Keep Circulating the Tapes/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000 (TV)|Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' is the [[Trope Namer]]. The phrase "keep circulating the tapes" was a line in the credits from Seasons 1-4, inserted to give a winking consent to sharing tapes with others in order to popularize the show; it was removed in Season 5 for many of the legal reasons this entry concerns itself with. During the show's run, the hosts would give a [[Shout -Out]] to fans in places where the series wasn't aired (including a group of tape-sharing aficionados in Paris, France during the third season). Although many of the movies shown fall into the [[Missing Episode]] category and are unlikely to see wide release due to copyright issues, a fair number are available for purchase legally. In this case, the problem is the reproduction rights to the movies since nobody expected there to be such a market for home recordings down the line, so movie rights were only secured for the show's on-air run. Episodes are released on DVD as the rights issues are ironed out. Many episodes were uploaded by Best Brains themselves to Google Video - many others are uploaded to [[YouTube]] at random, with some having been pulled by NBC Universal.<br /><br />One of the creators has actually said "Keep circulating ''some'' of the tapes," meaning fans should buy the episodes available on DVD, but the others are fair game...which is what most of the dedicated fans do anyway. Special mention should be given to ''The Amazing Colossal Man'' and ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'', released but quickly withdrawn due to rights issues.

* ''[[Better Off Ted]]'' has had its first season released, but physical second season DVDs are still nowhere to be found (though the episodes are streamable on Netflix and available for purchase on Amazon).

* ''[[China Beach]]'' is yet another show where music-licensing issues meanmeant it's probablywas neverlong goingthought toit'd never get a DVD release. Time-Life released the complete series in May 2013. Only 17 of 300+ original tracks used in the series were not able to be licensed.

* ''[[Cupid (TV)|Cupid]]'': The original, not the remake. Poor copies can be found and enjoyed, but not even the remake seems to have prompted anyone to put it on DVD.

* ''In Justice'', which has the bonus of being [[I Am Not Shazam|difficult to search for]] since its title is a common phrase, was a fairly well-done "Law and Order" type show on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] in 2003 with a big subversion: most of their clients ''didn't'' do the crime and were wrongfully imprisoned, so the lawyers had to unravel the clues to find the real perp and free the innocent convict. In one memorable episode, a man faced execution for a murder he probably did not commit. A [[Genre Savvy]] viewer may be surprised by the ending: {{spoiler|[[Tear Jerker|he was put to death anyway.]] }}

* Aside from a few VHS releases in the 1990s, the [[Land of the Lost 1991 (TV)|1991 remake]] of ''[[Land of the Lost (TV series)|Land of the Lost]]'' has yet to see an official DVD release. Still, there's bootleg DVD sets, torrents, and [[YouTube]].

* ''[[Two Guys, a Girl And A Pizza Place]]'' for some strange reason never got its official DVD release (it stars [[Green Lantern|Hal Jordan]] and [[Firefly (TV)|Malcolm Reynolds]], after all!). There are DVD copies from TV recordings available, though.

* ''[[Vengeance Unlimited (TV)|Vengeance Unlimited]]''.

* The 1982 production of [[Bertolt Brecht (Creator)|Bertolt Brecht]]'s ''Baal'' featuring [[David Bowie]] as the title character has never been released on video. A tie-in EP with Bowie performing fully-orchestrated versions of its songs was released on vinyl and cassette tape, but only two of the five songs made it to CD (via best-of collections).

* ''[[BlakesBlake's Seven (TV)7|Blakes Seven]]'' is not available on Region 1 DVD (although it has been released in the UK).

* ''[[Dick and Dom Inin Da Bungalow (TV)|Dick and Dom In Dada Bungalow]]''; not rights issues here, as they did all the music in-house. Perhaps parents aren't keen to shell out for DVDs of anarchy and [[Covered in Gunge|gunge]]? Snippets are on Youtube, and there's been a [[Clip Show]], but most of the madness has disappeared into the ether.

** There was in fact a DVD release which contained highlights from Series 3 (broadcast 2003- 2004), but this was released way back in Autumn 2004 and has since gone out-of-print. The 20 clip show episodes from 2009 contain a resonable amount of highlights and the such, but there is still a lot that has disappeared, particularly the first two series (only shown on Digital CBBC when it was still in its infancy).

