What do you like about this hobby? (1 Viewer)

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by Luisito34 /forum/thread/296568/what-do-you-like-about-this-hobby#post_3647537

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I started collecting TV series on DVD with Star Trek: TOS; and I swore at the time that that would be the only series I would ever collect on DVD. Then Paramount released Star Trek: TNG (all 7 seasons over the course of a year); followed by Star Trek: DS9 and Star Trek: Voyager. After collecting all of that, I had pretty much budgeted a certain amount per year for TV-on-DVD; plus I quickly discovered that the other TV series were a lot cheaper than those Star Trek sets. So I expanded to M*A*S*H, Columbo, Magnum: PI, I Love Lucy (actually, my wife wanted that one) ... and on and on. Today I own about 70 series (many are sci-fi and mystery oriented) and it just gives me tremendous pleasure to pull down an episode or two of one my "favs" and view it intact and commercial-free. (And I go through the entire DS9 series probably once every 18 months.) If it wasn't for my obsession with sports I, too, would probably "lose the cable"!

 

[younger1968]

i am in the same boat. Cable TV is done with me. I could not care what is on TV, because many of the shows today just are not very good anymore. In the next three-five years i should have all the tv shows that i want. I only watch a few hours of tv, in fact, i have organized my dvds by day the show ran. I really the show times on some shows did change, so, i am using one date or first day the show came on the air.

I am looking forward to Feb 2010 releases, because Barnaby Jones is coming. I am also looking forward to March 2010 with a few shows coming out then.

I was over a buddy place last weekend and we watch Time tunnel. It is good watching shows with people that have the similar interest.

 

[LeoA]

Wish I could unhook cable tv since the shows I like I nearly always watch on DVD since it's mostly just junk aired on television these days. Even when it's a decent show, such as The Andy Griffith Show on TVLand, it's so cut up for commercial time that it just annoys me to not see things I know are supposed to be there.

And it's not just the major networks either. I love documentarys and there's barely anything worthwhile on television these days in that genre. A&E got out of the business in the 1990s to become the unofficial Law & Order rerun channel the last I checked (Used to air lots of good documentarys, and even produced many excellent ones like Floating Palaces (Best series on ocean liners I ever saw) and Our Century (A long running WWII documentary series that I haven't seen in years).

The Discovery Channel long ago killed off things like their many exploration specials with various shipwrecks like the Edmund Fitzgerald and Titanic, their many aircraft specials in their long running Wings series, and many others in favor of reality television. Used to be able to find something interesting on that network all the time in a wide range of subjects, from the construction of the Alaskan Highway to detailed analysis on how the Bismark sunk during WWII. Now it's all things like The Deadliest Catch.

And their spinoff networks like The History Channel (More likely to see a special on sex in Colonial America than you are anything worthwhile on that channel these days) and the Discovery Wings channel (Now the Military Channel) barely ever aired any of the content their parent networks used to 20 years ago (Such as TimeLife's excellent 70s documentary series on WWII that was called GI Diary, which was a Discovery Channel staple in syndication back in the late 80s and early 90s). And they seem to get worse by the day with constantly lower production values in their own documentarys or just plain junk.

But sadly I like to watch televised auto racing (Such as Formula One), so cable and a DVR (To skip annoying commercials which are as full of garbage as modern shows) remain necessary for me.

 

[MattPeriolat]

Originally Posted by LeoAmes

Wish I could unhook cable tv since the shows I like I nearly always watch on DVD since it's mostly just junk aired on television these days. Even when it's a decent show, such as The Andy Griffith Show on TVLand, it's so cut up for commercial time that it just annoys me to not see things I know are supposed to be there.

And it's not just the major networks either. I love documentarys and there's barely anything worthwhile on television these days in that genre. A&E got out of the business in the 1990s to become the unofficial Law & Order rerun channel the last I checked (Used to air lots of good documentarys, and even produced many excellent ones like Floating Palaces (Best series on ocean liners I ever saw) and Our Century (A long running WWII documentary series that I haven't seen in years).

