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What are some of the TV shows that will never be released completely on dvd?

Empty Nest
Madtv
Hangin' With Mr.Cooper
Roc
The Wonder Years
Malcolm In The Middle
WKRP In Cincinnati
Life With Louie
Batman
Are You Afraid Of The Dark? (Released in canada but not in america)
The Hitchhiker
Kung Fu:The Legend Continues

I don't know about never...

Daria
The complete set of the Extreme Ghostbusters
Lexx
Stressed Eric

Thats all I can think of, but I'm not a big telly watcher.

Photon, the best show ever
Funhouse

Cold Case, which is very strange because it was a hit series and from the same producers of CSI. How the heck can that not come out on DVD?
Others include:

Freddy's Nightmares
Crossing Jordan
NYPD Blue
The Simpsons (as I recall some older seasons were never released on DVD)
Monsters (the anthology series from the 80s, which is a sort of spin-off of Tales from the Darkside)
Tales of the Unexpected
The Hitchhiker (the anthology series from HBO, only 30 episodes were released on DVD, but not the whole show)


I'll add more once I remember.

All of the older seasons for the Simpsons are on DVD.  If you are talking about the episodes from the Tracy Ullman Show then I don't know.

The reason for Cold Case not being on DVD is because of the soundtrack.  Every episode uses music and songs that were popular or revelant from the time of the crime in the flashback.  Can you imagine CBS trying to get the license or rights for every single song for just one season set?  That would cost quite a bit.

Ever since Twilight Zone I have been a die hard fan of anthology series, so i've always died to see Monsters.

Another crime-drama that i've been craving to see lately In The Heat Of The Night. Shame its not released by now with all the cop shows airing on tv.

Darkroom, a very obscure ABC anthology series that took the supernatural road more than once. One episode I recall is where a group of toy soldiers and vehicles came to life and attacked someone for some odd reason.

The Phoenix about an alien who came to Earth and engaged in some usual run-of-the-mill sci-fi adventures.

The Master: Lee Van Cleef as a white American Ninja pursued by Okasa (Sho Kosugi) for leaving his clan with an amulet of great value that was the object of Okasa's pursuit of Van Cleef's character.

Automan which was a cheap Tron-style ripoff. if I remember right.

Some of these may now be on DVD as we speak, but I've never known them to be at this time.

Muppet Babies, too many copyrights in motion.

I was going to say Friday The 13th The Series but I checked and it is out on DVD.  :smile:

I remember seeing Crossing Jordan Season 1 in the shops here but like a complete nong, I didn't buy it when I had the chance.  I think it was a little out of my price range at the time. 

I haven't seen it or any other season since.    :bluesad:

Only the first season was released on DVD

I'm pretty sure Lexx is on DVD, I've got the first two series. 

I wish Last of the Summer Wine was available in America.  We can only get "best of" sets with a few episodes each. 

Relic Hunter is another favorite.  I've got a "best of" set, but full season sets are apparently only available in DVD region 4.  Which makes a lot of sense since it's a Canadian show   :lookingup:

Ah, I've just seen the whole collection box set available in March!

 :cheers:

Some of the 50s TV Sci-Fi series my well have "lost" episodes (as I believe they may have reused tapes in those days)...so it's unlikely we'll get complete sets of Tales of Tomorrow (although they have released many of them), Lights Out, Flash Gordon, The Adventures of Fu Manchu, Men Into Space, Science Fiction Theater, Captain Video and His Video Rangers, Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe, Space Patrol (the kids TV show), Tom Corbett: Space Cadet, Rocky Jones: Space Ranger,  'Way Out and probably even more obscure ones are out there.

I'm certain that a lot of pro wrestling is unfortunately "lost" to the ages as many pro wrestling territories used to reuse tapes, record them over and over again and some were no doubt thrown out and destroyed when certain territories went under. There's been an infamous rumor of footage of a lost Buzz Sawyer-Tommy Rich match making the rounds in trading circles for a long time.

A more modern show you're not likely to see but which would have been fascinating was The Sixth Sense.  This short-lived series from 1972 starred Gary Collins as a college professor named Dr. Michael Rhodes, a man fascinated with psychic ability and phenomena. He often uses his own ESP powers to help those who are being troubled by psychic visions. The series was created by Anthony Lawrence and produced and developed by Stan Shpetner. Later Night Gallery would borrow heavily from the series for stock footage used to pad their episodes in syndication and some actual Sixth Sense episodes (edited down from their original hour length to an half-hour) were shown on Night Gallery when it went to syndication. Also some of the shorter Night Gallery sequences which I believe were only aired in syndication are now believed "lost" if I'm not mistaken.

