New Versus Old: TV On DVD

Well, this has been a BIG issue since TV shows on DVD became such a money maker for the studios.

When season sets of TV shows started showing up on DVD, like so many others, I was excited by the prospect of owning my favorite TV shows complete and uncut. So, for the studios to break into the market they started releasing mostly newer shows or shows that had rabid fan followings. Think Star Trek. Made sense to me. Classic TV shows fans like myself would just have to wait for our favorites to be released. It was only a matter of time, right?

Wrong. What everyone found was that releasing older (I’m talking pre 1990 here) shows on DVD opened up a whole can of worms. There were rights issues. Universal let their rights to The Six Million Dollar Man lapse and to this day that show has yet to be released here in America. Sure, you can by the first two seasons from the UK, if your DVD player will play UK discs. Fox and Warner are still quibbling over the 60s Batman TV series. Then there were the pesky music licensing costs for older shows. This really sent the studios into a tail spin. It was a forgone conclusion that shows like The Wonder Years and WKRP in Cincinnati would probably not ever be released on DVD. Even if they did, they would most likely not appear in their original uncut versions. Anyone who has watched the WKRP season 1 DVD set can tell you the show was butchered beyond belief. I was fortune enough to borrow the set from a friend so I could decide if I wanted to buy it or not. I decided not to purchase it. It’s a shame too, because I love WKRP.

Then there is the almighty dollar factor. Some older shows just weren’t meeting the studios sales expectations. Case in point: The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Fox released season 1 with really nice packaging, great extras and beautiful sound and picture. It wasn’t a big seller. I don’t know what the sales figures were or what Fox expected, but whatever it was it didn’t come up to scratch. So Fox refused to release any further seasons. Even though season 2 had already been remastered and was essentially ready for release. Well, Mary would get a second chance three years later. Seasons 2-4 did get released, but once again poor Mary has been dropped from further releases. The same thing has happened to The Bob Newhart Show, McMillan and Wife, Quincy, Kojak, Charlie’s Angels and many, many others. With the apparent deaths of Mary, Bob Newhart and, I believe WKRP, it looks like the chances for Rhoda and Phyllis to be released on DVD are very, very slim. It just breaks my heart. Rhoda is one of my all time favorite 70s shows. With only two seasons left for Bob Newhart and three seasons for Mary, I’d really, really like to see them completed. Seems doubtful at this point.

Setting aside the sales issues for a moment, there is another major issue with classic TV on DVD. The snails pace at which each season is released. It took Fox six years to release all 11 seasons of MASH. While Paramount released all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation in just one year. Sony is another studio that just drags its feet with DVD releases. They have regulated All In The Family and The Jeffersons to just one season release a year. At the moment we’re lucky if we get two seasons of Bewitched a year. With the release of the 5th season and the end of the Dick York years, I’m worried that the rest of Bewitched may not see the light of day. I don’t know if these types of decisions are precipitated by sales numbers or not. I would think that they are. I’m glad that I’ve finished with The Jeffersons. I bought the first 6 seasons which covered the years 75-80. I’m not interested in getting the rest of the series (80-85). I do want the final three seasons of All In The Family.

Some independently produced shows like That Girl, Roseanne, Family Affair, The Doris Day Show and a few others have been released by smaller independent studios (Shout Factory, MPI, Anchor Bay). These releases seem to have been profitable for these smaller studios because Roseanne was completed on DVD and The Doris Day Show will be completed this year as well. I’d like to see more classic TV shows released on smaller labels. They seem to take extra care to do the releases right. Not always. Season 1 of Roseanne was released with only syndicated cuts versus complete versions. Fan were outraged and Anchor Bay quickly responded by stating that the rest of the series would be released complete and uncut. They stuck to their word until seasons 8 and 9 were released with cuts do to music licensing rights issues. Anyway, I think the use of smaller studios could be the answer to getting some classic shows released or finished. Some of my favorite shows are still just rotting in the studio vaults. Room 222, Angie, Chico and the Man, Eight is Enough, Rhoda, Phyllis, Vegas, and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father are just collecting dust somewhere. And those are just shows from the 70s. I can’t even begin to think about what 50s, 60s, and 80s shows that are just wasting away locked up in some studio vault. Something needs to be done about this situation.

Then there are the ever popular arguments about ‘Best of’ releases versus complete seasons, half seasons versus full seasons, and complete series sets versus season by season releases. Each one has it merits. For me, shows like The Sonny and Cher Show should be released as ‘Best of’ collections to keep the music licensing to a minimum. Several variety shows of the 70s have been released this way and I’ve enjoyed each and every one of them. Unfortunately in the case of Sonny and Cher I was just left with wanting more. Sadly it was not to be. I believe that shows that only lasted between one and three seasons should be released in complete series sets. My stance on full seasons versus half seasons is that only full seasons should be released. I understand why studios like to release half seasons. It’s a way to gage the market and see if a series has the potential to sell well. If not, then the studio has released only half a season and not lost all that much. This ‘half season’ thing is something that Fox started doing along time ago. Now Paramount has jumped on the bandwagon. I’m currently only collecting one series that is being released this way: The Streets of San Francisco. However, next month I will be starting my second series with ‘half season’ releases when Love American Style is released. As much as I love, Love American Style, the little voice inside me says that this release is doomed to failure. I really hope not, but I can’t shake the feeling that this one release is all I’m going to get of Love American Style.

So what is the whole point of this? I’m not sure, but I just felt the need to get some of this off my chest.