The Discovery Channel long ago killed off things like their many exploration specials with various shipwrecks like the Edmund Fitzgerald and Titanic, their many aircraft specials in their long running Wings series, and many others in favor of reality television. Used to be able to find something interesting on that network all the time in a wide range of subjects, from the construction of the Alaskan Highway to detailed analysis on how the Bismark sunk during WWII. Now it's all things like The Deadliest Catch.

And their spinoff networks like The History Channel (More likely to see a special on sex in Colonial America than you are anything worthwhile on that channel these days) and the Discovery Wings channel (Now the Military Channel) barely ever aired any of the content their parent networks used to 20 years ago (Such as TimeLife's excellent 70s documentary series on WWII that was called GI Diary, which was a Discovery Channel staple in syndication back in the late 80s and early 90s). And they seem to get worse by the day with constantly lower production values in their own documentarys or just plain junk.

But sadly I like to watch televised auto racing (Such as Formula One), so cable and a DVR (To skip annoying commercials which are as full of garbage as modern shows) remain necessary for me.

I have little more to add than to point to the very sad decline of Nick at Night and TV Land. Once home to a lot of classic stuff (I still remember watching My Three Sons, Mr. Ed, Route 66, I Spy and the Nick at Night Movie into the wee hours of the morning one summer), now a wasteland of stuff that is just way too recent to be considered classic.

The other example is the Disney Channel. Even before Vault Disney, you could still find occasional airings of classic episodes and movies from the Disney anthology series along with some really excellent made for channel movies (their version of Great Expectations and Nightjohn among my favorites), now we're stuck with Hannah Montana 24/7.

It's sad really. I mean, if the current channels won't air classic TV and we can't get it on DVD, we're very much in danger of future generations not even remembering this stuff beyond Lucy, Twilight Zone and Star Trek. For me, both as an historian and a TV entertainment fan, that's just unacceptable.

 

[Neil Brock]

Originally Posted by MattPeriolat




I have little more to add than to point to the very sad decline of Nick at Night and TV Land. Once home to a lot of classic stuff (I still remember watching My Three Sons, Mr. Ed, Route 66, I Spy and the Nick at Night Movie into the wee hours of the morning one summer), now a wasteland of stuff that is just way too recent to be considered classic.

The other example is the Disney Channel. Even before Vault Disney, you could still find occasional airings of classic episodes and movies from the Disney anthology series along with some really excellent made for channel movies (their version of Great Expectations and Nightjohn among my favorites), now we're stuck with Hannah Montana 24/7.

It's sad really. I mean, if the current channels won't air classic TV and we can't get it on DVD, we're very much in danger of future generations not even remembering this stuff beyond Lucy, Twilight Zone and Star Trek. For me, both as an historian and a TV entertainment fan, that's just unacceptable.

I have to say that considering the amazing amount of previously rare shows that ran on cable in the 80s, I never would have imagined that 10-20 years later, with 10 times the amount of cable networks, virtually all of that material would be gone from the airwaves. I think that the 2 main reasons why this is the case are:

1 - No network wants to be thought of as appealing to "old people", i.e., anyone outside of the 18-35 demographic and certainly not outside 18-49. No network does. That's why even something like The Tennis Channel shows very little 70s tennis. Advertisers don't want them and so the networks don't either. Unless someone comes up with the TV version of TCM, I don't think we'll ever see 99% of the 50s and 60s shows broadcast again. Even many 70s shows are starting to disappear as well.

2 - When all broadcasting switched over from running 16mm prints to just running shows off of tape, that knocked out the availability of a lot of series. Unless a syndicator got a big sale on an older show, like Warner did with Good Life, they weren't going to remaster older, more obscure shows to tape. In the 80s if a station called up and wanted to buy some old forgotten series, the syndicator would just pull a set of prints off the shelf and send it over. Now, even if someone wanted some lesser known old series, either the station or the syndicator would have to pay some serious bucks for the transfers. Gone are the days when a network like CBN could call up Columbia and buy Empire, Wackiest Ship in the Army, Farmer's Daughter, Here Come The Brides, Iron Horse and whatever else they felt like airing. Now those shows would likely all have to be remastered, which would make them cost prohibitive.

