http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=655

20th Century Fox has jumped into the "TV Shows On DVD" poll arena, with brand-new survey (http://www2.foxhome.com/tvdvd/poll/) that asks "Which of the following TV shows would you most like to see released on DVD? Please pick your top 5!"

http://tvshowsondvd.com/graphics/news/Fox_TV-DVD_Poll.jpg

Shows listed that you can vote for are:

Ally McBeal (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=633)
Bernie Mac (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=5222)
Boston Public (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=1064)
Dharma & Greg (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=405)
Chicago Hope (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=101)
Greg the Bunny (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=5300)
Harsh Realm (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=1565)
John Doe (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=6104)
The Lone Gunmen (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=2097)
Millenium (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=2798)
Newhart (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=3047)
Nothing Sacred (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=3092)
Picket Fences (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=3328)
The Practice (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=3394)
The Pretender (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=3400)
Reality TV Programming
Reba (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=5203)
Remington Steele (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=3518)
Roswell (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=3613)
The Simpsons (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=3824)
The Time Tunnel (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=4288)
Titus (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=4296)
The Tracy Ullman Show (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=4352)
The Wonder Years (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=4714)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=4526)

The inclusion of some shows is surprising, frankly.The Wonder Years and Ally McBeal, it's been hinted in the past, would cost so much in music rights licenses that a DVD release of these (beyond what's already been seen) might be prohibitive. Here is hoping that a sufficiently high response for these two shows would convince Fox that it's worth spending the money!

Likewise, Roswell (still the #1 most-requested show at TVShowsOndDVD) has been said to have high music costs; it is probably in a similar situation. Another Fox-owned show that's in the same boat - WKRP - has noticably been left off the poll. It's probably the most expensive one of them all, so Fox probably wants to test the waters with the others first.

Shows on that survey may be included for reasons that have to do with their historical importance, too: Remington Steel of course is the show that brought Pierce Brosnan to the attention of the folks who produce the 007 movies, and The Tracey Ullman Show is the series that was the birthplace of The Simpsons.

After you pick and rank your top five shows on that list, click the "submit" button and the screen will change to show you the current status of all the shows listed. These don't seem to be percentages, since the totals after I voted add up to 192.77. I won't mention what's in the lead right now, because that is certainly going to change as the poll continues. But I can assure you that these results aren't updated live when you vote...one of the shows I voted for was still at "0" after the results were displayed. Hopefull, whatever system they're using, Fox will let us all know who the winners are.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=721

Video Store Magazine reports (http://www.hive4media.com/news/html/breaking_article.cfm?sec_id=2&article_ID=5386) on the results to date of the Fox TV-on-DVD poll we reported on a month ago (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=655). In it, our own Gord Lacey - Owner and WebMaster of TVShowsOnDVD - was quoted by VSM reporter T.K. Arnold:


Fans of TV shows on DVD would rather see "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," a classic sci-fi program from the 1960s, than "The Practice," "Ally McBeal" or even "The Simpsons," according to preliminary results from a poll on the Fox TV DVD Web site.

Presented with a list of 25 shows, fans said they'd most like to see "Voyage" appear on DVD, giving the series -- which ran from 1964 until 1968 -- 21.1 percent of their votes.

Only the TV show "The Pretender" garnered more votes, with 24.3 percent of fans surveyed making it their top pick.

After "Voyage," the most in-demand series is "The Lone Gunmen" (16.7 percent), a spinoff of "The X-Files" that premiered in March 2001.

The only other programs in the double digits are "The Wonder Years" (13.1 percent), "Millennium" (10.4 percent) and "Roswell" (10.2 percent).

"Ally McBeal" got 6 percent of the votes, "The Practice" received 3.5 percent, and "The Simpsons" got 9.3 percent.

The fewest votes: the broad "reality TV programming" category, with 1.7 percent.

Gord Lacey, who operates the TV Shows on DVD Web site, applauds polls such as this, which are being conducted with increasing frequency by studios anxious to minimize their risk in issuing bulky "complete season" boxed sets of TV shows on DVD.

"It's nice that the studios are willing to listen to what consumers want," Lacey said. "Sometimes consumers feel the studios don't listen; this is helping to erase those thoughts."


In a releated article (http://www.hive4media.com/news/html/breaking_article.cfm?sec_id=2&article_ID=5385), Video Store Magazine also reported that Fox is among the top-5 most prolific studios among TV-shows-on-DVD releasers. Warner, however, took the top spot, based on the combination of studios under their distribution pacts that include BBC, PBS, and HBO.