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West Wing and catching up with current (1 Viewer)

Chris Bardon

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I've noticed that the West wing sets have been coming out every 6 months (which is fantastic!), but I'm wondering what will happen as they start to catch up with what's current. If they keep to their schedule, season 4 will be out in June, followed by the (current?) season 5 in November/December, and season 6 right after it ends in June 2006.

I suppose there's precedent for shows catching up with the current broadcasts (24 comes to mind), but any thoughts as to whether they'll do this with the West Wing?

Given that I haven't watched current episodes since season 1, I'm really happy to be able to finally catch up with these on DVD.
 

Mark Silver

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Seasons will start to come out a little more slowly now. I expect Season 4 to come out a little later than June and you most likely will not see Season 5 until as least January 2006. The reason is that NBC will own the rights to re-broadcast Season 5 episodes up through the first half of next season.

An example of this is CSI: Miami Season 2, which was just released in January once CBS' broadcast rights expired.

Another thing that might hold up future releases is syndication rights. I don't know if Season 5 was included in the BRAVO syndication deal, but I would almost guarantee that Season 6 was not, so assuming BRAVO re-ups the syndication rights, they will get at least one full airing of the seasons before the DVDs are released.
 

Sam Favate

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Actually, the show is in season 6 now (2004-2005), so if season 4 came out in May, and season 5 in Nov., season 6 could arrive in May 2006, just as season 7 is ending. If season 7 is the last, it would come out in Nov. 2006. The show looks to be very different in season 7, with Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda in the cast. IMO, they make great additions, and if anyone can rejuvenate the show, it's these guys. (Still miss Aaron Sorkin though.)
 

Dax P

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The show IS much better now (though Sorkin is still much missed). Bothers me a lot that they had an election in 2002 and are setting up now for another in... 2005 (and changed references from 'we've been here six years' to 'we've been here seven years' within the space of a couple episodes- 6.4 and 6.5) and thought nobody would notice. I know it's for Sheen's contract, and Change Is Good, but... I thought there'd be a 'One Year Later' title card somewhere along the line, but there wasn't...


But it's more important that I'm interested in seeing the show again every week, and not just 'still watching out of loyalty or hoping it'll get better', I suppose. Still.
 

Chris Bardon

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Well, tvshowsondvd is saying April 5 for season 4, which is great news! Looks like they may be catching up faster than previously thought. Maybe we'll see season 5 for Christmas?
 

David Von Pein

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A 6-Disc set for Season Four. This means SINGLE-sided discs, instead of the previously-utilized double-sided platters for the first three seasons. Excellent! :emoji_thumbsup: :)

(This will mean, I imagine, a Digipak case that stretches out for about a mile and three-quarters or so, which isn't really too nice. But, oh well. .... Hey, maybe they've switched from "Digis" to "ThinPaks" too! That'd be nice. :))

http://tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=2805


 

Adam_ME

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It also means the packaging won't be as slim as the previous 3 seasons. I wish these studios would settle on a format and stick with it throughout the series' entire run. The most infamous example of this type of indecision is Alias.

The lone exception is if it's a shortened season(i.e. Buffy Season 1 versus the 6 subsequent seasons).
 

Sam Favate

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Great news! Glad to see the show coming out so soon, and even better that it will be on single-sided discs. For many people, season 4 will be the end of the line in terms of what they'll buy. Season 5 wasn't up to par, but I think season 6 has improved dramatically.
 

Chris Bardon

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I must have just read right past that in the article-I thought that the box looked thicker in the picture...

I never really had a problem with the 2 sided discs, but I'm sure that they caused confusion in some places. I wonder if this was the reason they changed formats, or whether it all of a sudden became cheaper to make twice as many single sided discs?
 

David Von Pein

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Now just WHY do you suppose they are purporting 6 discs with no disc art on them for this obviously-single-sided release? :confused: ......

 

David Lambert

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DavidVP: those "blank DVDs" are part of the standard template for all WB disc art pics. They ALWAYS show them like that at first, and later on they *might* take the trouble to add disc label art to the pic for titles that are big enough to take the time to do it. But I always just shave off the discs part of the pics and just show the box.

This is sometimes true for other studios as well, by the way.
 

WolframM

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If they use the One Tree Hill packaging style, which is also a 6 disc set, the packaging will be almost the same size. It’s a bit like the CSI cases with those small trays.
 

Dax P

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I understand the frustration with format switching, but a jump to six discs over 3 and a half flippers is great news.

I haven't bought WW 1-3 yet, partly because I have so much else to watch, and partly because I had so much trouble with ER 1 and 2 in the two-sided disc format- had to exchange each two or three times to get a glitch-free set (and even then, there's a glitch I didn't discover for a long time on one of the extras to season 1, but it's small and not in an episode, I can live with it...).

REALLY hope ER 3 does the format switch that WW 4 is doing...
 

David Von Pein

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Thanks, Mr. Lambert, for the explanation re. the "blank disc look". Makes sense. Although slightly misleading (at least initially). But, it seems obvious that WB is doing this to JUST show the consumer exactly the NUMBER of discs to expect in a given package -- not necessarily if art will adorn them.

Along those same lines, I find THIS OBVIOUS ERROR somewhat funny, however -- which actually has WB going to the trouble to SHOW the correct number of discs (one), but Amazon (and DDD too, btw) just deciding to disregard the info completely, and show it in text as a "Two-Disc Special Edition". Odd.

There are probably a lot of customers who are today asking: "Where's my second disc?" :)
 

Sanj K

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With the R2 edition already having disc art (and it's very plain - just the WW logo and 'Episodes X-Y' over a blue Seal of the President background), I can't see that it'd be much of a problem for them to put art on these.

I wish they'd confirm what extras are going to be on it, if indeed there actually will be any. A Sorkin commentary on 'Twenty-Five' would be great.
 

Sam Favate

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I am very glad WB will be switching to single-sided discs for Season 4. Although I never had trouble with double-sided discs in the past, West Wing Season 3 has given me trouble on a few sides, as did Universal's Buck Rogers. I definitely prefer single-sided discs, shelf space be damned.
 

David Von Pein

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On the topic of dual-sided discs -- Why in the world, do you suppose, does this WB graphic (below) depict DISC ART on the "Dallas" DVD set? The discs are all double-sided with no art on them.

Major hunk of ----> :confused: re. this weirdness.

(Is there a Region 2 release that's single-sided? But, if so, it would have to include way more than just 5 discs. It'd be 10.)

 

David Lambert

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My guess is that the artist of Dallas S1-S2 wasn't informed that those were flippers, so he designed disc art that wasn't used in the end. The version of the art with the disc label art is what got used because that's what he submitted, and someone at Warner probably approved it without thinking about it very hard.

That's a theory, but as a matter of fact - in this particular case, only - I happen to know somebody who could tell me how close my theory is. I can ask if you really want me to.

In the end, though, it's going to come down to "shit happens". :D


EDIT: P.S., something similar happened with Battlestar Galactica, didn't it? Or some similar release from Universal.
 

Sam Favate

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It was indeed Battlestar (the first series), the advance art for which showed graphics on the discs.
 

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