Season 3 Sound Clips

[tomswift2002]

That's intersting on the rights issue, since usually the station receives the rights to all the episodes in a television series when they acquire the syndication rights.

[hardygirl847]

I just put in an email to MeToo since it's a local station for me. I will let you know if I hear anything. So far more Nancy Drew episodes are airing and they are not in order. I find this most frustrating!

[MacGyver]

Let us know if MeToo says anything different if and when they reply to your email, but here is what I could glean after scouring through their website. From their past record earlier this year, they've aired episodes fairly erratically within the seasons, but they have aired Seasons 1, 2 and 3 in order. (Let me clarify- they've aired episodes from all 3 Seasons and they have aired batches of out-of-order episodes together with their respective Seasons.)
However, as for Season 3, I've only seen the same episodes aired as the ones I mentioned that air on Retro Television Network:

"Assault on the Tower", "Search for Atlantis", "Dangerous Waters", and "Scorpion's Sting". I wish they were airing all of Season 3, but at least this is still more episodes than is available on VHS or DVD at this point.

Maybe both these channels have the same licensing deal? I don't know why they can't get the other episodes from Season 3. I suppose there may be episodes from Seasons 1 and 2 that they don't air either, but I haven't really checked those because those are all already on DVD.

[hardygirl847]

Thanks for reminding me of the email. I totally forgot I sent it! And that is also due to the fact that I haven't received a response. Perhaps I will investigate further.

It is quite possible that MeToo has the same licensing. It's still a shame though. However, Dangerous Waters did not air with the other 3. Just Assault on the Tower, Search for Atlantis, and then Scorpion's Sting. Following those, Nancy Drew took over.

According to locatetv.com, this week does not have episode info on it. However, August 8th is listed as a Nancy Drew episode.

Frustration!

[hardygirl847]

FINALLY got a response from the email I forgot I sent! lol Not good news...but nothing new I guess either.

From the email....

"We can't get the rights to those. There is some legal reasons NBC Universal  can't distribute them. That is why they are not available anywhere. Sorry"

[MacGyver]

Hmm- well, that's still interesting to know. Are there legal reasons keeping NBC Universal from distributing the episodes to TV stations for air AND from distributing to DVD or is it just a TV airing deal? I imagine the legal issues would probably apply to both, but you never know. Though certainly it can't be that much of a legal tieup like the one that ties up the rights to the '60s live action Batman show or The Wonder Years (both of those are some of the most requested shows on DVD and sadly, some of the least likely to ever get a full uncut release...)

[tomswift2002]

That's interesting about the legal rights with the episodes.

[hardygirl847]

Interesting and downright FRUSTRATING!!!!  I refuse to believe there will be 7 episodes I will NEVER see!

[tomswift2002]

Interesting and downright FRUSTRATING!!!!  I refuse to believe there will be 7 episodes I will NEVER see!

Well with the Muppets Family Christmas, even though the producers cleared the music rights for broadcast for a couple of songs that they have been unable to clear for home video, when its aired at Christmas most channels nowadays air the home video-version that removes songs like I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day, Sleigh Ride (which includes a great joke between Fozzie and the Snowman), a Muppet Babies home video, and a few other cuts wer made due to copyright reasons with the songs.  So it could be with the Hardy Boys episodes that maybe there are music issues or possible even some of the actor's have had disagreements with Universal over the past couple of decades and the actors have asked that none of their episodes or scenes be aired/released to home video until Universal and them can reach a new agreement.

[MacGyver]

Yeah, I know all about the Muppet Family Christmas issue. I'm a big fan of the Muppets and finally I was able to get a copy of the special as it originally aired, taped by a fan back then. And it definitely is a nice improvement over the home video version- and I do like Fozzie Bear's joke with the snowman too. And it's really great having "I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day" in there- one of my favorite Christmas carols.
     But I really can't think of many music issues with the 3rd. season of The Hardy Boys. The only thing that comes to mind is the useage of Bread's music in the 2-part season premiere (mainly "If"- not sure if others were used. But "If" is a really beautiful song and definitely needs to be included in a video release.) I still hope it might get released someday though. Until then I guess I can just enjoy "Search for Atlantis" on VHS and whatever episodes that are aired on that Me Too or Retro TV channel, if I ever decide to pick it up with my cable package.

[hardygirl847]

When you mention actors having problems, you don't mean Parker or Shaun right? Assuming they allow the airing of 3 episodes, I would guess they would be fine with the rest...Plus there are 2 other DVD sets out. I'd be ticked off if it was because of some less than known actor or actors holding it up!

[tomswift2002]

When you mention actors having problems, you don't mean Parker or Shaun right? Assuming they allow the airing of 3 episodes, I would guess they would be fine with the rest...Plus there are 2 other DVD sets out. I'd be ticked off if it was because of some less than known actor or actors holding it up!

Its probably not anything dealing with Shaun or Parker or Edmund Gilbert, but it could be someone who appeared in the 7 episodes that are not airing, but didn't appear in the 3 that are.

Of course it might not even be an actor that's holding up the third season.  It could be something completely different.

[hardygirl847]

 very true...we may never know 

[MacGyver]

Wow! Got some cool news here! This is unrelated for the most part, but it could possibly have a bearing on this topic as well.
I don't know if there are many fans of this show here, but anyway- Airwolf is a pretty cool 1980s show that featured a really awesome helicopter! (Kind of TV's response to "Blue Thunder"- though that movie had its own Blue Thunder TV spin-off series. Both of which are on DVD, by the way.) Okay- so anyway- Airwolf Seasons 1-3 have been released on DVD for a while now. The weird thing with Airwolf is that it went through a complete revamp in 1987. The show had originally starred Jan-Michael Vincent and Ernest Borgnine for the first three seasons when it originally aired on CBS from 1984-1986. In 1987, the show moved to USA and it got a total cast change. Barry Van Dyke was now flying the famous Airwolf helicopter and this version of the show lasted for a season. Thus, Season 4 is the final season of Airwolf. (Now of course, some fans refer to this season as "Airwolf II" because it's such a drastic change for the series- some go to the point of basically disavowing it or just considering it a separate show altogether. And of course there are also completists who readily accept it as Season 4 of this great show- Airwolf. And it is a great series- definitely worth checking out. Go to this really cool website if you're interested in it. www.airwolf.tv)
            Okay- all of this was to say- Airwolf Season 4 is coming to DVD hopefully in the first quarter of 2011. (So sometime in the late winter-Jan.-March to early spring- April-May of 2011.) http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Airwolf-Season-4/14508

And here we come to the relation to The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries part. Both Airwolf and The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries are owned by Universal. Both of these series have a similar situation with their last seasons. In the case of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, I don't think it's quite nearly as bad as Airwolf- but both series have final seasons that are generally fairly unpopular with a lot of viewers. Nonetheless, both series have completist fans (like me) who still enjoy all the seasons and want to see all of them come to DVD. Thus, if Universal is willing to finally release the last season of Airwolf now (about 3 and a half years since they released Season 3), maybe we can take this as a good sign that they are still willing to work on other shows from a similar era that have run into such a roadblock. Who knows? We certainly don't know for certain, but I'm excited to see Season 4 of Airwolf finally get released and for the show to be complete on DVD and I take it as a possible good sign that Universal might finally consider releasing Season 3 of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries on DVD! We can only hope.

[hardygirl847]

Very interesting!! I hope this is a good sign as well!