On Oct. 4, 1957, two things of lasting significance were launched: Sputnik, and "Leave it to Beaver."

While the world's first man-made orbiting satellite went higher and faster, igniting the space race and challenging North Americans to keep pace in science and education, "Leave it to Beaver," it could be argued, has had a more lasting impact. A simple, black and white, family sitcom, it has been airing in reruns for half a century.

A time capsule from that era -- minus Sputnik -- will be available to Boomers and others when "Leave it to Beaver: The Complete Series" hits stores June 29. The DVD box set, from Shout! Factory, is about as big as the old metal lunch box the Beav used to bring to school in the late '50s. The 234 remastered and digitized episodes are spread out over 37 discs. The set even comes with a replica of the original "Leave it to Beaver" board game (where you can land on spots like "Beaver Breaks Window Pays Dad $5.00").

Very few 50-year-old TV shows could fetch a suggested retail price of US$199.99 today. "I Love Lucy" was the only other one to come to mind for Garson Foos, founding partner and general manager of Shout! He and his partners were delighted when NBC Universal Television allowed the adventures of Wally (played by Tony Dow) and his kid brother Theodore (Beaver) Cleaver (Jerry Mathers -- now 62!) and the rest of the Cleaver clan out of the vault. All the episodes have been digitally remastered from the original source material and restored to their original running times.

Going that extra mile is critical for fans when it comes to marketing these boxed sets.

"This show has a really passionate audience," says Foos, 50. "It's a show that's really important to a lot of people and was a big part of their childhoods."

Foos was too young to see "Beaver" when it first aired but caught the reruns throughout his school years.

"In our house, whenever somebody was trying to butter somebody up, particularly if it was a kid doing it to a parent, we always said they were being an Eddie Haskell," he said, referring to Wally's smart-alecky school chum.

The curious thing is that "Leave it to Beaver" was never a hit in its initial release. The sitcom never landed in the U.S. Top 30 shows of the year and was cancelled after its first season on CBS. ABC picked it up in 1958 and continued the series for another five seasons.

Sometimes -- as far as DVD sales go -- it's more important for a show to be a cult hit than extremely popular during its initial run, says Foos.

He's hoping that will be the case with Shout!'s next classic TV release, "Max Headroom: The Complete Series," coming in August. That short-lived `80s series starred Matt Frewer as a computer-generated pop icon and also featured a young Amanda Pays.

Foos hasn't always guessed right on shows he thought would be DVD hits.

"You get biased by what you like," he says. "'Room 222' was a really important show to me growing up, yet sales have been disappointing."

Another personal favourite which launched in 1969 was the Bill Bixby comedy "The Courtship of Eddie's Father." For now, that's staying on the shelf.

Foos has to weigh the cost of obtaining the rights to these shows against prospective DVD sales. He says the boxed set business probably peaked a few years ago, and companies have to market and select with more care than ever. Often only the first one or two seasons of a classic TV show will sell well on DVD.

The company behind the release of a recent "Smothers Brothers" boxed set, for example, released the third and final season first because that was the brothers' own favourite year.

The high cost of music licensing and clearances have kept many titles in the vaults, including the series seen as the Holy Grail for DVD boxed sets.

"'The Wonder Years' is up there, probably at the top," says Foos.

The series was very much the "Leave it to Beaver" of its day. It took a look back at childhood in the late '60s from the perspective of the `80s. Besides using Joe Cocker's rousing rendition of The Beatles' "A Little Help From My Friends" as the theme, the series "was just wall-to-wall music," says Foos. Producers and networks in earlier decades never anticipating the boxed set or nostalgia channel businesses and only cleared rights to songs for immediate broadcast use.

Some studios and DVD producers have tried song switches to avoid high costs.

"Fox replaced some of the music in `WKRP in Cincinnati' and they got a lot of negative feedback for it," says Foos. "I think it's better to get the show out there with replaced music than not get it out there at all."

The high cost of music rights has also held up the DVD release of a little-seen critical favourite, the `80s sitcom "Frank's Place."

Shout! Has run into similar music rights issues with their recent releases of all four seasons of the `80s drama "thirtysomething."

It helps that Foos older brother, Richard, CEO of Shout!, was also behind the launch of Rhino Records (with partner Robert Emmer).

"We came from the music business," says Foos. "That's helpful, but there's a certain baseline nobody can get below (when it comes to costs)."

Other classic TV shows get held up for other reasons. The original '60s series "Batman" has never been available in home video or DVD sets.

"I know there are various parties involved and the rights are entangled," says Foos, acknowledging "Batman" is "right up there with 'The Wonder Years."'