Preparing MacGyver for HD (1 Viewer)

[jcroy]

Maybe now that CBS and Paramount are reunited again, things will change. I don't expect that to happen overnight.

Probably too little too late to make much of a difference now.

That is, unless the merged Paramount/CBS starts to outsource to somebody like Mill Creek to do complete series bluray sets;

 

[MatthewA]

What Mill Creek is charging for the entire run of Charlie's Angels plus the reboot on Blu-ray is about what the entire run of this show could reasonably sell for. But CBS/Paramount tried to get almost that much out of a whole season!

 

[bmasters9]

What Mill Creek is charging for the entire run of Charlie's Angels plus the reboot on Blu-ray is about what the entire run of this show could reasonably sell for. But CBS/Paramount tried to get almost that much out of a whole season!

I hope they don't stall these O-R MacGyver Blus out after only one go (1985-86)!

 

[Bryan^H]

I mean, you know a big reason these first season sets likely don't sell is because we know they're going to be abandoned eventually. But a complete set might sell more because people aren't afraid of a one and done.

As much as I wanted to get excited for MacGyver, I couldn't because within the same instant I heard the news of it, I knew it was doomed. And that is exactly what happened.

When singular releases like Star Trek TNG don't sell well (STAR TREK, THE MOTHER OF ALL FANDOM TV SHOWS) then we are looking at a sinking ship of an idea with no lifeboats.
Star Trek should have been the title to judge-- never to release another individual season of classic TV on BD again. But CBS is slow apparently, and desperate to prove something.​

 

[MatthewA]

I used to believe there was a time when you could literally slap the words Star Trek or Star Wars on anything and the fans would buy it. Such is not the case or Enterprise would not have become the butt of a DTV-movie Futurama joke and Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge would be packed.

MacGyver doesn't have a rabidly obsessed fan base like that since it is not a sci-fi franchise but a standalone 1980s adventure show that recently got rebooted (the less said about that SNL thing, the better). Still, you'd think there would have been enough interest in it if it succeeded on DVD despite the crummy picture quality. I guess not everyone who bought it has HD or Blu-ray yet or doesn't feel the need to double dip. The sight of Richard Dean Anderson in his prime in HD and the huge picture quality improvement should have been enough of a selling point.* Too bad The Simpsons' Patty and Selma Bouvier aren't real and can't buy a copy. My grandfather used to watch it but he won't be buying a copy either; he's dead. Even when he and my grandmother were alive, they never had a VCR or DVD player until we bought them a new TV for their 53rd wedding anniversary, and that was only because their old one from the 1980s broke.

*He was not to blame for the Facts of Life's 1981 backdoor pilot "Brian and Sylvia" failing to launch. Nor was Ja'Net DuBois. Nor was the gay songwriter from All That Jazz. But with another actress as Sylvia, maybe it wouldn't have been as bad to see us invest 30 minutes in characters that, unlike Mrs. Garrett when they spun her off of Diff'rent Strokes and Florida Evans when she got spun off from Maude to Good Times, we know nothing about that we didn't see here and will never see or hear about again while the main characters get pushed to the sidelines. But if that had sold, then we might not be having this conversation.

 

[bmasters9]

MacGyver doesn't have a rabidly obsessed fan base like that since it is not a sci-fi franchise but a standalone 1980s adventure show that recently got rebooted (the less said about that SNL thing, the better). Still, you'd think there would have been enough interest in it if it succeeded on DVD despite the crummy picture quality. I guess not everyone who bought it has HD or Blu-ray yet or doesn't feel the need to double dip. The sight of Richard Dean Anderson in his prime in HD and the huge picture quality improvement should have been enough of a selling point.

And you'd think that, given the success on DVD of O-R ABC MacGyver with much-less-than-perfect picture quality, the HD remastered Blus would come out just as fast, such that a MacGyver fan would have a choice as to how he/she would want to see it.

 

[LCD22]

Koch Films has announced they are releasing a complete Blu-ray set.

 

[GlennC]

That’s good news. Any mention of when and how much it will cost?

 

[LCD22]

That’s good news. Any mention of when and how much it will cost?

No mention of cost, but...

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=17154505&postcount=28

 

[MatthewA]

Funny how Germany can make American TV profitable on disc more so than Americans.