 

[MattPeriolat]

Well, that's the hard cruel fact about this - making money. I'm frankly amazed that even modern channels wouldn't try Different Strokes, Family Ties, Growing Pains or other 80s sitcoms since those are the current, if you'll pardon me, "older" demographic. But the bottom line is getting the 18-35 demographic and that leaves out everyone in between, plus running shows that you know will get the ratings.

An interesting question: if someone took a risk and tried running classic shows, say one week a month shows from the 50s, another week the 60s, another the 70s and the last week the 80s and then repeating the cycle, would it be successful? Given how many shows are out there, you could easily fill a prime-time block that could be repeated in the late night hours like Nick at Night used to while you ran talk shows and others in the mornings, plus classic cartoons (whatever WB doesn't have sewn up) in the Saturday morning block.

I want to believe that it would fill a niche market, I just dunno how long it would be sustainable.

 

[chadHobbick]

I always thought that TV Land should have devoted their weekdays to different eras. Monday 50's / Tuesday 60's / Wed 70's / Thursday 80's / Friday 90's. They could even run in the evenings the respective power house blocks that ran on networks during prime time. They could leave Saturday/Sunday to the 24 hour marathons that I used to veg out on. Of course this would make too much sense and TV Land is all about anything other than classic tv it seems anymore.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

First off, what I'm watching now... Taxi, season 4. It's about time this show was completed! I didn't even mind the "Vienna Waits" edits, and if I had never seen the episode before, or known it was edited, I probably wouldn't have known something was amiss.

Now, What do I like about this hobby?

10 to 15 years ago, if Nick at Nite or TV Land wasn't airing something or hadn't aired it, I would never have an opportunity to see it. And the only way I could see something again is if I had thought to tape it.

Even then, episodes were chopped or skipped altogether for content reasons on N@N or TV Land. For example, I don't ever recall seeing the "Natalie gets nailed" or suicide episodes of The Facts of Life on either channel.

TV on DVD opened up the world of classic TV. Most all of it is uncut and complete. And there's stuff on DVD that would never have made it to the two major classic TV outlets at the time... like the 50s stuff. The 50s shows were dead by the time I started watching N@N in '94.

Now, as for the second topic... Channel Drift. Network Decay. It sucks. TV Land and Nick at Nite stopped being homes for classic TV. History Channel stopped showing history. The Game Show Network became GSN, and started overdosing on reality shows and newer game shows, leaving the classics out to dry.

There's no going back, unfortunately. Every channel wants the same 18-35 demographic, so they all show what is, essentially, the same damn show. Niche networks are dead. There's just no going back, because people like us, who like this old stuff, are either too old to count, or they can't make enough money off of us they way they can off of the crowd that would watch "Ow, My Balls!" and "Generic Reality Show #2453".

 

[MattPeriolat]

Originally Posted by The Obsolete Man

First off, what I'm watching now... Taxi, season 4. It's about time this show was completed! I didn't even mind the "Vienna Waits" edits, and if I had never seen the episode before, or known it was edited, I probably wouldn't have known something was amiss.

Now, What do I like about this hobby?

10 to 15 years ago, if Nick at Nite or TV Land wasn't airing something or hadn't aired it, I would never have an opportunity to see it. And the only way I could see something again is if I had thought to tape it.

Even then, episodes were chopped or skipped altogether for content reasons on N@N or TV Land. For example, I don't ever recall seeing the "Natalie gets nailed" or suicide episodes of The Facts of Life on either channel.

TV on DVD opened up the world of classic TV. Most all of it is uncut and complete. And there's stuff on DVD that would never have made it to the two major classic TV outlets at the time... like the 50s stuff. The 50s shows were dead by the time I started watching N@N in '94.

