Maybe it's generational...

[CarlZog]

But another factor is that- especially for older stuff- nobody included licensing agreements for anything except broadcast & syndication rights. They simply didn't think about it...sometimes because there was no such thing as home video of any kind when the shows were created.

It sounds like this might have been the case with WKRP. According to wikipedia (for whatever that's worth), WKRP was shot on video instead of film to reduce royalties and there was only a 10-year syndication agreement. If all that's true, I'm guessing somebody interested in re-releasing the show would have to go back to all the original rights holders and renegotiate new deals -- which is probably considered unprofitable for a show that nobody under 35 remembers.

That's too bad, because I think we genuinely do lose a piece of valuable culture as a result.

Carl

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Its all a VERY possible scenario- VHS and Beta had only been on the market a couple of years when WKRP first aired, and Blockbuster was founded 3 years after WKRP stopped broadcasting.

I bet it was several years after all of that before the home video market for old TV shows even got serious attention.

 

[billd91]

That's too bad, because I think we genuinely do lose a piece of valuable culture as a result.

Indeed. WKRP is one of the best sitcoms I've ever seen.

 

[MoxieFu]

I think its been less than ten years that TV on DVD had been so influential. Fox had canceled Family Guy but when the DVD sales figures came in they decided to bring it back. Some TV shows were put on videotape but the capacity of the tapes was so low it was hard to put together an entire season in one package. So many times it was just individual episodes or Best Of compilations. DVD's greater capacity and smaller size made it practical to put TV shows out for private home viewing.