Some other interesting titles we're not likely to find in complete on DVD include:

Alien Nation TV movies: not sure why since the TV series was released but the TV films remain unavailable as far as I'm aware.

The Avengers (1960s) - the earliest season is believed "lost" and I think some of the episodes from Season two are believed "lost" as well.

Doctor Who: some episodes are believed "lost".

Journey to the Unknown: late 60s British anthology series..wonder if it's lost?

Out of the Unknown: mid-60s British anthology series drawing from the works of Ray Bradbury, Frederick Pohl, John Wyndham and Isaac Asimov, I think it's now believed "lost" as well.

Out of this World: early 60s British sci-fi anthology series hosted by Boris Karloff shortly after Thriller. I think this now may well be "lost" as well.

The Trollenberg Terror: British TV mini-series that proceeded the film (The Crawling Eye). I think they also did similar minis for The Strange World of Planet X and I think the earliest Quatermass serial is yet to be available in complete?

And some series I really wonder why they aren't out there now:

The Amazing Spiderman: this cheesy 1970s series starring Nicholas Hammond isn't likely to be found on DVD (at least not yet).

Batman (1960s): not sure why this isn't available right now. I know it aired in syndication in Canada not very long ago.

Blake's Seven: late 70s-early 80s space opera from Terry Nation.

The Boy From Andromeda and The Girl From Tomorrow: remember really enjoying these when they aired on TV. Surprising these kids show mini-series never made it to DVD at least that I'm aware.

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future: popular kids show at one time, kind of surprising it isn't on DVD.

Dark Skies: arguably an X-Files rip-off, I remember enjoying it at times.

Doomwatch: cool British pro-environmental series from the 70s, would love to see this one.

The Green Hornet: Like Batman, I really wonder why this isn't to my knowledge available? Especially in the wake of a new movie?

Logan's Run: the cheesy late 70s TV series spin-off based on the film of the same title.

M.A.N.T.I.S.: short-lived 90s superhero series starring a black superhero. Remember I enjoyed it when it originally aired.

Space Precinct: an unusual 90s British TV series that mixed the sci-fi and cop genres.

Swamp Thing: superhero show starring Dick Durdock as Swamp Thing.

Time Trax: early 90s light-hearted time travel show from Harve Bennett.

RoboCop: The Series: sure it was cheesy at times but there was a surprisingly level of intelligence underlying this Canadian TV series at times too. I recall enjoying it although it watered down a lot from the original films.

I'd definitely buy that if it ever came out.  Used to enjoy that as a kid. 

The Fantastic Journey, from way back in 1977, is another one.  I have memories or really liking it as a kid.  It seems almost too obscure to ever get on DVD, as I never hear anyone mention it.  Roddy McDowall was in it - that's one of the few things I remember.

According to the IMDb, it was about:

I thought they had released the first season and were going on about it without much trouble?   


Still Standing

They released the first season over 5 years ago, it's safe to say they dont plan on releasing anymore seasons anytime soon

Another one to add to the list: SNL   For fans of SNL they wont be releasing anymore seasons(at least uncut anyway) because of the music rights.

Beavis & Butthead and Mission Hill - releases exist, but not the "proper" edits as they were originally aired, most likely due to music copyrights.

Vengeance Unlimited - have never seen any release for this  :bluesad:

Rocko's Modern Life - again I think there's been episodes released but they've been pretty heavily censored.

Yeah, a bunch of DVDs have been released.  However, the first complete season is available on Netflix.

I would like to see "Blake's 7" released in a region 1 format, so far it's only availible in the PAL format in Europe. Many of the 60's "Doctor Who" episodes are missing. Some have been completed using animation over existing audio tracks. I thought "WKRP" was on DVD, but maybe it was just selected episodes. I would like to see certain music video programs released like "Friday Night Videos" and "Headbanger's Ball," but I understand that the copyright issues would be a nightmare. They had to release "Beavis and Butthead" without the video segments, that I think was the most popular part of the show.

