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The Rifleman Season Sets in 2013 ? (1 Viewer)

Randy Korstick

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I want this too but at that price and so far no discounts I will have to wait. I'm also broke after all the sales.
 

Ockeghem

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Season One has been ordered. I'll be watching quite a lot of this series over the holidays. :)
 

John Morgan

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Well, I recorded the entire series when it was playing on ENCORE. It was fairly easy to record the content to a DVD and fine cut to the opening credits and end. There were no commercial interruptions, and they all ran about 26 minutes, so I am confident they were complete. I am sure a new transfer would yeild better results and to have the original openings for the seasions would be a nice plus and not having the Encore "bug" would even be nicer.

Yes, I ordered the 1st season from Rifleman.com so I await this. I kind of have a feeling they may use the existing masters and I have little hope of a big all inclusive set with all seasons. I think the fan base is relatively small compared to HAWAII FIVE-O or even MURDER, SHE WROTE and my guess is the real die hard fans will buy the individual sets. I think we will be lucky to see all the seasons, but I am hoping. I remember another favorite series, THE REAL McCOYS, I wrote to the video company and they swore all seasons would be released, but there are still two more. And they were syndicated cut prints, so every episode was missing about 4 minutes except the first one that ran 26 minutes.

Yes, the price to too high. I think mine was about $83.00 for the set including tax and shipping, but it is one of the few unreleased series I really would like to have.
 

smithbrad

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The one hope we have in this case, unlike the "Real McCoys" scenario, is that this company isn't licensing the material for a period of time but owns it outright. So no licensing costs and whatever cost they put into improving the prints can benefit them in future syndication use. I am expecting that they will manage to get all seasons out on DVD. The big question is did they take the opportunity to make the quality of the release fit what they are charging. I'm not expecting CBS video quality, but close. Otherwise, they will find these hard to move at this price point for anyone but the diehard fan.
 

Carabimero

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I put this in my cart to order. $83 is just too high. Gonna wait. Maybe get it for less down the road. I don't mind paying a premium for specialty material, but this is simply too much, especially for episodes I already have.
 

Dave Scarpa

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Gary I cannot blame you or anyone on thinking this way. I have bought so many tv sets to find now that either they are being offered in complete series sets for a fraction of what I paid, or they are including things not on the original sets as perks. Maybe they should have done what time life did with Six Million Dolla Man sell the whole series and then release the seasons for less later on.
Gary OS said:
I'm willing to wait and see if they actually finish the series out and maybe offer one big boxed set. And yes, I realize this type of thinking might be criticized as contributing to them not finishing the series because of poor sales, but I'm just not going to invest in it without knowing they will finish it. Chicken/Egg, I know.


Gary "plus, like Brad said, I want confirmation on A/V quality before I shell out big bucks" O.
 

Dave Lawrence

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I, too, am willing to take a "wait and see" attitude on this one. I like the show but I don't love the show. Thus, I don't have the same sense of urgency that, for example, caused me to do the pre-order with Shout Factory to get the Mary Hartman set a month earlier than the official release date.

They may not ultimately put out a complete all-in-one Rifleman box set, but if that's the case, and there are no issues (syndication cuts, poor quality, etc.) and the price comes down a bit with time (or a special deal), I'd just as soon get the individual sets all at once in a year or so once they've put them all out.

My mind also keeps going back to Classic Media's release of the complete Lone Ranger series earlier this year. From reading the reviews here and on Amazon, it seems that the first 2 seasons had complete episodes while the rest were cut versions. So even if the 1st Rifleman set is good, I'm willing to wait to see if the remaining sets will be good as well before taking the plunge. Different company, but still something I think about now for shows I like but which aren't "must have NOW" favorites.

That said, for those who have the Rifleman on their "grail" list, I can also appreciate the willingness to take a chance and purchase this 1st season now at a high price and prior to reviews about the quality. When a show is one of your faves, "wait and see" can go wait somewhere else.
 

Guy Foulard

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It's odd that they're sticking with the 5 episodes per disc formatting of the previous non-seasonal releases when they could safely do 8 per disc.

I feel like this is overselling the quality a bit: "Episodes and special features are embedded on eight (8) DVD-9 (single sided, dual layer) discs from a glass mold produced from high-quality video (from film) and audio files." Why not just skip to Blu-Ray if it's being sold as such a prestige product?
 

Carabimero

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I get the impression from the style of the press releases and the quality of the website (not to mention the packaging and price point) that this is a small outfit doing well to get this on DVD.
 

Dave Scarpa

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Guy Foulard said:
It's odd that they're sticking with the 5 episodes per disc formatting of the previous non-seasonal releases when they could safely do 8 per disc.

I feel like this is overselling the quality a bit: "Episodes and special features are embedded on eight (8) DVD-9 (single sided, dual layer) discs from a glass mold produced from high-quality video (from film) and audio files." Why not just skip to Blu-Ray if it's being sold as such a prestige product?
yep taking an 8 disk set down to 5 and a lower SRP
 

Dave Scarpa

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Guy Foulard said:
It's odd that they're sticking with the 5 episodes per disc formatting of the previous non-seasonal releases when they could safely do 8 per disc.

