The advent of cable has been really hard on public TV. The reason is
that the cable networks have much more money than the PBS stations do,
and they can afford to buy exclusive licenses. It used to be that the
only people vying for old reruns were PBS stations and the odd
independent station (like the Bay Area's KOFY TV-20). Now, though, with
A&E, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel,
Ovation, and so on, there are a lot more people who want to buy old
shows, and that's driving the prices up and making life harder for the
public stations. Similarly, things like Nickelodeon, the Sci-Fi Channel,
FX, and so on are all going for the old nostalgia shows like Mission:
Impossible. With an exclusive license, they can say, "See Mission:
Impossible, *only* on FX."
I hope that isn't what's happened to the Sandbaggers... but my guess is
that there isn't that much demand for it. However, if it isn't being
"offered" to PBS, there must be some reason for it...
Ernest Adams