Thanks for your response, Brian. I was trying to get an idea of what companies plan for with these TV series releases. And what  it takes to get a multi-season show out there to the buying public. 

I'll bring up the COMBAT! example again. They commited to the whole series from the beginning, and even published a release schedule for all five seasons before the first season was out.  In fact the release schedule was even speeded up, so all five seasons were out in about a year. (Maybe the license with Image had a time limit?)

Or look at  Hopalong Cassidy. The owners were able to put the 66 Hopalong Cassidy feature movies (and maybe the 52 episode TV series) out on VHS in the 1990's. When DVD came about, the Hopalong Cassidy owners wanted Hopalong Cassidy   out on DVD. They went with Image, which released 16 features(as 8 DVD double features), then with Platinum, which released 40 features on 8 DVDs. Then they went with Critic's Choice which just released the ten remaining features in a 4DVD boxed set. Critic's Choice has also released both seasons of the Hopalong Cassidy TV show. The Hopalong Cassidy owners were commited to getting the DVDs out there. It took them five years and three companies. Now whether the western fans that would buy these Hopalong Cassidy DVDs know they are available is a marketing question.

I have not really asked another question, Brian , but for us movie/TV fans the whole DVD business is rather mysterious and there is not much information or feedback from the companies. So I appreciate this Shout! message board and site for the information it is providing about Shout! releases. Now lets have that Ozzie and Harriett News Release.

I think, the DVD producers have to do a better job of selling and getting out the basic information  that these series are available. A lot of potential casual buyers of classic shows don't even know they are out. The business model today seems to be to sell the same thing over and over again to the same audience, instead of advertising to bring in the casual impulse buyers, which is the larger potential audience.

When a processed food company comes out with a new product they advertise and put coupons in newspaper flyers even before the new product is in stores, so that it creates interest and customers will ask for it and then the stores start carrying it because of customer demand. More customers now see the product in the store. More product is sold.

It would be nice if the DVD companies had enough faith in the entertainment value of their TVonDVD product and their ability to really sell it, as opposed to just putting a show out with no fan-fare to see if anyone is interested.

I'd like to see series be available in both a complete series set and as individual seasons releases from the start. Especially, as you say, the 1-3 seasons shows  with fewer total episodes. As time goes on and the companies get better and more efficient at putting these series out, the production costs should be getting lower, hopefully paving the way for whole series releases.

Prices seem to be going up, especially with the trend towards split season sets for the hour-long shows. The retailers like split seasons because it brings the fan/customer back to the store twice as often and they might buy other split TVDVD items which will bring them back even more to the stores. 

I Totally agree with Ann. I just read that SHOUT is putting out a single disc of That Girl with 4 episodes from season one,

instead of releasing season 4. I love that show, and I own the first three seasons. Why can't season four and five be

released? Recently Paramount cheapened there packing but is bringing out almost everything they own. Could Shout

perhaps do that with That Girl? I love the nice packaging on all of the Shout releases, but I would rather have all the

seasons with cheaper packaging.

Barry