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{{trope}}
== Anime & Manga ==
* The English-language version of ''[[
* It was recently announced that the ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' series will be released by The Right Stuf International - through [[Nozomi Entertainment]] - across three DVD sets (using the show's remastered Region 2 DVD release as the video base), as well as the movie.
* In Australia, [[Madman Entertainment]] successfully licenced the ''[[
** They're YTV's copies, featuring a logo on the openings. 'Sly', an executive at Madman, said this was the best quality one available to them. They don't seem to be missing any scenes, but what happened to the clean originals?
* For the longest time, only half of ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]'' was available on a hard-to-find DVD box set. This box set had a good 26 episodes (most series only run that long), but the second season had some of the funniest episodes of the series. There was also almost no merchandise in the US. Cue frustrated fanbase. Until Discotek announced the license of both the dub and original version in two complete box sets<ref>52 for the dub, 54 for the sub which includes the two clip episodes</ref>. Cue happy fanbase. (Even moreso after since the below Power Rangers announcement came the same day.)
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== Comic Books ==
* ''[[
* In mid-2009, Mirage Studios released the "[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage
* In [[Turn of the Millennium|2000]], [[Marvel Comics]] finally released a volume of ''Essential [[Conan the Barbarian]]''... which was never followed up, as [[Dark Horse Comics]] acquired the license soon after. Seven years later, Dark Horse started reprinting not only the original Conan ongoing, but also ''Savage Sword of Conan the Barbarian'', ''King Conan'', and all the other [[Comic Book Adaptation]](s) of [[Robert E. Howard]]'s works.
* The [[Sam and Max]] comic collection, Surfin' The Highway, was printed in 1995 and went out of print. For years second hand copies were going for a substantial amount of money. However, in 2008, with the success of Telltale's [[Sam and Max]] games, the company was able to rerelease it. As Steve Purcell works for Telltale, the rerelease was greatly expanded.
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== Film ==
* The delay of the DVD release of ''[[The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension]]'' is one of the strangest stories in the industry. Producer David Begelman made a shady career for himself as an executive at several major Hollywood studios, including Columbia Pictures and MGM. During this period, he was the target of multiple lawsuits and criminal prosecutions for embezzlement and fraud (including a notorious check-forging scandal that exploded after actor [[Cliff Robertson]] discovered that fake checks had been made out in his name, which eventually led to Begelman's being fired from United Artists), and successfully blackmailed [[Judy Garland]] with illicitly obtained medical photos. After being fired from those studios, he founded his own production companies, Sherwood Productions and Gladden Entertainment, where he produced several moderately-successful films, including ''Buckaroo Banzai''. Due to some legal chicanery, he ended up the sole owner of the rights to the film, and because of a falling-out with the writer and director over financial issues, refused to allow any further use of the property. This included blocking a planned television series, a sequel film, and the later DVD release. During this time, Laserdisc copies of the film were selling for well over $100. It took Begelman's bankruptcy and subsequent suicide for the rights to devolve to his largest creditor, Crédit Lyonnais bank, and then to Polygram Entertainment where executive Steve Gelber (a ''Banzai'' fan) pushed for a DVD release; it was finally released in 2002 under MGM's distribution. Begelman's obfuscatory and legally-questionable bookkeeping practices continue to prevent any further development of the Banzai property — such as the long-awaited sequel, or a soundtrack album — as no one is really sure who owns the various rights involved.
* ''[[
* Due to rights problems (including song copyrights), ''Hellzapoppin'' has never been released on VHS or DVD in America. It ''did'' get a UK DVD release in 2007, though.
* For nearly 20 years, a copy of ''[[Johnny Got His Gun]]'' was fairly difficult to acquire. Why? Well, [[Metallica]] wanted to use footage from the movie for their video of "One" back in 1988, and found it simpler to just purchase all the rights to the movie...and then do nothing with it. Only in 2009 was a DVD release made.
