I'm hoping you'll be able to give me advice on the best way to reintroduce a sitcom which was tremendously popular in the forties and fifties with viewers. My educated guess is that this has never happened to anyone before so there's precious little information on the best path to follow. What “this” is concerns a daughter named Astrid King who, after her mother's death, was clearing out her house, opened a closet door and found within it 84 kinescopes containing an equal number of episodes of a sitcom called “Ethel and Albert”, which was hugely popular in the forties and fifties and was broadcast directly before “I Love Lucy” on the same network. Astrid's mother is Peg Lynch, who was the first woman to create, write, star in and own her own sitcom. She also became a major star but when the network moved production of the show to the west coast in 1956, Peg, after 168 TV episodes (“I Love Lucy” broadcast a total of 180), opted to stay on the east coast. She didn't want to raise Astrid in Hollywood. As the owner of the show, however, she was unable to control whether the network syndicated the episodes and that's how nearly 100 of them ended up in a closet. It is truly a miraculous find. They are ALL in good condition and they are absolutely hilarious. In addition to Peg, the show costars Alan Bunce and Margaret Hamilton and each episode follows a normal husband and wife navigating their way through life's little annoyances. People who've seen episode compare it to “Seinfeld”. After the episodes are modernized, Astrid and I want to share them with the world but I'm struggling with the best way to “relaunch” this important find. Would you suggest selling rights to a network, streaming them online? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks so much. peglynchrelaunched.com
If you're looking for syndication, you might want to reach out to Shout! Factory TV or Get TV. They handle classic TV material. It's probably too obscure with very little subscriber-boost for services like Netflix or Hulu, who are mostly interested in newer content or very well known brands that improve their subscription base. I know that there are companies like Stadium Media who have That Girl and Danny Thomas material on their streaming service with ad content, but that company doesn't really generate much traffic.
The other option, which may be more directly lucrative is to consider putting it up yourself on your own YouTube channel with ads or iTunes and Amazon streaming for minimal fees. It takes time to cultivate viewers, but at least you're not being gouged by a third party distributor.
Good luck with it. 100 episodes is a lot of content and should interest somebody.
I sent you a message and request. I have a couple ideas for you, depending on what you're looking for.