Brian Damage
02-22-2009, 02:03 PM
http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/fanfare/ny-a6041727feb22,0,3191745.story
Your favorite TV show comes out on DVD, so you start your collection by buying the first-season set. Later comes the second-season set. And then ... you wait. And wait. And subsequent seasons never appear.
Call it DVD series interruptus.
Fans of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" have been waiting three years for the classic comedy's fifth, sixth and seventh seasons to hit disc. It's been three years, too, for " NYPD Blue." And four for "Everwood." "Malcolm in the Middle's" first season came out seven years ago. The other four seasons? Still MIA.
DVD collectors now know some music-laden series stop coming out when studios can't balance the high cost of licensing song rights with a fair retail price. That's true for "WKRP in Cincinnati," whose first-season set was slammed for massive music replacement, and for "American Dreams" and "Ally McBeal."
Pet Rock: The Pop Culture blog But the cop drama "Hill Street Blues" seems to be on extended hiatus, too. Ditto " Bernie Mac," "Boy Meets World," "Charlie's Angels," "Kojak" and dozens of other series in DVD suspension. So why are some shows released in a steady stream, while others stop before they're through? And what's a fan to do?
Many vent their wrath about those missing seasons on Internet forums or at Gord Lacey's comprehensive consumer site tvshowsondvd.com. "People are angry at the studios for not continuing to release something," says Lacey, who's been tracking TV DVD since 2001, when season sets were still in their infancy. "But the studios can't keep releasing something that not enough people are buying."
Lacey says distributors expect a dropoff in sales as seasons progress, especially among vintage series. "Sometimes, it's a lot more severe than they think it's going to be."
Hey, wait a minute, say DVD buyers - don't blame me, when studios have hit me in the wallet time and again. Shows discontinued after a season or two have left consumers with remnants of the complete collection they thought they were buying into.
A wait-and-see approach by fans
Fans also feel burned when, after buying every season set for a show, totaling hundreds of dollars, they see a full-series box released at a lower price (sometimes with new bonus features, too). Some buyers now hold off on initial seasons to see what else gets released.
"That's completely the wrong approach from a fan's perspective," says Rosemary Markson, Warner Home Video's vice president of TV and special interest marketing. "If they want to see the next seasons released, they need to support the season that's already released. It's all going to come down to sales. When shows have done well, we've been able to keep it going, which is always our plan from the outset."
But are initial-season sales the best barometer? Sometimes, a show's early episodes aren't representative of the series fans come to love. Both "Barney Miller" and "Night Court" struggled through two seasons of sitcom cast changes before settling on the final ensemble viewers remember. Both shows were stalled on DVD for several years, before recent releases of subsequent seasons. Warner finally releases season 2 of the nighttime soap "Knots Landing" in April, three years later, after it became clear fans were waiting to see Donna Mills join the cast as troublemaking Abby.
"In the case of 'Knots,' and 'Everwood,' which is coming out later in the summer [with season 2]," Markson says, "we saw continuing interest - from letters we get, and different forums we've done online, and from TV Shows on DVD," where users vote which shows they'd like to see released.
Studios also try different packaging strategies to satisfy fans. When "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Mad About You" stalled after first-season sets, their studios released one-time best-of collections to at least provide memorable episodes.
"The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and "Get Smart" initially came out in complete-series boxes aimed at devotees, with single seasons trickling out later for casual buyers. Distributors have even divided classic series into half-season sets, lowering the price point of each purchase. But that approach has angered fans who feel they're being nicked twice as often.
And even when shows long stalled on DVD seem poised to get going again, the solution can upset fans more than the delay did. Lacey's Web site recently reported the last three seasons of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" might finally be coming out - but only in a full-series box - and fans quickly blitzed the still-unannounced set's Amazon.com page with diatribes about having to rebuy the first four seasons.
Indie label white knights
Sometimes, white knights step in. Shout! Factory and other independent labels sometimes license DVD rights to continue shows abandoned by major studios. Shout has recently released new sets of long-stalled "Spin City," "Simon & Simon" and "Adam-12," with "Designing Women" due in May.
But Shout co-founder Garson Foos cautions that even his boutique label finds TV DVD sales to be "hit and miss. Certain shows are either too ubiquitous [on TV], or too mainstream, and people don't feel compelled or passionate enough to buy them."
TV DVD guru Lacey views the situation as a collector, having launched his grassroots site to push for releases he wanted to see. Yet, he believes fans can't just blame the studios or look to indies like Shout.
"I'm thrilled that they're picking up some shows," Lacey says. "But, unfortunately, it rests with the consumer. People have to understand that if something comes out that you want, you have to go out and buy it, so the studios can continue to release them. The [consumer's] 'I'm-gonna-sit-back-and-see-what-happens' mentality is killing TV on DVD."
