"Here's Lucy" DVD Sales

[NOVARick]

I don't normally follow the sales figures for this DVD, but I've checked the Amazon ranking over the last several days and have noticed fairly decent sales for the "Here's Lucy" DVD set, which has been on the market for two years now. It has been ranking between 8,000 and 10,000 in DVD sales. Yesterday, "Here's Lucy" was at 8,019. That's not exactly the top of the list, but consider that the most recent release of "The Doris Day Show" (season three), which was released only two months ago, and "The Color Honeymooners," which was released just one month ago, have been ranked lower on Amazon than than the two-year-old "Here's Lucy" DVD set. Yesterday, they were at 9,258 and 9,510, respectively. "Happy Days," "The Joey Bishop Show", season five of "The Danny Thomas Show" ("Make Room for Daddy"), which were released around the same time in 2004 as "Here's Lucy," were all below "Here's Lucy." "Happy Days" was at 8,928; and "Danny Thomas" and "Joey Bishop" were well below HL at 55,621 and 12,364, respectively. Season one of "Laverne and Shirley" and "Mork and Mindy," also released in the same time period in 2004 as HL, were just a bit above HL yesterday at 7,702 and 6,171, respectively. The final season of "What's Happening," which was released one year ago is at 18,076.

Now this might be a temporary spike in sales and could have something to do with the fact that the TV show "Extra" ran a couple brief bits on "Here's Lucy" this week and mentioned this DVD. But again, I don't regularly check "Here's Lucy"'s Amazon ranking, so I can't tell if it's normal for "Here's Lucy" to be ranked this high on Amazon, or if it's related to the little bit of publicity it got this week.

[jehobden]

Originally Posted by NOVARick

Now this might be a temporary spike in sales and could have something to do with the fact that the TV show "Extra" ran a couple brief bits on "Here's Lucy" this week and mentioned this DVD. But again, I don't regularly check "Here's Lucy"'s Amazon ranking, so I can't tell if it's normal for "Here's Lucy" to be ranked this high on Amazon, or if it's related to the little bit of publicity it got this week.

Do you have a link to these rankings? I've tried Google & Amazon itself and cannot find them.

[NOVARick]

Originally Posted by jehobden

Do you have a link to these rankings? I've tried Google & Amazon itself and cannot find them.

You don't need a special link. For any book or DVD you query on Amazon.com, they will provide this information. For example, for "Here's Lucy" just go to Amazon.com and do a DVD search of "Here's Lucy," the same as you would do if you were going to order a copy. This will take you to the page with all the item details for that DVD. If you look down the list of information provided, you will see that it includes the current and previous day's ranking on Amazon.com.

[NOVARick]

Hmm. Today the "Here's Lucy" DVD is up to 6,629th place.

[comedyfreak]

The studios really need to see this, I'd like more Here's Lucy sets.

[Dizzy Arnizzy]

Thank you for the very interesting information about the Amazon.com DVD sales, NOVARick.

Contrary to what others have said, the "Here's Lucy" DVDs have sold better than expected...I have heard this from quite a few "insider" people who work for Paul Brownstein Productions (who produced the set), and Shout Factory. But it seems Shout! is not very interested in producing another set, as it has been nearly two years since the "Best of" set was released.

Maybe if we raise some money to help out Shout! with a future set, they might become interested...who knows??

I really hope ANY studio releases more "Here's Lucy" sets...the show hasn't aired in the U.S. in almost a decade. I've come very close to having the show being aired on two local networks here in Chicago, and if it wouldn't have been for "Here's Lucy"'s nasty distributor, Warner Bros., who almost always refuses to air their shows on independent, local networks. We need to get this show on the air, or even better, on DVD.

I believe I posted this before, but this seems a good time to post it again:

Here's a message someone posted at the Lucy Lounge a while back about how the set sold. And he got this info. from a friend who worked at Shout!, so this info. is very accurrate:

Sales of the HERE'S LUCY set exceeded expectations.

There was concern whether the set would be successful (that's why they went with a "Best of..." theme), and Shout Factory did not want to be locked into a long-term obligation in case the first set's sales were low. Subsequently, a license fee was negotitated only for the first volume.

It sold better than expected, and Shout Factory has interest in doing another set. But due to the favorable sales level, the show's licensors have asked for a higher license fee, higher than Shout Factory feels it can profitably handle.

So, HL Vol. 2 sits in limbo for the time being.

