"Hazel" first season on DVD

Saw this at Barnes & Noble this weekend. Is there really an audience
for this? I doubt

jayembee...

Probably not much of one, but the studio is never going to know until
they try it. So why pick this instead of some other random TV show?
I imagine that Sony has had good sales figures for their other 60s
sitcom releases (BEWITCHED, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, GIDGET, and THE FLYING
NUN) and probably looked through their vaults to see what other 60s
sitcoms they had the rights to, and there was HAZEL. While certainly
not a cult show like BEWITCHED or I DREAM OF JEANNIE, it was a fairly
popular show of its time -- it ran for five seasons -- so it probably
looked like a good bet.

it is on anyones list of "best 1960s sitcoms". How many would they

jayembee...

Why does it have to be to get a DVD release?

have to sell to
make a profit on something like this?. I can't imagine many people

jayembee...

Probably not much. Production costs are likely minimal: the authoring
time is likely the extent of it. Certainly they didn't spend any money
promoting it (unless they've taken out ads on TV Land). And they don't
have any (expensive) music licensing to worry about.

jayembee...

There are a lot of things that get released that I can't imagine many
people buying.

buying it.

Jude Cormier...

Still it shows hope that if "Hazel" can make it on DVD, what is the excuse
about other shows not yet out on DVD? :)

And FWIW, I enjoyed the show.

et472...

In this sort of case, it doesn't matter what you think of the show,
it matters that there may be people who want to see it.

I remember it, not badly, though I feel no compulsion to see it again.
Yet, I have far less memory of "Camp Runamuck" but would be far more
itnerested in seeing an episode of that (though I'm not likely to
buy a set of DVDs). I'm sure far more people can remember "Hazel"
than the summer camp show. But of course, the interest in seeing
it has much to do with seeing something I haven't seen since I was five
years old, rather than "this is a great show, I must see it again".

SO yes, I suspect there is a market for "Hazel" episodes. People have
memories of it, and want to relive those memories. Same with a lot
of old programs.

The companies may deal with it in terms of overal profit, so long
as they do make profit on good shows they can afford to risk some
less demanded shows. Or, the cost of releasing it is low enough
that they feel they can recover those costs even with limited sales.

stonej...

The cost must be low, I have only vague memories of the show, it

SoHillsGuy...

To expand upon this, let's remember that some of the biggest costs in
releasing DVDs -- or so it seems -- comes from a) music licensing and
b) residuals due to actors. In this program as an example, the cost
of music licensing is probably next to nothing. And unlike actors'
contracts of today, which routinely include profits from syndication
and DVD sales, there's unlikely to be any active contract from "Hazel"
that would amount to anything significant (if anything at all!).

So, the only costs that would add up on this release are likely based
on production and marketing. If they can determine they'll make money

wasen't bad but
nothing special as I remember it. I can't imagine them selling more
than a few
thousand of these box sets or maybe only a few hundred but maybe that
is all they need to make some money off of it.

Uniblab...

It was a syndication staple in the 70s - in part because it was one of the
first sitcoms to convert to color, and local stations were hot for color
reruns in the 70s. But it hasn't been seen much lately.

Jude Cormier...

it was a staple on WTBS for many years as well as then Houston superstation
channel 26.
CBN Family also reran it(but it was the Colex package that left out the 1st
season B&W episodes).
Most recently TV Land reran it, but only the first season.

I agree with the poster who said that Sony probably looked at the sales of
its other 60s sitcoms (like "Bewitched") and decided to give this a try. My
guess is that it won't sell well and there won't be another release. They
might have been better off doing a single "Best of" release rather than a
season set.