It’s 2015, and these TV series should be out on DVD

Werewolf! Yes! That would be interesting.

 

Good call on "Murphy Brown." Only one of its 10 seasons has been released on DVD.

 

That's the one I want as well. Bummer as it was one of my favorite shows back then.

 

Do you know if any channel shows reruns?

 

I am familiar with the ignore feature...

 

The Bill Dana Show! Complete series...

 

Not that I know of. I haven't even seen reruns of it in years. But if Batman can come out on DVD, so can Drew Carey

 

Of those, I'd only be interested in watching "Picket Fences". But if the complete series were available to stream in good quality via Netflix or Amazon, that would be an acceptible substitute. I don't think I'd want to BUY a box set of any of these.

 

You would learn as much with that, as you have apparently learned already.

 

I'd love the last two Muppet Show seasons to be released, along with the specials "The Muppets Go Hollywood" and "The Muppets go to the Movies." The latter features the world premiere of Gummo Bergman's Silent Strawberries.

Mark

 

One show I'm still waiting for is 'Who's The Boss' Only the first season released so far.

Darryl

 

Same here... I started buying them when Season 1 was released (almost 10 years ago!) and it's driving me crazy that they only got as far as Season 3... and even that set was released almost 7 years ago! What's the freakin' holdup?

 

Actually, they settled the lawsuit and everybody walked away amicably. I think the reason the show isn't out is because it wasn't very funny, didn't get very big ratings, and I think this style of comedy is very dated. We did the show at Complete Post in the 1980s and early 1990s (my old pal Gary Barron did all the color on most of it, and I filled in on occasion), and the producers on the show were very nice to work with and they were total pros. I seem to recall the last couple of seasons were edited on Laserdisc as a random-access system and then onlined from the original 1" master tapes, which was an incredibly complicated system for that time. Within a couple of years, everybody switched to doing low-res editing on computer hard drives, like Avid, and that quickly took over the TV bidness.

I think of all the shows SteelyDanGuy mentions, the bottom line is that the shows are dated, they've kind of gotten pushed off the air in favor of new ideas and new formats, and -- hard as it is to say -- the vast majority of viewers don't give an F. I personally would like to see LA Law, St. Elsewhere, Paper Chase, and Lou Grant released because they're historically important, were critical raves, and I think each of them had some terrific episodes. Viewed en masse, though, I think the market for complete boxed sets would be miniscule.

One huge problem with the MTM shows is that they were all shot on 4-perf 35mm negative and transferred and edited on 1" videotape, and the technical quality is gruesome. To do this right, they'd have to pull all the negatives and rescan them in HD, and it'd be a massive, complicated, messy job. I did some of the 1983-1984 transfers on Knott's Landing, Dallas, and Dynasty, and those Lorimar productions were awful shows -- our transfers were done from 35mm prints (edited on film), and at least they looked pretty good.

I'm also not buzzed about Shout Factory's past history for regurgitating these old shows on DVD. I think they put a bare minimum of time and effort into putting them out, and I think they're guilty of not doing enough work to actually preserve and improve the show through better mastering. It's kind of like getting the rights to a classic LP, and then just dubbing the LP to MP3 and releasing that. They need to go right back to the original masters and start over, and they strike me as the kind of company that either has no money or no desire to do so (or neither).

I am a huge fan of the idea of making all this crap available for download and streaming, and I think this makes far more sense than an actual release on physical media.

 

The Outlaws 80's time travel cowboys..Rod Taylor..
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090498/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_14

 

The Partners with Don Adams!

 

It wasn't an amicable settlement. It was a bitter trial that eventually went in Harper's favour.

It ran for a number of seasons and while it wasn't the best comedy it was still enjoyable. Despite the behind-the-scenes drama, the show was able to continue on with Sandy Duncan as the lead, and Jason Bateman's popularity also helped it perform decently in the ratings

 

They show Diff'rent Strokes on Antenna TV every night where I live. I wish they'd stop!

 

I'll Fly Away. Still one of my favorite series (and luckily I taped them all when PBS reran it).

 

Vengeance Unlimited.
Hill Street Blues (all 7 seasons!)

 

The big issue with Murphy Brown in the rights to the Motown songs in the soundtrack.

 

Here's the problem--while we might desire these shows, the studio marketing mavericks (you know the bright boys who are helping to drive the studios into the ground and rarely have a love for TV or fly) and bean counters figure that they have to sell XYZ units, clean up the shows for DVD and Blu-ray and make it cost effective and profitable.

Man of these shows as great as they are, are not well remembered by most folks. We have the attention span of dogs (and that's a compliment) for the mot part and history is no longer important to most folks.

 

Here you are:

http://www.amazon.com/Hill-Street-B...e+series&pebp=1422798256612&peasin=B00GSTHCHQ

 

Thanks for the "heads-up," Planbee!

 

You're right that the studios aren't preserving the older shows because of cost/profit concerns or a lack of historical appreciation -- or both. How many times do you see studios release (fill in the blank new show) on DVD or Blu-ray because they think it has a chance of making a profit, even though that show isn't nearly as high-quality as some of the older shows that haven't been released on DVD or Blue-ray? Happens a lot, right?

That's why I'm glad that a company like Shout! Factory has stepped in and released some shows that no other studio is touching. Has Shout! figured out a way to make a profit on these older shows? I'd be surprised if they're making a big profit on a package like the complete "Facts of Life," but maybe I'm wrong. But perhaps they release these sets, at least in part, because they enjoy preserving some of the shows from the past.

Some forum members have raised concerns about the picture quality of Shout! Factory's work, but honestly that's not my area of expertise and not something I've noticed when I've watched their sets. From a collector's standpoint, they do a nice job of selecting interesting older shows and releasing them with high-quality packaging and extras like informative booklets. And I hope they continue their trend of releasing some older shows (the box sets are nice) that have been neglected.

 

They are kind of stuck, too (not to make excuses for them)--how much money do you put into a show for restoration that you don't own? Release what they are given or demand better quality. If the studio says that's what you get, then they have to decide--release it as is which would be better than not releasing it at all-- put disclaimers, etc. Its a tough call and I have loved some of Shout! Releases but so not so much.

The bottom line is this--the care for a quality product often is secondary or third on a list of many things (if at all) because, again, people in the biz are often in it for the money not because they love TV shows or film. We all got to eat but sometimes we can eat, make a tidy profit and provide good product but often that's. not the case at least in the U.S. market.

I do wish that there was something akin to the orphan drug/disease situation where a studio could license a show at a tiny fee if the show has been abandoned or not released. If they haven't exercised their rights to issue the show, they should have to sell it or give it up. Then we might see better releases, better archiving,etc. I just find this frustrating because while things are better with studios taking better care of their "assets" than before, many do a piss poor job.