------------------------------------------

15,000 [DVD sets] is the average break-even benchmark for the major studios, e.g., Paramount, Sony/Columbia, 20th-Fox, etc....[to have to sell to get back in the money] all who proportionately allocate a percentage of their outrageous overhead costs (CA and LA taxes, studio liability insurances, studio assets depreciation, management compensation packages, et. al.) to each of their products.

BUT on an incremental, out-of-pocket cash basis, i.e., direct costs... break-even is closer to 3,000 units, covering licensing/royalties, internal production costs, out-sourced disc duplication, packaging, distribution and promotion.

Shout Factory is not a major studio. An independent, small, 100% quality, professional outfit, that often struggles to hit the 3,000 mark.

Shout Factory did well with HERE'S LUCY, on a cash basis. It was budgeted for a modest profit, and large pre-order sales achieved that objective sooner than expected.

But in the market, TV season sets have a diminshing return. For example, Paramount sold 20% fewer CHEERS Season 2 than Season 1, fewer Season 3, etc. Other studios and TV series see similar trends. (ILL does seem to be a rare exception to this.) Independent distributor Anchor Bay saw its THREE'S COMPANY sales drop off significantly for Seasons 2 and 3; 4 sales have spiked due to Don Knotts' fan base, but the company expects 5 and 6 to drop off drastically.

Licensing costs for a 2nd HERE'S LUCY volume have increased. Add in the market trend for smaller follow-up sales. Shout Factory does not reasonably feel confident, that it can profitably continue at the present time.

[Benno123]

I'm curious about what was the features about Here's Lucy on the Extra show? Maybe I need to watch this show more!!!

[NOVARick]

Originally Posted by Benno123

I'm curious about what was the features about Here's Lucy on the Extra show? Maybe I need to watch this show more!!!

Well I wouldn't really recommend watching more of this show, or others of its ilk, unless you're really concerned with such important information as whom Paris Hilton is sleeping with this week. I just happened to have the TV on when this show started and they had a teaser about "never before seen behind-the-scenes footage" of Lucy with Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. Another teaser before a commercial said something about Lucille Ball strangling Liz Taylor. Then when the segment finally came on at the end of the show, it last all of about two minutes and was consisted of a quick recap of the plot of the "Lucy Meets the Burton" episode, which they referred to as "one of Ball's best bits," and which ended with Lucy CARTER nearly strangling Liz Taylor. And the "never before seen" footage was a few seconds of the rehearsal footage that all of us who have the DVD have seen. At the end of the segment, they showed a picture of the "Here's Lucy Best Loved Episodes" DVD cover. They were advertising that later in the week the would show rehearsal footage of Lucille Ball and Johnny Carson. I didn't see actually see the show, but it was clear they were just going to show the same Lucille Ball and Johnny Carson "Here's Lucy" rehearsal footage that's also on the DVD.

[NOVARick]

When I respond to quickly to a message, I think I'm about as clear as mud. In case you didn't get what I was saying here, "Extra" was advertising that, in a separate episode a couple days after they covered the Burton/Taylor episode, they were going to show the Johnny Carson footage. I saw the episode where they talked about the Burton/Taylor episode, but not the one later in the week about the Johnny Carson episode.

Originally Posted by NOVARick

Well I wouldn't really recommend watching more of this show, or others of its ilk, unless you're really concerned with such important information as whom Paris Hilton is sleeping with this week. I just happened to have the TV on when this show started and they had a teaser about "never before seen behind-the-scenes footage" of Lucy with Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. Another teaser before a commercial said something about Lucille Ball strangling Liz Taylor. Then when the segment finally came on at the end of the show, it last all of about two minutes and was consisted of a quick recap of the plot of the "Lucy Meets the Burton" episode, which they referred to as "one of Ball's best bits," and which ended with Lucy CARTER nearly strangling Liz Taylor. And the "never before seen" footage was a few seconds of the rehearsal footage that all of us who have the DVD have seen. At the end of the segment, they showed a picture of the "Here's Lucy Best Loved Episodes" DVD cover. They were advertising that later in the week the would show rehearsal footage of Lucille Ball and Johnny Carson. I didn't see actually see the show, but it was clear they were just going to show the same Lucille Ball and Johnny Carson "Here's Lucy" rehearsal footage that's also on the DVD.

[NOVARick]

Thanks for posting this explanation. I'm pretty sure I know your source as that person has told me pretty much the same thing. As you note, this DVD was considered successful as the sales were better than Shout! had expected. So it's unfortunate we haven't been able to see further releases. I wonder if the Garry Marshall sitcoms that had first season releases in 2004 (Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy) have not had any further releases since then for the same reasons?

