Simpsons shorts from Tracey Ullman

Cafe Society
#1

I’m looking over my Simpsons Season 2 DVD set, and I’m astounded that it does not include a single Tracey Ullman Simpson short as an “extra.” It was also pretty surprising, in retrospect, that only one of those was included in the Season 1 DVD set as well. I’d think that these were naturals for inclusion as extras on Simpsons DVDs, and, as there are almost fifty of them, they’d have to include at least three or four per season set to release them all.

Does anyone know why Fox is so loath to do such a thing? Are the rights to the shorts not owned by Fox, and therefore expensive to include? Is there any indication that Fox intends on possibly releasing a DVD of just the shorts at some later time?

After all, what would make more sense to include in a Simpsons DVD set than those?

#2

There’s some bad blood between Fox and Tracey Ullman over the Simpsons shorts. With Tracey having sued (and lost) for some of the royalties, it could be that Fox is holding out, to see how things go on the legal front before releasing them. It’s a shame too, as I’d love to have 'em.

#3

Yeah, that was my thoughts too. The only ones we will probably see on the Simpson’s complete season DVDs are the one or two that appeared in that one clip show hosted by Troy McClure.

Luckily “The Tracey Ullman Show” was pretty entertaining and since the Simpsons were only in it for 3 seasons you’d only have to buy the (looking it up) 56 episodes that comprise those 3 seasons when they come out on DVD. And certainly one would assume they would sooner or later since they are not rerun on any channel around my parts and would seem to have quite an amount of demand due to the Simpson shorts. Although as of yet no news whatsoever on any potential release of it on DVD has made it to press.

#4

Ah, I wasn’t aware that there were lawsuits involved.

Thanks.

Chaim Mattis Keller

#5

Yes, there are legal problems involved. They said they were lucky to get Good Night onto Season 1.

#6

I wonder how they were able to use them on the video box sets, then. Did the lawsuit get filed after the video box sets were released? Each box set has a short in between the episodes, so 2 on each set, I think. At least all the box sets I own / have seen have them. I also wondered why they were not included on the dvd’s.

#7

The lawsuit was roughly about a year after The Tracey Ullman show went off the air, perhaps just before.

#8

I’m bumping an old thread I came across since it poses the same question that I have, where to find the Ullman shorts on DVD. It seems that the season one DVD box with the black cat included in the cover art has all 48 Ullman shorts.

Can anyone verify this?
http://www.familyvideo.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=229919

#9

Nope, the only short it contains is the first one (“Good Night”). None of the other shorts have been officially released anywhere.

#10

The top review on the Amazon page for the Season One box set claims that the box includes all of the shorts. The review, however, is dated July 2, 2001, almost three months before the set was actually released. There are a number of angry responses to this “review,” one pointing out that it’s really press release info.

#11

Being that this is a zombie and all I’d like to point out that, for better or worse, they are all over YouTube…

#12

a good quality release would be nice. i’ve had crappy copies (like those YouTubes) for a while now (downloaded as a VCD many years ago!), but would love to see the originals/remastered versions.

#13

A standalone release could be issued as Eat My Shorts!