I fear for the show making its way to DVD. First of all. There seems to be an apparent division over which seasons are better. The first two, which are called the 50s episodes, season 3 through about 8, which seems to be the Fonzie episodes, and season 9 through 11 which appear to be about Chachi.

Apparently you'll have a certain number of fans who only want to buy, let's say, season one and two becuase they don't like when teh show changed into the fonzie show, where certain fans feel it turned into a kid farce. THen there are those people who only care for only the fonzie episodes because that's what is most prominent in the show. The "fonzie episodes." then there are those poeple, very few, who only like the episodes where Arnold's Bar has been remodeled and now you have Ted McGinley to look at.

This division will not translate well into DVD sells and could ultimately lance the possibility of seeing future sets released.

I don't see any reason why Season One won't sell well. Personally, I'm one of the one's who will only buy the first two seasons. But by doing so, I'll be increasing the chances of more releases. I don't think season 3 (or any of the Richie seasons) are bad, but there's too many better things to spend my money on.

Yes I think later Happy Days is absolutely terrible, but hey I'll also probably buy 5 seasons of The Brady Bunch, which I can't defend artistically in any way. It's not even really funny. We laugh at the Bradys, not with them.

I'm going to buy all seasons but the ones I want most are 8-11.

I for one intend on buying all the seasons. A few seasons were better than others but all of them were great.

Do you see what I mean? The sets are already in trouble.

Originally posted by Screenwriter
Do you see what I mean? The sets are already in trouble. I do see your point. I hope they do release all the seasons, HD does have a fairly large fanbase, hopefully there's enough people interested in buying all the seasons of the show that they do create all season sets. I'd really like to have them all, it would feel like a waste of money if I bought 5-6 seasons and then they stopped releasing them. I'll still buy them anyhow though, some is better than none at all.

I'll buy all of the seasons if they do end up releasing them all.

I would buy all the seasons. I think that Paramount should release all the seasons regardless of how much the DVDs sell. People who buy them usually do so because the episodes they see on TV are cut up, aren't of good quality, and because it's a helluva better alternative collecting them on DVD than on VHS, where the quality goes down over the years.

i fully intend to buy all of the seasons, and i dont think that they will have any problems with sales through the first 7 seasons, and after that, there should be enough momentum for the rest of them to come out...

Originally posted by Brian
I think that Paramount should release all the seasons regardless of how much the DVDs sell.

Brian, let me try to explain something to you. Let's say they release the first two seasons... and they sell terrificially... and then they sell the third one... and it doesn't sell as many copies... wouldn't that be a loss in profit? Why would you want to take a chance with Season 4 if Season 3 didn't sell well? It's not the brightest financial idea.

If they all came out on DVD, I personally would buy all of the seasons of it!!

shivvy xXx

I prefer the Fonzie episodes anyway and hey, Shivvy, my sister's got your name too.

Kool!! Is her real name Siobhan?!?!?

I've only recently started watching Happy Days, and I havn't seen that many episodes of it, so I'm not sure which are which beteween the different series' of them! But I would buy all of them if they came out on DVD!!!

Shivvy xXx

Originally posted by Screenwriter
Brian, let me try to explain something to you. Let's say they release the first two seasons... and they sell terrificially... and then they sell the third one... and it doesn't sell as many copies... wouldn't that be a loss in profit? Why would you want to take a chance with Season 4 if Season 3 didn't sell well? It's not the brightest financial idea.

From what I understand from what I've read about DVD sales, how much the first season sales, that pattern continues through the rest of the seasons basically. I don't know how true that is though.

I think Season 1 will sell well, but being released the same day as Laverne and Shirley might hurt sales a bit, there's people who love both shows, and don't want to have to choose between which one to buy, then there's some who like one show just a bit more than the other, and they would tend to buy the one they like more better. Oh well, I think that it will sell well though :)

If you stop to think about it, "M*A*S*H*" is in the same boat as "Happy Days"....there are some "M*A*S*H*" fans who prefer the early, sillier "McLean Stevenson & Wayne Rogers" seasons, while others are Col. Potter fans and prefer the more serious "Harry Morgan & Mike Farrell" seasons...and even LATER "David Ogden Stiers" seasons. These season/cast preferences don't seem to have hurt the sales or releases of "M*A*S*H" DVD sets in the least. Many DVD buyers/collectors are "completists", so even if they're not too wild about a certain "Happy Days" format or season, there's a good chance that they will buy the non-favorite DVDs anyway, just to keep their collection complete.

i think that one of the reasons that there are NO special features on the season one set is because they are saving them for the the later ones they think will sell badly

Originally posted by robyrob
i think that one of the reasons that there are NO special features on the season one set is because they are saving them for the the later ones they think will sell badly

I wouldn't be too quick to make that assumption. There are 16 episodes to the first season. Why they're giving us three discs is an odd thing. Wouldn't it be a lot easier if they just put 8 episodes on each disc? Two discs would cost less. Apparently it's a sign of price gouging... everyone's in the business to make money.

