USA Today article on classic tv dvd releases

[vashti1999]

By Thomas K. Arnold

Bob Denver finally broke down and bought a DVD player two years ago, when complete-season sets of Friends— his wife's favorite TV show — were released. But the full weight of the DVD phenomenon didn't hit him until Warner Home Video announced it was coming out with the complete first season of the 1964 sitcom Gilligan's Island, which starred Denver, now 69, as the bumbling lead character.

"I have a Web site, and all of a sudden the e-mails started pouring in," Denver says. "I couldn't believe it — I did (Gilligan's Island) to have a good time and then went on to something else, and yet the show just keeps rolling." Denver was one of three original cast members who came to Marina del Rey, Calif., for a tropical-themed party Warner threw to kick off the DVD release of Gilligan's Island ($39), 40 years after the show first aired.

Warner's Mike Saksa says his company is only now beginning to mine its rich library of classic TV shows. Nearly 30 series have been pegged for DVD release over the next five years, including 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick and F Troop. Gilligan's Island was picked first because Warner research showed that the show has "99% awareness among DVD households, and the highest purchase intent," he says. He adds that sales of TV shows on DVD are up 98% from last year and that classic TV is particularly popular because the heaviest buyers of DVD tend to be baby boomers. They "watched these shows originally back when there were just three networks and you could get a 40 share (in the ratings), whereas now you're lucky to get a 15," he says.

Amy Zwagerman, director of library marketing for MGM Home Entertainment, agrees. MGM last month released two classic TV DVD packages, The Best of Mr. Ed and Green Acres, Season 1, after monitoring Internet fan sites and surveying consumers about which old TV shows from the MGM library they'd most like to own. "Those two came out ahead of the pack, by far," Zwagerman says. "But we have several others we're looking at, including Flipper, My Mother the Car, The Patty Duke Show and Seahunt."
She credits "the barrage of all things retro" and TV channels such as TV Land and Nickelodeon with driving interest in old TV shows.
Paul Brownstein, who is producing the five complete-season packages of The Dick Van Dyke Show for Image Entertainment, says that in the 1960s, the entire family watched TV together, "so we have a shared experience we remember and want to relive."

His one complaint is that some studios simply release the old series with few or no extras, often using "crappy syndication prints," which are shorter than the ones that aired originally.
He's determined to buck that trend, noting that the Dick Van Dyke collections include commentaries by Van Dyke and series creator Carl Reiner as well as such ex- tras as retrospective cast interviews, old commercials and vintage CBS promo spots.
"I bought those on eBay for $20 each," Brownstein says.
With a rash of 1960s sitcoms and other classic television shows arriving on DVD, yesterday's stars are embracing today's technology and, like so many other consumers, discovering there's a whole new way to watch television.

Edie Adams, a regular on The Ernie Kovacs Show until the comedian's death in 1962, was a DVD fan long before Koch Entertainment released The Best of Ernie Kovacs, a PBS retrospective on the landmark comedy TV series.
"DVD is the future," says Adams, 76, who also was married to Kovacs. "I particularly enjoy artsy-fartsy things and TV shows like The Sopranos."

Denver also is thrilled at seeing his old show again, with such extras as a commentary with creator Sherwood Schwartz, profiles of the castaways and a trivia game, at his leisure.
"You can just plug it in anytime you want to watch it," he says. "In the 1970s, it was on the air five, six, seven days a week, but you had to tune in at a certain time."
Denver predicts that Gilligan's Island will make a good babysitter. "The parents who grew up with it, and who loved it, they want their kids to see it. The fact that there are 39 episodes is going to make a lot of parents very happy."

[barwars]

Haha.
Go Gilligan!!




Id buy "My Mother The Car", but besides that.... nothing else they mentioned (besides "Gilligan's Island" of course) interests me.



With all these TV shows coming out on DVD.... Ive got to be very smart about what I buy.
But some things are just MUST haves.

[dawsongirl]

Well I must say...I just got Dick Van Dyke, Season 2...and that guy's doing a good job. I saw scenes I've never seen on TVL.

[ClassicTV4Ever]

I'm glad to see that more VERY classic TV shows are planned to be released, but a lot of them just aren't my cup of tea. I mostly prefer more shows from the 70's and 80's.