has Comet run out of eps they're able to air? if so, it was only, what, 6 or 8, right? :( I was hoping to see some of my favorites from the later Sci-Fi years
shareIt's my understanding that the network is building up it's licensing library in chunks, so it could take a while for it to deepen.
shareA large chunk of episodes used public domain films, but they would need more license packages to get more than fifty percent of the episodes. It is my understanding that some of the major studios have gotten more conditional about the packages in order to get them. Universal for example requires you to air certain films within the year to get their black and white horror movie package.
I think the majority of the packages they need are, Universal, American International, Film Ventures, Lippert Pictures, and the King Features package. That should cover most of the episodes that are not public domain. You will note the only big studio there is Universal, so it should not be hard to amass enough packages over time.
Comet is ultimately an MGM product, so we'll see how that impacts getting Universal material.
shareCBS and Paramount work things out for Star Trek, and others have worked out similar deals. MGM is more of a shadow of what they once were, so Universal won't see them as much competition. As long as they shill out the money and standard conditions for the package, the two companies can get along.
Now the question is how much money is COMET willing to invest in our little show to get a good amount of episodes available to air. Given the Scifi nature of the network they should do it as a matter of course just to air a lot of the films raw. Perhaps a special night on COMET for low budget and old science fiction/cult films.
I may be the only person who feels this way, but wish that Comet would televise one MST3K episode at a time, i.e. one episode two nights a week instead of one Sunday double-feature.
I would think that the fact that they only have a limited number of episodes is all the more reason to spread them out-- but I guess that's why I'm not a TV schedule programmer.
Personally, I also dislike the "mix 'n match" pairings. But then, I've never used "shuffle" mode on my music players. 😉
If Comet had the entire run, I could see doubling up, and showing the episodes in order.
Still, with the extended commercial breaks it's a 4.5 hour block. Even though I'm a fan, this gives me Riff Fatigue.
I agree completely, LittleBrother55, I taped them (yes, with a VCR!!), so it took up the majority of my 6-hour tape, and I had to 'get through' them to clear off my tape, so I could use it the rest of the week, it felt rushed, like a 'duty,' and I don't want it to be that way, I want to enjoy them; had I known they'd be repeating, I might have only gotten one, then waited for the second to repeat and get it then, but, whatever
I also don't understand why, if you only had a limited number, that you wouldn't spread them out as long as possible...what's better, 4 or 5 weeks of 2 each, or 2 months (or more) of one each?