* ''[[
** It's worth noting that because of the dispute, all copies of the film were ordered to be destroyed; were it not for those dedicated bootleggers, ''the film would not have survived at all''. To those collectors and reprinters, wherever you may be — the fans and historians of the world salute you.
* [[Michael Jackson]]'s ''[[Moonwalker]]'' didn't get a Region 1 re-release for a long time, for obvious reasons. It was finally released internationally on Blu-Ray in 2010, albeit with some of the violence in the "Smooth Criminal" segment trimmed.
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* The 1980 PBS made-for-TV adaption of ''[[The Lathe of Heaven]]'' was unavailable after the rights expired in 1988. A DVD was finally released in 2000, albeit with a cover version of the [[Beatles]] song used in the original.
* ''[[The Legend of Billie Jean]]'' spent years in release limbo with no shot of ever getting a DVD release, despite massive fan demand. It was finally released in November 2011 through Sony Classics On Demand with an audio commentary.
* ''[[Static (
** The Telavista release is actually a bootleg so technically it's still a case of [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]].
* The 1927 classic, ''[[Wings (
* The original widescreen version of ''[[West Side Story]]'' inexplicably disappeared from DVD shelves in the mid-2000s. All the DVDs produced during the remainder of the decade presented the movie in [[Pan and Scan]], although movie boxsets contained the uncropped version. Widescreen DVDs finally became available again in 2011, in honor of the movie's 50th anniversary.
* ''[[The African Queen]]'' only got a DVD release in 2010, as both the rights to the film jumped from hand to hand and the original negatives for restoration were hard to find.
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== Literature ==
* For a long time [[Terry Pratchett
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* ''[[Bill Nye the Science Guy]]'' is now available on a number of DVDs! [[Crack is Cheaper|At $25 or $30]] for ''one'' thirty-minute episode.
* ''[[Boy Meets World]]'''s third season sold worse than expected on DVD, leading Buena Vista to indefinitely delay later seasons. Fortunately, Lionsgate acquired DVD rights, and managed to release the whole series.
* The Belgian TV show ''Buiten De Zone'' was finally released on DVD in 2010, after the last of the music negotiations (over the music from ''[[Twin Peaks]]'') had concluded. The show, which ran for 2 seasons starting in 1994, still has a huge fan following and has achieved a cult status in Flanders. Bart de Pauw, one of the creators, was a soundtrack buff and used music from hundreds of films like ''[[James Bond (
* 1987 - Present British BBC kids show ''[[Chucklevision]]'' suffered this as due to a bad schedule episodes over 20 minutes were not shown after 2004, but recently Barry Elliot anounced the BBC picked it up for a DVD release.
* ''[[Crime Story]]'' has been released, but with knock-off tunes in place of the original early-1960s pop numbers underscoring the action. It just isn't the same.
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* ''[[Happy Days]]'': Slowly but surely for the first four seasons. The first season was issued in 2004, and it was nearly three years before Season 2 was released. Seasons 3 and 4 were issued during the next 18 months, but nothing since December 2008. Music licensing, slow sales ... no official word has been given as to what the hold up is for the remaining seven years.
* ''[[The Greatest American Hero]]'', released but with music rights problems.
* ''[[
** And Shandling's follow-up, ''[[The Larry Sanders Show]]'', had all its seasons released in Fall 2010 after its post-Season 1 run was in release limbo due to a dispute between Shandling and Brad Grey, his former manger and producer of the program.
* From Sweden is the show ''[[Kenny Starfighter]]'', a big cult classic over here. There was a VHS release in 1997 when it came out, but had major rights problems. It wasn't until 2006, before the movie came out, that the show did eventually see a DVD release.
* ''[[La Femme Nikita]]'': Season 2 was released and then unreleased, pulled from store shelves, when one of the featured bands demanded more money for the use of their song. Instead, the song was replaced, the DVDs rereleased and they got nothing.
