Paramount '70's and '80's DVD questions

[bmasters9]

I have a couple of things that I would like to know about Paramount's DVD releases of some of their older ('70's and '80's) television series:

1. First, why is it (with rare exceptions such as "MacGyver" and "The Brady Bunch," maybe even "Happy Days") that Paramount insists on keeping its television history off DVD (not the shows, mind you, but the historical logos that were on those shows all those years ago)-- in other words, why (again, with the rare exceptions that are mentioned above) do they use their current or recent logos on the DVD's of their older series, such as "Taxi", "Family Ties," and "Cheers"?

2. Secondly, why, on the DVD's of Paramount's older series, is there virtually nil in the way of bonus features (making-of, bloopers, audio commentary) and English as the only spoken language-- no other languages or subtitles?

[bencasey]

Originally Posted by bmasters9

I have a couple of things that I would like to know about Paramount's DVD releases of some of their older ('70's and '80's) television series:

1. First, why is it (with rare exceptions such as "MacGyver" and "The Brady Bunch," maybe even "Happy Days") that Paramount insists on keeping its television history off DVD (not the shows, mind you, but the historical logos that were on those shows all those years ago)-- in other words, why (again, with the rare exceptions that are mentioned above) do they use their current or recent logos on the DVD's of their older series, such as "Taxi", "Family Ties," and "Cheers"?

2. Secondly, why, on the DVD's of Paramount's older series, is there virtually nil in the way of bonus features (making-of, bloopers, audio commentary) and English as the only spoken language-- no other languages or subtitles?

To answer your questions:

1 - All companies do this, not just Paramount. They are not as interested in the historical accuracy of maintaining decades old logos as the fans are. Sometimes they do though. Check out the Desilu logo on the Mission Impossible first season set.

2 - The cheaper they do the sets, the fewer copies have to be sold for them to make a profit and continue the series. Extras are great but if it means they then have to sell far more sets to make it profitable, I would rather get them nice, complete and bare bones with much more likelihood of the sets continuing.

[bmasters9]

Originally Posted by bencasey

To answer your questions:

1 - All companies due this, not just Paramount. They are not as interested in the historical accuracy of maintaining decades old logos as the fans are. Sometimes they do though. Check out the Desilu logo on the Mission Impossible first season set.

2 - The cheaper they do the sets, the fewer copies have to be sold for them to make a profit and continue the series. Extras are great but if it means they then have to sell far more sets to make it profitable, I would rather get them nice, complete and bare bones with much more likelihood of the sets continuing.

I'd like to thank you for that intelligent reply that you gave to the original post. I do not believe that I had known those things about Paramount's DVD TV series releases. Your reply should help me make a better decision about what to get if I get other television series DVD's.

One other thing-- I have heard it said (from reviews of "MacGyver" and "Family Ties") that there are commercials on those sets for other Paramount series on disc, and that these commercials are mandatory-- you are not allowed to skip past them to get to the menus. Is this correct? If it is, doesn't that sound somewhat, shall we say, lame?

[friendsfan77]

^ I hate that certain DVDs don't let you skip commercials and/or FBI warnings. Seriously, forcing people to watch that stuff is not gonna make people want to copy it any less.

[Ant-Lox]

The Paramount commercials on my Frasier Discs are skippable. And Sony has those un-skippable FBI Warnings which are annoying.