* The thirtieth-anniversary ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' charity [[Reunion Show]] [[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/30th AS Dimensions in Time|"Dimensions In Time"]] will never be officially released on home video: the actors and crew all gave their time for free on the contractual agreement that it would be broadcast once and never be made available again in any form. Nobody actually minds much, as it's notoriously one of the most embarrassing things to ever happen in connection with the show.

** Another ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' example: The BBC are happy for people to openly distribute audio-plus-still image "reconstructions" of destroyed episodes on video tape, as long as they don't do it on digital formats that might get file-shared.

* ''[[The Goodies (TV)|The Goodies]]'' is seldom shown in reruns (except, apparently, in Australia). There were episodes on YouTube that have all disappeared. There are 16 episodes available on DVD in Australia, and they come with some commentary and extras too. It's not great, but it's better than fourth-generation copies...

* ''[[Horrible Histories (TV series)|Horrible Histories]]'', the CBBC live-action series, at least for fans outside of Region 2 DVD coding. Fairly easy to find online though; besides an official [[YouTube]] channel with a good selection of the best sketches, full episodes are available for all of Series One &and Two, part of Series Three &and the six-part Best Of version hosted by [[Stephen Fry]].

** Yet it's being shown in Australia on the ABC, so at least Australian fans can watch it legit. This probably has something to do with the longstanding legal detente that Australia has due to close legal and cultural ties with the UK. Unfortunately, fans in the US have to find alternate means (it's not even shown on BBC America).

* ''[[Robot Wars (TV series)|Robot Wars]]''. Only one VHS and five DVDs were ever produced. The first was a guide to the First Wars, the next three were clip shows and technical information from the teams about specific popular robots (Chaos 2, Hypno-Disc, and Razer) while the fourth was about the house robots and the fifth was a release of the First World Championship, the ''only'' episode to get a commercial release. While certainly interesting to watch, it's a far cry from what should have been released.

* Seasons 4-7 of ''[[Da Vincis Inquest (TV)|Da VincisVinci's Inquest]]'' have not been released on DVD, nor the spinoff series ''DaVinci's City Hall'' or the TV movie ''The Quality of Life'' (which in itself was a victim of Executive Meddling). The only legal releases were DVD sets given out to the cast and crew. It's believed that low sales are to blame for the missing seasons, which is surprising, considering that the program was consistently '''the most-watched show on Canadian television for most of its run'''. Thankfully the syndicated rights are so cheap in the United States you can find it from a good American friend willing to record it off RTV, WGN or syndication for you.

* ''Sesame Park''. Yes, there was a Canadian version of ''[[Sesame Street (TV)|Sesame Street]]'' produced on CBC in 1996. The show ran for six years, and consisted of almost-entirely Canadian content with unique Muppets created specifically for the show, including Basil The Bear, Chaos and the wheelchair-bound Katie. Despite the fact that it was a critical darling during its run, the show was unceremoniously cancelled, and nothing has been said of it ever since.

** In the same vein, the one-off special ''Talking To Americans'' (where ''22 Minutes'' co-host Rick Mercer travels around the United States getting random U.S. residents to verify ridiculous statements he makes, simply because he claims to be a journalist). It was the highest-rated special in the channel's history. It propelled Mercer to the big leagues. Had him making fun of future President [[George W. Bush]] and Mike Huckabee months (and years) before they would reach the national stage. Won several Gemini Awards. Got repeated in syndication for years afterwards. Online copies of the special still get tens of thousands of hits. Yet, the special still hasn't been released because Mercer feels it was in bad taste after the events of September 11, 2001. You can still watch it online, though.

* ''[[BeakmansBeakman's World]]'' is available to stream in its (almost) entirety on Netflix Instant, but there is still no full DVD release forthcoming. I guess we're stuck with the "Best of" set made after the first season...

* Seasons 5-6 of ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]'' are completely unavailable because of low sales for Seasons 1-4. Newhart himself has pointed out the idiocy of using a partial release to test sales when people know that there's a strong possibility that they'll never get the rest of the show on DVD.

