Hades froze over......Wonder Years! (1 Viewer)

[David Lambert]

The press release is up...

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Wonder-Years-The-Complete-Series/20053


...and it's $249.95 for The Complete Series (26 DVDs, packed with on-disc bonus material, in collectible "locker" packaging). An extra fifty dollars gets you "The Wonder Years Experience" with a Kennedy High gym bag filled with t-shirt, tube socks, school pennant and more. Or the above-mentioned price of five Benjamins for the "Signature Edition" with the main DVD set, the Experience gym bag full o' stuff, and hand-autographed yearbook by Fred, Danica and other cast members.Don't forget that TimeLife.com is not only the only place that you can order this item, but also the only place that would ever let you break it down into 5 easy payments using their installment plan. Can you afford $50 a month for five months? I can. Free shipping, too.This is less than $9.62 per disc for 26 DVDs, each with about 4 hours of content...cheaper than a $10 theatrical film on a DVD with 1.5 to 2 hours of movie!!

 

[David Lambert]

Exclusive info from your friends at TVShowsOnDVD.com: Time Life informs us, "We're working on a music-focused press release now that will list all the songs cleared. We've said that over 95% of the songs are cleared; I actually think the number is higher but we're doing a final count now. And I can confirm that all the episode masters are broadcast, NOT syndication versions."

 

[David Lambert]

By the way, these are also closed captioned.

 

[jimmyjet]

hi david,

thanks for the great info. do you work at tv shows on dvd ?

 

[cafink]

I've been following this release pretty closely but this is the first time I've heard Shout put a number on the music clearance. I know they've set the bar pretty high by focusing on the music as a large part of their advertising campaign, but 95% or higher is simply incredible. I never thought The Wonder Years would be released on DVD at all, let alone with so much of its original music intact.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Dave Lambert...as I live and breathe...

 

[Radioman970]

...
Don't forget that TimeLife.com is not only the only place that you can order this item, but also the only place that would ever let you break it down into 5 easy payments using their installment plan. Can you afford $50 a month for five months? I can. Free shipping, too.This is less than $9.62 per disc for 26 DVDs, each with about 4 hours of content...cheaper than a $10 theatrical film on a DVD with 1.5 to 2 hours of movie!!

Armed with this information, how do I stop myself from buying? It shouldn't be about whether to or not... which version to get! The Experience version is only a few dollars more a disc.

Aw man, help me... I still don't have Six Million Dollar man for this reason. I need to buy both these shows (Bionic Woman too) i one pop and get it over with. 3 Holy Grails I don't have yet.

 

[JoeDoakes]

The press release is up...

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Wonder-Years-The-Complete-Series/20053


...and it's $249.95 for The Complete Series (26 DVDs, packed with on-disc bonus material, in collectible "locker" packaging). An extra fifty dollars gets you "The Wonder Years Experience" with a Kennedy High gym bag filled with t-shirt, tube socks, school pennant and more. Or the above-mentioned price of five Benjamins for the "Signature Edition" with the main DVD set, the Experience gym bag full o' stuff, and hand-autographed yearbook by Fred, Danica and other cast members.Don't forget that TimeLife.com is not only the only place that you can order this item, but also the only place that would ever let you break it down into 5 easy payments using their installment plan. Can you afford $50 a month for five months? I can. Free shipping, too.This is less than $9.62 per disc for 26 DVDs, each with about 4 hours of content...cheaper than a $10 theatrical film on a DVD with 1.5 to 2 hours of movie!!

One would think that for all of that money, they could include some real DVD cases.

 

[Ockeghem]

Joe,I am really hoping that this series is released in another packaging (with cases) down the road. I want very much to own this series, but I can't support (or purchase) the packaging at present. By the way, I think that if people love the packaging as it now stands, that's great. Some do like this kind of thing, which is fine for them.

