You can't find the three seasons of "Spenser: For Hire" or the two seasons of "Harry O" on DVD…but you can find "The Oregon Trail," "Big John, Little John," "Threshold," "The Bionic Woman (2008)" and "Conviction," all flops that lasted 13 episodes or less. Do not get the TV-On-DVD business at all. Was anyone clamoring for "The Oregon Trail?"
Indeed. I’d even forgotten of the existence of Big John, Little John until you mentioned it. I do remember watching it, though I must have been only five at the time, and I still have no interest in actually seeing it again, let alone spending money for the honor.
Not to mention IT TAKES A THIEF or NAME OF THE GAME or 77 SUNSET STRIP, or….well, the list goes on….
It must have something to do with arguments about royalties or residuals or ownership.
I’ve been curious about that. Who decides what goes to DVD and what doesn’t??
I figured you might know the answer to this but I’m guessing no?
Most people who buy DVD collection sets are in the 40-50 range. Younger than that just watch or download the shows they want online. These older group are the people who watched those series that you mentioned when they were younger. It has more to do with having disposable income and nostalgia more than quality I believe.
Meanwhile, I’ll just sit back and watch my Tales Of The Gold Monkey and Street Hawk DVDs. 😉
Great point about Spenser not on DVD. And your .357 Vigilante novels are not trashy–excellent examples of popular fiction and very enjoyable, loved the omnibus ed. on my Kindle.
There’s seems to be two ways to get to tv on dvd: everything that airs now seems to go to dvd fairly quickly (CBS included Swingtown in its ads for true CBS hits like NCIS and CSI) or some old show that no one is clamouring for but someone figures will get purchased asa gift for mom or dad cuz it’s from when they were young. LOL Otherwise, it’s a long wait.
I generally buy the dvd because I think all the extras like gag reels and commentaries esp ones by the writers 🙂
@Peter Noble: Can you really get Street Hawk on DVD now? Seriously?
Isn’t the failed-TV-on-DVD thing the studios trying to squeeze as much money out of the series as possible?
As for the question of why, specifically, THE OREGON TRAIL:
It is a Universal production, being released on DVD by Timeless Media. Timeless has licensed several series from Universal, most of them Westerns: LARAMIE, LAREDO, THE VIRGINIAN, WAGON TRAIN, etc. I would presume that these series have done well for Timeless, and that sent them looking in the Universal vaults for other shows of a similar nature. I get the impression that they get the bulk of their sells from the warehouse chain Sam’s Club, where prices tend to be low and so the DVDs lend themselves well to impulse buys from people who remember watching the shows way back when.
Spenser and Harry O — probably at the top of my TV DVD wishlist!
I never watch the DVD movies I bring home. I never watch the movies I record on the TV’s digital recorder. Heck, I recorded Captain Blood and when I tried watching it last night I found out the dang thing quit recording after an hour.
I would agree with the earlier poster – this packaging is consistent with other, older western series that I mainly see at Sam’s Club at incredibly low prices. To sell at those prices, the licensing has to be pretty much non-existent (Universal trying to get something, even if it’s next to nothing). Shows like Spenser or Harry O, because there is a following or a star who has done well on collections before, is going to cost more and be released by the actual studio, not some third-party fly-by-night.
I just bought the first season of 21 Jump Street for $5 at Wal-mart. There’s little to no licensing money being made by the studio at that price. But looking on Amazon, the studio released their versions of these discs several years ago at a more typical price point. So there’s got to be some sort of accounting strategy involved – royalties on only the first XXX copies???