Special features (1 Viewer)

[Michael_CPC]

What are the best special features you have seen on a TV DVD?

How do special features effect your choice to buy the DVD?

 

[Andrew Chong]

The things that come to mind are the full animatics with sound and the complete sets of storyboards (plus unexcised cuts and scenes for both) for a few of the Futurama or Simpsons episodes.

I probably wouldn't buy a well-liked series's dvd release if it had zero special features. Special features make me happier to hand over my money for well-liked tv series.

 

[Scott Kimball]

Special features, whether for a TV series or feature film, are very rarely a factor in my decision to purchase a DVD. I want the TV show or film, with excellent video and audio quality. The extras are the icing on the cake.

I have many discs in my collection with unwatched extras.

-Scott

 

[Malcolm R]

I like blooper reels.

Plus inclusion of original pilot episodes, or test/rehearsal footage, if they were re-shot prior to debut or featured different actors than those we came to know and love.

Un-filmed scripts, if they exist.

 

[Matt Stone]

I liked the big behind the scene's doc on 24 Season 2, but my favorite extras on TV sets (or any DVD) are commentaries.

 

[Kyle**S]

I don't care at all about special features, I just care about the shows. As long as they don't remove scenes from the show so they can put on more special features, evrything's cool. I watch most of the special features on my discs, but only because they are there.

 

[MarkHarrison]

Not really a special feature, but my most requested feature on TV sets is to have the next chapter button drop me at the end of the opening credits. I'm shocked how many shows can't seem to get this right (Buffy, Angel, Deep Space Nine, Homicide). Babylon 5 is the only series I've seen so far to nail this one.

As for special features, I also like how Babylon 5 has the previews available for each episode.

 

[Kristian]

Commentaries are what I've enjoyed most on TV-DVD releases. But really, I don't base my decision to purchase a TV-DVD set on the extras. Having countless hours of quality television in convenient packages is enough for me.

 

[MikeAB]

Special features are a major part of my decision in purchases, particularly if I know the show well. 24 is not a show that can be rewatched many times but the great features on the season 2 dvd made the purchase well worth it. I would purchase the Simpsons dvds if they didn't have the commentaries (I own the best ofs) but the commentaries are really what I get the sets for. Also, I'm much more likely to get a movie with features than a bare-bones, but that isn't this forum.

 

[WillG]

The Simpsons and "ER" are two that use this feature. But yes, I am surprised on how many releases don't use this or have any chapter stops at all. Really, how hard is it?

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

I'll be one that also says if I like the show enough I'll buy it sands special features as I've done in the case of shows such as M*A*S*H and a number of shows from Columbia.

The ones I do enjoy though have mainly been commentary tracks such as the ones on Futurama and the Simpsons.

I also like the footage added back in to episodes of Friends, but if the next Simpsons season came out without commentaries I'd still buy it.

 

[Lynda-Marie]

Special features are not what draws me to a particular show or movie. Features I would like are blooper reels, interviews with the stars, composers, directors, special effects crew, etc., all of whom contributed to the movie or TV show I enjoy so much. I am beginning to get a real taste for director's cuts of movies, such as Terminator 2, because these cuts really add something to the movie. I would like to see TV shows with cut scenes put back in, too.

One of the best of the special features of shows in my collection so far is the one on the MASH disks - namely the ability to turn off the friggin' laugh track. The studio INSISTED on having a laugh track on the show, even though the producers, writers, performers, etc. thought it was a bad idea. The studio felt it guided the audience to know where it was appropriate to laugh.

I, like the performers, thought it was stupid, because I can judge for myself - thankyouverymuch!! - what is funny or where it was appropriate to laugh. The laugh track was distracting, and in some cases, it obscured critical portions of dialog delivery. It was always the same collection of canned chuckles and I always found it annoying as hell, even when I was a ten year old kid watching the show.

For the most part, I have tried sitting through extras on some sets, and found them rather insignificant to my enjoyment of the show.

What I like is the show(s) that I love are now available to me at any time I want to see them, and I don't have to sweat that the cable is going to quit on me, or that the TV station has to cut out more and more to make room for advertising.

It also has the advantage that if I thought I missed something, I can "rewind" (reverse?) the scene a bit, and replay it.

The closed captioning has been a mixed blessing, because the captions do not always follow the script exactly. What can be frustrating, however, is when my DVD player [a cheapo that gets wonky from time to time] decides it is going to use captions, [without my clicking on that option for this session] and then uses French, German, Spanish, or Asian language captions.

The alternate language tracks, too, get a little wonky at times. You have not seen funny until you have tried to watch an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, and he is speaking a language you have absolutely no familiarity with, using someone else's voice.

 

[cole_b]

I don't generally care about the special features. there are the occasional exceptions, like the brilliant commentary tracks for Futurama, and I love the DS9 special features, since it's my favorite show.

I tend to just buy shows that I really like, so special features aren't a factor. usually the deciding factor in whether or not I buy something is cost.

 

[RyanAn]

I buy the DVD because I want the show. The bonus features are just a bonus. My personal favorite is commentaries, with behind the scenes docs a close second. I LOVE seeing the voice actors, etc.

Ryan

 

[Bill Williams]

Another set that has it nailed down pretty well is Have Gun, Will Travel S1.

For me, the special features are that little something extra, the icing on the cake itself (the main TV shows). It usually depends on what the show is (Star Trek, Smallville, MASH, etc.).

I like TV spots, but very few sets include the TV promos for their series. Star Trek: TOS has all of its original promos, yet TNG, DS9, and Voyager don't have them on their respective sets. This is a big "huh?" here, because if Paramount's going to include them for one series, they should include them for all of their series, or they shouldn't have them on there to begin with.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

SOPRANOS and X-FILES also have proper chapter stops at the end of opening credits.



I love supplementary materials on my DVDs (as long as they are substantial, and not fluff) but I don't base my buying decisions on the presence or absence of supplements. I buy primarily for the show or movie itself. Extras are just gravy.

 

[Ben Silva]

CSI also has chapter stops after the credits. One feature I really like is when they include the "previously on" and "next on" clips for each episode.

 

[Kyle**S]

The "Previously on...'s" aren't special features, they're part of the shows, and should be on the DVD releases (although they're often deleted).

The next-episode trailers are cool special features, although they rarely seem to be included in sets. I love trailers - though they're almost always better than the movie or show, which is kinda sad. For network TV, FOX and The WB make pretty good trailers, ABC is okay, UPN sucks, and I never watch NBC or CBS.

 

[Linda Thompson]

Not really a special feature, but one thing I absolutely LOVED about the Hercules Season 1 set is the fact that they included all 5 of the Action Pack TV movies, one of which had never before been made available in any form.

One thing I really DON'T like (and I realize I'm probably in a tiny, tiny minority on this one) is Easter eggs. Yes, I love the additional material, but why hide it? I have neither the time nor the patience to sit and try out every conceivable button-press sequence and combo to see if anything scores. I wish they'd just go ahead and list the Easter Egg material as an included feature, make it menu-accessible, and be done with it...

Also...not a special feature, but I wish it would become industry standard for all multi-episode discs to include a PLAY ALL option.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

I don't mind some kinds of Easter Eggs, like the yearbook photos on Futurama, but if somethign would wwork as a regular feature, I wish they wouldn't hide it.