A few weeks ago, we posted
horrible news that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment had pulled DVDs of
The Nanny completely from their planned release schedule. Fans were highly upset, of course (myself included!), and - as we discussed in that post - wanted some method of feedback to tell Sony how they felt about this terrible situation. The best contact method we could come up with was an e-mail address that about a dozen readers sent us (thanks for all the responses!), but which we have not yet been able to verify was the best possible way to affect this decision.
That address is cthv_CustomerService@spe.sony.com, and based on the way it's worded, it seems like it has to be the correct one to use. UPDATE: THAT E-MAIL ADDRESS IS NOW NO LONGER WORKING
But then, a ray of hope seemed to have broken through today. An anonymous reader sent us a note, telling us to look at the "Breaking News" board at the official website of Benjamin Salisbury, the actor who played young "Brighton" on
The Nanny. There, Salisbury had just posted earlier today (under his board name "Schmuey") some terrific-sounding news about DVDs. Here's what
he says there:
Hey gang!
Just wanted to let you know that last night I was contacted by Sony to come in
and do some work on the first season of the Nanny on DVD. I know NO further
information (including, but not limited to, who else is involved, release date, what extras will be included, etc). This will be the first place I post more information when I know it.
Obviously, this means that other reports of the demise of the Nanny DVD have
been greatly exaggerated.
That last bit means us, of course! No problem; we've been hoping that we were told the wrong thing, too! In case it wasn't clear in our last write-up, though, we *did* verify the cancellation info directly with our contacts at Sony. So, upon seeing this news from Salisbury's site, we promptly got back in touch with the same people at the studio to find out what had changed (hoping, of course, that TVShowsOnDVD's prompting for fan feedback to Sony had helped).
Alas, we were told that we'd gotten our hopes up too quickly. It IS good news, after a fashion, but NOT for folks in North America...at least not immediately.
The response we had from Sony was that Mr. Salisbury spoke true, but that the extras which Mr. Salisbury has been asked to record are for a non-Region 1 release of
The Nanny. This release that's being produced will not be sold in the United States in the near future; it's aimed at foreign regions.
Of course, there's a bright side to look on: the fact that a release will soon
exist overseas - with extras, no less - IS a motivating factor for the studio
to work toward overcoming whatever is preventing a USA/Canada distribution of the show. So this might end up being good news for Region 1
Nanny-fans down the road. Still, we wanted to post something right now about the situation, and pass along exactly what the studio is telling us, so that there are no misunderstandings on the Internet about what the current DVD production is about.
Rest assured, we want DVDs of
The Nanny just as badly as you do! And we'll stay on top of this story as time goes on, letting you know what we
hear. Keep sending your feedback to the studio, of course, and keep it polite, non-threatening, and brief. Make sure that you send one such feedback per household, please: the studio is concerned that a lot of their mail supporting particular releases are multiple letters from the same small group of people, and that this vocal minority are wrongly inflating the numbers. Believe me, you don't want any studio to get that idea into their head; it will work strongly against you. Just a single note, please, that simply says that you would purchase
The Nanny on DVD in season sets if released in Region 1. We know there are a lot of you out there who want it: the show is ranked 14th at our site among unreleased-to-DVD series, which is rather high when you consider the thousands and thousands of TV shows made over the decades. And we've made sure the studio knows how many of our readers want these sets!
Apologies for making this such a long news post; but it was felt that the fans were owed a detailed explanation of what's going on. Stay tuned, please, for further developments. We would like to give our thanks to Mr. Benjamin Salisbury for the information at his website, and to the mysterious stranger who tipped us off to it.