Now, as for the second topic... Channel Drift. Network Decay. It sucks. TV Land and Nick at Nite stopped being homes for classic TV. History Channel stopped showing history. The Game Show Network became GSN, and started overdosing on reality shows and newer game shows, leaving the classics out to dry.

There's no going back, unfortunately. Every channel wants the same 18-35 demographic, so they all show what is, essentially, the same damn show. Niche networks are dead. There's just no going back, because people like us, who like this old stuff, are either too old to count, or they can't make enough money off of us they way they can off of the crowd that would watch "Ow, My Balls!" and "Generic Reality Show #2453".

Easy there, I'm still two years away from being out of the key demographic for these channels, so not quite too old to count. That being said, yeah, it's becoming painfully clear I'm in the minority. Like has been stated before, who wants to watch a classic like Mr. Ed when you can watch Will Ferrel cram his head up a horse's rear?

I'm not sure if I'm ready to cry for the downfall of civilization yet that classic shows are no longer so popular, but it does concern me what qualifies as entertainment now. Tragic that niche networks are fading into the ether given how many we had to start with: American Movie Classics, Disney Channel, Nick at Night, TV Land, Sci-Fi Channel and so on. Honestly, only TCM remains and I've started to see some questionable classics on that channel these days.

So... if niches are history and classic TV is not getting out on DVD, what are our options, pray tell?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Originally Posted by MattPeriolat




Easy there, I'm still two years away from being out of the key demographic for these channels, so not quite too old to count. That being said, yeah, it's becoming painfully clear I'm in the minority. Like has been stated before, who wants to watch a classic like Mr. Ed when you can watch Will Ferrel cram his head up a horse's rear?

I'm not sure if I'm ready to cry for the downfall of civilization yet that classic shows are no longer so popular, but it does concern me what qualifies as entertainment now. Tragic that niche networks are fading into the ether given how many we had to start with: American Movie Classics, Disney Channel, Nick at Night, TV Land, Sci-Fi Channel and so on. Honestly, only TCM remains and I've started to see some questionable classics on that channel these days.

So... if niches are history and classic TV is not getting out on DVD, what are our options, pray tell?

Perhaps, one day, burn on demand or the internet will come in to save the day. Both are still in their infancy as a way to deliver this stuff. Right now, though, we don't seem to have too many options.

 

[cineMANIAC]

Wasn't the whole point of cable television all about paying for the priviledge of watching programming with little or no commercial interruption, running things uncut, etc? Cable TV today looks like every other over-the-air network. I think there are only a handful of people who make ALL programming decisions for most stations, which makes sense considering that corporations like GE bought up many cable outfits and networks so now its a monopoly and their goal is to make everything feel like an NBC production. I remember AMC airing classic movies commercial-free and in widescreen. Now look at it: nothing but reality-type garbage. Its amazing - one show (Survivor) became a big hit and next thing you know everybody wants to do the same thing and today that is all you see. This is why I cherish my DVD collection now more than ever. I want to see my favorite shows uncompressed for time, free of blurbs, logos, commercials every 5 minutes and, yes, legible credits at a normal speed. Long live DVD!

 

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by Luisito34 /forum/thread/296568/what-do-you-like-about-this-hobby/30#post_3647851

 

[Neil Brock]

Unfortunately where I lived in New York, we didn't even get cable until late 1990. By that time, CBN was gone and all of the networks that had run great hidden gems, like USA, Lifetime, TNT, Nick at Nite, etc., had long since gotten rid of those types of shows. My cable company didn't add TV Land until it had been on for about 7 years so by that time, they had stopped being any good either. We never got HA!, which in its short existence may have been the greatest network of all. And to this day we still haven't gotten American Life, formerly Good Life, formerly The Nostalgia Channel.

