Cocacoladude78

The one failure on DVD that surprised me over all others is:

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All in the Family 70's!

Why do you guys think All in the Family hasn't performed very well on DVD? It's taking many, many years to release all the seasons. It might not be finished at all. And like Mary Tyler Moore, they aren't selling well at all.

I Love Lucy performed very well on DVD (as well as syndication) and was loaded with features. It was one of Paramount's prized series. Even the Friday the 13th movie series from the 80's (correction: movie series/not tv show! The 2004 box set sold 250,000+ copies! Plus the original '99-'02 editions sold well on their own. Well enough to release them all again for a third time as Deluxe editions in '09) is beating All in the Family in sales. I understand All in the Family is a Columbia release and not a Paramount release.

I Love Lucy -- number 1 show of the 50's
All in the Family -- number 1 show of the 70's

All in the Family surprises me the most (above all others) because it was the number one show for many years. It was extremely popular in the 70's!

How is it that Lucy is still doing well and Archie isn't? I would have figured that they would both be doing well because they both did what 99% of shows can't -- they were number 1.

So, it surprises me.

I Love Lucy, Roseanne, Three's Company, Golden Girls, Cosby Show, etc., all did well in syndication for many years. They all did well on DVD too! And the entire series are available for all of them! I understand that they were all top rated shows as well.

But why is All in the Family having a hard time?

So yeah, All in the Family surprises me the most!

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Growing Pains 80's series!

A little surprising! Mega bomb on Nick at Nite and DVD! Sure a far cry from it's 80's success. I guess it was born in that era and will die in that era. Some say that born again Christian Kirk Cameron bombed the show, but I don't know... Everyone knows he went a little looney during the '89 hiatus.

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Gimmi a Break 80's!

Did well enough for itself on NBC. Hasn't performed well since the early 90's. I guess, it too, was born in the 80's and will die in the 80's.

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Small Wonder 80's!

Just released, but looking forward to see if it even makes it past season 1. This show has no redeeming values whatsoever (and has heavy child abuse undertones: Vicki sleeping in a cabinet, wearing the same clothes daily, cleaning because the mother is too lazy, and lifting furniture), but I enjoyed it!

Technically speaking, it's garbage! So, I don't know if this would survive past 80's kids.

OmahaStar

Maude. One of my favorites ever, only one season has been released, and Sony is sitting on the rest. Amazing, since all of its spin-off is out on dvd (Good Times) but Maude? Sigh. I would pay *retail* to get the rest today.

Texan26

Just curious at where you found these sales numbers. Amazon.com has the first season of Friday the 13th ranked at #27,375 and the first season of All in the Family at # 5,446. I can't see Friday the 13th outselling All in the Family.

Cocacoladude78

Sorry, I meant the movies. The 2004 box set sold 250,000+ copies! Plus the original '99-'02 editions sold well too. Well enough to release them all again for a third time as Deluxe editions in '09.

Not the tv show. I never followed that. I'll fix that problem. If that bombed, not surprised. Freddy's Nightmares bombed hard overseas too!

Silverscreenvid

Kojak.

It was better than most of the cop/detective shows of that era, including Cannon, Mannix, Starsky & Hutch, and so on, but only one season was released on DVD.

Who loves ya, baby?

WMAangel

Child abuse??
IT'S A DAMN ROBOT!!! A MACHINE!!
I guess I should be worried now that Social Services is going to show up at my door for kicking my Roomba yesterday...

Texan26

I think the studios need to be a little more realistic with the retail prices of these old low selling TV show DVD sets. Charging $30 for a season of Facts of Life or Different Strokes is not going to get you any sales. They should be charging $30 for the whole series and not each season.

Bring back Sheriff Lobo on DVD!

Living Dead

It was SMALL WONDER that taught me the proper way to treat children. It's too bad most kids complain. Why can't they be more like Vicki?

Cheato

NYPD Blue. Awards up the yin-yang, but no love past Season 4 on DVD. Keeps me from buying it.

I know, some of you will say I'm contributing to the problem, by not "supporting the show," but this has been argued in other threads. It's not my responsibility to take the economic risk of buying season after season, hoping they'll finish the show, only to have them finally do so and then release a complete series with even more extras. F*** the studios. They're the ones that need to shoulder the risk.

The Monkees

Lucille Ball is a universal comedian. She goes down with the likes of Bob Hope. I Love Lucy still works well today, most of the episodes are universal (meaning not terribly dated). No offense to Carroll O' Connor but he's no Lucy. All in the Family is INCREDIBLY dated. It was pivotal for it's time, but not so much anymore. I love the show (and I wasn't even born until the end of Archie Bunker's Place), but it only works with certain people (I feel), it's obviously successful enough to continue playing on TV Land early in the morning when older people are watching. It seems to me that All in the Family only works on people who watched it when it was first on and then the select few (like myself). I Love Lucy is universal.