I feel like this is overselling the quality a bit: "Episodes and special features are embedded on eight (8) DVD-9 (single sided, dual layer) discs from a glass mold produced from high-quality video (from film) and audio files." Why not just skip to Blu-Ray if it's being sold as such a prestige product?
A lot of the Audience for this probably don't own Blu Ray
 

smithbrad

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It is a little difficult to understand their approach here. As mentioned the content of the 40 episodes could easily fit on 5 disks. What we don't know yet is what extra's are included and how much space they take up. Highly doubtful they take up three disks worth. One has to wonder if this isn't part of an attempt to justify the higher price by looking at some of the CBS and WB releases that are spread across 8 disks with higher price tags. Of course they are 50 minute shows compared to these that are around 25 minutes.

While I'm taking a gamble on season 1, I have an uneasy feeling about this. At least with companies like TGG the price is typically so low it is easier to accept some imperfections. With releases by Time Life, CBS, and WB we generally get higher quality to go with the higher cost. The mid-range groups typically give good value for content not otherwise likely to be released.

Here we have an owner of the product with likely no experience in this charging premium pricing on an initial release that will most likely have some learning curve flaws. They could have gone with an experienced company but apparenty decided to keep it in house. They could have started out with a lower price point to test the market (they shouldn't have licensing fees and they are cutting out the middleman). And to release this close to Christmas, right after Black Friday sales when people have less money to spend.

I don't know...I'm not usually the doom and gloom sort but they have the opportunity of producing a real winner that would sell a decent amount of copies if put together and priced right, but my gut tells me it isn't going to work out that way. That instead we will get a high priced average product that only the most devoted of fans will go for. I hope I'm wrong.
 

hypnohighball

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I agree with all the posters that say this is simply way too expensive. I love the show, but I'll have to pass. $50 for a season sounds more like it to me.I love Gunsmoke, too but haven't bought any of them for the same reason, too expensive. They are half season sets, so they come out to about what this Rifleman set is.
 

smithbrad

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hypnohighball said:
I love Gunsmoke, too but haven't bought any of them for the same reason, too expensive. They are half season sets, so they come out to about what this Rifleman set is.
Not necessarily...if you like Gunsmoke this might be a good time to act since every volume is currently on sale at Amazon for under $20 each. They are coming out to between $30 to $40 a complete season (all the way up to season nine) with the complete first season only $14.

Bonanza and Perry Mason fans can get big discounts right now as well.

The difference here is that when major distributors like Amazon gets involved you have sales like this. We will have to wait and see how the Rifleman sets will be handled over time. Will they branch out to the big online distributors where competitive pricing can come into play? Will they take the WB approach where they have their own sales periodically? Or will they keep the price fairly constant and only sell through their own online store? We will have to wait and see.
 

Ron Lee Green

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I watch the Rifleman two times a day, six days a week on Me-tv so I don't have a dire need to get this set--especially at $70.
It also airs on AMC on weekends. There might be more of a demand if the owners withdrew it from syndication.
There's too many other shows on dvd I want from Warners Archives like Alice, Eight is Enough and Dr. Kildare that aren't airing on regular TV. They recently had a multi-disc sale where you can pick 3 sets for $100.00. I think its still going on. Comes out to $33 a set which is a lot better deal.
 

hypnohighball

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Not necessarily...if you like Gunsmoke this might be a good time to act since every volume is currently on sale at Amazon for under $20 each. They are coming out to between $30 to $40 a complete season (all the way up to season nine) with the complete first season only $14.
Thank you!!! I didn not know this. I went to Amazon after reading your post and ordered all the hour long episodes available so far on dvd : seasons 7 through 9. That was 6 half season sets, and my total was $121.41 with tax and free shipping. I'm a happy camper now!
 

smithbrad

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hypnohighball said:
Thank you!!! I didn not know this. I went to Amazon after reading your post and ordered all the hour long episodes available so far on dvd : seasons 7 through 9. That was 6 half season sets, and my total was $121.41 with tax and free shipping. I'm a happy camper now!
That's great. Glad it worked out. There are many series I've been able to take advantage of big sales on due to becoming aware of them after their initial releases and when they were more likely to be on sale. Many times due to this or another forum.

With Gunsmoke I started picking them up pretty quickly after release time and not waiting. Still I managed to get some what of a deal. Not as good as you just got, but one with no regrets.
 

smithbrad

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My copy of Rifleman shipped today priority mail. I'm sure we will start getting some feedback by later next week as to the value of the set. My guess is the it won't live up to the $70 price tag, but hopefully it will still surprise us with the quality of the prints and the extra's to make it still worth while to the biggest fans.
 

Dave Scarpa

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I wait now until I can get deals on the Half season sets I do not buy at full price anymore
 

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