MovieChat Forums > The Carol Burnett Show (1967) Discussion > DVD announcement: anyone else disappoint...

DVD announcement: anyone else disappointed?

posted 10 years ago by Itsamoomoo
11 replies | jump to latest

It was announced today that the upcoming DVD release will only be a "Best Of" release of the first five seasons rather than a complete five season release. It will include Carol's very first show which helps soften the blow but maybe I'm just kidding myself. I wanted to see the first five seasons.

[–] ejsnet1 10 years ago

It was announced today that the upcoming DVD release will only be a "Best Of" release of the first five seasons rather than a complete five season release. It will include Carol's very first show which helps soften the blow but maybe I'm just kidding myself. I wanted to see the first five seasons.

You definitely are NOT the only one who is disappointed. I so would love to have complete season sets of this show. I'm not sure what the issue is but I fear that it's beginning to look like the only way we'll ever get them is when Carol herself passes away. Sad as it is to say, when a legend passes, then everything they've done, gold & crap alike, gets released in an attempt to capitalize on it. I hope I'm wrong however. In any case, I'm going to try to be excited about this but I, like you, wish it wasn't merely a "best of".

Ed

[–] iray-2 10 years ago

Definitely not the only one disappointed. But I have to say my expectations were very low because of the involvement of TIME-LIFE. They are THE WORST at DVD releasing. And prior to that they were the worst at VHS releases. Their specialty seems to be a whopping two episodes per disk (if you're lucky), so you have to clutter your shelf with 100 times more disks than would be necessary otherwise. (Just like they did in the days of VHS.) And God forbid they should group the episodes in any kind of cohesive order, like, say, airdate. Or make their precious product available to purchase anywhere other than through them. And, I hate to say it, but the cast of this great show has analyzed it to death with their frequent reunions and endless DVD special features/interviews. What more can be said about this classic show? Just give us the full uncut episodes. ALL OF THEM!

PS to the person who said that when a person passes all their output becomes available on the market. That didn't work for Phyllis Diller! >:-(

[–] ejsnet1 10 years ago

PS to the person who said that when a person passes all their output becomes available on the market. That didn't work for Phyllis Diller! >:-(

I didn't mean to imply that such a practice applied to every celebrity. In the case of Phyllis Diller, I suspect a few factors are involved. Firstly, she's considered a legend of a bygone era whose type of comedy isn't nearly as relevant as it once was in her heyday. Many regard HER as a legend but not necessarily her material. Also, and just as important, since her heyday was during a time that was considerably "long ago", I'm sure much of that material would take a considerable amount of money to restore, probably more than what sales would yield in profits (or at least it's probably perceived as such). And aside from two short-lived shows that were named after her, I don't think the other projects that she was involved with were owned by her, either solely or partially. There are probably many rights issues to work out in that regard with various estates, etc. which, probably, outweighs whatever profits that could be made.

I have no idea if this is the case, but if it's not, I'll bet I'm not far off. With Carol Burnett & her show, however, I'm sure the rights are probably shared with a company but she is at the helm. She's in an entirely different situation I think, different enough than Phyllis was, either then or posthumously.

Ed

[–] DearJohnny 9 years ago

Re: Phyllis Diller. Another problem is that her television work was, for the most part, not that good, or at least not as good as she was. It's a shame but she never found a good TV vehicle.

One problem might be the music rights. Often, that's the main hang-up with releasing variety shows on DVD. All the songs have to be cleared and sometimes they can't get the rights to some of them.

[–] Steed-2 10 years ago

In a previous announcement all of us understood that THE 5 SEASONS were going to be released and now this....the best of. Well, some of u could say that is better than nothing but the previous press released didn´t say anything about a best of collection.
Believe or not I didn´t believe it from the beginning....with all the problems with old tv shows about paying royalties on music.
Sorry Carol, I'm not buying it. Prefer to save my money for a better future release

[–] Itsamoomoo 10 years ago

I did think it was too good to be true myself but I guess I got caught up in it.

[–] engle_james 10 years ago

I was struck by a comment Carol made about the first 5 seasons... something like she had finally watched them again and was surprised that they were better than what she remembered. I suspect the first 5 seasons were quite a bit different than the last 6, and therefore she (or the distributor) is worried that it won't sell as well. I'm happy we're getting what we're getting!

[–] ronaldt49 10 years ago

She is 81 years old based on IMDB biography.

It's not like she's going to be around that many more years and needs the money to make it those last years.

Hopefully Tim and Vicki will get a cut of the action. Lyle??
The Korman estate??

[–] don-lockwood 10 years ago

I think iray's comment above is spot-on. And I doubt profitability is the issue so much as music rights. Many if not most episodes involved performances of standards or recent hits. It could simply cost too much to acquire all the rights, given sales expectations. I know that held up The Wonder Years DVDs for several years.

[–] mactach 9 years ago

I just saw an infomercial last night that those first 5 seasons are gonna be released.

[–] vickytherobot 9 years ago

So it's 45 episodes, does that cover 5 seasons or less? Sorry not sure how variety sketch comedy works in terms of episodes in a season. If it's anything like SNL or late night talk shows, it's impossible to get every episode in a season because of cost and there's just too many episodes. 50 episodes for a talk show is like 4 months in a year, lol.