Site News - Warner Chats with HTF: We've got the TV-on-DVD rundown from it!

A short time ago tonight the great folks at The Home Theater Forum finished holding a live online chat with several executives at Warner Home Video. Tomorrow you can look for the full transcript of the chat to be posted by our friends at The Digital Bits website. We thank HTF owners Ron Epstein and Parker Clack for hosting the 3-hour chat, which - as usual - resulted in LOTS of news about TV-DVD titles. Here we have a quick rundown of the titles that were discussed tonight, and we put each item into a "bucket" that generally describes Warner's response:

2005 Releases:

• Friends S10 ("before the end of the year...loaded with goodies")
• Smallville S4 ("this Fall")
• Nip/Tuck S2 ("out by Fall")
• Dallas S3 ("this Summer")
• Lois & Clark S1 ("June; contains special features including new Teri Hatcher interviews; expect more Lois & Clark in 2006")
• Looney Tunes V3 ("coming before Xmas"; "will (continue to) be one per year for the forseeable future")

Working on Release Plans:

• George Lopez Show
• Chico and the Man

Potential Titles for Release:

• Welcome Back Kotter
• Drew Carey Show
• Knot's Landing
• The Flash
• Witchblade
• "LOTS of great DC Comic-related product in your future!"
• Growing Pains
• Falcon's Crest

Will Be Considered:

• Enos
• Superboy
• Family Matters
• Step By Step

Music Rights Preclude Release:

• Cold Case

No plans yet for:

• Murphy Brown S2
• Veronica Mars
• Perfect Strangers
• Brimstone
• Third Watch
• Opposite Sex
• Run of the House
• Bucky O'Hare
• Fish Police
• Xiaolin Showdown
• Everwood S2
• Jack & Bobby
• Mama's Family
• Hogan Family
• Flamingo Road
• Freddy's Nightmares
• Just The Ten Of Us
• Midnight Caller
• New Scooby-Doo Movies remaining episodes
• Hangin' With Mr. Cooper
• Shazam! set
• Time Trax

No rights for:

• Get Smart (David's note: funny, Paramount says they don't own it, either; a separate source tells me Paramount's rights ended at the end of 2004, and the rights reverted to Warner)
• Batman 60's ("The Batman TV issue is between DC Comics and Fox. It doesn't involve Warner Home Video")
• Saturday Night Live (David's note: Broadway Video owns this, and Lions Gate distributes releases)
• Doctor Who 1996 TV Movie ("We only distribute the BBC product, so we have no idea what their marketing plans are for Doctor Who")

Asked/No Answer Given or No Info Available:

• Brisco County Jr.
• Alice
• Max Headroom
• Birds of Prey
• Justice League box sets
• Batman Beyond box sets
• Head of the Class
• Superman ("1980's animated Ruby Spears")
• Fantastic Four 60's
• Tom & Jerry shorts corrected and unedited
• Popeye (Fleischer)

And the strangest question/answer combo of the night comes from John Pannozzi's question, and Warner's rather terse answer to it. Which part of John's question did the answer pertain to? YOU DECIDE!:

{JohnPannozzi} Any plans for Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Freakazoid, Road Rovers, the Quick Draw McGaw Show, the Son of Kong, Mighty Joe Young 1949, John K. and Spumco's Yogi and Jetsons shorts, seasons 2 and 3 of the Jetsons, Flintstones on the Rocks, Ralph Bakshi's Hey, Good Lookin' and/or the unsold pilot of 'Gizmo and the Gremlins' on DVD? I also want to see Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs on DVD. END.

{WarnerHomeVideo} YES. Done

Huh...we hope the "Yes" pertains to Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, and Pinky & The Brain! (among others). Thanks again to the HTF folks for hosting the chat, and especially to the Warner Brothers participants for being there to answer our questions (including my mega-long one!). Stay tuned for updates on all of these titles as time goes on, and don't forget to read the full transcript tomorrow at The Digital Bits.