Case Studies in Intellectual Property: Dick Tracy

[Cadence]

There may yet be hope for those old shows that you could watch on some obscure UHF channel, back in the '70s and '80s. The free streaming services, like Tubi and Roku, need cheap content. As a result many of those old shows are being revived and put online. For example Tubi has the old Batman and Captain Marvel serials, The Addams Family, and many others.

I've been using Freevee to watch Magnum P.I. on our Roku. And there are about 10 broadcast rerun channels if you go over the air here.

The big difference is that back in the late 70s early 80s a lot of places only had one rerun channel and there wasn't cable -- so they had a lot more traction.

This has me thinking about Saturday Morning Cartoons. I wonder where Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes would be in the cultural memory without the decade+ of their reruns in the Saturday morning loop with no real competition. (Back before it was taken over by mostly new shows).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

They have Space 1999 and Sapphire and Steel on ITVX.

 

[Deset Gled]

Regarding syndication, I'd like to throw out there that it applies to movies as well.

I remember seeing the Addams Family (and sequel) movie regularly on cable. In the 90's, I'm sure some people saw the movies more than the TV show. There's no doubt in my mind that the syndication of the movies played just as large of a roll in the new movies as the original show (or comics) did. Conversely, I don't know if I ever saw the Dick Tracy movie on TV. It's also a well established story that movies like Shawshank Redemption and Cruel Intentions had a bigger life on the small screen than on the big screen.

Currently, Dick Tracy's legacy is hurt a lot by the fact that it's not on Disney+. If the goal is to get a next generation interested in it, that's a huge market that they're missing.

Also, it seems like Amazon Prime and Disney+ are the better streaming services for older/classic movies. Netflix and Hulu do a very bad job of promoting older stuff. I gotta check out Paramount+, it seems like that may be a bit better.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Oh yeah, I remember watching Batman '66 and BnW Zorro back in the 80s, and in the 90's discovering the Thunderbirds and other work of Gerry Anderson, and also Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Giligan's Island...

I feel like the domination of streaming is cutting a lot of kids from discovering past entertainment they might have enjoyed. There's a LOT more content to consume now, but the loss of the syndication culture feels like a shame, because it means you have less cultural connection with other generations. It's interesting though that there is some movement to bring that sort of connection back: Columbo is becoming a folk hero online and I know PushingUpRoses on Youtube has a long running series about Murder She Wrote so it's not ALL lost.

Oh yeah, I loved the old Guy Williams Zorro!

While I would say that it's now easier than ever to find some obscure (or even not-so-obscure but forgotten) TV show, movie, even old commercials and shorts streaming somewhere, the amount of signal-to-noise to find it makes it difficult to just stumble across stuff. We've got this stuff at our fingertips, rather than having to wait for stuff to be aired on TV, but you have to know to look for things for it to matter.

I've been using Freevee to watch Magnum P.I. on our Roku. And there are about 10 broadcast rerun channels if you go over the air here.

I've been rewatching All In The Family from the very beginning on Freevee and it is great. That writing still is pretty darn sharp.

The big difference is that back in the late 70s early 80s a lot of places only had one rerun channel and there wasn't cable -- so they had a lot more traction.

That's a big part of it - television viewership numbers back then were massive because there were only so many channels available. The finale of Game of Thrones had 18.4 million viewers. The final episode of Mad Men, 10.3 million viewers. The episode where Dallas viewers found out who shot J.R.? 83 million.

 

[Cadence]

That's a big part of it - television viewership numbers back then were massive because there were only so many channels available. The finale of Game of Thrones had 18.4 million viewers. The final episode of Mad Men, 10.3 million viewers. The episode where Dallas viewers found out who shot J.R.? 83 million.

40th anniversary of MASH's final episode was just the other day. Just under 106 million.

Interesting to look back at the viewership back when (semi-random year chosen):

1981-82 Top-Rated TV Shows - Classic TV Database

1981 - 1982 TV Show Ratings from the Classic TV Database.

www.classic-tv.com

 

[Undrave]

They have Space 1999 and Sapphire and Steel on ITVX.

All the Gerry Anderson shows are on ShoutFactoryTV in North-America!

 

[Undrave]

Regarding syndication, I'd like to throw out there that it applies to movies as well.

That’s so true! A bunch of movie I only knew because of local TV airing.

I can’t recall how many times local channel would air Short Circuit 2 and Cocoon 2… but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the first ones… Same with the Revenge of the Nerds movie, but having seen the original I totally get it… yikes.

Batteries not Included is one. I’ve seen the old Disney movie ‘Last Flight of Noah’s Ark’ a few times as well, growing up. Explorers! The tamer Police Academy movies… Spaceballs! Lots of James Bond…

And don't let me get into the holiday TV block known as 'Ciné-Cadeau' and its cornucopia of animation from all over the world...

 

[Voadam]

That’s so true! A bunch of movie I only knew because of local TV airing.

Same.

This came around to bite me a couple times.

Visiting my in-laws with my wife and my young son we saw a Blues Brothers DVD on their counter. My wife wondered if it would be inappropriate for our son and I said "I don't think so, they say crap a few times when the nun hits them with a ruler for rude language, but that's about as bad as it gets." A half-hour in I realized I had only ever seen the broadcast version. Later similar experiences for Trading Places, Animal House, and Caddyshack.

 

[Willie the Duck]

There may yet be hope for those old shows that you could watch on some obscure UHF channel, back in the '70s and '80s. The free streaming services, like Tubi and Roku, need cheap content. As a result many of those old shows are being revived and put online. For example Tubi has the old Batman and Captain Marvel serials, The Addams Family, and many others.

I feel that most everything will see the light of day again, provided there are no major rights hurdles. Streaming Muppet Babies will likely never be profitable enough to deal with licensing all the expensive clips it included; Mystery Science Theater 3000 would be cheaper, but more headache (lots of tiny little studios and rights holders) and likely lower value to a streaming service; I never knew how Comedy Central could play old Saturday Night Live's as daytime filler (does SNL own the performances of all the songs?). Certainly anything where who owns the rights to _____ are unclear will have problems. Everything else, I expect it to get put up on streaming eventually. There just seems to be an unending need for more content from more and more services which thing they'll be the next Netflix. It's kind of amazing.

This came around to bite me a couple times.
Visiting my in-laws with my wife and my young son we saw a Blues Brothers DVD on their counter. My wife wondered if it would be inappropriate for our son and I said "I don't think so, they say crap a few times when the nun hits them with a ruler for rude language, but that's about as bad as it gets." A half-hour in I realized I had only ever seen the broadcast version. Later similar experiences for Trading Places, Animal House, and Caddyshack.

I always wondered why the nun slapped his wrist and said they had filthy mouths after Jake said she was 'up a creek.'

 

[Undrave]

Later similar experiences for Trading Places, Animal House, and Caddyshack.

I've never seen the original Caddyshack but saw the second one multiple times!

Speaking of Eddie Murphy: Prince in New York! Classic broadcast movie.