** Bob Newhart's other show, {{''[[Newhart}}]]'', has had its first season released on DVD, but not the rest of the show. The first season is very different in tone from the rest of the show, and also was not particularly funny, but the rest of the seasons have not been released as of yet.

* If you try to buy [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]]'s ''[[Cinderella (Filmfilm)|Cinderella]]'' on DVD, you could find the original version, with [[Julie Andrews]], even though it only aired on TV once since its initial performance. You could also find the 1997 ''Wonderful World of Disney'' remake. What about the first remake, which starred Lesley Ann Warren and became the most popular version after numerous re-runs and VHS releases? Sony pulled the DVD out of print after a few years. Old copies at Amazon can cost as much as ''$70''.

* ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_to_Home_:Close to Home (TV_series)TV series)|Close to Home]]'' was a legal drama that ran from '05 to '07. ''And nothing has been said of it since''. Fans believe that the backlash that resulted when the main character's husband was killed off resulted in the studio deciding not to put any effort into releasing it.

* ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'' used roughly five popular songs per episode. Unfortunately, removing them would ruin the flashback sequences, which are the whole point of the show.)

* ''[[Early Edition (TV)|Early Edition]]'' was a victim of this for a long time, though Seasons 1-2 have since been released. No word on the last two, though.

* Only Season 1 of ''[[MamasMama's Family (TV)|Mamas Family]]'' has been released on DVD, and the episodes are the cut-down syndicated versions. According to John Hamilton, the rights holder and son of the show's producer, he doesn't hold the rights to the uncut versions. [[TBS]] stopped airing the show in 2006 and [[ION]] did the same in 2008, so it looks like fans are out of luck for the time being.

* ''[[Without a Trace (TV)|Without a Trace]]'', Seasons 3-7.

{{quote| "That means the choice came down to our getting the show (a) in a compromised version, (b) in a set priced too high for any reasonable business model, or (c) not at all. For years the "not at all" option reigned, but the fan clamor was loud and persistent enough that something had to be done. So here we have a three-disc set that even before it hit the streets caused a furor.}}

* Channel4's cult smash ''[[As If]]'' (2001-2004) has completely disappeared off the face of the earth, seemingly due to the perennial licensing rights for the soundtrack problem. They'd mostly fixed this issue by the time ''[[Skins]]'' (basically ''As If'' [[This Is Your Premise Onon Drugs|with younger people and more MDMA, and in Bristol not London]] — they still paid just as much attention to the soundtrack, though) happened, although there's still a few tracks where they wonked out (the replacement of Lily Allen's "The Fear" with Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" in series 3 being the most [[Egregious]]).

* The only DVD products of the US ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' available are Season 1 Vols. 1-2 and a "Best of". For the British version, there's only one set of Series 1-2 on both sides of the Atlantic.

* The ''[[Chappelles Show|Chappelle's Show]]'' DVDs are missing about half of the live music performances (probably because of rights issues). However, [[Comedy Central]] periodically reruns the episodes, so resourceful viewers can get copies of these.

* The 2005 Discovery Channel documentary series ''[[It Takes a Thief (2005 TV series)|It Takes a Thief]]'' has this problem, as well. It was received fairly well (with the hosts making occasional rounds to various cable news channels) and lasted two seasons. Then, in 2007, it mysteriously disappeared and hasn't been released by Discovery on DVD. This is strange, as Discovery usually releases almost anything it shows on DVD. It gets stranger, as the network decided to rebroadcast the whole series in 2009...in full High Definition for both seasons.

* ''[[Adventures in Wonderland (TV)|Adventures in Wonderland]]'' never got a DVD release, much to the annoyance of the fans. Currently, it can only be obtained through old VHS releases.

* ''[[Bear in Thethe Big Blue House]]'' was released heavily in the United States on both VHS and DVD, but many episodes were never given a U.S. release. Still want them? Your best bet is to try and source a DVD copy of the episodes from a foreign website.

* ''[[Earth Star Voyager]]'', a little remembered but underground circulated Wonderful World of Disney special that was intended to be a [[Poorly -Disguised Pilot|backdoor pilot]], but poor ratings canned that. Disney fails to even acknowledge the film's existence, but various levels of VHS recordings and transfers to circuits via the usual questionable means.

