Hopefully this is not too similar to the thread on DVD pet peeves, so if it is, please delete.
The question is, which DVD releases of television series have you found to be deficient after one manner or another? Possible deficiencies could be: didn’t like the series in question, the discs were packaged wrong, the video/audio quality wasn’t to your liking, there were musical replacements/cut scenes, wrong production house logos (“production house logo” meaning things like Paramount’s Blue Mtn., CPT’s 80s Torch Lady, etc.), et al.
The obvious one to me was when WKRP in Cincinnati was finally released on DVD (well, the first season was, at least). The long-time hold-up for the release had been the music rights; in the DVD release, much of the music was replaced with no-name songs. I was still happy to see WKRP again after all these years, and I completely understand the issue with the music, but it still took some of the luster off of it.
-Only a small percentage of the music videos that B&B criticize;
-Massive dialogue cuts all over the place
-Several episodes missing (apparently Mike Judge thought some episodes were too embarrassing to include).
I think most of these problems continued at least through the Season 2 release (which at least didn’t have the dialogue cuts). Of course there are going to be copyright issues with the music videos, but that was extremely disappointing, since the highlight of B&B to me was the snappy comments during videos.
The hallmark of the stupidity of the season 1 release is that Jennifer’s frakking doorbell (“Fly Me to the Moon”) has been replaced with generic doodles.
It is thirteen notes long.
Some of the Quantum Leap seasons have this problem as well. The worst offense is committed when “Georgia on My Mind” is replaced when Al dances with Beth in one episode.
Meant to add a different kind of problem I’m having with TV on DVD:
Cancelled shows (specifically, King of the Hill, Good Eats, and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends) which now may never see the rest of their seasons released.
Likewise, one of the most memorable episodes of “The Greatest American Hero” centers on repeated playing of “Eve of Destruction” - so a DVD version which replaces the song is just wrong.
One of mine was that of Blue Thunder, the short-lived '84 ABC adventure series. I looked at it all the way through, and IMHO, it was a pretty good series (your opinion may differ), but there is one glaring caveat: CPT’s 80s Torch Lady (aka the 80s Coke Lady) was not included; rather, the current SPT logo was there. The reason why this was a caveat to me is because the series was copyrighted to CPT, which in the beginning of the series was “a division of Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.” then later was “a division of CPT Holdings, Inc.” That being so, I would have expected the Coke Lady. However, for SPT to replace that with its logo made the release feel very incomplete.
Shout!, on the other hand, IMHO, has been pretty good with production house logos, from the original Universals on McHale’s Navy and Marcus Welby, M.D. (McHale’s also had the Revue logo), to Paramount’s Blue Mtn. on Webster (both standard and tall-peaked), to CPT’s Coke Lady on Designing Women and later seasons of Punky Brewster, IIRC (earlier ones had the former NBC logo). Heck, even Paramount was pretty good on a couple of their series (MacGyver and The Brady Bunch [one had the Blue Mtn., one had the Split Box]).
All that said, why is it that some releases have the proper age-appropriate production logo, and many more don’t?
Of course, of course! St. Elsewhere has had only one season’s worth released since '06, and the odds are looking mighty slim. However, there has been some good news on that front; Taxi did come out with nos. 4 and 5 (from CBS) after a 3-4 year dry spell since #3 from Paramount.
Count Duckula has never been fully-released on Region 1 DVD. The first season (now out of print) was, but appearantly it didn’t sell well enough to justify the rest.
Of course, the limeys get to have the whole thing on a Region 2 DVD… but I’m not quite enough of a fan to buy a region-free DVD player just for one show…
Same with Exo-Squad, except season two never came out in any other region, either.
The Rocky & Bullwinkle DVDs have an annoying “station identification bug” that pops up in the corner periodically throughout each episode, as if you’re watching the R&B channel.
The Secrets of Isis DVDs look like they’re mastered from home recordings made on an old top-load VHS VCR. (And this may very well be the case, it’s not the kind of show where the master tapes or films would have been lovingly preserved.)
Like most anime, Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water includes a brief clip of animation when cutting out to a commercial and cutting back in. This has been included on the disk version.
While this isn’t any different than many other shows, the cut-away animation in Nadia, is of the words, “The Secret of Blue Water”. While that displays, a chorus of women very distinctly sing the words, “The Secret Blue Water”.
OF
OF DAMMIT
THE SECRET OF BLUE WATER
At first, it’s fine, but after you’ve watched two dozen episodes, the incongruity between the words as written and as sung really creeps up on me and makes me want to bash things.
Speaking of anime there’s always the incredibly stupid season sets of Dragon Ball Z where they decided to take a series animated and broadcast in 4:3 and crop it into widescreen. This is annoying under any circumstance but it’s even more annoying when there’s not a single shot where at least 1/3 of every characters impossibly large hair is chopped off, making it virtually impossible not to notice. Want to know about the worst part though? They overdid the DNR so much that a lot of the detail and grain is gone, in fact it’s so bad that there are certain spots where are actual lines of animation are removed. That is an absolutely inexcusable thing to do to anything animated.
But everything’s fine right? They released the new Dragon Boxes that use the gorgeous Japanese remasters right? Yes, yes they did, but it turns out those fine releases were limited editions. So it’s nearly impossible to find sets 1,2 and 4 for less than $100. Want to know what’s worse? The Dragon Boxes have entirely different episode layouts so you can’t even fill those gaps with the cheaper sets without missing episodes, and they canceled the Blu-Rays so you’re basically stuck with the season sets.
I bought Walking Dead season 1 on Bluray right when it first came out. There were hardly any extras, but I figured that’s just how it was, sometimes it happens.
Then a few months later they released a 2nd version with tons of extras…
I know this sort of double dipping happens all the time with movie releases, but it’s the first time I ran across it with regard to a TV show release. Not saying it’s the first time it’s happened just first time I noticed it.
What you link to is clearly labeled as the “Mike Judge Collection, Volume 1”—they were never marketed as complete seasons. But you’re right that this is a great example of a “deficient” TV DVD release. I wish they had released the B&B episodes as they originally appeared on TV, with all the music video commentaries intact.
The first couple of seasons of Frasier on DVD lacked a Play All option. Kind of irritating when you’re trying to enjoy a Frasier Fest AND do other things.
I bought Northern Exposure season 1 on Region 1 (it wasn’t available in the uk at the time) and it had appalling picture quality and sound. It was like a copy of a copy of an old VHS. So bad that I bought the Region 2 version when that came out, it might have as bad quality, haven’t watched it yet…
The original “Hawaii Five-O” DVD release did not include the episode Bored, She Hung Herself. It aired only once, and never again. Not in syndication, and not on DVD.
Of course. . . there are “unofficial” releases of it floating around. . . somewhere. [Walks away whistling. . . .]