* ''Little Muppet Monsters'' was like this for over 20 years. Beyond the first episode, Muppet fans had no way to gain copies of the three aired episodes. In 2008, a Muppet fan came forward saying he had all three episodes that aired on [[CBS]]. He made copies for the Muppet fan community and are now very easy to find.
* All seasons and episodes of ''[[Malcolm in
* ''[[Married...
* ''[[The Mary Tyler Moore Show]]'' had Season 1 put on DVD in 2002. Thanks to disappointing sales of that set, it took three years for Season 2 to be released, and it ultimately took eight years to get all seven seasons on DVD.
* ''[[Max Headroom]]'' suffered this in part. Although the original TV movie was released on DVD, the subsequent two-season series had not been, and was only partially available in edited form on VHS and Japanese Laserdisc releases. Despite the existence of a substantial online market in bootleg compilations, a DVD release was not available until Shout! Factory released the full series in 2010.
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** And now, in March of 2012, Saban inked a deal with Shout! Factory to release all 700 episodes from ''Mighty Morphin'' all the way to ''RPM'' on DVD.
* Before Anchor Bay released the eight episodes of ''[[Profit]]'' onto DVD--four of which hadn't even seen broadcast in the USA--the show's ''creator'' circulated the tapes/DVDs himself!
* ''[[
* It took until 2010 for ''[[The Red Green Show]]'' to get a DVD release. Before then, the only consolation was a 48-episode ''Stuffed & Mounted'' set with scattered episodes from the first ten seasons (except 2). Keep in mind the show ran from 1991 to 2006.
* The full run of ''[[
* ''[[She Wolf of London (TV series)|She Wolf of London]]'' ... finally released after many years in February 2010 (Region 1), according to [http://www.amazon.com/She-Wolf-London-Complete-4pc-Mcsh/dp/B002QU1Z1K Amazon.]
* ''[[Small Wonder]]'': Shout! Factory released Season 1 to retail stores on Region 1 DVD in February 2010. Season 2 was released directly to fans in June 2010.
* Reruns of ''[[
* ''[[The State]]'' had been released on iTunes, but all of the music had to be pulled for rights issues. Most of it was replaced with ''just close enough'' soundalikes, but on at least one sketch ''all'' of the audio had to be completely redone due to the lack of original masters, using looped actors' dialogue, fake Marvin Gaye music, and canned laughter.
** (Eventually) averted. Viacom finally got all the rights to every episode settled (mostly by replacing the original music)... and then decided not to release it on DVD anyway. Thankfully, campaigning by the show's stars managed to convince them otherwise, and a complete series box set is now available. Only one short segment had to be cut because characters were singing a Pearl Jam song that could not be cleared. Still, at least it got here before ''[[Daria]]''.
* ''[[The Starlost]]'' (1973), based on a story by [[Harlan Ellison]] (and later [[Screwed
* ''[[T-Bag]]'' seasons 5-9. Seasons 1 is available on DVD with seasons 2-4 to be released later on DVD in 2011.
* ''[[Thirtysomething]]'' was this for about two decades.
* After years of being forgotten in its (small) fanbase's memory, ''[[Vanpires]]'' of all series actually got a DVD release in 2007.
* The first season of the 80's ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War of the Worlds]]'' TV series was only released on DVD after 15 years of waiting and pleading by its small fanbase. It took another five years to get the second (and final season) on the format as well. Talk about a long wait!
* ''[[Witchblade (TV series)|Witchblade]]'', released but with music rights problems.
* ''[[My Mother the Car]]'' has no DVD release but is legally available on Youtube and Hulu.
* Does ''The Very Best of [[WCW]] Monday Nitro'' count?
* In February 2011, The Paley Center for Media in New York, NY announced that [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704709304576124373773290508.html it had received a verified copy] of the CBS broadcast of [[Useful Notes/American Football|Super Bowl I]], donated to the Center in exchange for having it restored and archived. It was thought that there were no existing copies of either the CBS or NBC broadcast<ref>At the time, CBS had the NFL broadcast rights and NBC had the AFL rights.</ref>. The owner reportedly offered the tape directly to the NFL: they first tried to assert its exclusive copyright to claim the tape, then offered $30,000 for the tape (most experts say the tape is worth at least $1 million). It's assumed it is only a matter of time before the tape (which is missing a chunck of the third quarter and the entire halftime) is broadcast publicly.
