Alkaline-earth chalcogenolates are important precursors in a variety of technical applications and in synthetic chemistry. Until recently, however, the number of well-characterized examples of alkaline-earth chalcogenolates was very small. During the last few years, several synthetic schemes have been explored, allowing the synthesis and characterization of a collection of alkaline-earth chalcogenolates. With a small family of target molecules in hand, it is now possible to further explore their use in synthetic chemistry and as precursor materials.