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TV shows not available on DVD

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Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
It's been more than 10 years since DVDs appeared on the market and almost every science fiction or supernatural TV series has been completely released on DVD. There are a few exceptions such as Animorphs, Earth: Final Conflict, The Six Million Dollar Man, Seaquest DSV and Sliders.

The same isn't true for the 'mundane' TV series. There are many shows where less than half of the show's episodes are available on DVD, sometimes only the first season. And there are many shows that are entirely unavaliable on DVD, forcing fans to download them illegally. Even The Simpsons, one of the most popular shows of all time, only has its first 11 seasons on DVD. Happy Days has the first 4 seasons on DVD. Law & Order has the first 8 seasons plus the 14th season on DVD. I don't get it. If a show is so popular that it can last more than 10 years then why can't it get a decent DVD release.

Is it the company's fault or the fans' fault for not buying enough DVDs? Are the fans of mundane shows simply not interested in watching their favorite shows more than once? Are sci-fi fans the only kind of fans that really care?

What do you guys think?
 
Sometimes the music rights are a big reason for shows not coming out on dvd. I think that might be the case with Ed. I've been waiting for it for a long time.
 
I'm pissed off that season three of Once and Again isn't coming out. That's the Misha Barton-Evan Rachel Wood girl-girl action year!!!!!

Sometimes if the initial seasons tank in sales, they pull the plug. That's what happened to NYPD Blue, then they brought it back, then they killed it again.
 
Sometimes it deals with the contracts used. For example:

Music copyright prevented Birds of Prey (a batman spinoff airing on WB) from being put on DVD until just recently. The same was true of Married... With Children. The theme song had to be changed because they didn't have approval to use it on distribution mediums.

Sometimes its a production issue. For example the 1960s era Batman series is not released because Warner Brothers has exclusive rights to Batman (including distribution), but the show was produced by another company.
 
^ I was just citing one part of an example. There are dozens of reasons for Batman TOS being held up (off the top of my head cameos, royalties, production issues).
 
I've really been amazed we haven't seen Journeyman on DVD yet. There shouldn't be any music clearance issues since Journeyman was made well after Universal should have learned that lesson; and even though it didn't burn up the ratings charts, pretty much every new show gets a first season release just to bleed some extra revenue from the thing. For instance, ABC was happy to trot out Daybreak even though it was never even allowed to finish its run on television.

On older shows, the main one I've wanted to see out there is Seven Days, but it doesn't look like Paramount is ever going to be interested in doing that one. A Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot set would be great too, but Disney would have to actually care first (something they can't even do in order to finish Gargoyles on DVD).
 
I'm more than irritated that only season 1 of The Sentinel is available on DVD. I don't know what the holdup is--music rights, some lawsuit or other? It seems to have done well for a very obscure show.

I also wish British shows like Blake's 7 or the original Life on Mars were available on DVD in the US. They are available in the UK but not here. Why? Some legal issue, or do they think they simply wouldn't sell?
 
Journeyman? Hell, take a look at My Own Worst Enemy. NBC cancels it, burns off the remaining episodes, it ends on a cliffhanger so the show is over with no resolution... and now it's coming to DVD!
 
I'm still waiting for "How the West Was Won" with James Arness and Bruce Boxleitner. They brought out "Centennial" (although that took an eternity too), so why not this series, which was one of the best western series ever?
 
I'm still waiting for Touching Evil, the American version with Jeffrey Donovan. I loved that show and even though it only got 1 season, still no dvd release.

Witchblade took forever to get a DVD release last summer after being off the air for a while and that was another issue of music rights, they basically went back and rescored half the show so it could get a DVD release.
 
Touching Evil seems to play all the time on Universal HD. Don't know if it's every episode or just a few select ones over and over again.

You can find Touching Evil on the DVD "Brilliant But Cancelled: Crime Dramas," but unfortunately it's not the complete series. Plus the transfer for all the shows on there suck.
 
Aragorn said:
Touching Evil seems to play all the time on Universal HD. Don't know if it's every episode or just a few select ones over and over again.

You can find Touching Evil on the DVD "Brilliant But Cancelled: Crime Dramas," but unfortunately it's not the complete series. Plus the transfer for all the shows on there suck.
Click to expand...

There's that, and then there's the route I took, it works for now, but I'd still like some dvds hopefully even some commentaries.
 
According to one review, Touching Evil starts with episode six on that DVD, so definitely not worth it, especially when none of the shows on there are the complete series.

I suppose if Burn Notice lasts for eight seasons like Jeffrey Donovan is contracted for, someone might want to ride those coattails and release Touching Evil.
 
Aragorn said:
According to one review, Touching Evil starts with episode six on that DVD, so definitely not worth it, especially when none of the shows on there are the complete series.

I suppose if Burn Notice lasts for eight seasons like Jeffrey Donovan is contracted for, someone might want to ride those coattails and release Touching Evil.
Click to expand...

The guy's great, I've been a big fan of his since Touching Evil and his spot on Crossing Jordan.

He was totally convincing as crazy in Touching Evil.
 
Jeremiah Season 2.

A good two or three years since the first season was released. Where's the second?

Guess I must be lucky. Besides the above I can't really think of too much that hasn't seen the light of day now. Earth 2, Homicide, Nowhere Man, Space Above & Beyond, The Pretender, all shows that I had to wait for but came out eventually.

I guess First Wave might be another that I'm still waiting for.
 
Monsters
Tales from the Darkside
Charlie Jade
Xmen animated 1990s
Danger Mouse
China Beach
Sherlock Holmes 1980s
Celebrity Death Match
Friday the 13th Series
Cold Case
Daria
Dead Set
Tiny Toons
KungFu
Maxheadroom
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr
Spider-Man and Friends series
Blood Ties
Green Hornet
Logans Run
Ed
Animaniacs
Battle Royale, Shinobi etc (R2 Japanese movies)
Riddle of the Sands etc (British, French, South African, European movies)
Daisy, Hinokio (R3 Korean, Thai movies)
Batman 1966
Empty Nest
 
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