All in the Family will probably never finish on DVD unless they release a complete series. Which is unfortunate. It's been like 4 years since the last season came out.

I'm still waiting on the last 2 seasons of Family Ties. The 6th season has one of my favorite episodes on it! I don't know how well that was selling but it drives me nuts that they won't release those last 2 seasons! It's been over a year since season 5 came out!

Also Coach. Damnit, one of my favorite shows and they stop at season 3 with 6 more seasons to go! These companies should just give the rights to release on DVD to Shout! Factory

JOE29

I have a few Seasons of All in the Family myself. (1,2,4)
After Mike & Gloria left the show tanked for me anyway.
I believe all of those Seasons are released.
Someday I'll get all of the Seasons that I want, someday.

The Monkees

I used to own all the seasons available but sold them a while back, I hope some day to get them again.

Travis McClain

A part of me has been surprised at how poorly Murphy Brown has fared on DVD. I think it's a show that might have sold very well had TV-on-DVD been the standard during its initial run that it is today.

I think the reason that it hasn't sold well on DVD (so far, only the first season has been issued, with no plans for anything else on the docket) is the same reason that most older series haven't sold well. The demographic that enjoyed the show on TV isn't necessarily the same demographic that buys TV shows on DVD. My mom was born in '58 and has watched several series so many times through (from first-run through syndication) that she can practically quote an episode at will. She will never buy any of them, though, because for her you just don't buy a TV show. You watch it on TV, whenever it happens to air.

fumanstan

Regarding I Love Lucy, I'm 27 years old right now and when I was younger I would often find Lucy reruns on weekends and watched them frequently. All in the Family, not at all. I don't think i've ever even seen an episode, and it's probably been regulated to Nick at Nite or something rather then local syndication.

MovieMaster11

Lucky Louie. Loved it.

leacha

That is what has happened to me with Seinfeld, Simpsons, Scrubs, Family Guy, South Park and Two and a Half Men. I've seen these so many times I'll never buy the DVDs.

My surprise is Barny Miller very highly acclaimed and funny show, even to this day.

Oakland

WKRP In Cincinnati. I love this series, purchased season 1 the week it came out, and season 2 never arrived. I can only assume sales were too low to warrant anymore investment in completing the series.

Travis McClain

This is the other big part of it. I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show are the two biggies, if you will, from the golden age of TV that have continued to find an audience without stop all these years. No matter when you grew up, chances are pretty good you were exposed to these in some capacity. The only other pre-80s series I can think of with that kind of saturation has been M*A*S*H. It's surely not coincidence that all three of those series have sold well on DVD.

Actually, you can search this forum and read any number of laments concerning the role that music rights issues have played in the home video release debacle that is WKRP in Cincinnati. The season 1 release had to substitute a lot of songs, and fans were vocal in expressing their disappointment.

critterdvd

Maybe not surprising to a lot of people, but I'm surprised that "Party of 5" never found a large enough audience to warrant future release...

rw2516

I'd add the Dick Van Dyke Show and Beverly Hillbillies. Back when WGN and TBS were nothing but old movies and tv shows, along with at least one local channel, these shows(DVD, Lucy, Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillbillies) were on several times a day, morning , noon and night.

I just finished season one of I Love Lucy and it's fascinating to see the foundation laid for the situations and cliches that would become the blueprint for most sitcoms to follow.

Albert71292

Unfortunately, looks like The Beverly Hillbillies has stalled on DVD. Not sure if CBS/Paramount were unable to release season 1 because of the earlier MPI releases or what, because of rights issues, but a lot of people I know didn't even know the MPI releases were out there, and were confused as to why CBS/Paramount started with season 2.

The lack of a CBS/Paramount season 1, in my opinion, is probably the reason sales are lagging, since I remember when I bought the MPI releases, I ordered them from Amazon, because no stores near me carried them. Also, Paramount waited so long to release the show, and let the market get saturated with inferior public domain releases, which also might have confused purchasers.

drmar35mm

Someone commented that All In the Family is now very dated, and that's very true. Topical humor--even when it's pushing the edge of the envelope, as that show did--doesn't travel the decades well. There's also the very simple fact that Archie was a bigot jerk much of the time; not a really likable guy. Lucy Riccardo is a beloved, iconic figure in American cultural history, Archie is not. He's not somebody I want to spend any more time with. I spent time with him in the '70s and that's enough for me.

JOE29

That's the reason why I wouldn't buy the DVD's. When I heard they had to change the original music that destroyed them for me. And I really liked the show when it was on TV. I would of bought it.

mmyersisgod

Surprised they never even tried to release Golden Palace on DVD. Granted it has a bad reputation but die hard Golden Girls fans like myself would buy it.

WMAangel

I'd throw "The Brady Bunch" into that mix as well...it's not quite at the level of an "I Love Lucy" or "MASH", but still enjoys quite a following and higher level of popularity than most older shows...