Wildly Popular; Sadly Neglected SITCOMS! (1 Viewer)

[Neil Brock]

E/R - This hospital comedy,starring Elliott Gould,only aired for one season(1984-85),but it co-starred Jason Alexander and some guy named George Clooney. Sherman Helmsley guest starred in an episode as George Jefferson,who was one one of the characters uncle.I'm not sure who owns this program,but if I was the head of the studio that did,I'd release it,as well as anything else that Clooney and Alexander did. Even if it was their Burger King commercials.

How is a one-season show "wildly popular"?

 

[Neil Brock]

Well, do you REALLY think Fox, and ONLY Fox is to blame as the reason why we haven't seen more of Peyton Place?

The actual reason is that it didn't sell. Certainly not well enough to justify what I'm sure are the outrageous fees that Fox charges.

 

[Neil Brock]

The Ann Sothern Show 93 episodes
Hennesey 96 episodes

 

[AndyMcKinney]

... if I was the head of the studio ...,I'd release ... anything else that Clooney and Alexander did. Even if it was their Burger King commercials.

If this were still 1997 I might agree with you (when er and Seinfeld were at the height of popularity), but just having Clooney or Alexander's name on anything in 2011 is hardly a guarantee of a best-seller. The current crop of twenty-somethings probably have likely never seen Seinfeld or er for that matter, certainly not when the shows were first-run, watercooler phenomenons.

 

[vnisanian2001]

The actual reason is that it didn't sell. Certainly not well enough to justify what I'm sure are the outrageous fees that Fox charges.

On tvshowsondvd.com's what's the hold-up FAQ, it says that the first two home video releases sold well enough that Shout! was interested in continuing.
Does Fox really think it's good business to charge astronomically higher prices just to license more episodes to any company that deals with them, especially when the show is a strong seller, such as VCI's Burke's Law?

 

[Neil Brock]

Does Fox really think it's good business to charge astronomically higher prices just to license more episodes to any company that deals with them, especially when the show is a strong seller, such as VCI's Burke's Law?

Apparently so. While I cannot reveal the source or the company, one of the independents tried to license out some of the MGM shows which Fox handles. They asked about one of the more popular and longer running Ziv shows and were told the price, which was way out of line. Fox told them, "it'll sell a hundred thousand copies" to which the independent responded, "if it would sell that many, you would put it out yourselves". But that seems to be their mentality, that every show they have is going to sell like its Friends or Seinfeld and that's the type of price they ask.

 

[vnisanian2001]

I remember someone online calling Fox "the cheapest place on Earth." I think that's the most accurate description of them. It may explain why they barely syndicate many of their pre-1990s shows, it may explain why the recent DVD releases of the likes of Room 222 and The Paper Chase were from 1'' inch transfers made 30 or so years ago, and yeah, it may explain why their licensing fees are outrageous.
Another thing that has recently been brought to my attention about Fox (not that it means much, just an observation I noticed) is that in the 60+ years they've been in the TV industry, just about all of their shows originated on film. The only videotape-originated shows I can think of are Mr. Belvedere and Small Wonder and those were from the 1980's.

 

[MattHR]

I remember someone online calling Fox "the cheapest place on Earth." I think that's the most accurate description of them. It may explain why they barely syndicate many of their pre-1990s shows, it may explain why the recent DVD releases of the likes of Room 222 and The Paper Chase were from 1'' inch transfers made 30 or so years ago, and yeah, it may explain why their licensing fees are outrageous.
Another thing that has recently been brought to my attention about Fox (not that it means much, just an observation I noticed) is that in the 60+ years they've been in the TV industry, just about all of their shows originated on film. The only videotape-originated shows I can think of are Mr. Belvedere and Small Wonder and those were from the 1980's.

Your observation that most of Fox's shows were filmed (rather than videotaped), sort of negates the accusation of Fox being "the cheapest place on Earth", since producing a show on film is more expensive than one on tape.

 

[vnisanian2001]

The last paragraph was an unrelated note about the company itself.

 

[MattHR]

The last paragraph was an unrelated note about the company itself.

I know. I just thought it was funny to see two different (but ironically related) perspectives in the same post.

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by MattHR
Your observation that most of Fox's shows were filmed (rather than videotaped), sort of negates the accusation of Fox being "the cheapest place on Earth", since producing a show on film is more expensive than one on tape.

They're among the cheapest when it comes to remastering their filmed TV properties. They only remastered Rhoda, which they didn't even produce, because of the outcry over the Season 1 DVD debacle. Have the negatives of any pre-Simpsons filmed Fox show besides M*A*S*H been taken outside of their cans since 1990?

There is a good book about the formation of the Fox network, called Outfoxed, by Alex Ben Block, which describes the state of Fox's TV division at the beginning of the 1980s, and I recall Block saying they were the weakest part of the company in spite of M*A*S*H's success in syndication.

 

[vnisanian2001]

They remastered all the Irwin Allen shows (except for Lost in Space) and Dobie Gillis. They were about to bring the latter to DVD upon remastering it, when suddenly, the Max Shulman estate stopped them in their tracks.
But yeah, that's about all the known shows Fox recently remastered besides what Matthew mentioned.

