DVD Talk reviews for July 7th, 2014
07-08-14, 02:15 AM
#1
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DVD Talk reviews for July 7th, 2014
Below are DVD Talk's reviews for July 7th, 2014. For a complete list of reviews, visit the review index.
DVD TALK COLLECTOR SERIES
Judex (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Jack Taylor: Set 2 by Nick Hartel
The Legend of Korra - Book Two: Spirits (Blu-ray) by Neil Lumbard
WWE: WCW's Greatest PPV Matches (Volume 1) by Nick Hartel
RECOMMENDED
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues: The Complete First Season by Justin Remer
Rigor Mortis (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane
Southern Comfort (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane
RENT IT
Killing American Style by Nick Hartel
Republic of Doyle: Season One by Nick Hartel
WWE: The Best of Raw - After the Show by Nick Hartel
SKIP IT
Helix: Season 1 (Blu-ray) by Tyler Foster
DVD TALK COLLECTOR SERIES
Judex (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Jack Taylor: Set 2 by Nick Hartel
The Legend of Korra - Book Two: Spirits (Blu-ray) by Neil Lumbard
WWE: WCW's Greatest PPV Matches (Volume 1) by Nick Hartel
RECOMMENDED
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues: The Complete First Season by Justin Remer
Rigor Mortis (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane
Southern Comfort (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane
RENT IT
Killing American Style by Nick Hartel
Republic of Doyle: Season One by Nick Hartel
WWE: The Best of Raw - After the Show by Nick Hartel
SKIP IT
Helix: Season 1 (Blu-ray) by Tyler Foster
07-10-14, 08:14 PM
#2
DVD Talk Legend
Re: DVD Talk reviews for July 7th, 2014
I've got something to share about "Kung Fu: TLC".... In his excellent review, Justin wrote:
I was around back then, watching KF:TLC and TimeTrax, but mostly watching Babylon 5... all PTEN shows. When Fox decided to try to break into the ABC-CBS-NBC 3-opoly for broadcast network television, it approached all of the independent channels it could find and got many of them to sign on. Warner saw that Fox had been enjoying success and they wanted a piece as well, but with nearly all of the available channels already obligated to one of the (now) 4 networks, they had to use a different model. That's where PTEN came from... Warner figured they could produce and syndicate their own shows, market them to whatever channels they could get to sign-up, and allow those channels to air the shows weekly in a timeslot of their own choosing.
For channels that had limited programming of their own, this was viewed as a godsend. Fox only offered a few hours of shows nightly (Tracey Ullman, Garry Shandling, In Living Color were notable hits), and the independents that had signed on with them still lacked programming to offer in other slots. Warner did one very clever thing IMO - when marketing their PTEN shows, they emphasized that only one channel per market would be able to show them. This meant that even though the PTEN programming was synticated, it would still be more or less "owned" by whatever channel in that market decided to buy and broadcast it. So, for those channels that lacked "unique" programming, PTEN would supposedly filled a niche for them.
Most of the channels that needed more syndicated shows were the former independent channels - those with Fox now - so most of the time you would find PTEN being broadcast by the local Fox affiliate. But since Fox's programming was all during primetime evening hours, your local channel would usually slot PTEN shows in unfavorable late-night slots.
In my case, PTEN shows were broadcast by WKEF-22, which was NOT the local Fox affiliate.... I think they were ABC... and as such they had MUCH more native programming already scheduled. So Babylon 5 would get slotted into the 1am-2am time on early Monday mornings.... and would often slip if live sports programming on Sunday forced the channel to timeshift everything. Since WKEF had a non-24 hour broadcast day, they would not need to join anything "in progress"... if the game went 45 minutes long, all of the rest of the programming would start 45 minutes late. Babylon 5 was their final show of the day before the National Anthem and them going off the air, so setting the VCR to record it was a b*tch.
The inconsistent air dates/time and the market-by-market difficulties associated with finding the PTEN programming ultimately doomed the concept. If this had happened 10 years later, the burgeoning internet would have helped folks who wanted to watch these shows find them.
Although the internet tells me that Kung Fu: The Legend Continues ran Wednesday nights on PTEN, Warner Brothers' first attempt at its own TV network in the '90s, I remember catching the show on my local Fox affiliate on Sunday afternoons.
For channels that had limited programming of their own, this was viewed as a godsend. Fox only offered a few hours of shows nightly (Tracey Ullman, Garry Shandling, In Living Color were notable hits), and the independents that had signed on with them still lacked programming to offer in other slots. Warner did one very clever thing IMO - when marketing their PTEN shows, they emphasized that only one channel per market would be able to show them. This meant that even though the PTEN programming was synticated, it would still be more or less "owned" by whatever channel in that market decided to buy and broadcast it. So, for those channels that lacked "unique" programming, PTEN would supposedly filled a niche for them.
Most of the channels that needed more syndicated shows were the former independent channels - those with Fox now - so most of the time you would find PTEN being broadcast by the local Fox affiliate. But since Fox's programming was all during primetime evening hours, your local channel would usually slot PTEN shows in unfavorable late-night slots.
In my case, PTEN shows were broadcast by WKEF-22, which was NOT the local Fox affiliate.... I think they were ABC... and as such they had MUCH more native programming already scheduled. So Babylon 5 would get slotted into the 1am-2am time on early Monday mornings.... and would often slip if live sports programming on Sunday forced the channel to timeshift everything. Since WKEF had a non-24 hour broadcast day, they would not need to join anything "in progress"... if the game went 45 minutes long, all of the rest of the programming would start 45 minutes late. Babylon 5 was their final show of the day before the National Anthem and them going off the air, so setting the VCR to record it was a b*tch.
The inconsistent air dates/time and the market-by-market difficulties associated with finding the PTEN programming ultimately doomed the concept. If this had happened 10 years later, the burgeoning internet would have helped folks who wanted to watch these shows find them.