Your favorite TV show comes out on DVD, so you start your collection by buying the first-season set. Later comes the second-season set. And then ... you wait. And wait. And subsequent seasons never appear.
Call it DVD series interruptus.
Fans of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" have been waiting three years for the classic comedy's fifth, sixth and seventh seasons to hit disc. It's been three years, too, for " NYPD Blue." And four for "Everwood." "Malcolm in the Middle's" first season came out seven years ago. The other four seasons? Still MIA.
DVD collectors now know some music-laden series stop coming out when studios can't balance the high cost of licensing song rights with a fair retail price. That's true for "WKRP in Cincinnati," whose first-season set was slammed for massive music replacement, and for "American Dreams" and "Ally McBeal."
Pet Rock: The Pop Culture blog But the cop drama "Hill Street Blues" seems to be on extended hiatus, too. Ditto " Bernie Mac," "Boy Meets World," "Charlie's Angels," "Kojak" and dozens of other series in DVD suspension. So why are some shows released in a steady stream, while others stop before they're through? And what's a fan to do?
Many vent their wrath about those missing seasons on Internet forums or at Gord Lacey's comprehensive consumer site tvshowsondvd.com. "People are angry at the studios for not continuing to release something," says Lacey, who's been tracking TV DVD since 2001, when season sets were still in their infancy. "But the studios can't keep releasing something that not enough people are buying."
Lacey says distributors expect a dropoff in sales as seasons progress, especially among vintage series. "Sometimes, it's a lot more severe than they think it's going to be."
Hey, wait a minute, say DVD buyers - don't blame me, when studios have hit me in the wallet time and again. Shows discontinued after a season or two have left consumers with remnants of the complete collection they thought they were buying into.
A wait-and-see approach by fans
Fans also feel burned when, after buying every season set for a show, totaling hundreds of dollars, they see a full-series box released at a lower price (sometimes with new bonus features, too). Some buyers now hold off on initial seasons to see what else gets released.
"That's completely the wrong approach from a fan's perspective," says Rosemary Markson, Warner Home Video's vice president of TV and special interest marketing. "If they want to see the next seasons released, they need to support the season that's already released. It's all going to come down to sales. When shows have done well, we've been able to keep it going, which is always our plan from the outset."
But are initial-season sales the best barometer? Sometimes, a show's early episodes aren't representative of the series fans come to love. Both "Barney Miller" and "Night Court" struggled through two seasons of sitcom cast changes before settling on the final ensemble viewers remember. Both shows were stalled on DVD for several years, before recent releases of subsequent seasons. Warner finally releases season 2 of the nighttime soap "Knots Landing" in April, three years later, after it became clear fans were waiting to see Donna Mills join the cast as troublemaking Abby.
"In the case of 'Knots,' and 'Everwood,' which is coming out later in the summer [with season 2]," Markson says, "we saw continuing interest - from letters we get, and different forums we've done online, and from TV Shows on DVD," where users vote which shows they'd like to see released.
Studios also try different packaging strategies to satisfy fans. When "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Mad About You" stalled after first-season sets, their studios released one-time best-of collections to at least provide memorable episodes.
"The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and "Get Smart" initially came out in complete-series boxes aimed at devotees, with single seasons trickling out later for casual buyers. Distributors have even divided classic series into half-season sets, lowering the price point of each purchase. But that approach has angered fans who feel they're being nicked twice as often.
And even when shows long stalled on DVD seem poised to get going again, the solution can upset fans more than the delay did. Lacey's Web site recently reported the last three seasons of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" might finally be coming out - but only in a full-series box - and fans quickly blitzed the still-unannounced set's Amazon.com page with diatribes about having to rebuy the first four seasons.
Indie label white knights
Sometimes, white knights step in. Shout! Factory and other independent labels sometimes license DVD rights to continue shows abandoned by major studios. Shout has recently released new sets of long-stalled "Spin City," "Simon & Simon" and "Adam-12," with "Designing Women" due in May.
But Shout co-founder Garson Foos cautions that even his boutique label finds TV DVD sales to be "hit and miss. Certain shows are either too ubiquitous [on TV], or too mainstream, and people don't feel compelled or passionate enough to buy them."
TV DVD guru Lacey views the situation as a collector, having launched his grassroots site to push for releases he wanted to see. Yet, he believes fans can't just blame the studios or look to indies like Shout.
"I'm thrilled that they're picking up some shows," Lacey says. "But, unfortunately, it rests with the consumer. People have to understand that if something comes out that you want, you have to go out and buy it, so the studios can continue to release them. The [consumer's] 'I'm-gonna-sit-back-and-see-what-happens' mentality is killing TV on DVD."