 

[vnisanian2001]

I know I've said this time and time again, but Mr. Belvedere is the one sitcom I would like to see completed the most.
I may be wrong on this one, but didn't a similar situation happen with Punky Brewster and NBC/Universal/Sony? After Shout! Factory released the first two seasons with good results, they had to negotiate with them for the final two seasons. It took a long time, and seemed bleak at first, but eventually, they were released (season 3 in 2006 and season 4 in 2008).
Also, I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere, but I have to say that the transfers for Mr. Belvedere look really nice compared to Punky Brewster. I'm guessing the Mr. Belvedere ones are a generation or two down from the original 1'' inch masters. Most likely, they were taken from the transfers made in 1988 or 1989, just as the show was about to enter syndication. I think when a show enters syndication, they make two tape masters, one complete and unedited, and the other at the syndication runtime. Thankfully, Shout! ended up with the complete and unedited ones.

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by vnisanian2001
I know I've said this time and time again, but Mr. Belvedere is the one sitcom I would like to see completed the most.
I may be wrong on this one, but didn't a similar situation happen with Punky Brewster and NBC/Universal/Sony? After Shout! Factory released the first two seasons with good results, they had to negotiate with them for the final two seasons. It took a long time, and seemed bleak at first, but eventually, they were released (season 3 in 2006 and season 4 in 2008).
Also, I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere, but I have to say that the transfers for Mr. Belvedere look really nice compared to Punky Brewster. I'm guessing the Mr. Belvedere ones are a generation or two down from the original 1'' inch masters. Most likely, they were taken from the transfers made in 1988 or 1989, just as the show was about to enter syndication. I think when a show enters syndication, they make two tape masters, one complete and unedited, and the other at the syndication runtime. Thankfully, Shout! ended up with the complete and unedited ones.

Sort of, but not quite.

NBC produced Punky's first 2 seasons, then canned it because it was getting very good ratings in the 2-12 age group but lousy ones in the 18-34 group, which is the one advertisers covet. At the time, fin-syn regulations by the FCC prevented networks from owning any part of TV syndication (that's why Viacom was spun off from CBS). Columbia Pictures Television bought the syndication rights and produced the last 2 seasons. Sony owns TV distribution rights here, but NBC owns them overseas, and they may have had the home video rights to the whole show, as either NBC or NBC/Universal receives credit on all 4 season sets (Columbia had no hand in the cartoon). Either way, the picture and sound quality were all over the place. Season 1 was from international masters that were far from an early generation, Season 2 has pretty bad audio distortion on sibilant sounds, Season 3 looks like it was subjected to heavy DNR, but season 4 wasn't too bad. Two syndicated episodes have bizarre problems with the music underscore; it sounds like they have two different pieces of music playing simultaneously.

Mr. Belvedere was produced by 20th Century Fox for the entirety of its run. There are no joint ownership issues there.

 

[vnisanian2001]

What's DNR?

 

[mattCR]

Digital Noise Reduction

Originally Posted by vnisanian2001
What's DNR?

 

[Stephen Wight]

I never had time to respond to these two posts,before.

How is a one-season show "wildly popular"?

I misread the title of this thread. I took the semi colon to mean Or. "Wildly Popular Or Sadly Neglected Sitcoms!" I take it you did the same thing as you can't believe The Ann Sothern Show and Hennesey are wildly popular. While E/R wasn't wildly popular,two cast members went on to become wildly popular themselves,which was the point of my post.

just having Clooney or Alexander's name on anything in 2011 is hardly a guarantee of a best-seller.

The studio that released the early 80s slasher film The Burning,with Jason Alexander,didn't feel that way.Neither did the studio that released one of the killer tomato films(Return Of The Killer Tomatoes?) that Clooney was in,way back when.

 

[DisneySwan1990]

Great list, Danny! Didn't realize so many 50s shows were good candidates for inclusion here. The only one there I ever actually watched was "Daddy," and the only thing I ever hear about it are weird rumors that Danny Thomas hated Jean Hagen so much that he never wanted her episodes to be shown again (or something to that effect). In any case, when I was a kid they only ever did show the Marjorie Lord episodes locally, so I didn't even realize Danny'd had a first wife. But anyway, some feel convinced that the Thomas Estate held back on the Hagen episodes for dvd and the rest of the series will probably never make it either because they did screw up that one release and everybody's pissed off. As for the rest of those shows, I'm familiar with most of them (have seen at least a few episodes of Bob, Jack and Miss Brooks). And are you shittin' me that there's no Dobie Gillis on dvd?? Maybe Timeless will take a crack at some of these sitcoms, if they ever get tired of all those Westerns they've been doing. Who knows when/if some of those shows will finally slip into PD territory, and then maybe somebody will come along and rescue them all from obscurity...

 

[DisneySwan1990]

Dobie is in stores now by Shout Factory, and besides, WHERE THE HELL IS THE REST OF MOESHA AND SISTER, SISTER AT? And I want Suddenly Susan, Eve, and Step By Step to get its ass to DVD ASAP!! About time those 3 classic sitcoms came to DVD already!!!