They at least, if anything, could've put a featurette on this set to show how the show came to be. Maybe they wanted to keep the price low.... I don't know... it's insulting to the show that they didn't have at least a commentary by Ron Howard and Henry Winkler....
They were always best of friends on set.

Originally posted by Screenwriter
I wouldn't be too quick to make that assumption. There are 16 episodes to the first season. Why they're giving us three discs is an odd thing. Wouldn't it be a lot easier if they just put 8 episodes on each disc? Two discs would cost less. Apparently it's a sign of price gouging... everyone's in the business to make money.

They at least, if anything, could've put a featurette on this set to show how the show came to be. Maybe they wanted to keep the price low.... I don't know... it's insulting to the show that they didn't have at least a commentary by Ron Howard and Henry Winkler....
They were always best of friends on set.

The more episodes you put on a disc, the worse the quality is. 3 discs is just right for 16 episodes. :)

Originally posted by robyrob
i think that one of the reasons that there are NO special features on the season one set is because they are saving them for the the later ones they think will sell badly Sounds like something they'd do. That would be cool, the show on DVD alone is awesome, but with special features it would be pure greatness.

I must be one of the few that liked all 11 seasons of Happy Days.

Originally posted by mr roper
I must be one of the few that liked all 11 seasons of Happy Days. You're not alone, though. I enjoy every season and thats what makes it my favorite show. I can watch any episode and enjoy it alot. Sure, some seasons were a little less than perfect compared to other seasons but they all had their ups and downs, and as a whole its a great show. The best in my opinion.

But not everyone shares that opinion. The division exists.

Hopefully it won't be the harbinger of the HD DVDs doom.

Originally posted by pilotguy
If you stop to think about it, "M*A*S*H*" is in the same boat as "Happy Days"....there are some "M*A*S*H*" fans who prefer the early, sillier "McLean Stevenson & Wayne Rogers" seasons, while others are Col. Potter fans and prefer the more serious "Harry Morgan & Mike Farrell" seasons...and even LATER "David Ogden Stiers" seasons. These season/cast preferences don't seem to have hurt the sales or releases of "M*A*S*H" DVD sets in the least. Many DVD buyers/collectors are "completists", so even if they're not too wild about a certain "Happy Days" format or season, there's a good chance that they will buy the non-favorite DVDs anyway, just to keep their collection complete.

That's very interesting. But remember, once Ron Howard and Donny Most left... the show was by then, crippled...

However, M*A*S*H did not end after it's third season. In fact, Mike Farrell was worried that he'd cause doom for the show. I do fear for M*A*S*H though, because once Radar left, the show was not itself after that. But you do have a point about the DVD Completist.

Then again, you have to realize that Happy Days cannot be compared to M*A*S*H... M*A*S*H was about a war... Happy Days was about the 50s without the McCarthyism... and the Korean War... and... well, the U.S. never really knew that we had been in the Vietnam War until the later 70s.... but then again...

Anyway, that's a very good point Pilotguy!

I too will definately buy ALL the seasons.

My ultimate favorite seasons are from the beginning up to and including the first season with AL.

But from that point, there are only a handful of episodes I like up to the end.

Corniest: When the gang go to a Dude Ranch to save Marion's(?) Uncle's ranch.

I loved the Westward Ho episodes.

Bottom line is that if Season One sells, then we will see Season Two and so forth. I will probably stop at season seven myself. It wasn't the same show after that and lost a lot of its distinctiveness with the dreaded Roger, etc. But that's just me.

Originally posted by The Modfather
I'm going to buy all seasons but the ones I want most are 8-11.

You're being sarcastic, right?? I'd hate to think you were serious...:eek:

After the seventh season? Are you kidding me? The show lost it's distinctiveness after the second season.

Get real people!

Now as far as the later seasons being entertaining... yeah, it was entertaining.

(I take that back... it lost it's focus after the 2nd season. But it also lost some of it's distinctiveness too.)

I'm actually a big fan of Roger and Ted McGinley. The later seasons (Post-Richie/Ralph) actually are where some of my favorite episodes are. All are the seasons are awesome though.

Originally posted by Dr. Thong
You're being sarcastic, right?? I'd hate to think you were serious...:eek: some of us "older" HD fans sometimes forget that the younger generation may not have been introduced to Happy Days chronologically at all

- so the Happy Days that they FIRST saw and fell in love with may have been the later seasons with Roger, Jenny, and KC.

I think that because we saw the show change so much, that it prevents us from seeing that in the later seasons it was still a good show in it's own right.

Originally posted by robyrob
i think that one of the reasons that there are NO special features on the season one set is because they are saving them for the the later ones they think will sell badly

There seems to be a pattern with 70's sitcoms(with the exception of Three's Company) that alot them have no extras, Mork and Mindy, HD, Laverne and Shirley, Good Times, What's Happening, The Jeffersons, etc.

Plus Paramount doesn't seem to do any extras at all on their DVDs :rolleyes: