the studios don't tell us about them (and often don't want us reporting on them), 2) don't send out details for the sets, 3) are effectively punishing customers that don't shop at X store.You may recall in the mid-2000s the studios were putting "exclusive bonus discs" in certain sets, at certain stores. It was a similar issue with these retailer exclusives, and when we decided to stop covering them (along with others), the studios stopped doing them. Hopefully we see a similar thing happen with these retailer exclusives.Hope that helps explain the policy."