* ''[[Flash Forward]]'' (not the 2009 ABC show), which starred a pre-''[[Firefly (TV)|Firefly]]'' and ''[[Space Cases]]'' Jewel Staite and Ben Foster, and featured a few guest appearances from Ryan Gosling. Not only did the Disney Channel stop rerunning episodes around 2001 when ''[[Lizzie McguireMcGuire]]'' took off, it's nigh impossible to find any clips of it anywhere online.

* ''[[Honey I Shrunk the Kids (TV series)|Honey I Shrunk the Kids]]''. While all three films have been released on DVD, the TV series never has. At least it's being shown on The HUBHub...

* ''[[Johnny and Thethe Sprites]]'', a puppet/live-action hybrid featuring [[Avenue Q|John Tartaglia]], only ever received one DVD release and one music album. It still airs in some non-U.S. markets, but has been off-air in the U.S. for a couple years now.

* ''[[Out Of The Box]]'' was a Playhouse Disney classic - a live action skitchildren's TV show featuring a man &and woman named Tony &and Vivian and a group of kids who got together every day to do arts and crafts projects, story skitssegments and musical numbers. It had a couple of VHS and very scant DVD exposure.

* ''[[Lizzie McguireMcGuire]]'' did get a season box set release, albeit ''after'' its target demographic forgot about it.

* The circumstances surrounding the holdup of the 1960s ''[[Batman]]'' [[Batman (TV series)|TV show]] are numerous, even compared to other works. The prints of the series are owned by 20th Century Fox, but the characters are owned by [[DC Comics]], which is owned by competitor Time Warner. Fox went to court in 2008 to battle Warner Brothers regarding rights issues with the then-unreleased ''[[Watchmen (Filmfilm)|Watchmen]]'' adaptation, of which the acquisition of the rights to the ''Batman'' series was a key sticking point. That case is still tied up in court, but even if 20th Century Fox regains control of the series, they'll have to deal with many other factors. This includes clearance rights for the cameos in each episode(some of which were fictional characters from other shows like [[The Addams Family (TV)|Lurch]] and [[Hogan's Heroes|Colonel Klink]]), music rights, writers' residuals, a prior lawsuit that was filed by the Dozier estate (of Charles Dozier, the creator of the series) for residuals, and copyrighted designs that were unique to the series. Things have gotten so bad that Adam West basically said "screw it" and gathered up the remaining living writers, producers, and actors in order to produce his own Behind-The-Scenes DVDs about the series in the form of roundtable discussions of each two-part episode. The only way to see the episodes is download a torrent or watch the episodes on The HUB, or if you live in certain areas, ME-TV.

* ''[[Brimstone (TV series)|Brimstone]]''.

* Music rights were cited as the reason fans of ''[[Malcolm in Thethe Middle]]'' are unable to obtain DVDs of Season 2 onwards, with no one entertaining the possibility of simply replacing the contested music. Seriously, FOX, it's not going to break our hearts if Sum 41 is removed from the soundtrack.

* The 1990s hip-hop cop drama ''New York Undercover'' probably won't make it to DVD (and will take years if it does) because of music rights. Like ''[[Cold Case (TV)|Cold Case]]'', they use a lot of popular songs; removing them would damage the show. ''NYU'' also featured a lot of live performances by top artists of the period (Keith Sweat, Boyz II Men, and Notorious B.I.G. among others). In most episodes, they were shown at the end once the case was solved, and so cutting those might not hurt the integrity of the show...but for episodes where the artists performed in the middle of the show, cutting them would mess things up. At least you can watch reruns on [[TV One]].

** In addition, it has also been recently announced that Lionsgate Entertainment has purchased the DVD &and bluBlu-Ray rights to Samurai and presumably all future Power Ranger seasons for the US. Volumes are currently on the way and season sets are presumed to eventually follow.

* ''[[The War Atat Home]]'' surprisingly got a DVD release of Season 1, but not 2, which is currently only avalible online.

** The DVD release rights in Australia have since been taken over by Shock DVD, who seem to be continuing with the releases. As of June 2012, series 1-8, which comprise 502 episodes, have been released.

