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Will "Sightings" Ever be released on DVD?? (1 Viewer)

Lord Dalek

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Unsolved Mysteries was a way better show than Sightings (which really came off as a poor man's knockoff at times) and you can't get that on dvd outside of compilations. Why should we expect the same out of the latter.
 

mattfire64

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Unsolved Mysteries was a way better show than Sightings (which really came off as a poor man's knockoff at times) and you can't get that on dvd outside of compilations. Why should we expect the same out of the latter.

Just because you don't like a show doesn't mean it should stay locked away in Paramount's vaults forever. VEI directly told me that they were interested in releasing Sightings, but couldn't due to some unforeseen and unexplained issues. Sightings may not have as large of a fan base as Unsolved Mysteries, but VEI seems to be into releasing series which have more of a cult following anyway. We probably would have got a complete series set of Sightings from VEI if either party (Paramount or VEI) got up off their duff and sorted out these mysterious "issues". This thread is almost 10 years old, I think that speaks measures of this show's cult following, that after being out of reruns for 13 years and almost 20 years since the last new episode people remember this show and want to see it again.
 

HenryDuBrow

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Unsolved Mysteries wasn't necessarily better it had reenactments while Sightings did not, IIRC.
 

Mike T

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Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but I never thought that Sightings came off as a poor man's knockoff of Unsolved Mysteries. As others have pointed out, Unsolved Mysteries was a good show, but the bulk of the show mainly dealt with crime story mysteries. They did just enough paranormal stories over the course of the series to be able to release the paranormal themed DVD sets. And U. M. mainly told their stories through re-enactments.

Sightings was mainly focused on paranormal encounters stories with some science news thrown in. Sightings mainly used narration and witness interviews to tell the stories with some brief re-enactments used from time to time, but not as much as U.M. The only crime story mysteries that I remember Sightings featuring were the psychic crime solver segments which were usually only one segment in each episode.

The two shows seemed different enough to me to not say that one was a copy of the other. And I thought that Sightings was slickly produced, especially in the later seasons of the show.
 

Pathfiner

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I enjoy 'Unsolved Mysteries' but given the choice I would watch an episode of 'Sightings' over UM every time...!

'Sightings' certainly was not a 'poor man's' anything, it was quite a ground breaking 'investigative' of the paranormal show

as stated above UM is far more crime story based overall and while I enjoy it with either Robert Stack or Dennis Farina hosting I'm rather more into UFO, and paranormal reports than crime cases (which are interesting but I find over time just get far too depressing a subject for my taste ....!)
 

Pathfiner

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Last night I watched the episode of 'A Haunting' titled; 'Salie's House' which dealt with The 'Heartland Ghost' story - it featured the young couple who lived in the house and psychic Peter James but made NO mention at all of 'Sightings' TV show's involvement or investigation at all - 'Sightings' even did a live show from that house....

Another show -'Paranormal Witness' I think - also featured the ghostly story too but they made NO mention at all of Peter James but did credit 'Sightings' show as getting involved, tho' they incorrectly implied 'Sightings' just quickly withdrew from their investigation after the 'burned rose' and the guy being scratched incidents occurred...
 

mattfire64

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Hello again fellow Sightings fans. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that the cable channel Chiller is currently airing episodes of the show Unexplained Mysteries on Sunday afternoons from 3pm to 7pm. Unexplained Mysteries was produced by the same people that made Sightings, and many of the reports on Unexplained Mysteries were rehashed from Sightings. Episodes are scheduled for the next two Sundays as well, but Chiller does have a tendency to change their schedule without notice. Watch them now while you still can!
 

zombikay

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I am here in the year 2017, scary I know, to let you know that I spent an hour trying to google this show because of a specific episode about a futuristic airport. I too wish this show be re-aired or put on DVD!
 

mattfire64

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So I was doing some Googling about Sightings yesterday, and I was quite surprised to come across the official CBS Television Distribution syndication bible listing for the show. The show isn't currently listed on the CBSTVD website, so I was quite surprised to see that they actually had a listing for it. Here's some of the interesting things I was able to find out:

  • CBS last updated the listing for Sightings in late 2009, which is quite surprising since the show hasn't been seen since it left Sci Fi's lineup in April 2003. I wonder what they were updating it for...
  • The show is naturally broken up into two different syndication packages. The first consists of the earlier half hour episodes that aired on Fox, and the second consists of the three hour long season's that aired in First Run Syndication and on Sci Fi. This second package also includes the five two-hour specials that Sci Fi made in 1998.
  • Another curious bit of info: all of the hour long episodes also exist in half hour long editions, although I'm not sure how these are broken up. Also, the five two-hour long specials also appear to be available in either hour long editions (broken up into two parts) or half hour long editions (broken up into 4 parts).
  • No distribution options are listed, but why would CBS make a listing for the show if they didn't have any copies of it?
Here's the link for anybody interested, I figured I would just pass this information along.

http://syndicationbible.cbstvd.com/sightings.htm
 

bullrock61

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There was a guy who had a website dedicated to the Sighting series.This person had most of the episodes available for sale and I regret only purchasing a few episodes before he shut the site down.I have been able to collect quite a few episodes over the years but it sure would be nice to have the complete series on an official dvd release.
 

