That's a hell of a lot of money! It's nice they FINALLY remastered the damn thing, because the original DVD sets looked like utter CRAP. The Columbia House VHS from the 80's looked better! And a 7" record as a bonus material? Big woo. The only 7" worth 200 bucks is the one in Peter Tork's pants.
I own the original two DVD box sets and have "Head" in that Raybert Blu-Ray set but yeah, the price is ridiculous. Just for kicks- and to see what the grand total is- I went through the pre-order process and it comes out to $233.00 and change. Again, ridiculous.
Very true - but, jeez, that would be out of character considering how packed with material everything else has been.
I would question whether $200 is the price point that will maximize profits. I would guess they would ship more than twice as many units at $100 with cheaper packaging and no vinyl. Smartest move would be to announce that version later though. My money is on this won't sell out quick, best to wait.
10,000 is an interesting number. There were only 4,000 of The Monkees deluxe box, and it's still available. Different animal, I know, but that could be a barometer of interest. Thing is, aside from the restoration cost, they own all the content, so there's a lot of profit to be made. If they sell 1,250, they'll have made back the restoration cost, etc. They'll do that easily. I wouldn't count on a cheaper packaging version. Blu-ray is much like CD these days. More folks are streaming than buying. My bet is that they hope to sell 10K in total. So, make it once (take advantage of spending less by printing more copies), get pre-orders from the fans, and have them around without fear of running out. I'd say the odds are that this one will go to stores (not just being available through the website) before they make a cheaper version.
No, that's not a good enough reason. I swear, ever since that first, ultra-expensive, "limited edition" Monkees VHS Box ( I have #2504) came out, the hype has always been, "from the original masters", "the original negatives", "the original 35 mm tapes", etc, etc, for every successive reissue. I'm not buying this. Maybe I will get Head on Bluray eventually as I only have it on VHS now.
They own all the content except the musical compositions. If they don't sell out they may discount these sets too. I would guess the appeal of the shows is more selective than the appeal of the music, particularly the appeal of upgrading from DVD to BR for material that is not widescreen.
Good points all. I assume I'll eventually buy this. I only have the Season One DVD that I got at Sam's for under $20. But until I know what bonuses I'll be getting, my wallet stays in my back pocket. Any DVD set over $99 is precarious for me.
I'm not holding my breath for these, but it'd be nice if *all* the footage from their Glen Campbell and Laugh-In appearances made the cut...
I truly don't believe it's Rhino's fault. Even though they own the TV show, they were/are at the mercy of others when it come to the curation of the elements. A combination of lack of money and politics has kept them from doing something like this earlier. The elements are kept by Sony (formally Columbia Pictures,) who have held them for almost 50 years. This kind of makes Rhino an interloper. Remember, Rhino was able to buy the rights because Columbia screwed up and violated terms of agreement with Raybert over "Easy Rider" which ultimately forced them to lose control (except for syndication rights) of a profitable property. So I bet there is a lingering resentment at Sony because of all that. There is also the problem of so many elements called "master" that it can get quite hairy when doing vault research. Especially when the people having to do the work (not Rhino) don't know about the history of the show and the many incarnations it's been through. If you think about it, there can be up to as many as five distinct versions of any given episode of the series which would result in five different sets of elements marked "master." And that's just for 35mm elements. Factor in 16mm elements (for small market/syndication purposes) and that ups the ante to ten. This doesn't even count the original camera negatives. Also, it is (or used to be) highly unusual to go back to the original camera negatives of a TV show to master from. In the past, IP negatives were used for video releases, syndication, etc. I suspect no one has gone to the camera negatives before now is because, for a color show shot on Eastmancolor stock like this one was, it's possible color and image fading started happening to the camera negatives as early as the 1970's. As a result, they would ignore them in favor of IP's and prints in better shape to master from...which explains why as early as 1975, the general syndication package of the show mixed NBC first run versions, summer rerun, CBS Saturday morning versions and prints struck from both 35mm and 16mm sources. And also why the end credits were also a gamble as to if they matched the version of the show used in the package. So I give Rhino a pass on the earlier home video versions of the show. They worked with what they could and what they could afford. I, for one, am keeping my fingers crossed that since Andrew is involved, everything will finally get sorted out and we'll finally have all the episodes as originally broadcast by NBC, from the original 35mm negative elements, with proper credits, and restoration of all billboards and the Screen Gems and NBC logos at the end.
Don't forget the Hollywood Squares and Johnny Cash Show, though I'm pessimistic about any of that being released. Those shows are owned by other entities (even though the Johnny Cash Show was a Screen Gems production.) Raybert washed their hands of the Monkees by that point so no claim could be made by them that they owned the group's appearances on those shows. I'd be very surprised if Rhino could get clearance to use the clips. Stranger things have happened though.
I didn't know the entire history with Columbia/Sony but it is certainly a quagmire of issues. Until the VHS Box was issued in the 90s, I never knew that there was a different opening sequence in Season 1, as the syndicated episodes I watched after school in the 70s had the Season 2 opening montage and "For Pete's Sake" closing theme in every episode.
Good thing you mentioned the Johnny Csh Show, I almost forgot about that one... It'd be cool if that was included as well, but as with the other shows I mentioned, i won't hold my breath for that one either... Regarding "Hollywood Squares": I thought that most of the episodes from that series (from that era) are supposed to be lost aren't they? Again, not holding my breath regardless...
^^^ THIS.^^^^ For me, knowing Andrew is at the helm of remastering these from the original 35mm elements. I feel this is money well spent!!
Oh dear God,,,,let's not open up that can of worms again..... The new Criterion transfer is *THE* transfer now. Ration, audio, everything perfect. Just clone that and I'll be a happy guy.
I suspect that there are many more people who know "The Monkees" as a TV show than those who know the Monkees as a recording act. In fact, after all the confused Facebook comments when they announced the Present box, with 99.99% of the people not having any idea what it was, I'm sure of it. I have come to learn that there are many people, maybe even a majority, who have fond memories of having watched their TV series but have no idea that they released any records. Are there 10,000 people who consider a Bluray set worth $200? We shall see...
Seriously. That must've been their first group project without Peter, right? I'd be really curious to see the group dynamic just as they became a trio (and when their career wasn't totally dead in the water).
They are like the Brady Bunch, there was a time when I loved this stuff but when you watch again there's not much substance. That's when you realize it's all about nostalgia. Hard to get through an episode.
Well, it taught me not to let that feeling take over. I bought it, and The Partridge Family at the same time...low prices on eBay, so at least I was cautious going in...this grandfather of 2 is NOT the same person I was back then. Yesterday, When Kotter went on a 50% off sale, I gave it a lot of thought, and passed ! .
