What will studios do with the shows with big runs? (1 Viewer)

[Mark To]

It's not so much of a problem with today where shows do a whopping 22 episodes a year if they're lucky. I'm talking back before TV got lazy and started showing reruns (or stale episodes instead of fresh for you younger readers) in October. Shows like Gunsmoke with over 600 episodes, Donna Reed and Beverly Hillbillies with close to 300, Bonanza with over 400, Hawaii Five-0 with almost 300. Will they just say it's too much and do best-ofs? And you know what best ofs mean, not the best shows but the most recognizable guest stars even if the stories themselves aren't any good. Right now about the only big run show anyone has even touched is Make Room for Daddy with over 350 episodes and we see how well that botch job went over. And I know about Dark Shadows but that is really in a category all by itself. I'm really talking prime time here.

 

[Pete Battista]

You are talking before my time but... Atleast the way I would do something like that.... where seasons would really be to big to put out together... or basically didn't have what we consider seasons today... Would be to release them in volumes. do like the first 24 episodes in volume one and episodes 25 through 48 in Volume 2... and so on. This way has to be better then best of's... that is for sure.

 

[MatthewA]

I always thought DVD-18 would be a better option. MGM's Green Acres: S1 does it for its 32 episodes and no extras, and they look pretty good.

 

[WillG]

And begin................

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Well, I'd say it depended on how many episodes were in a defined season. Sony released a 52 episode second season of Rocky and Bullwinkle without it being cost prohibitive to the consumer. Half hour shows that number in the 300 range are probably more workable than the hour shows that have that many episodes or more, then you're looking at the dreaded best ofs I think.

The studios could do what they do for seaons of animated shows with high numbers of episodes and do the split season, but I can already see a lot of complaining about this option as well.

I think that if you're talking about shows that don't have clear cut seasonal beginnings and ending then you just have to do the volume bit, and have a certain number of episodes per volume maybe in the 30 episode range for a show that's had more than 300 episodes.

I wonder if number of episodes may be part of the reasons studios aren't committing to these older shows as much?

 

[Joseph Miller]

People then vs. people now, when it comes to sitcoms...

They did 39 episodes a year and each episode ran about 26 minutes (including opening and closing credits.)

Now they do 22 episodes a year and each episode runs about 22 minutes.

And they want $1,000,000 per episode to be happy -- one million bucks to do what is basically a comedy sketch.

I have a feeling they get paid more for each episode now than the stars of "Leave It to Beaver" made through the entire six-year run of the series.

Lucille Ball, almost certainly the biggest sitcom star in history, was paid $25,000 a week for "The Lucy Show," and the stockholders were infuriated about it.

Getting back on topic--

I hope I live long enough to see all 20 seasons of "Gunsmoke" on DVD! (I hope newborn babies live long enough for that!)

It's odd what comes out and what doesn't -- who'd have thought "Have Gun Will Travel" would beat "Gunsmoke" to DVD? Or "Green Acres" before "The Beverly Hillbillies?"

Where are "Perry Mason," "Wagon Train," "Bonanza," all huge hits in their (long ago) day?

But I'll take whatever I can get. I collect old radio shows too and I spend more time talking (and writing) about these things than I do watching and listening to them!

 

[Steve...O]

I would love to get Perry Mason, still a relatively popular show, on DVD. However I'm a realist and I know that its 271 hour long episode count (39 in season 1) makes such an undertaking difficult. Surprisingly Paramount doesn't own the rights to release this. I have contacted the Gardner estate, which has ownership interest in the show, to attempt to determine who has the rights. I think a company like MPI or even A&E could make this work.

On a more general note, these type of shows may need to wait for HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Not because they would necessarily benefit from being in hi-def, but because the expanded storage capacity of the discs makes collecting these easier (assuming that sales warrant the release of multiple seasons).

Steve