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The Warner Chat 5/7: Official Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

David Levine

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It's all 22 episodes of ISIS. That includes the 3 (#12: Funny Gal, #21: Now you see it... and #22: ...And Now You Don't) episodes that SHAZAM appeared in.

ISIS also appeared in (I believe) 3 episodes of SHAZAM, and Warner will have those if they ever get around to putting out that series.
 

tjguitar85

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So, Babylon 5 without Bruce Boxleitner (i.e. Season One) would not be the "classic lineup"

We've seen other shows get released with a season other than the first (such as Cagney and Lacey....and a while ago Earth: Final Conflict, but I'm sure most of us wished the first season had come out for that particular show...)
 

RickER

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Paramount is my favorite TV on DVD studio, and shocking number two for me is Universal! Now that they have stopped the DVD 18 trend that they were in love with i have been buying their stuff like mad. Airwolf season 2 and soon 3, Columbo except for season 3 flippers, Northern Exposure, Emergency!, Rockford Files, and coming soon more Black Sheep Squadron! Fox is now in love with DVD 14s, and charging a pretty penny for them too. Flipper discs for Land of the Giants! No way will i pay $200 for flipper discs!
 

Ethan Riley

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The only WB box I can think of with flipper discs was Dallas, and I have to begudgingly say that I have had absolutely no problems with any of the five sets so far. But oh--those awful, awful flipper discs on Big Valley season one...ugh! WB has been pretty good in terms of quality...
 

Xenia Stathakopoulou

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Ethan, there are more than that as far as WB tv flipper discs go.I have wonder woman season 1, dukes of hazzard season 1 and 2, v the complete series, all on flipper discs.Thankfully no problems with them.It seems the only flipper discs that give me problems, are the ones universal used to have.
 

TheLongshot

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Well, it is a bit different with a serial show like B5, rather than episodic television like Night Court. You didn't need to see Season One to understand what happened in Season Three, for the most part.

Jason
 

Tony S

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Maybe the fans of tv on dvd need some kind of a grass roots effort to raise money to advertise to the general public to buy these sets. A lot of your average people don't even know that these shows are out. When Enterprise was cancelled, Trek fans raised several hundered thousand dollars to try to keep it on the air. If tv on dvd fans raised that kind of money, and spent it on advertising these sets, and maybe informing them of the DDD sales that come up, it couldn't hurt. The more sales = the more likelyhood that more sets will get released and the likely hood of better sets (more extras, original music, etc). The only thing that will get more sets out is SALES.

Just a thought. What do you guys think?
 

tjguitar85

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Then how about Law and Order? A lot of people out there prefer McCoy to Stone. Though some might the other way around.


Still, the earlier seasons w/o McCoy sold well.
 

TheLongshot

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L&O has had so many cast changes over the years that there is no such thing as a classic lineup.

Jason
 

Andy1963

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This thread and the chat transcript really have been eye-openers for me re how studios choose to release classic series.

I don't see how the studios can gauge interest based on comments in this forum, though. Seems to me the audience here is far more sophisticated than the general TVsonDVD buying public!

My hope would be that the studios could find a way to lower their profit expectations so that it becomes feasible to release additional seasons of my personal wish list series (Family with Sada Thompson, St. Elsewhere, Murphy Brown, and Hazel, to name just four).

For example, would it be cheaper to just manufacture the entirety of classic (i.e., pre 2000 series!) as a box sets, instead of season-by-season releases? What about some special ongoing marketing campaign with BestBuy and amazon.com to create "tvshowsondvd" buzz in general (so many of my favorites that come out have no hoopla at Bestbuy and are buried in the racks)? Could studio-direct purchases be more profitable, letting consumers buy directly from the studio's website w/ no need to share revenues for less popular titles with those resellers?

If only I were king of the world....
 

John*P

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No. I was going to, but couldn't make it to the chat. I'm surprised no one else mentioned it, as it was asked about during the previous two chats, IIRC.

Nice to hear that Perfect Strangers might come in 2008... tho, I'd rather have it sooner.

Stinks to hear that there are no plans for Step by Step or Hogan Family. :-/
 

brett tolino

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Tony S...

I think consumers having to pay for any kind of advertising to help studios sell their merchandise is way off.

