From 2000 to 2005, Rhino Home Entertainment was a noticable force in TV-on-DVD releases. A small but well-connected company, they put out releases ranging from
The Transformers (original "G1",
Beast Machines/Beast Wars and
Armada) and
G.I. Joe to
Candid Camera and
The Flip Wilson Show, from Sid & Marty Krofft productions like
H.R. Pufnstuf and
Land of the Lost to prime time shows like
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and
Too Close For Comfort. Toss in various titles like
Pryor's Place, The Monkees, Battle of the Planets, Get A Life, The Real McCoys, My Little Pony, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, The Gumby Show and
The Ed Sullivan Show...and you've got a nicely varied menu of shows that have built up a real cult audience. Speaking of cult,
Mystery Science Theater 3000 continues to grab DVD purchases from Rhino to this very day.
The problem is that
MST3K is the only significant TV-on-DVD releases Rhino still produces. They lost the rights to "Sunbow" properties like the original
Transformers, G.I. Joe and
Jem. They finished the run on some shows like
Beast Machines/Beast Wars,
Transformers: Armada and
The Monkees. Then, for the rest (excepting
MST3K of course), they seem to have simply gotten...disintertested. They didn't continue releasing shows like
Laugh-In,
Too Close For Comfort or the various Krofft Productions properties. There were recent rumors I had heard that some new Krofft shows were finally coming to DVD, for the first time since the May 2006 release of
The Bugaloos. I checked with Rhino and Krofft both. Yes, Rhino still has the rights. No, they aren't planning on releasing anything. No, not even with
a Will-Ferrell-starring theatrical remake of Land of the Lost in the works for filming in 2008. No, no reason given.
I realize that I'm editorializing quite a bit here, but still I won't personally speculate on the reasons for the change. Fans theorize about changes in Rhino's ownership, changes in management, changes in company direction, changes in distributor, costs vs. profits, and many more. Maybe the answer is "all of the above". In a quote below, you'll see a different idea for the change. The reasons don't really matter to most, though. What matters to fans is that they want their favorite TV shows on DVD, and apparently Rhino isn't going to be the source any more, if the program's not
MST3K. Besides two big releases for that show, by our count Rhino's TV-DVD output for 2007 is a
Flip Wilson best-of, a
My Little Pony best-of, and some re-packaging/re-promotes of various
Transformers: Armada releases to tie in with the live-action film. It doesn't look like 2008 will be any different. If Rhino wants to prove us all wrong, well, we would welcome that!
In the Fall of 2004, Rhino released
My Favorite Martian - Season 1, having licensed the series from Jack Chertok Productions, and it was easy to find in stores, and fans were happy. The following Spring (2005) Rhino followed it up with
Season 2...but fans complained they couldn't find it in stores, or didn't even know it was out. Rhino's plans for the 3rd and final season of the show on DVD were
announced, then
canceled, then
said to be back on again...but Rhino never came through with it. Rhino sub-licensed some first season episodes out to Timeless Media, who issued a best-of release, but that was the last we heard of it.
Now, as one person put it, Jack Chertok Productions "took their business elsewhere". An Australian company called Umbrella Entertainment is selling
My Favorite Martian - The Complete 3rd Season as a 6-DVD set.
Wait a sec...Australia? TVShowsOnDVD doesn't talk about overseas releases, right? Well, no we don't...except in the rare case when the overseas release is something that so clearly can be used by the North American audience. One such example we can easily recall is
a U.K. release of Robin of Sherwood specifically made for Region 1. Umbrella's release of
My Favorite Martian - The Complete 3rd Season falls into the same category, as it specifically is an NTSC video format and encoded as Region-Free ("Region 0"), so it works in any player made in the USA or Canada.
Cost is a whopping Au$69.99. That's Australian dollars, and using my favorite online currency converter shows that as of this writing that would translate to US$62.78. Why so expensive? Why 6 DVDs? Speaking late last week exclusively
in a post at The Home Theater Forum, where a discussion of the above has been going on, a representative of Jack Chertok Productions had plenty to say. Please visit the HTF for his full comments, over several posts. The following are some significant excerpts from his various statements (quoted exactly, including spelling/grammar errors), and encompassing word of a future release of a different show they are planning through Umbrella. Our only changes to what's below is that we slightly re-arranged the order of a small number of sentences, to better flow from one subject to another:
Hello..from Jack Chertok Television.Inc.
The Timeless release was a straight sale from Rhino to timeless, they were not allowed to sub-licence the show in their contract. (sorry if it caused confusion..we let it through in the hopes it would get the season three released for you)
To say that I have been disapointed with the lack of a season three set is putting it mildly..
we had put together a large inventory of new extras material for them to use on this set,(at no cost to them) mostly because as a fellow fan I felt that the first two sets had really short changed the show.
So they have changed inside Rhino, they are more into the download world not so much the in hand products.
The season three set at this point is highly unlikley...but...
We just released a boxed set of season three in Australia and New zealand..
It is packed with the extras we wanted on the Rhino set..in fact we have even more..since we felt rewarding fans is job number one.
It is a little more price wise..but honestly well worth it..we remastered the unaired pilot and more..
It's out through Umbrella Entertainment Australia.
The Umbrela set is mastered from our broadcast Digi betas...broadcast quality..they did a new digital transfer..
The set will work on all player it is region free..
While it's a little more cost wise..I made sure that it's worth every cent of that price..no short changing fans of our shows.
None of the shows are time compressed..they were taken from our fine grain negative master transfers. (Digi Betas)
We want to make sure that every new "Martian" product is as perfect as possible.
The moto is to reward the fans of our shows with new and unseen materials.
The simple fact is mission number one is quality, and giving television fans like yourself the ultimate sets possible.
That means extras in the form of interviews with our production staff and actors, scans of original production paperwork never before seen stills rare home movies from the set...and more..
Thank you so much for your support of "My Favorite Martian"
What are we up to next...well how about a boxed set of our other show..."My Living Doll" hosted by our star Julie Newmar..
Living Doll is a work in progress..over 11 shows are in decent shape..the rest are being worked on..
There you have it.
My Favorite Martian can be complete in your library, if you're willing to
order it from Australia. The release date shown is "03/11/2007", but since internationally on those date formats the month is in the middle, that means that the release has been available since Nov. 3rd. Below is the official description and cover art from their site. Our thanks to HTF members for their interesting discussion on this subject, and especially to HTF posters Joyce, Toby and Bob for contributing information I used in my story. But most of all, thanks to Jack Chertok Productions for taking the time to come to the Home Theater Forum and talk to the fans, and explain. I hope we're helping here at TVShowsOnDVD by spreading the word!
First airing in 1963, My Favourite Martian was one of the first sitcoms with a 'fantasy' premise, joining ranks with Mister Ed, and followed later by Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie. Bill Bixby stars as Tim O'Hara, an L.A. Sun reporter who stumbles upon a Martian (Ray Walston) in a crashed spaceship and takes him on as a boarder under the guise of "Uncle Martin". Martin promises not to reveal himself to anyone other than Tim, but can’t help displaying his alien abilities such as telepathy, moving objects by pointing at them, and a knack for invisibility.
Bixby - star of The Incredible Hulk - and seasoned actor Walston both provide incredible comedic timing as bizarre plot twists keep the laughs coming. Umbrella proudly presents the entire third season of My Favoite Martian, the first season in colour, for the first time on DVD anywhere in the world, along with an interstellar collection of exclusive special features.