Ah well, I thought they had continued.  Sorry hadn't kept track of it. 

Step By Step
Get A Life
Daria (With original music)
Viper

I remember  a show called Manimal that was around the early 80's, and another one called Lucan about the kid raised by wolves who would go Hulk when he was threatened. Not sure if either of these are out on DVD yet.

That's a reason Daria took so long to come out on dvd...the soundtrack.  I think MTV fixed that situation though, as it's on dvd.

Daria is out on dvd. :wink:

With original music...likely never to happen.  They did release a dvd set with altered soundtrack.  That's why it took so long.  The show used so many bands/artists and none of them signed off on the dvd.  So they changed it.

I think I saw Get A Life briefly on DVD but only select episodes.  This is a series I will buy IMMEDIATELY when I see seasons being released.  I love that show!

Man, I don't think I've seen SUPERTRAIN on DVD yet..  :teddyr:

Or NANNY AND THE PROFESSOR.
Or BLACKE'S MAGIC.
Or JAMES AT 15.
Wow, there's a lot of other ones I can think of..

Yeah, the same for other MTV shows like The State & Beavis And Butthead, better than nothing I guess.

Eh?  I bought Daria on DVD months ago.

It's looking less and less likely that the last part of Gargoyle's season 2 will ever be released.  Pretty annoying.

Not sure if it ever got out yet, but Irwin Allen's Land Of The Giants had a petition for DVD release I happily signed a few years back, but I'm not sure if it ever got released yet.

I also remember a short lived show called Space Academy with Jonathan Harris from Lost In Space.

AND, one I always watched every Saturday morning, Run, Joe, Run, about a U.S. Army K9 officer in pursuit of an German Shepherd who escaped from a military base, and is now on the run. One of the more serious of the Saturday morning lineup.

The entire "Land of the Giants" series was released on a complete series set but I think it may have been one of those mail-order special releases...

Music rights screw up everything. Damn greedy record companies! I just watched a SNL episode on Netflix, the one with Ron Howard and The Clash. And guess what? No Clash! That's why I wanted to watch it because that was my introduction to The Clash and I wanted to relive it. They even cut out the funniest part, where Eddie Murphy kept calling Ron Howard Opie Cunningham! Besides I bet anything it's not even the band's themselves who won't allow the songs to be used, it's the record company. I can't believe the greed of these people! Don't they understand they are denying the public a piece of history.

I can't even FIND the State dvd's.  :bluesad:

Yeah one of my favorite shows(Married With Children) had it's original theme song sung by Frank Sinatra taken off the dvds & i'm sure they cut a whole lot more throughout the series cause MWC used a whole lotta famous music back in the day.

I almost don't want them to release it on dvd if it's not completely uncut with all the music intact.

Almost all the original Fugitive music was altered on the later season DVD releases...Rights issues again no doubt. Also why as I think I've said before we won't see The Hilarious House of Frightenstein (in its original form in complete on DVD or even now on TV reruns because of the rights issues surrounding the Wolfman music segments)..no doubt this is also why Cold Case as mentioned isn't on DVD and Beavis and Butt-Head was basically more or less ruined in its DVD released version. Do some of these issues also involve MST3K? (I would expect it probably would).

Also with the WWF/WWE wrestling there's some issues surroudning music rights that sometimes have expired (and hence you'll suddenly hear generic crappy music sometimes on certain DVD releases instead of a more familiar theme song) and of course there's some rights problems surrounding showing the WWF Attitude era logo due to the dispute with the World Wildlife Fund.

Same here - luckily you can just hit "skip" on the remote and there's a chapter stop after the opening theme concludes  :teddyr:  I guess whoever owns the copyright on the main theme wanted so much for it that it would have substantially increased the price of each DVD.  And since they were so greedy, they end up with nothing.  Brilliant!

I've been curious to see any episodes of Way Out - which was a sci-fi anthology that briefly ran on CBS after The Twilight Zone. It was produced by David Susskind and hosted by Roald Dahl. It got great reviews but lousy ratings, so it only lasted for 14 episodes.

Supposedly the series is tied up in some sort of legal crap with Susskind's estate.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Wayoutsoft.jpg)
An iconic photo from Way Out

I was going to say MST3K will probably never be officially released in its entirety because of the difficulty of negotiating with 100s of different copyright holders, some of whom object to having their films mocked (i.e. Toho).  I've only heard of one case where music rights specifically may have caused a holdup, though, and that's with the music in the Gumby short that accompanies the SCREAMING SKULL episode. 

