The Color Honeymooners Vol. 2 Coming Soon

[Benno123]

www.tvshowsondvd.com has a news item on their site today (Oct. 9) saying that while a release date and other information has not been released, MPI did say that a second collection of the color shows will be released on DVD at an upcoming date. Maybe this time they will release more than 9 shows in the set, maybe the short skits that have not been shown, who knows! Just wanted to pass along what I saw!

[gotsmart]

This is great news. It's been a long time since the last set was released. Even though this isn't as good as the original episodes I'll still be picking up this set b/c I've never seen these episodes and I thought that the ones on Collection 1 were decent. Hopefully it will include about 15 or so episodes this time around.

[Bill S.]

Interesting. My guess is we'll have some additional information within the next few weeks. I just took a look at the news archives over at that website and noticed that they received their first heads-up on Collection 1 on February 26th of last year, and by March 12th they had the cover art and episode details. Hopefully they'll continue to release them in chronological order, and maybe bump the number of episodes up to 10. If they do release 10 this time, chances are they'll continue to do that on future releases, and depending on whether or not they decide to release all 49, there should only be about 3 more volumes after this. They're really taking their time with these releases though...if they continue with this one release a year routine, it'll be 2010 before they get all the color shows out there...and who knows what's happening with the Lost Episodes at this point...

Here's the article though, for anyone interested:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Jackie-Gleason-Color-Honeymooners-Collection-2/8223

[MrBand]

Well, I'm happy with this news. I honestly thought they were abandoning the series as so many companies have done with classic shows if they don't reach sales expectations. IIRC, they'll be resuming with "Run, Santa, Run." I had suggested to MPI that they could have a stand alone Christmas release with this installment and the Poor Soul Christmas from 1966, though the music rights to that one could be tricky. If the second volume has the next nine shows, it would cover through "Sees All, Knows All" and the end of the 1966-67 season.

[gotsmart]

They're really taking their time with these releases though...if they continue with this one release a year routine, it'll be 2010 before they get all the color shows out there...and who knows what's happening with the Lost Episodes at this point...
[/url]

I Know it IS taking a long time. They have been very speedy with most of their other shows. Didn't MPI say that they were going to rerelease the lost episodes? It would be nice if they added more episodes per disc, put them in airdate order, gave them some nicer packaging, and lower the prices. I hope that they do decide to put them out again because the first versions are a bit sloppy in presentation and organization.

[Bill S.]

Well, I'm happy with this news. I honestly thought they were abandoning the series as so many companies have done with classic shows if they don't reach sales expectations. IIRC, they'll be resuming with "Run, Santa, Run." I had suggested to MPI that they could have a stand alone Christmas release with this installment and the Poor Soul Christmas from 1966, though the music rights to that one could be tricky. If the second volume has the next nine shows, it would cover through "Sees All, Knows All" and the end of the 1966-67 season.
Well, according to that link I posted, the first release was successful...so it's a mystery to me why it's taken over a year for them to give official word of a second volume. If they're continuing with "Run, Santa, Run," then that's a good thing, because that means they will keep releasing them in order of air date. As you pointed out though, "Sees All, Knows All," which would be the ninth episode in this collection, is the last episode from that 1966-1967 season, so it'll be interesting to see whether or not they leave it at 9 episodes this time. I'm curious to see what they will do once they get to the shorter episodes, hopefully those won't be excluded because AmericanLife doesn't show them.

Didn't MPI say that they were going to rerelease the lost episodes? It would be nice if they added more episodes per disc, put them in airdate order, gave them some nicer packaging, and lower the prices. I hope that they do decide to put them out again because the first versions are a bit sloppy in presentation and organization.
I hate to turn every Color Honeymooners thread into a complaint about the Lost Episodes, but yes, MPI, a company that's had the rights to these episodes since the 80's, claimed in 2004 that they were going to re-release the Lost Episodes. Not only were they planning on re-releasing these episodes, but they were supposedly "extensively restoring them." The Lost Episode collections out there right now just don't cut it for me...they're incomplete, overpriced and poorly packaged. Those 6 box sets, priced at about $45 each, only contain 76 episodes combined. Apparently they were unaware that 103 Honeymooners sketches were performed on The Jackie Gleason Show from 1952 to 1957...

Granted, the Lost Episodes are segments taken from an hour-long variety show, so you can't really compare this material not being released to other stand alone sitcoms, but come on now, almost 20 years and you can't release everything you have? They don't even have to re-release them! They could've just thrown the 27 episodes they excluded onto two additional box sets. I guess they're just trying to milk this material for what it's worth though... :rolleyes: