Cal, the Connections series are occasionally re-run on the Science Channel; IIRC seeing Connections 2 there a year or so back. Unfortunately, The Day the Universe Changed (Burke’s best series, IMHO) hasn’t been seen on these shores since The Learning Channel stopped living up to its name.
WAG, but Wikipedia says the reason Parker Lewis isn’t on DVD is because of music clearance issues. I’m not an expert, but I wonder if this is also the reason keeping it out of syndication. This was also an issue in the past with WKRP in Cincinnati, which had to have several songs replaced for syndication and for the DVD release.
American Life Network shows Batman and Green Hornet on Friday nights for an hour, back to back. They show a lot of stuff from the 60s and 70s. Let’s see, I will go through my guide listing for their prime time (8:00-11:00) schedule for the coming week.
Saturday: Burke’s Law, 2 hours of original programming
Sunday: St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, L. A. Law
Monday: Mission: Impossible (Combat is on at 7), Mary Tyler Moore Show, Newhart, WKRP in Cincinnati, Bob Newhart Show
Tuesday: Rat Patrol (2 half hour shows), Combat!, 12 O’clock High
Wednesday: M:I, Lou Grant, Trapper John, M.D.
Thursday: Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Friday: M:I, Batman, Green Hornet, Honeymooners/Color Episodes
Thanks, Lok. It’s good to know someone out there is running those shows. Unfortunately, Comcast cable doesn’t carry that particular network.
ION TV (formerly the PAX channel) has been known to re-run Perfect Strangers.
Yes, every episode of ST, including “The Cage” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” was filmed in color. Desilu had the decision in 1964-65, right on the cusp of all-color American TV, of filming in either B&W or color, and chose color. Glad they did, too! The earliest “Wild Wild West” episodes were in B&W, IIRC, and the later ones were in color.
I really enjoyed the short-lived cop show “High Incident,” and would like to see it again, but never have anywhere. Ditto the much longer-lived “Hill Street Blues,” which I’m sure is showing out there somewhere, unbeknownst to me.
The Tracey Uhlman Show
Newhart
Murphy Brown
Ellen
Whatever that one with Chris Elliott was called.
If you look at the schedule I posted up a few messages, you will see that Hill Street Blues is shown at 9 on Sundays on ALN. Can’t help you with High Incident though.
I really miss all the Nickelodeon lineup from the 1985 era - The Third Eye, Belle & Sebastian, Mysterious Cities of Gold, and the various weird British sci-fi imports.
The original Fugitive- the best TV drama ever, and not one of the 500 channels feels its worthy of syndication since WWOR 15 years ago? Is there a rights issue with this as well? And since I don’t have the Slueth channel, someone else could pick up Dragnet 67 since Nick at Nite stopped years back- I need my Joe Friday fix!
I read once that Shout! Factory (a company who releases various niche films and TV shows) wanted to release the series, but Sony (who owns the rights to the series) didn’t want to split the royalties with another company. (Another show I can think of whose DVD release is held up due to rights issues is the original Batman with Adam West- Fox owns the series but Warner Bros. owns the character.)
Jean Chalopin, the creator of The Mysterious Cities of Gold, sold the film rights to an Asian studio who is working on a film adaptation. A British company called Fabulous Films plans to release the complete series on DVD later this year.
I just want to know why they don’t show Barney Miller!!
“Mary Tyler Moore” was shown for quite a few years on Nick at Nite in the 90s.
Ed
I have a question - if I were to win the jebus level lottery when it is up in the 500 million range, and start my own cable channel if I wanted to show all the old shows that we have been discussing …
Roughly how much are we talking for showing the programs? Like Batman with 2 ‘owners’ that wont work together. Would it be reasonably priced where I could just say hell with it and pay the full nick to both companies that own it?
I love a lot of the old shows, and odd shows … and the movies that they don’t show on AMC any more.
Remember Neverwhen? and all sorts of great odd niche programs that ran for only a couple of seasons…
If it isnt technically ‘syndicated’ can you go to BBC and ask to buy the program for broadcast … [or whoever owns the shows. What was the show on nickelodean when it first hit the market that was kiddy sf - Wilburforce or something like that …]
Nick at Nite has shown a lot of these shows in the past, but like every other network, has to keep its lineup fresh; in TVLand’s case, this means replacing entire series as old TV shows have, by definition, a limited number of episodes. It’s not unreasonable to think they may bring them back at some point.
Very old shows may be orphaned, which is an untenable position for modern networks, which don’t want to be tied up in a lengthy, expensive search, or in a lawsuit if an heir shows up to claim the royalties. The physical media the shows were recorded on may also be degraded to the point where they can’t be used, or the cost of conversion doesn’t justify the income the shows would bring. This, of course, assumes that the shows were recorded in the first place because many of the earliest shows aired live and weren’t recorded.
Robin
It probably wouldn’t cost any more to show the programs than it did to show them in the past- it’s the DVD rights that would cost money. All of the licensing agreements for music, etc. for the old shows were made years ago and still exist- it’s just that home video wasn’t around in those days, so new agreements would have to be made in order to have them put out on DVD, which is why so many DVD released of TV shows with large amounts of copyrighted music in them are either held up or have the music replaced on the DVD release.
The Six Million Dollar Man
and I’ll second Barney Miller
Get Smart and Dragnet.
Thankfully, the latter has shown up on Hulu. Woo!
One of the over-the-air digital stations near me (24 in Toledo) has a digital subchannel that shows The Retro Television Network, which shows nothing but old reruns. They had Emergency! ended about half an hour ago. Right now it’s Kojak, and next is The Fugitive. I’ve also seen Hawaii Five 0 a lot, Ironsides, and Perry Mason (B&W).
Here’s a list of the digital stations that are now, or soon will be, carrying it.