What series do you want so badly you would be willing to pay a premium price? (1 Viewer)

[Neil Brock]

Inspired by a post of Neal 1960's on the Defenders thread. There have been many discussions of "grail" series, but for this thread I thought it might be interesting to discuss in terms of what series you would be willing to pay what might seem an unreasonable amount for. If there was a hypothetical boutique label, releasing a limited edition of an otherwise very unlikely title to be released. If, say, someone had located a complete run of something like 90 Bristol Court or For The People and was willing to do the necessary licensing and remastering. Is there a show that you want so badly that you would pay $100 or even $200-$300 for a single season?

I've paid more than $300 to get single episodes transferred from 35mm. No offense but reading some of the posts here, a lot of them are full of crap. Like the guy who would "pay any price", and then lists around 50 series and a bunch of TV movies. He must very wealthy.

 

[ScottRE]

I'd pay a high price classic Star Trek with the true mono sound mix, first season main and end title music accurately restored, Paramount logos era-correct, network bumpers and billboards, next week previews where they belong and all surviving NBC and syndication ads. Struck from the original 35mm broadcast prints, not the reconstructed prints currently in use, to insure night of original broadcast fidelity. I'd include the original black and white workprint of "The Cage" as a bonus and an isolated music track for each episode.

I'd drop good money on a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea blu ray release getting the same treatment.

Since Space: 1999 was just given the gold star treatment by [Imprint], those are my two top shows left.

 

[LouA]

You got a better deal than me. When I bought it years ago I paid $200.

Yes me too -for burned discs!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I don’t remember what I paid for a complete set of Batman ‘66 when an official release seemed impossible, but I know it was more than the official release cost me. And you know what? I got my money’s worth out of both.

 

[Tom St Jones]

As you may know, CBS--Paramount (like some other labels, esp. for PD titles) has released various classic series (complete or in part) on Blu-ray and/or DVD with the option to view (via seamless branching) selected episodes with the original sponsored openings and/or bumpers & orig. end credits, logos etc: eg. "The Honeymooners", "Bonanza", "Twilight Zone", "The Andy Griffith Show".. Why on Earth couldn't they have done the same/similar for, say, "Star Trek", "The Wild Wild West", "Hawaii Five--O", "Mission:Impossible", "Hogan's Heroes" etc.? They didn't think most fans of those shows would be all that interested in such stuff? Costs (extra labor)? I realise the situation varies for each "property" ---- eg. orig. pic/audio elements may be missng; info required for reconstruction may be unavailable; studio resistance ('StarTrek' is ofcourse a major cash-cow, thus they never put out *everything* available at once so as to always have somthing to release later) ---- but still it seems like a bunch of missed opportunities...

 

[ScottRE]

('StarTrek' is ofcourse a major cash-cow, thus they never put out *everything* available at once so as to always have somthing to release later) ---- but still it seems like a bunch of missed opportunities...

CBS/Paramount doesn't even add anything new to the blu Ray re-releases. All they do is repackage the same exact content, right down to the 2009 movie preview.

 

[John Hermes]

My new pick for what I'd pay any amount for to see in 1080p: Hogan's Heroes, today being the 56th anniversary of when the premiere episode, "The Informer," was initially broadcast on CBS. The pre-broadcast version clocked in at just under 34 minutes, and was included in this form on a Columbia House Collector's Edition VHS.

~Ben

I have the German Blu-ray set. It is quite nice overall and region free. You just need to switch to English from the default German audio.

See on Amazon

 

[Sam Favate]

Not sure I'd pay a premium for it, but a long-forgotten show that I'd get on blu-ray is Almost Grown, a show by David Chase that aired for half a season or so in the late 80s. It starred Tim Daly and Eve Gordon. The music rights would no doubt hold it back, but if anyone could handle it, it's Chase.

 

[JohnBeas]

I'd love to see the NBC show "I'll Fly Away" released. It only ran for 2 years (38 episodes) before it was cancelled. PBS made a made-for-PBS movie (to wrap up the series) and reran the original episodes - they also added a behind the scenes short which ran after each of the original episodes. It might be difficult to get the rights to all the materials but I'd pay a premium for it.

 

[Ron1973]

I think my list would be pretty short since I'm more of a music guy. There are some especially rare recordings of Hank Williams, Sr. that I'd love to see cleaned up for an official release such as his recordings for WSFA as a teenager. Anyway, we're here to talk TV.

PlutoTV is now streaming my holy grail unedited, sans the last 2 seasons so far. However, if CBS pulled out the stops and made all seasons available on blu-ray complete with cast commercials, I'd probably have to find a way to get it.

I'd love to see B.J. and The Bear uncut as well as Lobo. I do have a gray market set of B.J. and The Bear, but as most of us know, it's sourced from some fairly terrible VHS prints. YouTube did have, and may still have, a few episodes of Lobo, all of which I downloaded.

In the same category, I can't understand why WB didn't go ahead and throw the 13 episodes of Enos on with its parent show on DVD. Again, a couple of episodes on YouTube that are supposedly sourced from Sonny's BetaMax collection that he allowed a friend to transfer off. They said something about uploading the rest, but I don't think they ever were uploaded.

