Jack Briggs
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 1999
- Messages
- 16,805
I don't believe Mr. Staddon said anything about not releasing the rest (or some of the rest) of the series to DVD.
Even if I could afford these sets, I would want to be sure that the remaining seasons were going to be released, and not get stuck with a single season.Just as an aside here, I don't really understand this mentality. I mean, quality product is quality product, right? If you want to buy it, wouldn't you want as much possible. I've heard similar comments about television shows ("It looks like It'll get canceled so why bother watching at all?") and understand that little as well. Please clarify it you could, as I want to understand this phenomena. You're by no means the first person to express it.
On a side note, Dee, you watched over 70 episodes of THE TWILIGHT ZONE in one weekend? Wow! That's a real marathon.Well, it was from Wednesday night to Sunday night, and yes, we watched them all. They are fascinating, beautifully written, timely, and memorable. Very few real clunkers.
It's about 29 hours, 35 minutes for the (first two) sets.
Sorry, this isn't about MTM.
If someone is buying a TV show on DVD, why should the studio not at least give them the option of getting the entire run, even if the person chooses to stop after X number of seasons. At least give consumers the option.Because DVDs cost money!!! It can cost the studios hundreds of thousands of dollars to put together a special editon of a two-hour feature film. Imagine what it costs to put 22 or 24 44 minute episodes on six discs. You expect them to do this for season after season of a show on the chance that people who stopped buying with season 2 will pick up again with season 5? Does GM continue to produce a poorly selling model year after year so that people "have to the option" to buy it? They call it show business for a reason. Fox, Warner Bros., et. al. are not charitable organizations. If they don't sell enough copies of The X-Files season 7 to make a profit, there ain't gonna be an X-Files season 8, and nobody should be surprised or upset if that happens. Especially not if they didn't buy season 7. As Peter Staddon told me two years ago, with reference to that very season, "We'll keep making them as long as you keep buying them." The necessary corrolary to that is, "The minute you stop buying them, we stop making them." The studios are under no obligation to release product at a loss.
Regards,
Joe
Joseph, Jefferson said it perfectly: only owning 1 season of a TV show is like owning only 1 chapter of a book.Except, of course, that a TV series is nothing like a book. At least not like a novel. It is more like a collection of short stories. I wouldn't be thrilled if a publisher issued a leather-bound collector's edition of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and stopped after The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but I wouldn't regret buying the first couple of volumes. Except for the rare series with a continuing story where things really do change, I don't see the resemblance. It isn't like "the story" of Lucy and Ricky is somehow cut off if you only have the first 26 episodes.
I guess it really must be more of a "collector" thing. I've never collected anything, never got the complete set of baseball cards, comic books, Flinstone jelly glasses or anything else. Was never interested. I want the complete Babylon 5 on DVD, but that really is like a novel for television, a story with a beginning, middle and end. That's why I made damned sure I bought the first one. (And argued with many people who said, "I'm gonna wait until they're all out. I don't want to get burned like I did with the tapes.") But if they released the first two or three seasons of a M*A*S*H or The Mary Tyler Moore show and then stopped, I'd still consider myself ahead of the game. But I'd be sad if we never got to Chuckles. ("He died... He died - a broken man.") Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.
Regards,
Joe