I don't think it's any great secret to say that I love box sets of television shows on DVD. I probably own more box sets of TV shows than any one person should. You also have to remember I got my DVD player initially so I could collect the single disc, two-episodes per release editions of original
Star Trek. (I'd always wanted to have the original, uncut episodes in one complete set and now I've got it!)
DVD box sets can be interesting. For example, Paramount thinks a LOT of their
Star Trek releases--$125.00 a season. A bit pricey and hence why I don't have the complete run of
TNG and
DS9 yet (I've got a couple of sets, but not all of them utnil the price comes down or I find them used for a reasonable amount). Then, there are other shows that seem to be more economically priced--such as season sets of
24, Buffy, Angel, etc. It's been interesting to watch the evolution of the TV show on DVD box set from the early days when Fox took a chance releasing the entire first season of
The X-Files which included virutally no extras to now in the day where extras are expected as part of the deal.
There are a couple of TV on DVD sets that are the gold standard by which all others are judged. They are:
Futurama, The Simpsons and
Doctor Who.
Doctor Who has been released so far as single stories and not as season box sets which means I will end up investing far too much money purchasing the same stories I've got commerically releases on VHS over again. But, they make it worth it--at least to me. Every story is remastered and restored with the audio cleaned up. There is always a commentary on each story and we get a couple of extras per disc. In short, even stories I don't care for and question--why are they releasing this when others are in the vault screaming to be released (like the upcoming 60s story "
The Web Planet")--I still feel as though it's money well spent and that I will at least enjoy some part of the overall package.
That said,
The Simpsons and
Futurama are season box sets and are great. Every episode has commentary and there are things like animatics, extra scenes, featurettes and such on each set. Of course, the real gem is having the episodes unedited and commercial free, but the extras really do make the box set. I've got all five
Simpsons releases and all four
Futurama ones (basically the complete run of the show).
I say all this to show off the new packaging for the next box set of
The Simpsons, due out in mid-August. I have to admit, I like it, though part of me is concerned about changing the packaging mid-stream like they are here. I wonder how it will all look on my shelf. Also, I have to ask myself--at what point do I stop collecting the season sets? Is there a season where it just starts to go downhill and it's not worth the investment? (Sort of like my thing on
The X-Files--I've got seasons 1-7 and the movie, but am in no hurry to get seasons eight and nine. If they were cheap enough I'd get them just to be a completist...)
Season Six..coming soon!
, each set from now on will be based on a character's head. That could be intersting, esp. the one for Marge. How high will her hair go?
Also of interest--the new
Battlestar Galactica first season hits DVD in late July, about two weeks after the season premiere. Can't wait for that one either!
posted by Michael Hickerson at 6/30/2005 11:58:00 AM |
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