Video Business, an industry insider trade magazine, released a report
today at their website that has very exciting news for the TV-on-DVD genre.
One of the most prolific creators/ producers/ writers you'll find in
television history, Stephen J. Cannell, has signed a deal giving exclusive
rights to the properties he owns to Anchor Bay Entertainment for home video
release on DVD.
Some of Cannell's series, such as
Baretta,
The A-Team,
The
Rockford Files, and
Baa Baa Black Sheep, are owned by others. In
the case of these examples, it's Universal Studios, and
The A-Team -
Season 1 was just released yesterday on DVD.
Baretta had a pair
of releases (a best-of disc and a
Season 1 set) in Oct. 2002.
Rockford and
Sheep are reportedly in-the-works from Universal, now that merger
concerns with NBC are mostly behind them. Another series of Cannell's,
Wiseguy, is already being distributed by Ventura on behalf of
StudioWorks Entertainment.
Of the series that Cannell's company, Cannell Studios, retains the rights
to, some have been rumored from time-to-time:
21 Jump Street and
The Greatest American Hero being among the more recent
mentions.
But now we have word that we can expect quite a nice list of his titles in
the near future, thanks to Cannell's new deal with Anchor Bay:
- Sep. 2004: 21 Jump Street
- Oct. 2004: Silk Stalkings
- Late 2004 or Early 2005: The Greatest American Hero
- Late 2004 or Early 2005: Hunter
- Late 2004 or Early 2005: The Commish
- Late 2004 or Early 2005: Renegade
Here are selected quotes from the
Video Business article:
Stephen J. Cannell has struck an exclusive long-term distribution
deal with Anchor Bay Entertainment to release his TV series on DVD, such as
21 Jump Street, The Greatest American Hero and Hunter.
...Anchor Bay will be issuing four to six DVD series sets at once, beginning
with 21 Jump Street in mid-September and Silk Stalkings in early October.
Two additional series sets from among Hunter, The Commish, Renegade and
Greatest American Hero are tentatively slated for the fourth quarter and the
other two in early 2005.
As the deal has been on the table and nearly consummated for months, Anchor
Bay has already been busy producing bonus features for DVD sets that will
include an extensive array of cast and crew interviews, audio commentaries
and making-of featurettes. Cannell, who has theatrical film productions in
development on many of the series, has been actively involved in the
creation of the bonus materials.
(Anchor Bay CEO Ted) Green said Cannell's production company kept the tapes
of the series in such good shape that they were able to prepare them for DVD
much more quickly than is often the case for some older series.
You can read the complete story from
Video Business Editor-In-Chief
Scott Hettrick by clicking
here (registration required). It has more details about the
doings of all the companies involved, so give it a read!
