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Wishes?? (1 Viewer)

JamesSmith

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Do you DVD philes ever WISH for the following?

That no "NEW" tv series will be released on DVD before ALL "old" television programs come out on digital? Hey! the fans of those fifties, sixties, and seventies shows aren't getting any younger. Yes. I know that's the most ridiculous wish ever.
But there are so many good tv series (IMHO) that the younger audiences should be introduced to, rather than what's coming out today.

Do you ever wish that television would go back to the "Big Three" networks? I get tired of jumping and down all these channels for both new and old shows. In the old days, all the networks started their new programming at the same time and pretty much ended their season runs at the same time. You know summer was the time to catch up on shows you missed during rerun season. Now, it's so much more confusing.

Please feel free to speculate on any crazy wishes, or on the good old days of television?

James
 

jknu0526

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Aside from a time machine back to good ol' 1984? I wish there was a cable or satellite provider that offered "time machine" channels that basically recreated a particular line up of television shows. Like on Sirius radio they replay the top 40 countdowns from a particular week in 1980 something. I wish ABC, CBS, and NBC would create their own throwback channels and basically air programs and commercials as they aired back then. Maybe start the channel at a certain time of day or just let it duplicate programming as it aired 24/7.

ME TV and the like kind of have the idea but lets take it a step further by having a complete recreation of what, when, and how shows aired.
 

Peter M Fitzgerald

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I have several:

I wish that no series shot on videotape ever got wiped, and also had safety copies made.

I wish films and television on disc were exempted, across the board, from "music rights issues".

I wish we got some new, episodic TV series that were of similar quality to Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Americans, Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, Justified, Fargo, Outlander, Mad Men, Daredevil, etc, but weren't serials that you had to follow from Episode 1. I mean, I love all of those modern serialized shows I just listed, but there's something to be said for simply being able to catch a show for the first time from, say, an episode from the middle of season 3, and immediately understand who the major characters are and what's going on (i.e. any episode of The Fugitive, The Avengers, The Wild Wild West or Columbo), without having to invest too much time in yet another sprawling, multi-season saga.

I wish we had some modern sitcoms that were actually funny, on the level of WKRP in Cincinnati, Taxi, Barney Miller and Night Court.

I wish there was a classic TV channel equivalent to Turner Classic Movies, focusing on complete series and specials from the 1950s and 1960s (restored to pristine form), especially the lesser-seen programs, shown in "night-of-broadcast" form (not edited or time-sped) and with only "retromercials", in their proper places, during the original breaks, or as filler after uninterrupted programs have finished.

I wish there was a classic TV channel that only ran "forgotten" series that haven't already been widely circulated in the modern era (so no Gunsmoke, I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith Show, Star Trek, Dick Van Dyke Show, The Honeymooners, Leave It to Beaver, The Twilight Zone, Bonanza, The Rifleman, Brady Bunch, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, etc). Instead, we'd get high-quality, complete, un-messed-with prints of The Line-Up, all of 1950s Dragnet, The Farmer's Daughter, T.H.E. Cat, Mr. Adams & Eve, Suspicion, Hank, The Greatest Show on Earth, N.Y.P.D., The People's Choice, I Led Three Lives, M Squad, He & She, Bus Stop, Adventures in Paradise, Coronet Blue, Mr. Broadway, The Occasional Wife, The Outcasts, The Whirlybirds, Blue Light, Trackdown, Panic!, Love on a Rooftop, Hawk, The Bob Cummings Show, etc. And a healthy dose of made-for-TV movies from the 1960s & 1970s.

I wish that there was a Manufacture-on-Demand disc service that allowed you to choose, a la cart, any individual episodes/specials/commercials from the entire history of television, so you could "custom-build" a high-quality disc or a disc set via your computer. Want a disc that re-creates a night of programming from a specific date? Want a "best of" collection of unsold pilots? Want a disc of This Is Your Life, The Ed Sullivan Show, Playboy After Dark, Shindig or Password, featuring only the guests you're interested in? Boom, done.

I wish there was a streaming service that was a permanent repository for all of classic TV, so there was no chance of anything being dropped.

I wish every TV series released on disc was continued to completion, in a timely manner, regardless of sales performance (or lack thereof).

I wish there was a channel or streaming service that featured a wide variety of classic TV from other countries, (subtitled in english, where necessary). Stuff like the more obscure, surviving British series that Network releases on disc, or shows like Key Hunter from Japan, or Raumpatrouille Orion from Germany, or the score of 1960s music/variety series. Imagine all the great stuff that's out there, that we normally can't see, unless someone uploads a short clip on YouTube.

I wish there was a database of every TV Guide program listing (every physical page, from every regional edition, including the promo ads), so you could look up what was on in your town (or any town), on any day, in any year, from the first 1950s issue to whenever it didn't really matter anymore.

I wish flash wasn't so often a substitute for charm.

I wish the general public had a longer attention span and more curiosity about pop culture from before their own lifetimes.
 
Last edited:

Neil Brock

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I wish that a DVR existed 50 years ago when instead of half dozen shows a week that are worth watching, there were more than a half dozen shows on a night worth seeing.

I wish that home recording was as prevalent in the first 3 decades of television as its been since. Thanks to home recording, most everything from the early 80s on that has aired somewhere, is in someone's collection somewhere. Not so for the 50s, 60s and 70s when it was pretty much up to the studios, networks and independent producers, none of whom really gave a shit, to preserve broadcasted material.
 

