Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

If Criterion is going to help save old quality tv shows from falling into oblivion, I would love to seem them raid PBS' vaults before the attempts to completely destroy/privatize it are completely successful. As far as I know, I'll Fly Away has never been released on disc, a crime against US television broadcast history if there ever was one. Then there's the short-lived weekly 30 min. sketch series Trying Times that featured a new director (Johnathan Demme, Christopher Guest, Alan Arkin, Buck Henry, Michael Lindsay-Hogg...) and cast (Catherine O'Hara, Candace Bergen, Teri Garr, Spalding Gray, Steven Wright, Carrie Fisher, David Byrne, Gena Davis...) each week that unfortunately didn't get picked up by all affiliates and disappeared just as fast as it started. Then of course there's also all PBS' documentary work over the decades starting with the monumental An American Family series.

PBS only aired the I'll Fly Away movie, the series was on NBC. But PBS doesn't really own anything, it distributes programming created and owned by others, whether that's member stations like WGBH or outside producers like Sesame Workshop and Zipporah. I'll Fly Away is probably with WB via Lorimar, Trying Times was jointly copyrighted by KCET and Zorah Productions (whose assets might've been on the block last year after Technicolor shut down), An American Family is with WNET (but the Raymonds probably own the follow-ups), etc. etc. It doesn't take away from the broader point that Criterion and others should be digging into this stuff, but there's no central source for it.

[beamish14]

I’ll Fly Away must have insane music rights issues.

I can’t see Criterion rescuing even any limited television series like Tanner ‘88 again unless it’s another Fassbinder, and I think that well is dry

Maybe a one-off TV film like Robert Downey’s Sticks and Bones