I love having my favorite TV shows on DVD. I guess I should be grateful that these entertainment companies make them available to me at all, allowing me to pretty much bypass their usual revenue sources of syndication and also allowing me to choose whatever episode I want to see rather than be subject to the whim of the broadcaster. But why, oh why, do you feel a need to shaft loyal fans with your double-dipping?
First, my pit rant to Paramount: I bought every South Park DVD when it came out. You started by releasing them in “volumes,” so it seemed natural that every episode would see light eventually. Then, after 24 episodes, you switched to “themed” DVDs, which skipped some…but I still bought, because you never indicated that you’d release full seasons. Then you finally got around to season sets. And what consideration did we loyal viewers/buyers who were missing just two episodes of Season 2, or just 6 episodes of season 3 get? None at all, you bastards! You guys suck!
Next, Time Warner Home Video. Night Court is my beef with you. You released Season 1. I guess the sales weren’t what you’d hoped for, so you tested the waters for further seasons by releasing a “Television Favorites” DVD containing 6 episodes. Makes sense. But what did you choose to put on the so-called “Favorites” disk? 1 episode already available on the 1st Season set…and a cliffhanger episode without the resolution??? Why in heaven’s name should I consider buying that??? Not to mention that, however subjective such judgements are, there’s not a single episode on that disk that makes most fans’ “Favorite” lists. Give us a proper release, blast you! If you’re going to test the waters, bait your hook with a juicy worm!
Finally, Fox. I thought you were the good citizens. I loved the way you offered the normal box for the new Simpsons seasons alongside those “head” boxes. The boxes for the various seasons of your DVD releases are wonderfully consistent, they look so nice together on my shelf. So how could you guys turn around and do something like this to us?
What ever happened to maintaining the loyalty of the existing fan base, huh? Doesn’t anyone believe in it anymore?
Yep, double-dipping is getting outrageous, and it’s not just with TV shows. Seems like the latest thing for the studios to do is release a movie on DVD with what seems to be their full, “I’m happy with this the way it is” version, and then smack you about 8 months later with some super-duper extra-special edition. I’m looking at you, Sin City and Napoleon Dynamite.
You had me until you mentioned that you buy Night Court on DVD. I mean, come on, Night Court? Were they all out of “Welcome Back, Kotter” and “Laverne and Shirley”?
He’s talking about the special new MASH DVD set which has content not recorded on the single season issues. So, if you’ve been buying the seasons as they’re issued, you can’t get the special material.
My WAG is that he’s talking about the Simpsons releases as something Fox did good, thus lulling consumers into a false sense of security before the MAS*H thing.
Well, I’d hold off on getting upset about that until you find out if the “extras” are really anything worth having. If it’s deleted scenes, lost episodes and bloopers, then yeah, get pissed. If it’s new interview footage of Jamie Farr reminiscing about how great it was to work with Harry Morgan, well…
UncleBeer, Sierra, thanks for explaining what I meant. askeptic - what they said. Sorry I wasn’t more clear.
Biffy, even if it’s not anything major cool, I still think it sucks to shaft the “buy immediately” fans by offering exclusive extras to those who didn’t. They could at least throw us loyal buyers a bone by offering the extra disk (I assume it will be a separate extra disk or disk set rather than a re-jiggering of the existing season set disks they already have good masters of) on its own, if not for store sale (e.g., separate packaging/marketing for it would not be worth the expected sales) then at least for mail-order.
Giraffe: Them’s fighting words. Harry Anderson, John Laroquette and Richard Moll were sitcom gold.
Speaking of Fox, WTF is up with Get A Life? If ever there was a cult show they could make money off of by releasing the entire series, this is it. Release it already, bitches!
It should be pointed out that the DVDs weren’t released by Paramount until, IIRC, the DVD release of Season 3. The DVDs were originally released by Warner Brothers, as Comedy Central was owned half by Time Warner and half by Viacom. After Viacom purchased Time Warner’s half, the DVDs were released by Paramount.
Their double-dipping is back firing on this DVD customer. I’ve about 450-475 DVD’s in my collection. I’m pretty much stopped buying movies when they first come out because *I know the studio will release the extra special version later - remixed, mastered, audio tracks and extras.
If I really want to see the movie before the second release I might rent it.
Folks, double dipping and releasing special editions later are so common now, you have to expect it. This can hardly be a surprise to you these days. As if you’d ever expect any kind of selflessness from the entertainment industry.
Wait a couple of months then check DVD websites on whether or not they are giving fair warning of the special collections, or just use your judgement on whether they may happen, when that will be, and if you think it’s worth the wait.
What I can’t forgive is slack-ass editing which means I have to sit through or manually speed through the credits every.single.time.
Take Buffy, for example. I buy the entire series. (Do you know how many episodes that is? I don’t either, but it’s a LOT.) Instead of having the chapter finish directly after the credits, however, they have it finish about another minute or two after that - so if you go ‘fwd chapter’ you miss out part of the episode.
WHY DO THEY DO THIS? I already bought the damn disk, it’s not like I’m somehow cheating them if I don’t watch the credits 20,000 times.
It’s not just Buffy. It’s every single TV series I’ve bought, up to and including Futurama. It’s just not good enough!
I’m not sure about the massive “Chosen” collection (all seasons issued in one box), but if you bought each season as it came out on DVD, they stopped doing this during the 2nd season.
By and large, I have avoided this kind of thing. That’s going to be impossible to do, however, when Fox releases the new version of the first Star Wars trilogy, which will have both the uber-deluxe-ultra-mega-Special Edition and the original cut. Granted, this was George Lucas, so I should’ve expected something like this, but it just goes to show the fickleness of people.
I guess they keep doing this because it’s easier and cheaper to do something new with your back catalog than to actually create new entertaining content. Plus, the masses will pay top dollar for a “collector’s edition” piece of plastic, despite the fact that there are millions of them in existence and you can get them at any Wal-Mart. I guess this all helps to illustrate the inflated sense of self-worth many publishers have when it comes to the work they underwrite.