Mike T

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So I was doing some Googling about Sightings yesterday, and I was quite surprised to come across the official CBS Television Distribution syndication bible listing for the show. The show isn't currently listed on the CBSTVD website, so I was quite surprised to see that they actually had a listing for it. Here's some of the interesting things I was able to find out:

  • CBS last updated the listing for Sightings in late 2009, which is quite surprising since the show hasn't been seen since it left Sci Fi's lineup in April 2003. I wonder what they were updating it for...
  • The show is naturally broken up into two different syndication packages. The first consists of the earlier half hour episodes that aired on Fox, and the second consists of the three hour long season's that aired in First Run Syndication and on Sci Fi. This second package also includes the five two-hour specials that Sci Fi made in 1998.
  • Another curious bit of info: all of the hour long episodes also exist in half hour long editions, although I'm not sure how these are broken up. Also, the five two-hour long specials also appear to be available in either hour long editions (broken up into two parts) or half hour long editions (broken up into 4 parts).
  • No distribution options are listed, but why would CBS make a listing for the show if they didn't have any copies of it?
Here's the link for anybody interested, I figured I would just pass this information along.

http://syndicationbible.cbstvd.com/sightings.htm

I am just now reading this post on March 1, 2018, as HTF didn't send me an e-mail notification about this reply on my thread, for some reason. This IS interesting news, Mattfire64. I didn't know most of this info. Unfortunately, when I clicked on your link, a page came up that stated "This site can't be reached". I don't know if it's a temporary thing or if it's gone for good. So, I'm glad that you put the info that you found in your post. Thank you.

I really don't understand why they still had it listed as late as 2009, but, if they had planned a new syndicated run with it, you would think that it fell through or they would have done something with it by now. (It seems that they were trying to anticipate what different TV stations would want by breaking it up into half hours or hour-long formats.) A little bit of hope and then the rug is pulled out from under you. That seems to be the way it goes with this series.

I sent Henry Winkler a message on his Facebook account recently and asked him if he could try to either bring back Sightings with new episodes (much like his MacGyver series has been successfully brought back) or get a deal together for the entire classic series to be released on DVD (preferably, both). But, of course, he didn't reply to my message. I also contacted Linda Moulton Howe (the creator of the first Sightings special and concept) about the same thing, but she replied to me that she wasn't in contact with any of the producers of Sightings anymore and she didn't seem to be interested. Oh, well. It was worth a try.

I now have copies of most of the episodes of the show from various sources, so I can watch those episodes anytime I want. But they aren't the greatest quality like they would be if there were an official DVD release. And some of the episodes are partially edited or glitched, so it's NOT ideal. I still think that the Canadian DVD company VEI is probably the best bet for the show to ever get an official release (even though they haven't said anything about a release of the show). Since VEI released "In Search Of" a few years ago, I can't help but hope that they will eventually get around to "Sightings" because of both shows' similarities. But the chances still seem slim.
 

mattfire64

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The CBS Syndication Bible appears to have been taken offline sadly, which is quite a shame since it was a wealth of information.

I did contact VEI a few years ago about possibly releasing Sightings. I had one of their representatives e-mail me back stating that they were interested in releasing the show but couldn't, they wouldn't specify why not.

I also have copies of all the hour long episodes, although a few segments are glitched because of Sci Fi having technical difficulties. It's really quite amazing how well most of the stories hold up to this day, I particularly enjoyed all of the haunting cases that were investigated by the late Peter James. I was also impressed how they hit the nail on the head with the "Alien Autopsy" film, calling it a fake right from the beginning. Of course, a few of the segments involving psychic detectives and futurists have since been debunked since these shows originally aired, but some of those stories (mostly the Y2K related stories) were already outdated when Sci Fi was re-airing these in the early 2000s anyway.
 

