Please print out this page, add your signature, and mail to: Programming Department Nick At Nite/TV Land 1515 Broadway New York, NY 10036

Dear TV Land: This is a request for you to begin carrying The Good Guys, the 1968-70 CBS sitcom starring Bob Denver, Herb Edelman and Joyce Van Patten sometime soon. As a viewer who is aware that Bob Denver's TV career did not end with Gilligan and who appreciates the fact that a cable network such as TV Land is capable of bringing some of the more obscure old shows back in reruns, I strongly believe that this series--despite a run of only 42 episodes--has enough funny moments, good characters and nostalgic potential to warrant at least a couple of complete rerun cycles. During the time it was on CBS, a number of affiliates across the nation unfortunately opted to either air the show via delayed broadcast in poor weekend-afternoon time slots, or pre-empt it completely. This was unfair to the viewers, the network, and those who worked hard on the series. On top of that, it has never been seen in syndication in the U.S. at any time since it was cancelled by the network in January, 1970. But now you can change this. There are a number of people who remember the series well and would love to see it again, as well as many of Bob Denver's newer fans who may enjoy seeing him in a series they never had a chance to see before. Paramount/Viacom--your parent company--presumably owns the rights to The Good Guys which should make it fairly easy to add this show to the TV Land schedule. It was unfortunate to learn that an episode scheduled last February as part of "Malcolm's Ultimate Fan Hour" was scuttled due to reasons not yet explained, and I feel it's time to make the effort to bring the entire run of the series to the network that embraces true television rarities--TV Land. Thank you for taking the time to read this request. Sincerely, ______________________

Unfortunately, TV Land's days of catering to fans of the obscure and forgotten appear to be over. Now that it's everywhere, it's now little more than just another cable channel content to concentrate on only the most proven of offerings which we've already seen on half a dozen other channels over the last 20 years, and The Good Guys remains untouched in the vault to this day.

Fortunately, there is another avenue that has opened up in the last few years as a way for dedicated fans to see their personal favorite TV series or even specific episodes whenever they wish, without fear of edits, pre-emptions or, in many cases, having to settle for substandard prints. As you more than likely know, it's the release of old TV series to DVD. Long-running series have been released season by season, while a number of short-lived shows have had their entire runs released on two or three discs.

"Nobody's going to pay $15 to see a Lucy rerun", claimed part of a 1969 article in TV Guide speculating what effect "TV on cassette" would have on a nation of viewers before it was even unleashed on them. That proved to be quite an understatement, as people have been snatching up DVDs of everything from I Love Lucy to M*A*S*H even though both of those series are still rerunning on broadcast and/or cable channels today (of course, with M*A*S*H on DVD, there's the option of turning off the laugh track).

Gilligan's Island has made the leap to DVD as well. But again, this show has been constantly rerunning since 1967. Shows that no longer see the light of day on U.S TV--from Peter Gunn to Pink Lady & Jeff(!!!) have been enshrined on disc. Given all this, will those viewers who have been waiting more than 30 years to see Bob Denver in his only all-color series mostly filmed before a studio audience, which doesn't end each episode invariably with yet another failed attempt to get off a desert island EVER get to own and watch it on DVD?

There's only one way to hopefully ensure this: Contact CBS/Paramount/Viacom--whatever it's called these days--who currently owns the rights to it...and let them know you want to see it!