I'm sure I'm in the minority but I would gladly trade my 10 HBOs, 10 Showtimes and who knows how many other useless channels I don't watch for at least 1 commercial free, uncut old TV network. And I don't mean showing the same stuff that's on DVD and that's aired over and over in syndication for years. I want to see some of the great live dramas of the 50s that I have never seen, like Playhouse 90, Studio One, Kraft Television Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, Armstrong Circle Theatre and others. As well as the great sitcoms of that era which have been long out of circulation, like Our Miss Brooks, December Bride, Life of Riley, People's Choice, etc. Heck, practically all of the 60s shows have vanished as well. When's the last time anyone ran Nanny and the Professor, Julia, Please Don't Eat The Daisies, Ghost and Mrs. Muir or Farmer's Daughter? It'll never happen but its nice to dream about.

 

[BobO'Link]

Originally Posted by Luisito34

Wasn't the whole point of cable television all about paying for the priviledge of watching programming with little or no commercial interruption, running things uncut, etc? Cable TV today looks like every other over-the-air network. I think there are only a handful of people who make ALL programming decisions for most stations, which makes sense considering that corporations like GE bought up many cable outfits and networks so now its a monopoly and their goal is to make everything feel like an NBC production. I remember AMC airing classic movies commercial-free and in widescreen. Now look at it: nothing but reality-type garbage. Its amazing - one show (Survivor) became a big hit and next thing you know everybody wants to do the same thing and today that is all you see. This is why I cherish my DVD collection now more than ever. I want to see my favorite shows uncompressed for time, free of blurbs, logos, commercials every 5 minutes and, yes, legible credits at a normal speed. Long live DVD!

It's pretty much like Regulus said. Cable was originally designed/created for those folks in the "boonies" who had to have massive towers just to get a couple of over-the-air channels. It festered into what we have today. When it first became available here it was primarily the off-air channels from a local city, off-air from a "distant" city PLUS WTCG (what eventually became TBS), WGN, the "weather", and the then very new HBO (which cost extra) for a grand total of 13 channels! You had to have a "box" for HBO (the 13th channel). Put the TV on ch. 3 and press the button. I remember the independent films that *used* to fill the empty spaces between movies on HBO. Promos were mainly a very quick "up next" type blurb and then a short film. Some were very creative but most were run into the ground... even the movies, but we didn't care. It was TV heaven... uncut movies *without* commercials! Now we only get "new" channels once they've gone into decline *or* you have to pay $$$$ extra for a digital tier. Sci-Fi (errrr... syfy) came around *after* most of the good stuff had been yanked... same for Nick at Nite, TV Land, Cartoon Network, etc., etc.

Of course your observation of the success of "Survivor" spawning many, many imitators is typical of network TV, even back when it all started. Look at the old schedules and you'll see a single show that's a different genre than what everyone else is airing start to get large ratings, the next thing you know *every* network is rushing to put that type show on the schedule (Comedy, Western, Variety, Spy, etc.). They've never gotten the simple fact that people get tired of a single type of program and would like to have something "different". That's why when a "new" type program airs and is done with a bit of quality, people will tune in. It's *not* what they're currently watching. It's "different". If one of the networks today would do a quality Western and it garnered large numbers I'm sure you'd see the air-waves fill with Westerns, in spite of the fact that it's been a "dead" genre for decades.

Originally Posted by Neil Brock

...I'm sure I'm in the minority but I would gladly trade my 10 HBOs, 10 Showtimes and who knows how many other useless channels I don't watch for at least 1 commercial free, uncut old TV network. And I don't mean showing the same stuff that's on DVD and that's aired over and over in syndication for years. I want to see some of the great live dramas of the 50s that I have never seen, like Playhouse 90, Studio One, Kraft Television Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, Armstrong Circle Theatre and others. As well as the great sitcoms of that era which have been long out of circulation, like Our Miss Brooks, December Bride, Life of Riley, People's Choice, etc. Heck, practically all of the 60s shows have vanished as well. When's the last time anyone ran Nanny and the Professor, Julia, Please Don't Eat The Daisies, Ghost and Mrs. Muir or Farmer's Daughter? It'll never happen but its nice to dream about.

