Last October we
reported that BCI was planning a March 10th DVD release of
What's My Line? - The Best Of, Volume 1, per an Amazon pre-order listing (a schedule which was later confirmed to us by independent industry sources). That's today, of course, and fans may be out in stores looking for the title, but with no luck. In mid-December
a press release issued by BCI's parent company, Navarre, stated that the division would be shut down.
Some titles were to be moved into Navarre's own home video release library, according to the announcement. We never knew if unreleased titles like
What's My Line? would be among them, and frankly our efforts to communicate with Navarre and ask about this have proven unsuccessful. Yesterday a reader, Greg, sent us a note (thanks to him for the heads-up!) pointing out that the Amazon listing had been updated to show that the title was "discontinued" (that was the wording used). This morning, as this is written, we see that Amazon has gone a step further now, and completely removed that listing (which is why we haven't bothered linking to it).
Furthermore, we've received word over the weekend from an industry source up in Canada that BCI's distributor there has issued a recall notice to retailers for all titles in BCI's library. That includes the game show releases (
Match Game, Family Feud, Price is Right, etc.), the Filmation library shows such as
He-Man, She-Ra, Ark II, Bravestarr, and other releases such as
Dungeons & Dragons, Falcon Beach, etc., and additional titles that are just too long of a list to name here. It was described to me as being "all-inclusive." And no word, from that industry source or any others, as to a Navarre pick-up on any of these titles. And at least one BCI employee who was a driving force behind the game show releases is now working for an other independent studio. However, any rights that BCI had to these home video releases would most likely be inherited by Navarre, so they should continue to have the option on them until the license runs out. At that time, other studios will have the chance to try to acquire them. If word about
What's My Line comes around again, then we'll certainly let fans know!