And sometimes the problem is not that the copyright holder refuses to license the music, but that they can't actually locate the holder.  In that case a company would prefer not to produce a DVD set at all, only to be sued later.

Interesting site: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/articles/holdup.cfm.  This explains the reasons why dozens of popular shows haven't been released.

I remember when one "Married with Children" episode used "We Are The Champions" in an episode. A few years later when the rerun aired on FX it was replaced with a crappy song that kind of sounded like it. As for MST3K I'm just happy it's out on DVD at all. I hadn't seen it in forever and two years ago started buy them off Amazon, now I'm in love the show all over again.

^Really? Thats just uncalled for.

Come to think of it, my cousin bought "The Andy Griffith Show" on VHS back in the 90s and they replaced the theme song for legal reasons. I don't even like that show and I think it's b.s. that they'd replace such an iconic theme song.

Dennis the Menace. One of the funniest of that era.

Rev, thanks for the link. It helps provide details about several shows I'd been wondering about and also explains why TV stations can air reruns of Batman and The Green Hornet yet they both remain elusive in legit DVD releases.

Daria is still unavailable in the UK.  :bluesad:

Ah, I just read that there are plans to bring this to region 2 DVD.

So yay!
Now I want 'Tales from the Crypt' to be in region 2.
 :cheers:

First Wave is another good show that's not on DVD.  I'd especially like the episodes when Traci Lords joined the show   :smile:

Thanks for the link.

V.I.P.
USA High

Monstervision - Probably will never happen, but I wish TNT would make it available someway, possibly something like Itunes. I could always go with a bootleg but I'd hate to go that route.

Lexx is going to be released in the complete box set in region2 at the end of March.

 :smile:

Well, thats something to look forward too, I suppose.  :thumbup:

Very surprising how Empty Nest seems to be all but forgotten these days.

Some popular Canadian shows back in the day I doubt we'll see quickly on DVD:

E.N.G.
Street Legal
Night Heat

And how about:

Forever Knight
Tekwar

Speaking of Canada, what about "Catwalk?" Remember that show, it starred a young Neve Campbell, me like.

http://www.tvparty.com/80fridays5.html (http://www.tvparty.com/80fridays5.html)

^Fridays. Michael Richards owns the right to the show and wont approve for a dvd release  :hatred:   

You know what is really sad? Only seasons 1-8 and 14 of Law and Order were released on DVD. So what about the other seasons? What's the point of releasing season 14 on DVD if there isn't season 9-13?

interview with adam west about Batman dvd: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30911

Captain Planet created by Ted Turner finally gets a release on 4/19

(http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/graphics/news3/CaptainPlanet_S1.jpg)

Ozzymandias speaks: I would like to see 77 Sunset Strip and the Many Loves of Dobbie Gilles on DVD before I die. And Batman.

Ozzzymanidas has spoken!!!

You can't get King Of The Hill on DVD past I think season 6 (although the whole series is available on netflix)

Deadly Games. I loved this show as a kid and so will you after reading it's Wikpedia page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadly_Games

Do you mean this V.I.P? If so, it has been released.

I started re-watching some of the shows. Thank you Netflix!

Molly Culver  :thumbup:

(http://www.thecarlsbadchannel.net/vip1.jpg)

I want my beloved Manimal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQZxRH6uoiY

Darkroom was just released but on region 4:  http://www.diabolikdvd.com/category/Cult-Favorites/Darkroom-~-The-Complete-Series-DVD-(PAL-Region-4).html



Just the first season right?

Roseanne finally gets released unedited (http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Roseanne-Seasons-1-and-2/15591)

Interesting thing about that to me... it's being released by Mill Creek.  Kind of cool that their strategy of repackaging and releasing public domain movies proved so successful and profitable that they were able to move up to licensing hit TV shows.

The KTMA era of MST3k Will never be released, which is a shame, since I want to see some of the episodes! :hatred:
Also, Drive http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_%28TV_series%29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive_%28TV_series%29) Won't be released since of the poor viewings, but I was a watcher!!

Yeah, their releases are also cheap.  They have the complete series of Renegade for like $25.