ABC's cancelled show, Relativity

September 12, 2006 10:18 PM

Remember the ABC show, Relativity, with Isabel and Leo?

God, I loved that show. It was so romantic and sweet! I just spent an hour Googling just to try to remember what it was called, until I finally figured out it was called Relativity. Sadly, Amazon implies that waiting for the release of a DVD is basically futile, as the studio is uninterested.

Hypothetically speaking, if I wanted to tell a friend how to download, legally or shadily, the 17 episodes that were made before its untimely cancellation, where would I tell him to look? Ahem. The "friend" in question already looked on Amazon, iTunes, the Pirate Bay, and Usenet-without much luck at all.

I would really like to see this show again, it was so good.

posted by evariste to media & arts (13 comments total)

Man, I do remember the show. And remember enjoying it.

I would check ebay....probably could find some VHS copies on there that you could transfer.

Other than that? You could find out who is in the show (quick IMDB search should do it, I'm too lazy) and contact the reps of the actors. They generally keep around copies of past episodes their clients were in, and if you ask the right way, they'll get some intern to dig in their back bins and send you some.

(reps= publicists, managers, agents...go in that order. If you reach agent, abandon all hope).
posted by ryecatcher at 11:04 PM on September 12, 2006

Yeah, that one has a special little place in my heart. Good cast!

I like ryecatcher's idea. You might also add Jason Katims and his reps to that list. As the series' creator, and son of one of the series leads (Leo's dad), it's got to be a project close to his heart.

For what it's worth, several of the Relativity cast members guested on Katims' next series, Roswell. Richard Schiff in the pilot, Robert Katims in a mid-S1 episode, a recurring role for David Conrad in late-S1, Devon Gummersall recurring in S2.

Have you checked into tape trading? It used to be all the rage before bittorrent made sharing so much simpler. For instance, here's a trader who was offering Relativity 3 years ago.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 11:31 PM on September 12, 2006

I loved it, too. It was one of the shows I remember that had a real fan campaign to try and save it--remember, they sent cans of Raviolios to the studio (a character--Adam Goldberg's, I think -- loved them).

I'd suggest putting a saved search on eBay...it worked for me for another long off-air show. You can also of course keep checking TVShowsonDVD.com, but as of now, they have no info on a release.
posted by GaelFC at 7:57 AM on September 14, 2006

Thanks, you three! I'll try a saved search on eBay, as well as getting in touch with reps.
posted by evariste at 9:47 AM on September 14, 2006

nakedcodemonkey-as far as tape trading goes, tape traders always seem touchy about people who aren't into the "scene" and just want to buy a particular set tapes without having anything to trade in kind. I'm scared of those people.
posted by evariste at 9:48 AM on September 14, 2006

I went ahead and emailed the trader who said she had Relativity, since that does seem like a shortcut compared to waiting for it to pop up on eBay or going through reps begging for it.
posted by evariste at 10:27 AM on September 14, 2006

Let us know what the person says!
posted by GaelFC at 12:16 PM on September 14, 2006

I certainly will!
posted by evariste at 12:28 PM on September 14, 2006

Evariste raises a good point. Though legit tape traders are wary of anyone who wants to "buy" because that's the antithesis of what the community is about. You need to be in a position to do actual tape trading, so yeah do approach that option with the right mindset.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 12:59 PM on September 14, 2006

evariste - I believe I have every episode of Relativity on VHS tape. So if the trader thing doesn't work out, post about it here + we can work something out in the future. I hope to digitize the episodes at some point, but it will not be soon as I'm in the process of setting up a home media server + it will take time. I won't need anything in return for the files.

I loved the show. I ran into the lead actor once at a Starbucks in San Fran, after the show had ended, and being a stupid fanboy, told him how great the show was. He kinda shrugged and smiled.
posted by shortfuse at 1:33 PM on September 14, 2006

Hey, shortfuse-fantastic! How long do you think it will be?

nakedcodemonkey and GaelFC: the tape-trader replied. She's open to selling them and she wants $40 for 4 DVDs containing all the episodes. I think that sounds basically fair, what do you think?

If shortfuse's timeline for digitizing his VHS tapes is over, say, a month, I'll probably go ahead and buy it from the tape-trader. Anyone wants it, I'll rip it to my Mac and put it up for download or something.
posted by evariste at 7:42 PM on September 14, 2006

I don't think it will be within a month, since digitizing my analog content has been on the back burner for a long time, and other things keep popping up.

So if you are excited to watch it soon, then I would go with the trader, as the cost seems reasonable. If for any reason it doesn't work out with the trader, feel free to drop me a line. I'll email you my info.
posted by shortfuse at 10:36 AM on September 15, 2006

shortfuse-you rock, thanks! I'm gonna go with the trader then. Got your email too, thank you.
posted by evariste at 6:57 PM on September 15, 2006