* Until the end of 2007, ''[[The Man
* ''[[Barney Miller]]'': After the Season 1 DVD set came out, it took four years for Season 2 to be released, then another year for Season 3. Finally, [[Shout Factory]] issued a deluxe complete-series box set for the show in October 2011.
* The ''[[Alien Nation (TV series)|Alien Nation]]'' TV series aired from 1989 to 1990, and ended on a heart-wrenching cliffhanger. It was quickly released on VHS. The cliffhanger, and numerous unresolved sub-plots, were eventually resolved in made-for-tv movies that aired from 1994-1997. Only the first two were ever released on VHS; leaving more hanging plot threads with no resolution for fans who hadn't managed to see the movies when they originally aired. The series was given a full DVD box-set release in 2006; but it took another two years for the movies to be released, finally giving fans the entire story. However, the parody advertisements that were part of the original series airing have yet to be released in any format.
* ''[[Parker Lewis Can't Lose]]'' took its sweet time to move onto DVD, mostly due to music licensing issues,but it's out now.
* In Britain companies like Network DVD are a godsend for people looking for rare archive shows, sometimes even going so far as to track down missing videotapes. A couple of examples:
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== Music ==
* Negativland's single ''U2'', where both tracks were essentially [[Voice Clip Song|Voice Clip Songs]] featuring Casey Kasem having obscene temper tantrums between takes of an episode of ''American Top 40'' set to instrumental covers of [[
* [[Bob Dylan]] once performed a rather...famous concert at the Royal Albert Hall in the UK. For many years, a near-perfect recording of that concert circulated in one form or another, until it was officially released as part of the "bootleg" series of CDs.
* Cult band ''The Enid'''s first two albums ''In the Region of the Summer Stars'' and ''Aerie Faerie Nonsense'' (1976-7) had to be be remixed and partly re-recorded in 1984 when the original record company wouldn't return the 2-track masters to the band. Because of this the original mixes were only available on vinyl until 2010 (and only given an official release because somebody had bootlegged the vinyl versions).
* For years, [[Garth Brooks]]' TV concert specials were either hard or impossible to find. "This Is Garth Brooks" (1992) and "Garth Live From Central Park" (1997) were released on VHS in 1992 & 1998 respectively, but both went out-of-print relatively quick, while "This Is Garth Brooks II" (1994) saw its planned VHS release canceled, and "Garth Brooks Ireland & Back" (1998) was long forgotten after its initial NBC airing (save for a rare CMT rerun in 2002). All four specials were finally released on DVD in a box set in 2006, albeit with several edits made to all of them (and "Ireland & Back" being retitled "Garth Brooks Live From Dublin")
* In December 1987, [[Prince]] asked Warner Brothers, his record label at the time, to scrap the release of ''The Black Album'' a week before its release date. However, by this time over 500k were pressed on vinyl and preview copies had gone out. Most copies were destroyed, with the few remaining being the source for "'''the most bootlegged album of all time'''". In 1991, Warner planned a greatest hits package which would have included the album as a bonus disc. However, it was scrapped when Prince delivered ''Diamonds and Pearls'' to the company. Finally in 1994, during [[The Trope Formerly Known
* For the longest time, a [[Jeff Buckley]] documentary titled ''Amazing Grace'' was completely unavailable to fans. The documentary had won numerous awards and was one of the most accurate documentaries about Buckley's life. Due to copyrights issues rumors of it being released on a DVD spiked up and then soon fizzled out. Then, in 2009, it was officially released on a special edition of ''Grace Around The World''. However, these special editions are quickly running out and odds are the documentary will fade back into this trope.
