madmoose

Is there a chance any of these late night comedy talk shows will make it to dvd??? or even seasons of snl of mad tv???

speedy1961

I would say yes to the last two choices.

You can check on their progress towards their coming to DVD here:

www.tvshowsondvd.com

By the way, Happy New Year and Welcome to the Forum!

angryyoungman

I know it's nigh-impossible, but out of curiousity, how many discs would you probably need for a season set of Letterman or Conan?

Me007gold

mad tv and snl are good possiblitys, i would never expect any of the others on, there are to many things they have to clear w/ the actors and music and such, and its all so depended on whats going on in the time frame.

no pants

i wish they'd do made to order discs for these shows or just weekly discs.

JiM T

I'd buy "best of" discs of Letterman and Conan in an instant. I just want funny taped comedy bits, some funny desk chat (with and w/o guests), and maybe a few musical segments. Probably wouldn't be hard for them to do.

I also REALLY want a copy of Conan's 10 anniversary special from this past September. It was birthday, and I got kidnapped to a surprise party, and no one taped it.

JiM T

resinrats

I agree with Jim T., the only way to go with Letterman or Leno DVDs is just to have the scetches on it. I don't think anyone really wants to watch guest interviews from years ago. I sure wouldn't want to watch Chris O'Donnell tell Leno about this 'great 4th Batman' movie he is working on.
Letterman could have a DVD based on scetches with the businesses around the theater (Mujibur/Sirajewl or Rupert) his multiple choice scetches or the recent will it float stuff.
Leno could have correspondents, Jaywalking or headlines.

Pretty much stuff that doesn't depend on current events/movies/shows. You could watch it 10 years from now and still be just as funny.

William Fuld

There were a couple Late Night with David Letterman VHS releases. I have the first "volume", which has the first show (with Bill Murray) and some other clips, I think. I haven't watched it in years.

CaseyB

I think the first few seasons of SNL would be big sellers. The question is what season would you stop at? I've always been a big Letterman fan, but so much of his classic footage is owned by NBC.

Damage

I'd definitely be interested in "best of" Letterman DVDs. (Leno is just plain *lame* IMHO) There's two networks that can cash in on this and there's money to be made... I can see it happening.

They had a similar deal with "best of" Johnny Carson tapes a few years back, some of which I think are available on DVD.

obscurelabel

If these are the ones that I have seen then I believe that they did not include musical performances. As with some TV shows (WKRP, Miami Vice) I would imagine that the rights issues on the music would be difficult to deal with. Aside from the performances of the musical guests, the house bands on both Leno and Letterman play numerous bits and pieces of maybe - what - a dozen or more songs each show? They probably have deals with the music publishers so that they can play these in an "off the cuff" manner, like in response to a joke or something, but the agreement for the broadcast rights probably doesn't include home video. Also, I have no idea whether the rights to broadcast performances by the musical guests extend to including them on home video, aside from the music publishing issues.

That being said, who would have thought 10 years ago that entire seasons of TV shows would be for sale on home video? I wouldn't be surprised in another 10 years to see the 200 or so shows per year of the late night shows to be offered in some successor format to DVD that can hold enough data to make it a compact package for purchase (assuming the music and other rights issues are worked out). Or, alternatively, some means by which consumers could pick and choose the shows that they were interested in that would then either be downloaded or custom made into a disc or whatever.

The answer once again will be money.

CTUK

There is a Conan DVD out there. It's what the studios put together for the Emmy Awards nominations. The 2003 edition was produced on DVD (all previous on VHS) and has two full episodes on, featuring Adam Sandler, Christopher Walken and Nada Surf

You can often pick them up on eBay. There's one on there now - Conan DVD on eBay

djbrown

I've been burning the replays of old Letterman Late Night shows that Trio has aired to DVD-R. Close to 80 hours worth now I think.

JimRochester

I don't see much of a market for entire shows and entire seasons. Where is the rewatchability in every celebrity pitching their latest project that has now come and gone. Best of's would surely sell.

dcprules

Imagine how many discs there would be for something like Conan. I can see the advertisement now... "Now on DVD, the entire first season of Late Night with Conan o'Brian on this special 50 disc set. Includes all 200 episodes of the first season, uncut, with optional audio commentary with Conan and sidekick Andy Richter on every episode. Order yours today for only $399 at shop.nbc.com Buy now!"

calhoun07

IF (emphasis on the big IF) season sets ever came out of Leno and Letterman, the only way it would work is with HDDVD, where many episodes could be packed on to one disc. But I agree best of sets would be the ideal way to go on these, with special complete editions set aside for Christmas and anniversary specials. I'd love to see the old My Dog Bob and the original Chris Elliott sketches on DVD, not to mention many others. Unfortunately, I don't have Trio to watch the Letterman reruns.

CaseyB

I'd love to see all of Elliott's sketches! Him as Brando and Morton Downey Jr. (I'm sure there were others I'm forgetting) were incredible!

chunk

Regarding late night talk shows, hasn't Carson been selling tapes of the Tonight Show for quite some time now? I could've sworn I read an article a few years back about how he handles it almost entirely himself, and people could order a wide variety of material. In fact, I seem to remember that customers could sort of pick and choose some of the material that they wanted, mixing and matching different interviews and sketches and whatnot. Again, I'm kind of hazily remembering this all, but if any of it is accurate, seems like there is at least some precedent for this sort of thing already.

mythmaker18

Carson used to sell individual, complete shows (with broadcast commercials intact) for about $75-100 each (depending on quantity ordered).

Quite pricey, but I actually ordered two episodes myself. I don't think they ever got 'round to doing "make your own" compilations or anything like that, just straight VHS dubs of their off-air masters (also, shows from the '60s weren't available due to most of them being considered "lost").

Carson discontinued this service this past autumn, though, because of "abuse" (i.e. some unscrupulous collectors pirating the tapes and selling copies on eBay).

I wish he would license his old shows for syndication. Old Carson beats new Leno any day!

Nierfacon

I can't remember where I saw it, but TV shows on DVD.com founder Gord Lacey was talking about season sets of SNL would never happen. He worked with Broadway Video, who's behind the SNL discs, while they were putting Kids In The Hall together. He said he asked Broadway about season sets of SNL, and they replied that it was impossible due to the nightmare of music and talent rights that would have to be secured.

Sucks, but that's reality. I betcha Mad TV and all those talk shows are going to be the same. Best-ofs are about all you would ever get from shows like this.

Jackskeleton

I would kill for a collection of conan's skit and mid guest skit collected on as many disc as possible. A lot of classics that should be on dvd...

MAX ON MAX.. need I say more?

Duodenum

another vote for Conan. i would love to have the clutch cargo-style mouth skits. they used to make me laugh until i wept. wasn't Smigel the mouth?

"you're so white, it's gotta be right!"