And, Neil... you're most certainly *not* in the minority. I think most of us here would give up all those extra craptacular channels for a few really good ones and still be willing to pay a fair price. I'd be happy if I could just cherry pick what I want. Even if it were $4-$5 per channel I'd *still* come out ahead of what I'm currently paying for 76 channels of mostly crap.

But, the declining state of both broadcast and cable TV is only partially what's driven me to collecting DVDs. It's still all about watching what I want, when I want, with *no* commercials. I also like that it's reasonably inexpensive. Typically, for the cost of 2 movie tickets and concessions (heck... any more it can be just the tickets) I can pick up an *entire* season of an old favorite and get *lots* more enjoyment out of the expenditure!

 

[Corey3rd]

why all the hating on commercials? some of my favorite DVDs are ones that include the original ads such as the PD You Bet Your Life Collections with the Desoto ads mixed into the show. If there was a vintage TV station, I would only want them to run as many ads as were intended on the first broadcast. The whole point of TV is that sometimes we have to make bathroom breaks or run out to the fridge to get a drink.

The big reason I got into collecting TV shows on DVD was the simple knowledge that my favorite shows are notorious for having bad ratings. It's easier to pick up the DVD than pleading my case to a programming director that my favorites are worth risking his career instead just running a marathon of America's Next Top Model.

Also the whole Educational/Information content rules about children's TV has pretty much killed any hope of seeing any of the good saturday morning fare being seen on a broadcast. Even TVLand gave up on HR Pufnstuf since it didn't pull in the same ratings as Different Strokes.

What I really like about this hobby is finding a megadeal on a boxset - like the first three seasons of Taxi for $10 a pop or back when Warner had the rebate deal for their anniversary.

 

[LeoA]

We're hating on modern commercials, which typically suck for the most part with charming and cute commercials being few and far between. I have no desire to see constant barrages of things like Viagra ads, ads for various woman's products, ads for various law firms advertising how cheap they'll sue someone to make you rich (What ever happened to such things being illegal, used to be you'd get disbarred for doing television advertising), and so much other junk.

No one is complaining about things like classic Chevy commercials featuring the cast of My Three Sons. I think most people here would welcome such things on their DVD's, I know I'm always happy to see things like the Kent cigarette commercials on the Dick Van Dyke sets or the retro commercials TVLand used to air before it started it's decline to garbage.

Originally Posted by Corey3rd

why all the hating on commercials? some of my favorite DVDs are ones that include the original ads such as the PD You Bet Your Life Collections with the Desoto ads mixed into the show. If there was a vintage TV station, I would only want them to run as many ads as were intended on the first broadcast. The whole point of TV is that sometimes we have to make bathroom breaks or run out to the fridge to get a drink.

 

[Theodore J. Mooney]

I like collecting television shows on DVD because ...

* No commercials
* No edits (however in a very few cases there are slight edits)
* No splitscreens or voiceovers
* No logos of a TV network
* No advertising being done within the program
* The luxury of choosing what to watch and when to watch it
* The luxury of watching a series throughout its run at my pace
* Bonus materials
* No longer having to depend on television networks to see programs (i.e. TV Land)
* No longer having to beg television networks (i.e. TV Land, Hallmark Channel, Nick-at-Nite) to bring back, add, dismiss cancellation, or air more/less of a television program.
* I can be my own programmer and create my own "television network"* The luxury of owning every episode of my favorite television programs
* I am able to watch a program that airs little or not at all and thus has become rare to the viewing public (i.e. The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, Get Smart, ect.)

 

[cineMANIAC]

We're living in the age of the "Me" Network! Thanks to TV-on-DVD we are our own programmers. Tonight at 9:07, catch the "World Premier" (In my living room, anyway) of Episode 17 of Season 4 of MacGyver, commercial-free!

 

[Regulus]

Originally Posted by Luisito34 /forum/thread/296568/what-do-you-like-about-this-hobby/30#post_3648901