Soul Man was a TV sitcom that ran on the ABC network from April of
1997 to July of 1998 for 25 episodes. It starred Dan Aykroyd as a
widowed minister raising his family. One of sons was played by Brendon
Ryan Barrett. I operate the Brendon Ryan Barrett site at
www.brendonryanbarrett.net and am a huge fan of all his work. I am in
search of ALL episodes of Soul Man on tape. I've been waiting for this
show to show up in sydication on some channel, but it hasn't happened.
I'm not sure how willing networks or the "owners" of TV shows are to
sell copies. Of course I would be willing to pay for these tapes, and
my $50.00 to whoever can find me the source. Thank you in advance. |
Request for Question Clarification by
shananigans-ga
on
28 Oct 2002 19:07 PST
Hi danno010,
I'm posting this as a request for clarification because it's not truly
an answer to your question - but let me know if it will suffice as an
answer (perhaps you can lower your price) and I'll post it as such.
From http://www.wchstv.com/programfaq.shtml (WCHSTV bought a licence
to broadcast Soul Man when it was on TV in 1997)
"I missed a show and want to get a videotape! How can I do that?
Sorry, but ABC doesn't offer sitcoms and dramas on videocassette. In
most all cases, ABC does not own the program and does not have the
rights to distribute VHS tapes. The same thing applies to WCHS-TV. We
are only granted a license to broadcast the show. We do not tape the
shows and we are not licensed to distribute any VHS tapes."
If you'd like to contact the ABC and ask about re-runs, the address
is:
ABC, Inc.,
Audience Information
500 S. Buena Vista St.
Burbank, CA 91521-4551.
You're right in observing that the show has not been syndicated; it
was not terribly popular although I remember watching it on TV here in
Australia. I couldn't find anyone who had taped the whole series, and
to do so is illegal anyhow.
So, in answer (not really, though) to your question, there is no
source from which you can legally get all episodes of Soul Man on
tape. It simply wasn't popular enough to warrant a 'box set' or even
individual tapes being released. Usually this only happens with long
running series.
Sorry!
shananigans-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
danno010-ga
on
28 Oct 2002 21:18 PST
I'm new at this so I guess I'm a little fuzzy as to how this works. I
wasn't offering $50.00 to get an answer to my question, I was offering
$50.00 to get a lead on obtaining the episodes of the show. What I'm
saying is, if I were in a room with a group of people, and I said
"answer me this, who was the 1st president of the United States? I'll
give $50.00 for whoever has an the answer." Some guy raises his hand
and says "I don't know", should I give him the $50.00? He gave me an
answer.
I guess I've misunderstood this service. Should I have been asking,
"Are the episodes of Soul Man available on videotape?" If that's the
case, I wouldn't have offered $50.00 for the answer. I was offering
the $50.00 if someone could tell me where to get them. Again, this is
my fault.
I'm also not conviced that there is no legal way to obtain all
episodes of Soul Man on videotape. Someone owns the right to this
show, if it's not ABC who is it? Wind Dancer productions? Paramount
Television? Touchstone Television? Disney? All are associated with the
show. How about people who worked on the show? Certainly they would
have all episodes of the show they worked on?
If I'm correct in misinterpreting this service please let me know and
I'll withdraw the request...or question...whatever the case may be.
I DO appreciate any time and research you spent on this and I'm
willing to pay for that time, but not $50.00
I'm sorry.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
shananigans-ga
on
29 Oct 2002 00:44 PST
You are absolutely correct in thinking you were offering $50 to find
video tapes of all Soul Man episodes - that's the question you're
asking, and as the customer, you set the terms! That's why I didn't
post what I found as an answer - it doesn't tell you where to get Soul
Man on video, only that you probably can't. As it was not such a
popular show, it probably hasn't been 'worthwhile' for its owner(s) to
release the series on video.
If it were me asking the question, I would cancel it and post another
one with a lower price. If you were to ask 'Are the episodes of Soul
Man available to purchase on VHS' or something similar to that, you'd
either get a 'no' and a list of sources that were tried (all the
companies associated with the show) or a 'yes' and information on the
source, cost, contact details. If you'd pay, say, $20 for a 'no'
(which would at least eliminate your need to search further), if you
get a 'yes' and the source you can leave the researcher a 'tip'
perhaps to 'make it up' to the fifty dollars you are currently
offering. I hope that made sense.
In the mean time, I will keep looking for you - it's one of those
questions that's 'captured my imagination' and I'd probably keep
searching even if you were offering $10!
Best wishes,
shananigans-ga
|
