Sign the petition to get more Cagney & Lacey on DVD
It took producer Barney Rosenzweig years to convince MGM to release a single season of Cagney & Lacey. They said they would release additional seasons if this one did well, so they released it without any marketing (way to avoid additional work!). That was nearly two years ago.
A few months ago, Yonmei at Feminist SF - The Blog! asked me who to write to get more seasons of Cagney & Lacey on DVD. I called MGM and asked who I should talk to about this. The receptionist had no idea and forwarded me to the Public Relations department. They told me to call a woman at Fox. I did; she never returned my call. I called MGM back and, on a hunch, asked for “Distribution.” I was given the email address of someone I could write to to find out who to write to. She never responded.
Looks like they thought we’d go away. Yonmei had a better idea. Enter the “Yes, we want Cagney & Lacey DVDs” online petition. Go sign it, and tell all your friends! (And for the record, Yonmei did all the work on the petition, so a big thanks to her for that hard work!)
And after you’re done, ponder this: if there’s no demand for this series, why can you buy a crap quality bootleg copy of the entire series, including the Loretta Swit and Meg Foster episodes that MGM ignored, for just under $100?
When Rosenzweig asked MGM what the big holdup was, why did they give him a completely unbelievable excuse about being unable to secure music rights (I think they borrowed this one straight from Fox on WKRP, for whom music rights actually were a problem):
It seems that in the two plus years that I have been working to get this series out in DVD for our anniversary, the part-time business affairs execs at MGM had neglected to clear all music rights for such a release. Everything, they said, would have to go on hold until they could get their act together.
I offered help. After all, I supervised every music cue in our series. I know that there are only a few pieces that were not “music for hire” that were offered up as “source” material (Cagney listening to Wagner on her stereo for instance). We were not like Miami Vice with a lot of licensing of famous then-current music offerings. Surely this was something that could easily be fixed. A stonewall from MGM was the response. I might scream about “detrimental reliance,” and all the other problems they were causing me, I might point out that I am a “partner” on the project and have a right to be consulted on such matters, but the bottom line has been no cooperation and noncompliance with my contractual rights. You think I am pissed?
Those of you who remember how Rosenzweig fought when Cagney & Lacey was canceled the first two times may note the irony that 30 years later, the same players are fighting the same battle.
Naturally, MGM doesn’t have direct email contact information for us peons, but if you want to go beyond the petition you could try emailing their online store in hopes they make a note of what customers are asking for. You can also write them a real letter or call them:
MGM Studios
10250 Constellation Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA. 90067
310-449-3000
If you’re outside the US and don’t want to pay postage, scan a letter and email it to me at cl@thehathorlegacy.com and I’ll mail it for you.
It may also be worth your time to leave comments on Rosenzweig’s blog. This entry already contains requests for more seasons to be released soon.
But whatever you do, please sign the petition! Link to it on your own sites. Bookmark this post and Yonmei’s post for updates.
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9 comments
[...] Jennifer Kesler of the Hathor Legacy has more about this, and contact details for MGM/Fox, here. [...]
I signed…I was a bit too young to see the series when it was first on TV, so having DVDs out would be a great way to familiarize myself with what apparently is one of the most feminist shows ever.
Cagney and Lacey’s cancellation was my first feminist protest. Hated how they dumped it. Always loved the show. That kind of show would never be on TV today and we are worse off for it.
Done.
Cagney & Lacey was and is my all time favorite show. I taped all the shows and watched them over and over again. The tapes were beginning to wear out. All the C&L fans had to wait for years for Season 1 to come out on DVD. Please don’t make us wait anymore for the rest of the Seasons..
I am part of a C&L group at Yahoo and we started a petition about the DVD release several years ago - we have 1,218 signatures so far - http://www.petitiononline.com/candl14/petition.html
Letters to the PTB are the best way to let them know you are interested in the DVD release.
Barney Rosenzweig owns the rights to the four movies and he is preparing them for release as we speak.
Melissa Parker, we should look into combining our efforts somehow. Two questions:
(1) According to BR’s blog, the movies were to be released quite a few months ago. They weren’t, and his blog has gone silent on the subject. I suspect he’s no longer “preparing them for release” but being stonewalled once again. He may own the rights, but unless he wants to pay for printing copies, distributing them and marketing them himself, he still needs MGM’s cooperation, which I doubt is forthcoming.
(2) When you say letters to PTB, who do you mean? MGM stonewalled my requests to find out to whom such letters should be addressed. If you just mail it to them without a person’s name, they’re going to throw them away at the front desk. Could you be more specific in your advice here?
Thanks!
I don’t have an actual release date, but they are preparing the “extras” secton for the DVDs of the 4 movies now.
The release is forthcoming. He is also working on getting “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill” out.
Sorry my statement about the PTB was confusing. What I meant was that generally petitions do not work in these instances, letters are much better. But, I don’t think either would be helpful here. Right now FOX owns the license to distribute. We are at the mercy of managers, basically, ones who don’t really care or know who the blonde one was or who the brunette was. All they want to do is to be assured that they make a lot of money from it….and there’s the other problem.
Ah, okay. Thanks for the clarification!
I do think there’s plenty of money to make on these. Many people have posted on forums about buying the bootleg copies out of desperation. If you’d spend $100 on bootleg copies, what would you spend on the real deal? Many MORE people say they would’ve bought the bootleg copies at the price they were being offered, except they realized that cheats the cast & crew out of residuals (but my point is, this indicates the interest is there).
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