Thing is, studios are complaining that these things aren't selling enough to warrant subsequent releases then THEY need to adjust their sales expectations and/or profit margins.

IF there is such an across the board disappointment on sales in the eyes of these studios, we as fans and consumers are left wondering, just what exactly ARE their sales expectations? .

With a show like KNOTS LANDING, it DID make the top ten lists at Best Buy and Video Business and also scored high on Amazon the weeks it was released. So how Warner can state that sales are soft can only leave one wondering, HOW? And I use Knots as an example because it was well known that it did well during its initial release. Was Warner looking at long tern sales figures, AFTER its initial release?

Considering Warner only releases Seasons for many of their shows ONCE a year, its hard to keep your consumers interested when you make them wait that long for the next installment. Just look at the drop off in Sopranos viewers after making them wait TWO years for another season.

Thing is, there are many things the STUDIOS can do to help sales and increase awareness for their products:

1) Look at your price point as compared to how much product you are offering in the release -- then compare THAT to whatever else is out on the market. Consumers are NOT going to pay $40.00 for a season of 13 episodes when you offer another product for $40.00 and give them double the episodes.

2) Look at your manufacturing costs and manufacture efficently. On Knots Landing, they did not maximize their costs efficently. There was 13 episodes released over FOUR disks - single sided. They could have easily manufactured the 13 episodes over TWO disks like Sony did on ONE DAY AT A TIME. It would have been cheaper to manufacture and they could have priced it lower.

3) Target your release date to coincide with similiar product: For example, DALLAS is a strong seller for Warner. KNOTS LANDING is a spin off and MARKET - ADVERTISE it as such -- and RELEASE THEM CONCURRENTLY ON THE SAME DAY FOR SALES CROSS OVER.

Release KNOTS LANDING on the same day as DALLAS and SLUG the KNOTS cover packaging accordingly: FOLLOW THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE EWING CLAN! Since the show features Gary EWING, brother of JR. This is called MAXIMIZING your sales potential. The same people who picked up Dallas would then be inclined to pick up Knots if they're on sale right next to each other.

4) Double up on smaller seasons in one set: If there's only 13 episodes in one season, put out a double pack of Season X and Y in one package.

There's much more studios can do to maximize their own potential but its more convenient for them to blame consumers for not buying what they're not selling properly. And if a studio can release a full series like LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRARIE, which guaranteeed is NOT selling in the numbers of Seinfeld or the Sopranos, then also, the studios need to reasses their sales expectations accordingly.
 

brett tolino

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PS. We all know everyone is in business to pull a profit.

Many of these studios -- already raking in millions in other areas -- appear to be so greedy and profit starving that they're cutting their noses off to spite their faces by not releasing subsequent seasons of show after show after show.

They're burning consumer confidence by placing profits over people. Studios claim, WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! OUR CUSTOMERS ARE IMPORTANT TO US! But when consumers are voting, studios aren't listening and coming up with excuse after excuse for holding back releases.

How can a studio continue releasing shows AND show a profit?

There are plenty of ways: Minimize your costs, do double sided disks, release more than once a year by doubling up on seasons. It's very difficult to believe a show like Get Smart rates high enough on consumers lists for Warner to take notice and release the ENTIRE Series in one nifty box... but not anything else in their library. Someone upstairs must be a BIG Get Smart Fan!

Consumers aren't stupid and don't like being treated as such. I'm sure Get Smart was a wonderful show but many find it difficult to believe there's more of an audience for Get Smart to have more of a demand than SUPERBOY or Everwood!!

Studios need to generate more consumer confidence. As tough as this is to say, realistically, studios can hold tv series hostage all they like. Most consumers will get over it and move on to something else eventually. The studios need the consumers, not the other way around. So, if the sales expectations aren't met, maybe they're too high. Time to make those production and marketing people work for their salaries and find new cost effective ways to release, if only for customer satisfaction because its now getting out of hand with most fans being told their favorite shows just aren't selling enough.

Sales customer service 101: Treat the customer well, they come back.
Treat them poor, they go away.
 

Steve...O

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To the staff at Warner Home Video:

I did not participate in the chat, partially due to scheduling and partially due to my interests being primarily theatrical, but I do want to take the time now to express my continued appreciation to WHV for being so accessible to your consumers through these interactive chats.