 

[MatthewA]

One station pulled TURN-ON off the air before it ended. I believe in Ohio. Several stations on the West Coast decided not to air it at all. Otherwise, all the other affiliates ran the entire episode. It wasn't offcially canceled until February 10th, two days before the second episode was to have aired.

Considering how many shows are just plain poorly made regardless of whether the subject matter is fit for broadcast, it's a wonder they don't do it more often!

 

[LouA]

Jeff's Collie Season's 3,4,5 The Lone Ranger

Have Jeff’s Collie Season 1 And 2 been released anywhere?

 

[RobertMG]

Have Jeff’s Collie Season 1 And 2 been released anywhere?

On Grey market = sad that Universal who does releases for CLASSIC MEDIA will not release it - really a great show

 

[LouA]

On Grey market = sad that Universal who does releases for CLASSIC MEDIA will not release it - really a great show

I do have the gray area sets.
Such an iconic show in it’s time, it’s a shame it remains unreleased.
It would be nice if someone like MPI or Time-Life could license the entire series for release- Jeff, Timmie, the old man and the forest Ranger. I can dream , can’t I? But I’d pay a premium price for such a set!

 

[Wiseguy]

Not sure I'd pay a premium for it, but a long-forgotten show that I'd get on blu-ray is Almost Grown, a show by David Chase that aired for half a season or so in the late 80s. It starred Tim Daly and Eve Gordon. The music rights would no doubt hold it back, but if anyone could handle it, it's Chase.

That was the third series starring a Daly family member to be shown on CBS Monday nights at 10/9c.

James Daly in Medical Center, CBS Mon 10/9c (1973-76). It was also on Wednesday (1969-73).
Tyne Daly in Cagney & Lacey, CBS Mon 10/9c (1982-87, 1988). Also on Thursday and Tuesday (1982, 1988).
Tim Daly in Almost Grown, CBS Mon 10/9c (1988-89). First episode shown on Sunday.

 

[High C]

Bumping this back up. Great question from the OP.

As a Joan Collins completist, I would like to have Run For Your Life, the three-season Ben Gazzara vehicle. Per Jack P, rights issues with the Perry Como estate likely made that a no-go. It's too bad, because Gazzara's enduring popularity as an actor's actor would have, I thought, made it somewhat viable. I recorded a copy of Joan's episode when it ran on Cozi a few years back but can't be sure none of her scenes were cut. Besides, it's got Gazzara and tons of other great guests, so the whole series is worth a look.

I would have loved if this had happened, and this is complete pie in the sky, there had been a better job with the extras in the 1966-68 Batman. Obviously, I'm just glad it got out at all given the current climate, but the fact that Warner handled the distributing meant we got nothing from the Fox vaults. Imagine costume-test pix? And there were really no commentaries to speak of. I would've paid big money had it been done 'right.' (And I did buy both DVD and Blu.)

I would seriously love to have AfterMASH as a curio just to see what went wrong. I must admit, the series was off my radar back then, pun intended, and I never watched it. I'm shocked it lasted two seasons.

 

[Nick*Z]

Only a few on my hi-def Blu-ray wish list.

St. Elsewhere: Complete Series
Dynasty - original series + Dynasty II: The Colbys - packaged together!!!
Dallas - original series
Falcon Crest
Ally McBeal
Murder She Wrote
Crazy Like A Fox (Jack Warden/John Rubenstein)
The Thornbirds
North and South (John Jake's mini-series)
Mary Tyler Moore
Bewitched
Laverne & Shirley
227
Amen
Magnum P.I. - original series
Hawaii 5-0 - original series
Simon and Simon
Hunter
Remington Steele
Matt Houston
Fame
The Fall Guy
Cheers
Frasier
Cagney and Lacey
The Golden Girls
The A-Team
The Dukes of Hazzard
oh...and just one more thing -
Columbo

 

[Santee7]

There was a show that was sacrificed early, EZ STREETS. I believe it was shown on a cable channel for a while and in dvd collection called CANCELLED TOO EARLY or something like that. Anyway I've got all the extant episodes in incredibly poor quality. But I would dearly pay 200 to get this great serialized pre-sopranos crime show in just decent quality. Doubtful but hopeful.

 

[The Drifter]

St. Elsewhere, definitely. After seeing S01 recently, I would be all for paying a premium price for the entire series on either Blu - or even regular DVD.

 

[Ethan Riley]

The Winds of War on blu-ray, and
War and Remembrance, restored to its original (unaired) length on blu-ray

Also American Dreams, which was an early 2000s family drama, ran for 3 seasons. The first season did get an okay dvd release, but they had to replace some of the music. Seasons 2 & 3 were considered, but they knew there would be extensive music replacement on those as well and sales of 1 didn't warrant any further work. Would love to see all 3 seasons somehow magically restored on blu-ray with the correct music. Also, the producers filmed a "just in case we get cancelled" series finale for the last ep of season 3. This never aired--NBC went with the cliffhanger ending even though they knew the damn thing had been cancelled.