What Do You Think Of The Studios? (1 Viewer)

[Bob Hug]

Two of the independents that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet: A&E and Image

A&E

If you like classic British shows from the Sixties and Seventies, A&E is the place to go with some really classic shows like Secret Agent, Space: 1999, The Avengers, and The Saint, the majority of the Gerry Anderson "supermarionation" series, among others. The problem with A&E is that they are generally way overpriced and there is a general lack of bonus material other than the bogus photo galleries (screen grabs) that they offer. One exception is UFO which has a number of commentaries, out-takes, etc and a great video presentation. I keep buying their releases because of the shows themselves.

Image Entertainment

Not that their releases are problem free, but Image Entertainment has become my favorite company for classic/vintage television shows. Yes, Combat! is time compressed but the extras are terrific. And couldn't the Twilight Zone been done right the first time out. But Image set the standard with their Dick Van Dyke releases and took a chance on Naked City (something that the series' owner Sony would never do). And there are some great commentaries on the I Spy releases from series star Robert Culp. I'd have to say that in terms of major releases of classic/vintage television, Image is at the top of my list, at least for the time being.

 

[seanOhara]

A&E really needs to be knocked upside the head with a clue-by-four. The only thing I own from them is the Prisoner "Mega Set", which I got for a mere $80 -- and that's a bargain basement price. It certainly is a "Mega Set": ten discs, each in its own keepcase, for a series that spans a whopping 17 episodes. They could comfortably fit the entire thing on five discs, with plenty of room for the (rather paltry) extras, and put them in a digipack or slim cases that take up a third the space. And really, it's the bulk as much as the price that keeps me from buying the Avengers, Danger Man, and Monty Python sets they have.

The vast majority of my sets are from Fox, and apart from a few minor annoyances (the lack of a play-all feature on most discs, the shabby treatment of King of the Hill recently), I think they're superb -- low prices, decent but non-fluffy extras, good quality, and I can click right through the warning screens.

From Paramount I only own I Love Lucy S1, which crams an astounding number of episodes into a small package without resorting to double-sided discs or a reduction in picture quality, and includes the best extras for any TV show I've yet seen. Unfortunately, this is the same Paramount that charges an arm and a leg for each season of Star Trek.

The only Sony set I own is The Critic, and I'm reasonably satisfied with it. They could've spread it out over four discs instead of three, and the lack of subtitles is really annoying, but overall it's a good package.

Warners is strangely under-represented on my shelves -- very few of their titles really grab my attention. I do own two Adult Swim sets (Aqua Teen Hunger Force S2 and Sealab S1), but I've found they just don't give enough bang for the buck.

Then there's Miramax, which doesn't have much in the line of TV shows, but I do own the Clerks animated series. The series itself sucks -- I knew that when I bought it -- but for ten bucks it's worth it for the commentaries. For a series that lasted all of six episodes, Miramax treats it quite well (probably better than it deserves), but I have no idea if this is indicative of what they'd do if they had more series, or if they just wanted to keep the Kevin Smith fanboys happy.

 

[Andrew Chong]

TVDVD-wise, 20th Century Fox is also tops with me.

I mostly love their treatments of animated fare such as Futurama, The Simpsons, and Family Guy (with Family Guy being the sole animated series that I wish had more extra content in line with the first two Matt Groening series sets).

I also appreciate Fox's embracing of short-lived shows including Millennium and The Lone Gunmen.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Got to agree with an above post...thumbs way up to Image for the Dick Van Dyke Show season sets.

 

[Katherine_K]

I'm not sure I'd call three seasons "short-lived" especially when you are pairing it with a series that ran 13 episodes.

 

[TravisR]

I'll just take the first part of the quote Fox does do a nice job of releasing their sci-fi/cult shows. It's getting to the point where if it was sci-fi and aired on FOX, it's on (or coming to) DVD.

 

[Jamie Middleton]

Yeah Fox seems to take care of short lived series better, like Wonderfalls and God, The Devil and Bob for example (each produced 13 episodes). I would like to see Fox dig a little deeper into their vault tho, maybe parker lewis cant lose and Get Real next?

As for warner brothers, I think they will start digging into their vault a little further now that Friends is almost done being released, same goes for Paramount, ONce Fraiser, Cheers and I Love Lucy have all been released.

 

[Juan Books]

Warner and Fox are great.

Sony... it's not even funny how much I hate them. Everything they touch goes to sh*t. Be it music, radio, TV, movies...

 

[MatthewA]

Sadly, there's not much they can do about that. Blame Norman Lear; he shot all his shows on tape rather than film to save money in the short-term, and the long-term archival stability of the Lear library will no doubt be a problem. HDTV will only reveal more of these shows' technical shortcomings, as it will for any 480i NTSC tape-based shows.

Compare that to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I Love Lucy, or Green Acres and it's damning.

Other taped shows from the same era look better. Not great, but far better than the syndicated versions we've been seeing for decades. What's Happening looks far better than the tapes BET had or that my UPN station showed a few years ago.

I also wonder why The Jeffersons S3 chose to cram 10 episodes to a disc. Did they plan to include extras but scrap the plan when Isabel Sanford ("Weezie") died?

 

[Alex Wagner]

well I think Sony is just losing credit with every release.

i've been reading on here.
and after the reviews from sitcoms online for that's my mama and married with children all having cut episodes (even though i didnt plan to get those its sad for people who are) that they are proving they aren't gonna change at all.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Other than the music replacement issue, which is important, I'm pretty happy with Universal. A lot of that stems from the fact that they seem to own more of what I want than anyone else (even when I didn't watch a show, an announcement is often interesting to me), but they also do a pretty good job with what they've got. The transfers are usually pretty nice, and they are consistent from episode to episode. They always include the episode trailer when it is available, and the episode synopsis just shows a level of caring that I enjoy. An unsung "extra" is the Episode List, which tells you exactly what episodes are on which disc. I use that feature a lot--one example is to see how many episodes and discs I have left in the set.

Seriously, if Universal had continued on with full music for the Quantum Leap sets, I would have nothing but praise for them. As it is, I may have to pass on some of their offerings, but I'm getting the lion's share of the rest when I can afford to do so.

 

[Mark Oates]

Hollywood is wasted on the Studios.