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* The [[Fire Emblem Akaneia|first]] game in the [[Fire Emblem]] series has been released overseas, [[Marth Debuted in Smash Bros|which means Marth finally gets a proper debut.]]
* Sierra released [[Vanilla Edition]] [[Compilation Rerelease|Compilation Rereleases]] of ''[[Space Quest]]'', ''[[King's Quest]]'', ''[[Police Quest]]'', and ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]'' in 2006. The ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' series, on the other hand, wouldn't see daylight until it was [http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/quest_for_glory finally] released on GoG. The compilations themselves are lacking, though. Besides lacking the original versions of their first games (using just their remakes):
** ''[[King's Quest]]'': ''[[King's Quest: Mask of Eternity
** ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]'': Since the collection shipped on just one CD, they had to use the floppy version of ''Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out'' instead of the talkie CD version, and ''Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail'' is missing entirely, so as far as Al Lowe is concerned, the definitive ''Leisure Suit Larry'' compilation is still the Ultimate Pleasure Pack, which includes the talkie version of ''Larry 6'', as well as ''Love for Sail'' and ''Larry's Casino''.
== Web Original ==
* [[That Dude in
* The ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' shorts "Marshmallow's Last Stand" and "A Jumping Jack Contest" were removed from the site for unknown reasons, but they have been recovered on numerous other websites, and on the Homestar Runner: Everything Else Vol. 2 DVD.
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* ''[[Daria]]'' was not commercially available from its finale in 2002 until the summer of 2010. Fans wanting the show either had to hunt down the Real Player versions of the series (which were taken from the original airings of the episodes/movies on MTV) or more mainstream AVI/MPEG video captures that were (unfortunately) taken from the show's run on Noggin, who butchered the episodes mercilessly, both for content and to make room for more advertisements. Now the show is '''finally''' on DVD and on TV (LOGO has the rights to it), though with the trade-off of having ''all'' of the music yanked and replaced with generic replacement tunes.
** Even more annoying: While all 65 episodes of the series itself are uncut (new masters were made à la "The State" with the replacement music), "Is It College Yet?" is the same old butchered version that aired on MTV after its initial commercial-free airing, which was used for the original DVD release of said film.
* Thanks to Warner Home Video's "[[Cartoon Network]] Hall Of Fame" DVD collection, the first seasons of ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'' and ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' now have DVD releases as of Summer 2010, with ''[[
** Also, those shows have had their complete series <ref>sans Courage's debut on the ''[[What a Cartoon Show]]'', Dexter's [[Big Damn Movie]] ''Ego Trip'', and a banned ''Dial M For Monkey'' short</ref> added to the iTunes store.
* While still no signs of the DVD, ''[[Megas XLR]]'' has had official releases for iTunes and Xbox Live Arcade.
* Seasons 1-3 of ''[[X-Men: Evolution]]'' have had DVD releases, but the fourth hasn't. iTunes has somewhat rectified this, as well as the Marvel [[YouTube]] channel having EVERY episode available to watch.
* ''[[Bump in
* ''[[Sonic
* ''[[Mighty Mouse]]: The New Adventures'' was caught in this trap, but then the entire series came out on DVD in 2010, with the picture digitally remastered from the original film negatives AND bonus features. Quite a big treatment for a show that hadn't aired in years.
* The 1990s ''[[X-Men (
** Every episode is freely available to stream on Marvel.com as well.
** Interestingly, Disney seems a little more willing to sell comprehensive DVDs of Marvel cartoons than for cartoons they made themselves. The [[Spider
* ''[[The Pirates of Dark Water]]'' became available at WarnerArchive.com on August 31, 2010 with a complete series box set.
* Warner apparently releases seasons of ''[[
* It took damn near 22 years, three distribution companies, and a ''very'' dogged fanbase to get ''[[
* In North America, the only place you can view ''[[Kappa Mikey]]'''s two full seasons, besides on its practically non-existent presence on TV, is on iTunes. For some reason, Australia is the only country that legally distributes a full season DVD.