* ''[[Knightmare]]'' came to an abrupt end in 1994, and probably will never see the light of day again. A terrible shame, given how much fun it was and how important it was for its pioneering use of [[Chroma Key]] and virtual-reality technology. It reran on Sci-Fi Channel (UK) during the 1990s after it went off-air from CITV, and on Challenge TV in the early 2000s. It has never been released on video or DVD, except illegally.

* ''[[Police, Camera, Action!]]'', an extremely popular ITV show, has bootlegs floating around on torrent sites but has ''never'' had an official DVD release. Add [[Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things|the fact that fans want]] '''all''' versions, including the [[Edited for Syndication]] copies, and it looks impossible, but not unlikely. [[Copyright]] of police footage comes into play here. Music rights are an often-cited theory as to why the show hasn't been released.

* ''[[Human Giant]]'' got a DVD release for Season 1, but Season 2 has yet to be released. It stopped being re-run quite some time ago and season 3 is in [[Development Hell]], so the only way to watch it ''at all'' is the "sneak peek" bits on the season 1 DVD. You'd think a series that stars a veritable [[All -Star Cast]] of comedians would be a little higher up in the release queue.

* ''Jackass'' currently{{when}} does not have a proper release for seasons 1-3 and only exists in a "best-of" style box set; with intros excised, nothing presented in episodic order and some sketches removed (most notably the "Keep God out of California" bit) along with broadcast censorship. To be fair, the bonus disc has some previously unreleased content, including the Gumball Rally special in its entirety and a good chunk of promo content, and the regular discs have commentaries from the cast. This was averted to a degree with a "Lost Tapes" DVD that included some of the removed sketches (including almost the entire "Self-Defense Test" sketch) and more promo content, along with all the intros. This is the result of some unique legal shenanigans where Dickhouse (the Jackass production company) retains complete creative control over any shows they produce, but MTV/Paramount has final say over what goes on broadcast and DVD releases. The movies, however, are not subject to the agreement and have been released normally.

* ''[[The Sifl and Olly Show]]'' aired from 1997-99, and has yet to see an official release. Unlike other MTV series, ''S&O'' didn't include recorded music; most of the music was original, with a few covers here and there. The only episodes to see a DVD release were the unaired Season 3, published by co-creator Liam Lynch.

* ''[[ALF (TV)|ALF]]'' is a very special case. The entire series has been released — but only the chopped-up versions that were [[Edited for Syndication]]. The producers have insisted that it would be too expensive to compile the original episodes for DVD release. However, that hasn't stopped Europe from getting an uncut version of the series.

* ''[[Name That Tune (TV)|Name That Tune]]'' — music rights.

** The biggest problem here is that most of the show's popularity came during the middle of its run. The show arguably didn't come together until Season 3 because of a LOT of early cast changes brought on by actor deaths (Selma Diamond and Florence Halop) and prior contracts (Markie Post appeared as Christine Sullivan in one Season 2 episode, but was still doing ''[[The Fall Guy (TV series)|The Fall Guy]]'' and couldn't join the cast regularly until Season 3). It's a catch-22: many of the show's fans don't care for Seasons 1-2 because half the cast they loved isn't present, but the studio won't consider releasing the rest of the series until the sales for the first two DVD sets improve.

* Both American versions of ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' (the aired pilot episode and pitchfilm). They've been circulating for years, and master-quality clips of #1 were even used in an official DVD featurette devoted to the Americanization. #2 was available on [[YouTube]] in an edited form whose only change was cleanly removing all clips of the British cast.

* ''[[St. Elsewhere]]'': Only Season 1 on DVD, although this is another one that UK folks can enjoy via Channel 4 on Demand.

* If you're looking for a DVD of most of the [[NBC]]'s ''TNBC'' Saturday Morning lineup, you're going to be waiting awhile. While ''[[Saved Byby the Bell]]'' and ''[[California Dreams]]'' eventually got releases, ''Hang Time'', ''City Guys'' and several others haven't. (It doesn't help that most of the shows were canned after one season.)

* ''[[All That]]'' has yet to see any home release, likely due to the musical acts. Even in reruns, the K-Ci &and Jojo performance was removed from its episode.

* [[Animorphs (TV series)|Animorphs]] only had 12 episodes released on VHS, and nothing else. Fans have taken to uploading the rest of the series online, even though most consider it a bad show.

* ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' was never released on DVD in the US, but did receive complete season sets on Region 1 DVD in Canada by Cookie Jar (after its initial airings on YTV). Said sets are now out of print and go for upwards of $100, so occasional late night [[Teen Nick]] airings are the only way to see them without breaking the bank.

* ''[[You Can't Do That Onon Television]]'', while airing on Nickelodeon and whose American distribution rights are owned by said network, has not seen any release outside a "Worst of" tape in 1989. Further compounding matters is that various changes in management at CJOH (where the show was produced) over the years have resulted in a lot of paperwork getting lost, particularly concerning which (if any) cast and/or crew members would be entitled to royalties/additional usage fess/etc. were the show released on DVD.

* ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]'': Episodes from the show's first run (1968-76) have not aired on PBS since 1995. They were taken out of the rotation because, by then, there were a year's worth of episodes from the second run (1979-2001) in the can. It was also said that these episodes could confuse children since they looked different and had some different characters (although the 1974-76 episodes were more similar to the later ones).

** Also, the episode with the Wicked Witch is very hard to find, since it only aired once due to the fact that children were afraid of the witch and refused to watch the show. Good luck finding a copy now.

** Same for ''[[Three Two One3-2-1 Contact]]''. Broadcasters actually encouraged taping of the show. A handful of episodes were commercially released on VHS, but they're [[Crack Isis Cheaper|very expensive]] now. Worse, the first season is older than VHS, so many of its episodes, especially those that weren't rebroadcast later, have been [[Missing Episode|lost forever]].

* There was a 1990s PBS miniseries called ''[[The United States Of Poetry]]'' that featured poems being read by the authors and widely varied cinematography like artistic music videos. You may be able to find a VHS copy languishing in your local library, but otherwise it's gone — although, oddly, its very dated [https://web.archive.org/web/20081204053313/http://www.worldofpoetry.org/usop/ website] is still being hosted.

* ''[[Where in Thethe World Is Carmen San DiegoSandiego?]]?'', and all of the original tunes by Rockapella that its episodes included. Ditto its successor series ''[[Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?]]?''

* If you like either ''[[Zoom (TV series)|Zoom]]'' series and want to see them on DVD? Well you're out of luck. The 90s series only had a "Making Of" VHS and a "Party With.." VHS while the original 70s had a single "Best Of" VHS release.

* ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strangerers:The Strangerers|The Strangerers]]'' (sic) was a science fiction comedy drama made for [[Sky One1]], starring Mark Williams and Jack Docherty and written by [[Red Dwarf (TV)|Rob Grant]]. Desite the fact that it had good writing, nicely quirky acting and some excellent VFX, [[Screwed Byby the Network|Sky cancelled it]] because they didn't think it fitted in with the rest of their <s>rubbish</s> programming, and there's never been a DVD.

* ''[[Legend (TV series)|Legend]]''. Richard Dean Anderson and John DeLancie in a [[Steampunk]] version of The Old West. Anachronisms left and right, but it's a fun ride. Too bad it only lasted one season.

* ''[[The Adventures of Shirley Holmes (TV)|The Adventures of Shirley Holmes]]'' has been all but forgotten by Credo/Forefront, despite being ''very'' popular during its four-season run on [[YTV]] and gaining significant critical acclaim. More than a decade after the last season ended, the episodes are no longer being rerun, and there is very little hope of an official release in the future. Bootleg DVDs ''can'' be found online if you look really hard for them, though, and a few dedicated fans are working on uploading the episodes to the web.

* ''[http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Maniac_Mansion_:Maniac Mansion (TV_series)TV series)|Maniac Mansion]]'', the Canadian television spinoff of the Lucasarts game of the same name, hasn't been seen in North America since it stopped airing in syndication in Canada on YTV in 2002. Despite the level of critical acclaim the series received when it first debuted, the fourth-wall breaking humor, and a cast made up of alumni from the Second City Theatre Company, none of the three seasons have ever been released in their entirety on DVD (two Season 1 episodes were released on VHS more than a decade ago). You can find the complete series through torrents.

* ''Stickin' Around'' was a well-loved animated series that aired on the network from 1996 - 1998, and ran in syndication for almost a full decade afterwards. A proposed Region 1 DVD release collapsed in 2000, and the only official release the series had was in Australia. The only way to find the episodes now is to hunt for the old VHS releases (which had all the episodes) or look up episodes on YoutubeYouTube.

