Saw over at Starship Modeler Hawaii 5-0 is coming to DVD 2006.

Is this confirmed? The show has been mired in nasty legal limbo for a decade or so. The show was created and produced by Leonard Freeman(now deceased) in association with CBS. I believe CBS owns the episodes but cannot market them beyond syndication because they do not own the name Hawaii Five-0, McGarrett, or any other of the characters. About ten years ago CBS wanted to make a 5-0 theatrical movie. They were taken to court by Freeman's widow Rose and she won. She owns the name Hawaii Five-0 and all characters. She and her partner, a producer, have been trying to get a 5-0 film made for several years. She wants to create a film franchise like Bond. She reserves the right of total creative control including casting and script approval. So far no studio has been willing to give up that control but I read that a deal may finally be in the works with Warner Bros. In order for a dvd release of the tv show, she and CBS would have to bury the hatchet and come to some financial arrangement. I love this show and hope this really comes to pass. I have approx. half the 280 or so episodes I recorded myself. A lot of editing was done for syndication and I would love to see them as they originally aired. Originally, when going to commercial, there was no fade out. The music would build and then cut to the huge wave with the Hawaii Five-0 logo in the corner. For syndication the music was altered and they just fade to black. From time to time you run across a break with the wave intact but they are few and far between. At one time there was a dispute over the show between CBS and Viacom/Paramount. CBS claimed Paramount only had the rights to the re-edited syndicated versions. Don't really understand this because they are all part of the same company. At one time, while new episodes were being shown in prime-time, CBS aired re-edited versions opposite Johnny Carson with the named of the show changed to McGarrett.

Wow! I mean WOW. And I mean wow at rw's encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the show's post-airing legal life, not wow at the fact it may be released!

I'll certainly get the first couple of seasons, but I dunno if I'm up for collecting all - what was it, 14 seasons? That's a lotta disks!