Originally Posted by Dizzy Arnizzy

Thank you for the very interesting information about the Amazon.com DVD sales, NOVARick.

Contrary to what others have said, the "Here's Lucy" DVDs have sold better than expected...I have heard this from quite a few "insider" people who work for Paul Brownstein Productions (who produced the set), and Shout Factory. But it seems Shout! is not very interested in producing another set, as it has been nearly two years since the "Best of" set was released.

Maybe if we raise some money to help out Shout! with a future set, they might become interested...who knows??

I really hope ANY studio releases more "Here's Lucy" sets...the show hasn't aired in the U.S. in almost a decade. I've come very close to having the show being aired on two local networks here in Chicago, and if it wouldn't have been for "Here's Lucy"'s nasty distributor, Warner Bros., who almost always refuses to air their shows on independent, local networks. We need to get this show on the air, or even better, on DVD.

I believe I posted this before, but this seems a good time to post it again:

Here's a message someone posted at the Lucy Lounge a while back about how the set sold. And he got this info. from a friend who worked at Shout!, so this info. is very accurrate:

Sales of the HERE'S LUCY set exceeded expectations.

There was concern whether the set would be successful (that's why they went with a "Best of..." theme), and Shout Factory did not want to be locked into a long-term obligation in case the first set's sales were low. Subsequently, a license fee was negotitated only for the first volume.

It sold better than expected, and Shout Factory has interest in doing another set. But due to the favorable sales level, the show's licensors have asked for a higher license fee, higher than Shout Factory feels it can profitably handle.

So, HL Vol. 2 sits in limbo for the time being.

------------------------------------------

15,000 [DVD sets] is the average break-even benchmark for the major studios, e.g., Paramount, Sony/Columbia, 20th-Fox, etc....[to have to sell to get back in the money] all who proportionately allocate a percentage of their outrageous overhead costs (CA and LA taxes, studio liability insurances, studio assets depreciation, management compensation packages, et. al.) to each of their products.

BUT on an incremental, out-of-pocket cash basis, i.e., direct costs... break-even is closer to 3,000 units, covering licensing/royalties, internal production costs, out-sourced disc duplication, packaging, distribution and promotion.

Shout Factory is not a major studio. An independent, small, 100% quality, professional outfit, that often struggles to hit the 3,000 mark.

Shout Factory did well with HERE'S LUCY, on a cash basis. It was budgeted for a modest profit, and large pre-order sales achieved that objective sooner than expected.

But in the market, TV season sets have a diminshing return. For example, Paramount sold 20% fewer CHEERS Season 2 than Season 1, fewer Season 3, etc. Other studios and TV series see similar trends. (ILL does seem to be a rare exception to this.) Independent distributor Anchor Bay saw its THREE'S COMPANY sales drop off significantly for Seasons 2 and 3; 4 sales have spiked due to Don Knotts' fan base, but the company expects 5 and 6 to drop off drastically.

Licensing costs for a 2nd HERE'S LUCY volume have increased. Add in the market trend for smaller follow-up sales. Shout Factory does not reasonably feel confident, that it can profitably continue at the present time.

[NOVARick]

Oh, by the way, supposedly the next generation of TV show and movie releases will be downloadable versions to your computer. When this begins to happen, the cost of releasing TV shows will be almost nothing compared to DVDs because there will be none of the materials and packaging costs and distribution costs associated with actual physical DVDs. So the hurdle for making a profit will be much, much lower than it is now with DVDs, which means the likelihood of seeing full season-by-season releases of "Here's Lucy" and other shows will greatly increase.

[rjt100]

I believe that after "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" is released in February of 2007 we will see a season by season release of "The Lucy Show." After all six seasons of "The Lucy Show" are released we will then see "Here's Lucy" released in season sets. Paramount Home Video have the DVD rights to both "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy." It's just a matter of time. I guess you can't put out all the Lucy shows at the same time. Success depends on how they are marketing the shows and now that the early shows are out of the way all the others will follow.

[TV DVD Fan]

I sure hope you're right, rjt100. I'm anxious to add another terrific Here's Lucy set to my collection.

[Benno123]

Unless the Arnaz children are involved, or the series is released by a special label like Shout Factory, I don't think a HL release will be as high of quality as the "best of" release. The special features are still some of the best I've seen on any release - tv show or feature film release.

I just hope that when The Lucy Show gets released, that all the original credits will be used, including the Lucy in a box" opening!

[sigmapi30]

Dont forget Life With Lucy.
We need that released too!!