melrose Places - Season 5, Volume #2

Well, as far as I'm concerned, it was not so much the departures of Courtney Thorne-Smith (Alison) and Grant Show (Jake) that made the show lose its appeal, it was definitely killing off both Kimberly (Marcia Cross) and Sydney (Laura Leighton), two of the show's most popular characters and actresses, in barely two months. That's why I think having Leighton sign on to reprise Sydney on the new MELROSE PLACE starting in a couple on weeks on The CW was that show's best casting coup so far. People want to see how she survived her supposedly fatal car accident on the original show and why she let everybody think she had died. Now, if they do manage to get Heather Locklear back as Amanda like rumor has it, more power to them.

Anyway, being a completist at heart, I plan on buying every single MP set they come up with, and I just can't wait to get my hands on this one, although I'm still having trouble understanding why the episodes were not split more evenly between Volume 1 and Volume 2.

I hope, with the sudden popularity of the new MP, that they won't have to split seasons 6 & 7 of the old series in half. I'm NO fan of half-seasons!!! That way it just takes everything twice as long to appear on dvd.   I do think that since MPNu is a fair hit, that the CW will want some MP-related product out there to promote the brand name. Hence--seasons 6 & 7 of MPold on Dvd...and SOON, like, finishing it by the end of 2010.

The first four seasons were shorter than the last three season.
season 5 is 34 episodes
season 6 is 33 episodes
season 7 is 35 episodes

I'm betting on split seasons for 6 & 7 unless Paramount decides to go for a 9 disc boxset

Beverly Hills 90210 never went over 32 episodes a season so doesn't have to worry about going above 8 DVDs.

Actually, you didn't get those numbers right. It's no big deal, but here's the proper build-up of the show, which contains a total of 226 episodes (often mistakenly listed as 227 due to a special "Best of" clip show that aired during season 3 being incorrectly included - it must be noted that this clip show does not appear on the DVD release for Season 3, which proves it shouldn't be considered as an episode) :

Seasons 1-3 each have 32 episodes. Season 4 of MP is the first one that has 34 episodes, considered as 32 for the DVD release because the two two-parters were edited together as double-length episodes, Season 5 has 34 episodes, which again are considered as 32 for the DVD release due to the two-parters being given the same treatment. Now Seasons 6 and 7 are where things are a little more complicated. Due to the big ratings nosedive during Season 6, Fox asked Spelling Entertainment to retool the show with a reduced cast and decided to hold off airing the last 7 episodes produced as part of Season 6, airing them through the summer of 1998 with the umbrella title "Summer of Love", hoping to build buzz for Season 7. Fox has always incorrectly considered these episodes as part of Season 7, which makes absolutely no sense to anyone who ever watched the show. Depending on who you ask, Season 6 has 27 episodes and Season 7 has 35 -  the official version, widely considered as incorrect among the fans - or Season 6 has 34 episodes and Season 7 has 28 - the production calendar version and more logical choice to any MP watcher.

Anyway, as much as I hate to say it, I'm pretty sure they are going to keep going with split seasons, unless dividing up Season 5 was only a marketing ploy to get Marcia Cross fans to make two purchases instead of one, since her last appearance on the show is in Season 5, Vol. 2. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not aware of any show going back to complete season releases after going the split season way.

 just went with the numbers on tv.com 

the first batch of DVDs were on sale at BJs wholesale club for $10 a set.