 

[dawnshadow]

I think it's more a case of funny how a company that uses logic and isn't obsessed with greed can make more money off a show than CBS, regardless of what country they release it in.

 

[bmasters9]

Funny how Germany can make American TV profitable on disc more so than Americans.

They did it w/Riptide (Trio mit Vier Fausten in Germany), where the releases seemed to be more uncut and with more of the original music.

 

[LeoA]

Same thing with Hogan's Heroes, which stands no chance of even a season 1 Blu-Ray release here yet Germany got a complete series set.

 

[Ron1973]

Funny how Germany can make American TV profitable on disc more so than Americans.

It's the same way with music. Bear Family runs circles around any American label. On a side note, I wish they'd get their hands on Hank Williams' catalog of music; all domestic companies can do is keep re-releasing the same thing over and over and over.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

It's the same way with music. Bear Family runs circles around any American label. On a side note, I wish they'd get their hands on Hank Williams' catalog of music; all domestic companies can do is keep re-releasing the same thing over and over and over.

...well now you have me wondering how much Hank was lost in the great Universal fire of '08, since I had to remember who owned his stuff.

You know what, I don't want to know.

But back on topic, even UK companies can do better buy American stuff than the big US companies. Ask a Malcolm in the Middle fan, or Quantum Leap fans before the Blu release. And Mill Creek, of all companies, swinging QL with all original music when Universal never did. Wow.

Yeah, I know, MC only released the masters Uni had restored over the years, but still, where was that care originally?

 

[Ron1973]

...well now you have me wondering how much Hank was lost in the great Universal fire of '08, since I had to remember who owned his stuff.

You know what, I don't want to know.

But back on topic, even UK companies can do better buy American stuff than the big US companies. Ask a Malcolm in the Middle fan, or Quantum Leap fans before the Blu release. And Mill Creek, of all companies, swinging QL with all original music when Universal never did. Wow.

Yeah, I know, MC only released the masters Uni had restored over the years, but still, where was that care originally?

That's a scary thought. I don't think I'm running afoul of any rules with this, but if I am, I'll remove/edit it. If you like Hank, check out my YouTube page, Hankfan Hankfan. I have the never released WSFA recordings he did as a teenager on my page that a friend was courteous enough to give me plus a lot of his overdubs that'll never make it to any digital format.

It's a truly sad state of affairs when bottom feeders like Mill Creek give us hope for our long lost treasures. It used to be Shout!, Timeless, and companies of that nature. I always thought of Mill Creek on DVD being what Goodtimes was to VHS-stuff the bigger guys didn't really want, but at a substandard quality. I'm waiting and hoping that Mill Creek will pick up Emergency! on blu-ray soon as I hate to spring for the DVD's with their ratty looking transfers. I watched the hi-def versions on Netflix a few years before they pulled all of their Universal shows and know I couldn't settle for the DVD sets.

 

[MatthewA]

Maybe they realized they couldn’t get away with cutting as many corners on Blu-ray as they could on DVD.

It’s also quite ironic that it took Mill Creek re-issues to fix some of the cuts and replaced music that actual studio releases made us settle for.

 

[Bryan^H]

It's a truly sad state of affairs when bottom feeders like Mill Creek give us hope for our long lost treasures. It used to be Shout!, Timeless, and companies of that nature. I always thought of Mill Creek on DVD being what Goodtimes was to VHS-stuff the bigger guys didn't really want, but at a substandard quality.

Mill Creek has changed a lot. All of their sub $50 Blu-Ray sets like Knight Rider, Miami Vice, Airwolf etc. looked, and sounded good. But their release of 'Charlie's Angels' is fantastic. And includes subtitles, something their previous classic TV releases didn't. They care about us the collectors now so I'll no longer think of them as inferior.

 

[bmasters9]

Mill Creek has changed a lot. All of their sub $50 Blu-Ray sets like Knight Rider, Miami Vice, Airwolf etc. looked, and sounded good. But their release of 'Charlie's Angels' is fantastic. And includes subtitles, something their previous classic TV releases didn't. They care about us the collectors now so I'll no longer think of them as inferior.

What made Mill Creek start to cater to us now by at least including subtitles on that Charlie's Angels release?