In addition, please let me say "Thank You" for the continued wonderful job you are doing with the "Looney Tunes" collections. The restorations are amazing and the the special features informative and entertaining. As others have requested, I'd also like to see some of the WW2 era cartoons released. Since these collections are marketed to adults I would like to think most buyers would be able to place them in the context of the times when the Japanese and Germans were our wartime enemies.

I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I'm not that familiar with the Popeye cartoons except by reputation. I look forward to the upcoming collections!

Finally, if there is one TV property I would put a pitch in for it would be "Maverick". I could very well be overestimating its commercial viability, but the high recognition factor of both the title and the star, this would seem to be a natural for release.

Thank you.

Steve
 

tjguitar85

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Personally I much prefer the season releases. Putting it all out in one enormous set like Land of the Giants is just too freakin expensive, it would pretty much eliminate all "impulse buys" and I would suspect that they'd sell a lot less units overall, decreasing the profit margin big time.
 

Pete Battista

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Would stop most blind buys as well. I blind buy a lot of TV Seeason sets that I in turn usually love and continue.. but if I am looking at a blind buy I would not want to pay more then I would for a season set... to much of a chance on a bigger loss if I don't like it.
 

FrancisP

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I would point out that the Get Smart sets are also being released in individual season sets starting this fall. Also Time-Life cushioned the blow by allowing the payments to be broken into 4 payments.

I was surprised about how the Man From UNCLE has shown up on Warner's radar all of a sudden. A year ago, they didn't seem that enthusiastic about it.
Maybe they decided to settle the whole thing and releasing S1 through Warner was part of the settlement. I hope that they did not burn their bridges because Arena could have some good behind the scenes material that could make some good supplements.
 

brett tolino

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I think its great news for Get Smart fans but still, I can't understand how or why Warner believes demand is strong enough for Get Smart to constitute a full series release before 'testing the waters' with a season one as they do for other series'.

If their series release of Get Smart is a sign that this may be a way of releasing full series' outright, going forward, then I applaud it all the way, especially since it IS great news for Get Smart fans.

But for the rest of us, this again leaves many fans scratching their heads with the way Warner (and other studios as well) decides what gets released and how. IS there a stronger, more supportive market for GET SMART than say, Superboy or Everwood?

Many things they say don't make sense. Warner claims Knots Landing had 'soft' sales yet the release was on top sellers lists for the first weeks of its release. Other series' are also floating around in 'unmet sales expectations limbo'.

Warner is a great company with an extensive, beautiful library. But Warner is also a HUGE corporation which, by defination, may require higher, unrealistic sales expectations 'because' they are so huge. Are their manufacturing costs higher? No, as an immense corporation, they are contracted with many manufacturers who serve contract rates to produce their product. Perhaps though, they need to redefine expectations to align more realistically with the market conditions at present, the same way the value of a dollar is adjusted with inflation.

Just as a side note, I should clarify some facts made in my earlier post. I originally stated that Knots Landing was manufactured at a retail price of $39.95 for 13 episodes over FOUR Disks. Upon checking my facts, I reopened the collection and found the release was NOT produced over FOUR DISKS but FIVE DISKS. This is a significant difference: some disks were manufactured with only 2 episodes on a disk.

This begs the question, WAS the release manufactured cost effectively? Did they really need to spread 13 episodes over FIVE disks, which causes the manufacturing cost to rise as well as the retail price? The higher the cost to produce, the greater the budget, the higher the sales expectation to at least 'meet' budget.

Also, when you place disk one into the player, there's a plug for DALLAS, one of their best sellers. Quite obviously, they are aware of the cross selling potential since it IS a spinoff of their best selling show. HOWEVER, there is NO cross selling plugs for KNOTS LANDING on any DALLAS releases. Technically, the plug should be the other way around. You use the best seller (DALLAS) to plug the spin off (KNOTS LANDING), this way, the people who buy DALLAS might also purchase KNOTS.

'NOT', the other way around.

Again, it appears as though Warner might not have released the series cost effectively or promotionally to help generate sales. So its not the consumers fault if not everyone ran out to buy an item with little product for the high retail price.

Yet still, the series sold decent, from stores points of view. Could you imagine what sales might have been had Warner maximized their own potential?
 

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