Walter Kittel

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I wish that the infomercial had never been created. I have many fond memories of watching hours and hours older films on television that covered the gamut of genres from the big three and a few UHF affiliates many times at night after primetime and on the weekends during the early afternoon. And while they did air commercials, it wasn't the incessant sh*t storm of banal ads that one experiences in late night / weekends these days. Fortunately there are a lot of viewing options nowadays; so this is mostly a rant about one of the ways that broadcast television changed for the worse.

- Walter.
 

Regulus

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I wish copyright laws were amended so they would revert to what it was when the 1800s (16 years, with ONE renewal) so any show that the studios refuse to release would become public domain, and those who sell "homemade DVDs" on those "Trading Sites" would become legitimate dealers.
 

jknu0526

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I wish copyright laws were amended so they would revert to what it was when the 1800s (16 years, with ONE renewal) so any show that the studios refuse to release would become public domain, and those who sell "homemade DVDs" on those "Trading Sites" would become legitimate dealers.

Agreed but they would have to include great cases and cover art so the "homemade dvd's" don't look like crap on my shelf. Thank you very much Freddy's Nightmares
 

Likecats

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I wish VCRs were invented in the 50s, then people could have taped the original airings of Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol, Rudolph, Charlie Brown Christmas, The Grinch, Frosty, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. I also wish during the golden age of radio that the tape recorder would have been more common. Think of all the missing shows that could have existed if people had tape recorders back in the 30s and 40s
 

Regulus

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Agreed but they would have to include great cases and cover art so the "homemade dvd's" don't look like crap on my shelf. Thank you very much Freddy's Nightmares

Most sellers of "Homemade Sets" send the disks in sleeves only, you have to provide the cases yourself (I obtain cases from supermediastore.com then make my own labels. IMO it's fun to create your own labels, because you can use a little creativity, here's a few examples of my handwork:

_collection.jpg



BSG-01.jpg
 

Neil Brock

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People I know find its easier to do the opposite and with hundreds of pre-recorded DVDs, throw away the packaging and put them in jewel cases on the shelf with the thousands and thousands of DVDs transferred from the shows from tape that are in the collection. For every show that has come out in a commercial release, there are at least 5 that haven't and that had to be transferred from film or the off-air masters.
 

DaveF

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We wish folks would keep in mind HTF's fifth rule :)

BSG and BSG:2004 are available for purchase in retail stores or online. Please don't advocate piracy of these fine shows on HTF.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MFQV56A?psc=1&smid=AL33YRD7161LQ
http://www.amazon.com/Battlestar-Galactica-Edward-James-Olmos/dp/B0036EH3UC

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/help/terms
5. Respect for copyrights. Home Theater Forum has a strict policy of respecting the rights of copyright holders. We do not allow promotion of bootleg material or discussion on how to obtain it, and we immediately delete all links to sites that deal in bootleg material. If you have any doubt whether a source is legitimate, please check with a moderator before posting any links. We also do not allow discussion of (a) how to make unauthorized copies of video or audio materials, (b) how to defeat any form of copy protection (including, for example, how to make "personal" copies of commercially produced DVDs), and/or © how to obtain equipment that can only be used for such purposes. In one form or another, this rule goes back to the very origins of HTF. We are serious about it. Please do not try to debate copyright law with us. We're not interested in discussing what the law should be. Public discussion about copyright law is allowed as long as it doesn't violate any portion of this or any other site rule. We believe it is in the best interest of HTF to enforce this policy strictly, and members test it at their peril.
 

bmasters9

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Ben Masters
I wish scripted dramas were still on a 30-39 episode season order.
And that those 30-39 individual outings were either 25 min. apiece for half-hour series (dramas and comedies, although you don't really see any half-hour dramas anymore), or 50-52 min. for hour series (and this is what made Perry Mason have quite the appeal to me: that Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale and William Hopper had all that time to build together a complete, convincing story every week, week in and week out).
 

Regulus

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William Hughes
My Battlestar Galactica 1979, 1980 and 2004 are all official releases. (I have A LOT of titles I put into these kinds of cases to create more space on my shelves.
 

Joe Lugoff

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I wish there was a database of every TV Guide program listing (every physical page, from every regional edition, including the promo ads), so you could look up what was on in your town (or any town), on any day, in any year, from the first 1950s issue to whenever it didn't really matter anymore.

Boy, do I second this wish! However, second best would be your local newspaper listings. In one way, they're better than TV Guide in that they're likely to include last-minute changes to the schedule.

Many newspaper archives are available online. You usually have to pay, but as of now, the Chicago Tribune is free. They had a good TV Magazine every Saturday.
 

Frank Soyke

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1) I wish there were legit sets of Run For Your Life, T.H.E. Cat, and Hawaiian Eye available

2) I wish that for any show not available, distributors would allow us to to purchase alternate sets without interference. I think it's very pompous for them to tell us, "If we won't put it out, you should never have it."

3) I wish that I could just watch current TV with my kids and enjoy it, not have some network (or writer, or producer) 's liberal stances shoved down my throat and made me feel like some ignorant neanderthal bigot because I still try to teach my kids Christian values.

4) I wish they would start releasing the classic forgotten series instead of rushing out DVD's for every failed hack show that just ended and lasted one season.
 

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