2022 and Still no Archie Bunkers Place S2-4 (2 Viewers)

[Dave Scarpa]

I understand this series isn’t All in the Family but it still was very watchable and you still had those Emmy winning Death of Edith shows. Never understood why Shout hasn’t picked these up I cannot believe they would not sell

 

[Robert Crawford]

Perhaps because the first season didn't sell enough units. Fans of movies or TV shows have difficulty in accepting that reality, but that's really the bottom line for these companies and studios.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Think as a complete series set it would sell

 

[Robert Crawford]

Think as a complete series set it would sell

Perhaps, but perhaps not.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Yeah, I grabbed 'em off of some obscure cable channel years ago, dumped 'em on my computer and took the ads out, and made nice MP4 files of them for personal use.

The good news is that according to the runtimes from those copies, if the series ever made it to DVD, the majority of the episodes are unedited. But the two partners, Edith's Death included, are the syndicated edits.

Since then, the show has appeared various places for streaming. So it's at least available for those who care. But if it didn't make it out when Shout still released old TV, the odds aren't too good now.

 

[JamesSmith]

I understand this series isn’t All in the Family but it still was very watchable and you still had those Emmy winning Death of Edith shows. Never understood why Shout hasn’t picked these up I cannot believe they would not sell

Feel your pain.
--jthree

 

[rmw650]

I think ABP airs on Antenna TV now and there's also Gloria, another spin-off of that show, airing on Crackle.

 

[sjbradford]

I get Antenna TV so I’ve seen most/all the episodes recently. It’s a terribly uneven show. They could never quite figure out what to do it with the premise of Archie without his family.

The first season is mostly set at the bar, and is about Archie and his new partner Murray, with a handful of episodes taking place at home with Edith. Then Edith dies in the second season and they do more shows at home, focusing on Archie and Stephanie. Then Murray leaves and they bring in an older niece for Archie, presumably to do stories that Stephanie was too young for. Then Archie hires a business manager, and Archie’s niece starts dating him, in an effort to duplicate the Mike/Gloria setup. All kinds of recurring characters come and go: the cook, the waiter, the housekeeper, the lady bartender, Stephanie’s grandmother, Stephanie’s friend Amy Bloom and her father, Archie’s new girlfriend Katherine.

You could see that they set up the bar in the later seasons of AITF as a potential setting for the series. But it was so drab and dingy and filled with old men, you’d think that they would have realized earlier that it couldn’t stand on its own as the primary setting for a series.

 

[ScottRE]

I stuck with the show first run for as long as I could until I had enough, honestly. Archie needs strong characters to bounce off of or he just becomes a caricature of a caricature. Or, worse, he's softened, which is how I remembered it going (I may be wrong it's been decades). I missed Martin Balsam, I felt he was a great foil for Archie. Mostly, though, I remember the simpleton who wanted to play Donkey Kong for that one episode. Like the writers discovered there was a game called "Donkey Kong" and got a free one for the set in exchange for product placement.

I do remember crying my eyes out over Edith's death and O'Connor was brilliant for that scene.

 

[Clark Green]

Think as a complete series set it would sell

In the year 2022 with streaming taking over most all media, odds of selling many of a pricey box of DVD's for an obscure TV show would be slim. They'd be lucky to get a couple hundred customers. Add to that, B&M stores don't sell discs anymore, other than the usual Marvel or Star Wars type discs.

 

[jcroy]

If there is any last ditch effort, it will likely be VEI. That is if they (VEI) can convince Sony to license it and other Sony catalog shows to them.

 

[ScottRE]

If there is any last ditch effort, it will likely be VEI. That is if they (VEI) can convince Sony to license it and other Sony catalog shows to them.

Mill Creek would be my guess for a Sony. They could crank it out with 18 episodes per single layer disc.

 

[jcroy]

Mill Creek would be my guess for a Sony. They could crank it out with 18 episodes per single layer disc.

Mill Creek has already showed their hand on this. Season 1 of Archie Bunker's Place has already been re-released by Mill Creek back in 2015.

Nothing since, which is likely a vote of no confidence in further seasons being release on dvd by Mill Creek.

 

[ScottRE]

Oof so much for my theory. While I'm not the show's biggest fan, the character is an important one in TV history. I'd like to see it released even if I'm not the target audience.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I wouldn't put much stock in the Mill Creek thing being any sort of bellwether. MC only licensed the already released Sony shows. They rereleased Diff'rent Strokes S1 and 2, while Shout batted cleanup. Rereleased The Nanny seasons Sony had already released, The Jeffersons, AITF, but Shout finished them up.

The fact that Shout never finished them up was the bad news. But that doesn't mean MC wouldn't come along and do a release if they thought it would be profitable and Sony was on board.

 

[Al_D]

This is one that I was really hoping that they would release.

 

[jcroy]

I wouldn't put much stock in the Mill Creek thing being any sort of bellwether. MC only licensed the already released Sony shows. They rereleased Diff'rent Strokes S1 and 2, while Shout batted cleanup. Rereleased The Nanny seasons Sony had already released, The Jeffersons, AITF, but Shout finished them up.

The fact that Shout never finished them up was the bad news. But that doesn't mean MC wouldn't come along and do a release if they thought it would be profitable and Sony was on board.

This is a good point.

There seems to be some kind of agreement between Mill Creek, Shout Factory and Sony or Universal for some previously released stuff. If I had to guess from looking at previous releases, Shout Factory might have "the right of first refusal" for some tv titles from Universal and Sony.

Right of first refusal - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

An oddball case was Mill Creek releasing "the best of Simon & Simon season 2" and "The best of Simon & Simon season 3" dvd releases in 2011. Shout Factory released seasons 2 and 3 of Simon & Simon back in 2009. (Only season 1 of Simon & Simon was released by Universal). If I had to guess, this was likely a separate one-shot deal between Mill Creek and Shout Factory + Universal in 2011. (The giant Universal + Mill Creek deal was made in 2018).

 

[BILLONEEG]

Think as a complete series set it would sell

My friend & I would each buy the complete series on day one.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I guess I’m a completist , the bigger crime in not getting all the Mary Hartman sequels especially Fernwood tonight

 

[Wiseguy]

I think ABP airs on Antenna TV now and there's also Gloria, another spin-off of that show, airing on Crackle.

Antenna TV also airs the unaired-on-CBS pilot for Gloria (an episode of ABP).