* ''[[Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures
* ''[[
* [[Shout Factory]] has started to release ''[[Madeline]]'' on DVD, in random compilations.
** All the episodes (though none of the specials or the direct-to-video movie) can be found on Hulu, [[No Export for You|which doesn't help much to those living outside the US or Germany]]...
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Tales of the Gold Monkey]]'' was released in mid-2010.
* ''[[Rover Dangerfield]]'' was released December 2010.
* ''[[The Phantom Tollbooth]]'' was set for a 2008 DVD release but got delayed. It is now available to order off the [[Warner Bros]] website.
* Most of the Nicktoons, again. For the longest time, the only Nickelodeon originals with full DVD sets were ''[[
** Netflix has quite a few Nicktoons available for streaming.
** And they'll be released for retail chains starting 2011, with ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]'' and ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' being the first. And it's not just the Nicktoons, but the old sitcoms as well. ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police (
* Several [[Marvel Comics]] [http://geeksofdoom.com/2011/05/02/marvel-animated-shows-come-to-netflix-instant/ cartoons] that never received comprehensive DVD releases will become available to stream on Netflix, such as ''[[Spider
** And of course, as mentioned before, Marvel themselves do have a online video section on their site where one can catch most episodes of the older Marvel cartoon and TV series (including [[Japanese Spider
* ''[[Heavy Metal (
* ''[[Where
* ''[[Jem]]'' — Rhino Video released seasons 1-2 and part of 3 on DVD. The rest? Left in limbo. To make matters worse, the first two sets of DVDs went out of print and cost a pretty penny to buy a second-hand copy. [[Shout Factory]] has decided to release a complete series DVD boxset, including the long-unavailable season 3 episodes.
* One of the most [[Egregious]] examples of this trope was ''[[
* ''[[Re Boot]]''. [[ADV Films]] never released Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD, only four episodes from Season 1 ever came out on VHS. Seasons 3-4 came out on DVD, but went out of print. Fortunately, [[Shout Factory]] eventually released DVDs of the complete series.
** Season 3 also airs on Teletoon Retro...IN CANADA! (Well, it ''was'' made in Canada...)
* The 1980 animated feature adaptation of ''[[Gnomes]]'' languished in copyright limbo after the production company wound up. However, CCV of Norway announced that a DVD release would come in December 2011.
* In late January 2012, Warner Archive released the first season of ''[[Pac-Man (
* ''[[The Jetsons]]'' was among the first Hanna-Barbera series to receive a DVD boxset, but it contained only the original episodes, broadcast from 1962 to 1963. These also became the only episodes to air on Boomerang. The 1980s revival did not come to DVD, or air on Boomerang, until 2009. Even then, only half of season 2 became available on DVD, as well as the theatrical 1990 movie. Fans have to buy the second half of the season, the two concurrently produced TV movies, and (eventually) the third season through the Warner Archive.
* The 2003–2007 ''[[Strawberry Shortcake]]'' series appeared to be in limbo when the series was dropped off Kewlopolis before the 2007 season 4 episodes could air, and rights for the series went from Playmates to Hasbro (and the animation rights went from [[Di C]] to Moonscoop). DVD releases of the series became slow and erratic, and many fans initially believed in 2009 that the releases would grind to a halt and the last eight episodes would not see the light of day upon hearing the news back then. However, stopping of releases is one thing that did not happen, [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|and the last DVD of the series came out in March 2012]].
* ''[[Recess]]'' is now availible on iTunes in Germany. (An iTunes release in the U.S. is unknown, but ''[[Recess:
* ''[[Godzilla:
* ''[[The Swan Princess]]'' and ''The Swan Princess III: The Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure'' came to DVD in 2004, but ''The Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain'' did not. People wanting to complete the trilogy had to wait five years, when the second movie came, retitled ''The Swan Princess: The Secret of the Castle''.
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