* ''System Crash'', a sketch comedy series about a group of students in a media club at the fictional Lambton High School, aired from 1999-2002 and garnered a significant amount of popularity. However, it disappeared after the network began transitioning its programming block to younger audiences. It never received an official DVD release, and the only remnants of the series are occasional episodes that float around on YoutubeYouTube or torrents.

The vast majority of [[Soap Opera|soap operas]] (especially of the [[Long Runner]] Anglo variety) simply have far too many episodes to ever be released.

* Australian company Shock Entertainment are bucking the trend by actually beginning to put [[Neighbours]] to DVD - so far, DVD releases have been of the type that are collections of special episodes, but on April 4 2012 Shock released "Neighbours: From the Beginning Vol 1" which comprises the first 56 episodes (of nearly 6500 to date). Vol 2 is expected in November 2012, and will probably be of a similar length.

* There have been Best Of compilations of ''[[American Bandstand]]'' <ref>(and good luck finding a decent copy these days)</ref>, ''The Midnight Special'', ''Don Kirshner's Rock Concert'', and ''Soul Train''...but aside from the last show being rerun on Centric, seeing full-season releases or full-show reruns doesn't seem to be in the cards, mostly because of the cost and effort involved in securing the rights of musical and (in ''Midnight'' and ''Concert'''s cases) stand-up comedy performances.

* Anglia Television's miniseries adaptation of ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]''.

* ''[[Diners, Drive -Ins and Dives]]'': Seasons 1-4 on dvd; seasons 5-11 are MIA.

* The [[CTV]] news drama ''E.N.G.'': Not only did this show (about a team of anchors at a politically-charged news station) run for five seasons, but it was one of the most watched programs on the channel it aired on. It won a whopping ten Gemini Awards (including Best Dramatic Series ''four years in a row'') and practically swept every other Canadian series critically and commercially when it was on...until it was [[Screwed Byby the Network|dumped from the network]] without explanation. Twenty years later, and it still hasn't been released.

* ''[[FreddysFreddy's Nightmares]] — [[A Nightmare Onon Elm Street]]: The Series''. Five episodes were released on VHS in the 1990s, which are long out-of-print. There was also a DVD set in Region 2 which contained the first three episodes, but alleged poor sales kept it from being released anywhere else and stopped any more episodes from being given a DVD treatment.

* ''[[Glasgow Kiss (TV series)|Glasgow Kiss]]'', an extremely well-done six-part series about a Glaswegian sportswriter and the financial management planner he falls in love with (played by Iain Glen and [[Sharon Small]], respectively), has yet to appear on DVD. It ''can'' be found on the internet, but requires considerable effort to hunt down.

* MTM Enterprises seems particularly cursed. The studio was synonymous with "quality television" in the 1970s and 1980s, producing some of the most critically-acclaimed series in American TV history, but none of them (with the exception of ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'' and ''[[Remington Steele (TV)|Remington Steele]]'', the latter no doubt thanks to Pierce Brosnan's megastardom) have seen anything close to their complete runs getting out on DVD.

* ''[[Pop Up Video]]'' is presumably stymied by music rights issues (although it saw one VHS / DVD compilation release in 1999). A select few videos can be found on [[VH -1]]'s website and [[YouTube]]. All the full reruns still air on [[VH -1]] Classic, but unless you have a higher-tier satellite package, you likely won't see the show's complete run ever again.

** Speaking of [[VH -1]]: Any ''[[I Love the Exties|I Love The _____]]'' series. More movie, television, and music clip rights issues than you can shake a stick at.

* ''[[Takeshis Castle|Takeshi's Castle]]'' was only shown at 7:00 AM on Virgin 1's cable channel. Those with basic Freeview could only see it at '''4:00 AM'''.

* ''[[Young Blades (TV)|Young Blades]]'' has not been released on DVD, which is unsurprising due to its lack of popularity and its being on PAX. There are a few unofficial DVD copies out there, however: after one fan lost all her taped episodes during Hurricane Katrina, she wrote to the production company and they sold her all the episodes on DVD, '''including missing scenes'''. Several other fans followed her example.