The DVDonDVD truth from Doug Denoff

[ddenoff]

Greetings, everyone, here's the truth from me, Doug Denoff, owner of www.dickvandykeshow.com and son of Sam Denoff.

your posts have just been brought to my attention by Steve and after reading all of them, I want you to have the facts. Then maybe we can all use our power to get The William Morris Agency to undo the mess they've caused.

For those of you unfamiliar with the nonsense of Hollywood, The William Morris Agency represents Calvada Productions which of course owns the DVD Show. Calvada was formed by Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke, Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas.

The Agency also represented my dad and Bill Persky for many years.

I created the website in 1998 originally out of love for the joyous experience of growing up with the DVD show in my house. As you may know, Good Times entertainment released about 30 episodes on VHS in 1995 but this was pre-Internet and they didn't sell at all. I originally wanted to release the 1968 color CBS Special "Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman" because 1) it's a wonderful special which never re-ran, and 2) I had a small part in it!

In 1999 I contacted WMA and they told me that a scumbag named Paul Brownstein had been given the right to try to sell the special on behalf of Calvada, but it was hard to sell because so many famous songs were used in it that the music royalties would make it unprofitable. for many months I chatted repeatedly with Paul about my idea and he kept telling me it was pointless.

I also came to know Dave Van Deusen at The Walnut Times. He's a good friend now and encouraged my ideas and projects.

In October 2000, I realized that October 3, 2001 would be the 40th anniversary of the show. I spoke with my Dad and we agreed that it made sense to release all 158 episodes on the anniversary on DVD which had never been done; hence www.dvdondvd.com !

I dicussed it with Mr. Brownstein who continually said it would be a very tough sale (now you KNOW he's an idiot). So I called WMA and arranged a meeting with the lead agent for Calvada. My Dad and I went in with a full presentation, research, and copies of many of your letters from the dvdondvd website. She agreed that the idea was wonderful. We proposed licensing the rights in exchange for a very favorable profit sharing with Calvada. They would put up zero money. I would pay for the manufacturing of the DVD's out of my own pocket. I had spoken with La-z-boy about manufacturing the ottoman for the special edition.

We began negotiating a contract. WMA suggested that we keep Brownstein on our team to handle the many administrative and royalty issues and he agreed to become a participant as a part of MY company. But he continued to downplay the entire idea - suggesting we'd only sell a few hundred complete sets.

We began researching additional material and I found bloopers and other material never before seen (although Mr. Reiner later asked that we not use bloopers because he wants the world to only see rob and laura in character - we would of course respect his wishes)

The final step was to get the blessing of Mr. Van Dyke's personal agent. Dad and I met with him, gave him the presentation.

Meanwhile, in March 2001, behind my back, Brownstein talked to Image Entertainment and got them to bid on buying the rights from Calvada. I was furious since he did not approach them on behalf of ME or what I thought was 'OUR' project. Paul claimed that Image was just an alternative for US to hire to do the actual manufacturing - not a competitor. By the way, if you visit image-entertainment's website, you'll see that they are hardly the right fit for the DVD show with all the soft-core junk they release.

Anyway, Dick's agent refused to make a decision for many months. Brownstein and I spoke several times a week and he constantly played as if he was on the team, and I constantly talked to Calvada's agent at WMA. She commisserated with me but said she could'nt get the blessing from Dick's Agent.

Then of course came 9-11 and everything went on hold for a while.

In mid-november, having already blown the 40th anniversary, my mother became very ill. Three days before she died on November 26, 2001, Brownstein came over to have lunch with me at the deli by Cedars Sinai Hospital in LA, to tell me that Dick's Agent had decided to make a deal with Image. He claimed to have nothing to do with it (LIAR!) and that he would not be financially involved, but that they had preserved my right to release the 'Ottoman Collection"

Of course I was furious but days later had to face the death of my mother (my dad's first wife).

Then we started to see press from Brownstein how HE was releasing the show on DVD. Then Mary Tyler Moore's wonderful retrospective show had amazing ratings and the world craved 'comfort TV' in the wake of 911. Now I was ready for a fight.

I called the WMA Agent in charge of Calvada and requested a meeeting. We finally met in August and I told her that both WMA and Brownstein had outright stolen the project from my father and me and that if they didn't come up with a solution, I'd take legal action. Of course this is contrary to my original intent to nurture and support the release of the show, but I was not going to stand by and see Brownstein make money off of my idea.

At the meeting WMA basically agreed that they had mis-handled the entire situation, that they had never told Dick Van Dyke OR Carl Reiner about our proposal (but my Father had) and proposed a solution which I found acceptable, but now THAT hasn't happened either. Brownstein has cooked up this ridiculous Time-Life deal and who knows what else.

I still intend to release the Ottoman Collector's edition, but unless I can get WMA to change their tune, it's going to have to wait until these other silly things take their course. I am going to California on Wednesday and plan to do everything I can to get this thing done the right way - and as originally promised.

Dontcha just love Hollywood?

Please feel free to email me at doug@dickvandykeshow.com. I hope you will support my original goals and look forward to bringing you the product as originally intended

[B&W fan]

I voted "YES" with you, Doug! Please keep up the good work, and I (along with David, aka dix) want to say I'm sorry for questioning the lack of updates on your site. I see you've had alot going on in your life, and want to apologize and offer my full support for your vision.

I hope others here will respond likewise!