Heather Taz

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Mike T, I can't believe you started this thread in 2006 and still Sightings has not been released on dvd/blu ray. I was trying to find Sightings complete series on dvd and in my search findings your thread was listed. I read each & every post from the beginning and was reminded of other paranormal shows I enjoyed in the past as well.
I'm interested if you have any news if Sightings in a complete series or even complete seasons will be released on dvd and or bluray?
BTW on Amazon I found One Step Beyond on dvd for $10.42 however it lists 70 episodes but I looked on IMDB's episode guide and they list 97? The box set does not say its a complete collection but 70 episodes is a lot but missing 27 episodes is a lot too. I just wonder how someone would be able to supplement that kind of purchase because its obviously missing random episodes thru the 3 seasons that the show aired.
 

bullrock61

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Mike T, I can't believe you started this thread in 2006 and still Sightings has not been released on dvd/blu ray. I was trying to find Sightings complete series on dvd and in my search findings your thread was listed. I read each & every post from the beginning and was reminded of other paranormal shows I enjoyed in the past as well.
I'm interested if you have any news if Sightings in a complete series or even complete seasons will be released on dvd and or bluray?
BTW on Amazon I found One Step Beyond on dvd for $10.42 however it lists 70 episodes but I looked on IMDB's episode guide and they list 97? The box set does not say its a complete collection but 70 episodes is a lot but missing 27 episodes is a lot too. I just wonder how someone would be able to supplement that kind of purchase because its obviously missing random episodes thru the 3 seasons that the show aired.
Heather Taz, I see that all 97 episodes of One Step Beyond are on Ebay.
 

Mike T

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Mike T, I can't believe you started this thread in 2006 and still Sightings has not been released on dvd/blu ray. I was trying to find Sightings complete series on dvd and in my search findings your thread was listed. I read each & every post from the beginning and was reminded of other paranormal shows I enjoyed in the past as well.
I'm interested if you have any news if Sightings in a complete series or even complete seasons will be released on dvd and or bluray?
BTW on Amazon I found One Step Beyond on dvd for $10.42 however it lists 70 episodes but I looked on IMDB's episode guide and they list 97? The box set does not say its a complete collection but 70 episodes is a lot but missing 27 episodes is a lot too. I just wonder how someone would be able to supplement that kind of purchase because its obviously missing random episodes thru the 3 seasons that the show aired.
Heather, I'm glad that you enjoyed reading all of the posts on my thread. Yes, it's hard to believe that I created this thread back in 2006 and people are still posting replies to it 12 years later. It's crazy. It just shows me how popular "Sightings" was and that it would probably be a good seller if they would release it on DVD. As for your question: Unfortunately, I don't know of any news or plans for Sightings to be released on DVD by an official company. There have been homemade bootleg DVDs sold over the years from different people on sites like ioffer.com with varying levels of quality and varying amounts of episodes, but the only official releases of Sightings on home video were the three VHS tapes that Paramount released back in 1996. They were themed and compiled from various episodes from the first 2 or 3 seasons of the show (each tape was about 58 minutes long approximately). They were called "The UFO Report", "The Ghost Report", and "The Psychic Experience". If you still have a working VCR, you can find new, sealed copies of those tapes for sale on ebay and Amazon usually for cheap prices. Just do a search of "Sightings" in the DVDs and movies section on those sites and they should pop up (I would also click "New" to make sure I didn't get any used ones). But, like I said, those tapes are compilations with edited segments from the series. They're not like the episodes were originally aired. Still, they are entertaining. There was also a made-for-TV movie based on the "Heartland Haunting" story segments of the show called "Sightings: Heartland Ghost" which was actually released officially on DVD. I didn't think that the movie was very good personally, but it might be worth a look, if you're interested.

As for "One Step Beyond", there have been many official DVD releases of that show over the years from different companies, but most don't have all of the episodes. Someone else posted here that there is a set featuring all of the episodes of that show on ebay, but I think it's a bootleg because there are buyers complaining about the poor quality of the set on that seller's feedback. There is another "set" being sold on ebay that claims to be complete and seems to have numerous separate DVD volumes for $69 and some change. Those MAY be official releases, but I don't know for sure. There was an official One Step Beyond Season One set released by CBS several years ago, but they never released seasons 2 and 3. So, that 70 episode set that you mentioned may be your best bet right now. I don't know why the complete series was never officially released. Maybe because the rights to some episodes have expired? I don't know. Anyway, thanks for your reply and good luck.
 
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Site55

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I came across this thread a few years ago, same as everyone looking for info on my old beloved show Sightings.

Maybe some of you might already know this but I have some good news! There is a page on You Tube with all 5 seasons of Sightings! Found it from the help of a fellow Reddit user.
I will drop link below and if this site does not let me post the link just search on you tube: “Paranormal Mysteries” should take you to the obvious you tube page of Sightings!

 

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