should Sony revisit Mad About You? (1 Viewer)

[Linda Thompson]

Should they?

a - To please ME, yes

b - To make money as a business, apparently no


Will they?

Refer to (b) in previous question.


Too bad...I LOVED this show. Like many, I loved it more before the baby came, but it was still great even then.

I bought Season 1, Season 2, and the Best Of to show my support. It was worth it to me simply for the complete "The FInale" 3-part arc (which, of course, was nowhere near the actual finale).

If other fans did the same and the number$ speak loudly enough to make an impact, we may see more. If not (as I sadly suspect), oh, well...everybody loses while a great show rots in the vaults instead of living on in our DVD players.

I do agree wholeheartedly that some re-promotion and a renewed consumer-awareness campaign might work wonders. As has been pointed out, the TV-on-DVD market is much different now than it was when MAY first hit the shelves. It would be a shame if such a great show was allowed to PERMANENTLY fall through the cracks.

 

[Jay_B!]

you know, that's an idea I personally have thought of for awhile. Being like "Rhino Handmade" (a cd manufacturer that brings rare stuff to CD, mail-in only), how about Sony releasing bare-bones sets of shows like Mad About You s3, Larry Sanders s2, etc... that they don't feel confident will move in the store, and take pre-orders on them, and ONLY press as many copies as pre-ordered, that way they don't press 100k and only sell 10k, while 90,000 copies hovering in backrooms for years. I think an idea like that is an "everybody wins" route

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Yes they should.

The last 1-2 seasons were pretty awful, but if I remember correctly, they peaked somewhere around S3-S4. I would have at least liked to have made it that far.

Does anyone know what season the episode was, where Paul loses his parokeet?

Thanks.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

This post may not necessarily work for MAD ABOUT YOU, but in general I think it's a real shame that so many shows are going to be ignored on DVD because they cannot possibly be expected to sell very well. This is especially true of older shows, before DVD was ever conceived. It seems unfair that so many more current shows automatically get DVD releases because they're still fresh in people's minds, where far worthier older programs just had the misfortune of being made too long ago.

 

[Gord Lacey]

As I mentioned, there are upfront costs associated with creating these sets. Would you still be willing to put up...say...$100 for the company to produce $10k preordered sets? Would 9,999 others be willing to do the same?

Gord

 

[Jay_B!]

Mad About You isn't that costly a series to produce, I know of the instance that you briefly heard The Beatles in the episode Yoko appeared, but besides that, any others?

I think Sony could easily sell Mad About You season 3 exclusively on their website for $29.99, zero extras and very minimalistic packaging, and sell a large number of those.

Think of Rhino Handmade for a moment, they are an offshoot of Rhino records, and they have brought extremely hard to find albums out on CD, ones that won't bring in Beatles/Zeppelin style catalog sales, but ones that there is still an audience for, like Sonny Bono's solo album from 1967, and only press a limited amount of copies for and sell them exclusively on their website. Sony could stand to make a lot of $$$$ from doing this with shows that aren't going to bring Seinfeld numbers for them, but still have an audience anyways, shows like Mad About You, Larry Sanders, Who's The Boss, etc... all have audiences who would love further seasons for, just like the way that a remastered Sonny Bono album is not going to sell what a remastered Springsteen or Stones album but yet Rhino realized there are still people who would buy it and that there is money to be made regardless.

I refuse to believe that Sony truly believes That's My Mama would be more profitable than Mad About You, a show that won a ton of Emmys and stars an Oscar winner.

 

[Gord Lacey]

Unfortunately Sony is a company that looks to sell tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of units, not a few thousand. They're not going to put resources into releasing a title that will sell 10,000 units when they could put the same amount of time and effort into a title that will sell 100,000 units.

I don't mean to sound like a prick, I'm just relaying information that's been shared with me in the past. I'd love to see them continue with the show, but the sets have to drive a profit for the company.

Gord

 

[MatthewA]

They put out "That's My Mama," which ran 15 months and is rarely seen in syndication, putting almost no time and effort into the release, and expect this to sell 100,000 units? Considering it is not a well-known show and the release is shoddy, I'd be surprised if it sold 100 units.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Yeah, they're almost as bad as the networks, running only one season or part of a season of a show and then cancelling it just because nobody's watching and they're not making money on it. What's wrong with these people?

Regards,

Joe

 

[Aryn Leroux]

What's funny is sony didn't stop releasing some of there 70's stuff after slow sales. the jeffersons, what's happening? good times?. I can see the jeffrsons maybe selling decently but the other two shows there just is no way in hell they sold better than mad about you and who's the boss.

 

[Michael Alden]

Well, let's see. Those of us that have been collecting since the late 70s used to pay $100 for 5 blank VHS tapes. TV shows that we bought on 16mm film ran anywhere from $15 to $150 PER SHOW and more if it was rare enough. And that's in 25 years ago dollars. So that may seem like a lot to someone who just started collecting with DVDs but to people who have been around collecting TV shows since Carter was president, $100 for a complete season of a show is still a bargain. People now are just spoiled by how cheap it's become. Ask the folks who were dolling out $25 with postage for 4 half hour shows from Columbia House if they think $100 for a full season is a bad deal.

As for the Rhino Handmade analogy, I've been saying for years that that is exactly what the studios need to look into. Rhino presses a few thousand copies of each title and then when it's gone, it's gone. And they aren't cheap. I just ordered a 6 disc Allan Sherman collection from them for $120. They pressed 4,000 copies and I'm sure it will sell out in a few months. But, hey, it took 15 years before the studios stopped fighting TV and began selling them new movies. It took 10 years before they stopped trying to put VCRs off the market and started releasing theatrical movies for a reasonable price. These guys are not exactly free thinkers who jump on an idea overnight. Give it to about 2010 and they'll get the brainstorm to do something along these lines.

 

[Tory]

I'm quite certain they did.

 

[DavidBC]

Count me in for more Mad About You. I loved the series and I have the other three sets. I also think that the TV on DVD market has changed drastically since the first two series were released, and that re-promoting S1&2 and releasing season 3 would be a money maker, like Mary Tyler Moore was.

Did last years "Collection" not do well?

 

[Jay_B!]

I agree. That is what baffled me about Sony, they released both seasons of the same day, something they've only done for Seinfeld, and let's face it, That's My Mama is no Seinfeld, hell, it's no Mad About You either. Sony keeps releasing short-lived stuff on DVD (if you're going to be stuck on short-lived, give us freaking "Square Pegs" already!) and keep putting off shows like Benson, One Day At A Time and Facts Of Life which surely would bring more revenue in than Ned And Stacey, I think Facts Of Life will be a huge seller (read: not Seinfeld numbers, but numbers Sony should be able to be pleased with) but Sony needs to just release it first, that show has one of the largest followings for 80's sitcoms

 

[Tony S]

I just (reluctantly) purchased the Mad About You collection in the DDD buy 1/get 1 sale. Hope that helps.