B&W "let us know how the REAL DVDonDVD collection is coming - hopefully it won't be too long before we can all enjoy the best show ever made" fan

[dix]

Me too. Keep up the good work Doug and good luck.

btw- B&W my name isn't David. The message from David Van Deusen I posted had his name on the bottom. Hence the confusion. But I appreciate the props. ...my real name is dan, but don't tell anyone.

[B&W fan]

Originally posted by dix
Me too. Keep up the good work Doug and good luck.

btw- B&W my name isn't David. The message from David Van Deusen I posted had his name on the bottom. Hence the confusion. But I appreciate the props. ...my real name is dan, but don't tell anyone.

Sorry about that dix. And don't worry, I won't tell anyone your name is Dan.

B&W "one thing's for sure Dan, if you ask me to keep a secret like that, Dan, I won't ever let it out, Dan, that your name is really Dan." fan

[SawgrassSteve]

Doug,
We've many times over the months on Sitcoms Online pondered and debated the reasons for the delay. Thank you so much for taking the time to clear up the confusion on the release of TDVDS on DVD. I can only imagine and sympathize with your frustration. Sorry also for the misplacing of the blame for the delays.
Gang, my real name is Steve, I worship the ground Laura Petrie walks on, and you can tell everybody!

[Roz1013]

Originally posted by ddenoff

We began researching additional material and I found bloopers and other material never before seen (although Mr. Reiner later asked that we not use bloopers because he wants the world to only see rob and laura in character - we would of course respect his wishes)

Aww really? ::sniff:: Of course I'll respect Carl's wishes too, but I would *love* nothing more than to see DVD bloopers. They're such a rare, priceless inside glimpse to the actors who portrayed these wonderful characters and to see how they interact with each other behind the scenes. It's so interesting to me to see how the actors really are, if even for a couple seconds, because no matter if they're at awards shows or doing interviews or whatnot in 'real life', they're still putting up a bit of a front and not being themselves completely; not to mention that there aren't really any interviews with the cast from that time period so you never get to really see them as people when they were actually doing the show.

Please Carl? ::looks at him with big puppy dog eyes and a quivering lip::

[Kristina]

Yes! I'm sorry for the trouble you've been having, but I would really love to see The Dick Van Dyke Show on DVD.

[B&W fan]

Just a reminder for those that might possibly be out of the loop on what we are discussing as it concerns the upcoming release by Time/Life.

B&W "still awaiting word back from Doug as to the progress of the ottoman collection" fan

[dix]

I emailed Doug a few weeks back to see how his LA meeting went. I never heard back. I'd love to see Doug's Ottoman collection come together but I think the most important thing is just making sure the episodes come out on DVD regardless of who puts them out (sorry Doug).

[B&W fan]

Originally posted by dix
I emailed Doug a few weeks back to see how his LA meeting went. I never heard back. I'd love to see Doug's Ottoman collection come together but I think the most important thing is just making sure the episodes come out on DVD regardless of who puts them out (sorry Doug).

I understand your point, Dan. My main concern is how Time/Life is gonna handle this. I've gone on record as "warning" (if I can use that term) everyone here that they had better be prepared to pay serious money if past Time/Life merchandise is any measure.

I'm also concerned that a "Best of" series will fall far short of all our dreams. I feel confident that we all want to see the whole collection put out. Not just 40 random episodes.

I haven't heard back from Doug yet as to any timetable or progress on his set. Maybe he'll come on here, see our discussion, and reply.

I'm not saying I would NEVER buy the Time/Life stuff, I will - if it's a last resort and not over the top price-wise. But regardless, it's not the great set we had all hoped for.

B&W "Doug, the ball is in your court" fan

[dix]

Perhaps what Doug lacks in communication skills (not returning email, no website up dates etc.) he's making up with behind the scenes deal-making that will bring us the preferred DVD Show box set soon, but I'm not holding my breath.

[B&W fan]

Originally posted by dix
Perhaps what Doug lacks in communication skills (not returning email, no website up dates etc.) he's making up with behind the scenes deal-making that will bring us the preferred DVD Show box set soon, but I'm not holding my breath.

Dan, as I said before, I understand your frustration and doubt. We have all been waiting for over a year now for this set! All I can say is that I have corresponded with Doug for the last couple of days and he seems to have a solid plan put into place. I do believe he has every intention of getting this set done in the near future, with the only holdup being contractual issues that the WMA apparently has caused.

As I've said before, I'm willing to wait a bit longer and see if Doug can follow thru with his ideas. He has promised to update his site more (I'd personally like to see a monthly or at least bi-monthly update) and push hard to get this done soon.

But I do understand your doubt. Hopefully, he can get this done by, say, mid 2003 at the latest. I have no idea if this is feasible, but I kinda hope it can happen by then. I'd hate to have to wait another year or more!

B&W "patience is a virtue" fan

[dix]

Right on schedule. Here's the link to the no where near complete Dick Van Dyke show Time-Life collection. As predicted it's a bit of a rip-off.

http://www.timelife.com/is-bin/INTER...ectionId=DVYXX

[dix]

Have all that subscribe to this thread seen the DVD Show site update regarding the DVD DVD collection? Check it out. It's very exciting. The projected price IMO is a bit steep ($800!). I'm wondering how many here will buy it at that price ....i will. but i'm an addict.

[Lolac]

I would pay that price. I think we paid more than that for the "Hogan's Heroes" videos from Columbia House a few years ago. We paid each month as the videos arrived over a 3 year period. This is my husband's favorite show and he announced the other day that he wants to re-purchase the entire collection on DVD! I told him that Dick Van Dyke comes first! I hope Doug Denoff can come through on this one! Lolac