 

[BobO'Link]

Armed with this information, how do I stop myself from buying? It shouldn't be about whether to or not... which version to get! The Experience version is only a few dollars more a disc.

Aw man, help me... I still don't have Six Million Dollar man for this reason. I need to buy both these shows (Bionic Woman too) i one pop and get it over with. 3 Holy Grails I don't have yet.

It's easy. No matter how you spin the numbers it's *still* $250+ (depending on version) for the series and has horrible packaging. That's a bit much for me to justify, especially with over 100 seasons of other TV content unwatched. My "normal" $$ maximum is roughly $1 per half-hour so with 115 episodes my max is going to be around $125-$150 *if* they put it in standard cases. Of course if it *is* truly complete I'll go a bit higher but not much. Don't get me wrong as I *do* want this series, just not at the current price with the current packaging. Once it gets a "wide" release and/or dumps the special packaging I'll look again. Until then, I've waited this long, I can wait a bit longer.

 

[smithbrad]

I was on the fence at $200, but the packaging is a complete downer for me. I can't risk that much money on something with packaging I can't use and would want to replace, as well as the possibility of damaged disks. I will wait and see if this shows up eventually at Costco. While it took time for the individual seasons of China Beach to end up at Costco as individual seasons, in the end you could get the entire series for less than 50% of the original TL price. I believe the same could be said for Carol Burnett, but I'm not sure if all extra's are being made available at Costco.

In any case, I can wait. Who knows, maybe with the fancy packaging they will feel obligated to release in more standard cases to Costco so they can spread out the season releases over time. You would think they would learn by now that some just don't like over-sized packaging or disks in sleeves. If they had to go the "locker" approach they could have at least slipped in standard cases for the rest of us.

 

[Gary OS]

I had the exact same number in my head that Brad did - $200. And that was a very, very high end number. I'll be waiting it out for a while.


Gary "hopefully we'll see a decrease down the road" O.

 

[albert_m2]

The $250 price doesn't bother because I know the real purchase price will be lower and paying more for a show that had to go through the music thing... well I can understand, but I have no desire for that akward box and will wait for news of a standard issue set.

 

[cafink]

The price doesn't bother me in the least, especially given the music licensing issues. But like others, I really don't like that packaging and will probably wait to see what kind of more traditional packaging option becomes available.

 

[jimmyjet]

i doubt if one will need to wait long.

that is easily recognized as a collector purchase - for the guy who wants to display it on his mantle

 

[David Weicker]

The $250 price doesn't bother because I know the real purchase price will be lower and paying more for a show that had to go through the music thing... well I can understand, but I have no desire for that akward box and will wait for news of a standard issue set.

Both the plain and deluxe sets for China Beach came out together (at different price points $199, $274) in April 2013....The retail versions came out later in the year (S1 Oct '13, S2 Jan '14, S3 May '14, and S4 is scheduled for Sept '14). They are missing two bonus discs from the full sets. I will be getting all four seasons for under $83

Assuming they follow a similar release strategy, we should start to see single seasons next spring. And the total when completed will be about half the price (six seasons vs. four seasons - assuming you shop wisely)

 

[albert_m2]

If they do release season sets, it would make sense that S1&2 are sold together for the price of a standard season.

 

[phenri]

If I get this at all, I will wait until the season sets come out. That is what I did with Six Million Dollar Man, and I spent a fraction of what the complete set costs.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I had the exact same number in my head that Brad did - $200. And that was a very, very high end number. I'll be waiting it out for a while.


Gary "hopefully we'll see a decrease down the road" O.

$200 was also the number I saw. But I'm not going to complain about $250, because music rights. Mama's Family was $200 for 6 seasons, IIRC, and not nearly as music heavy.

 

[smithbrad]

So a question, has there been another TL release with non-standard packaging (i.e., not using standard cases) that was released later with standard cases? China Beach was already in standard cases so it was just a matter of releasing the seasons individually without the box. As was Six Million Dollar Man, Get Smart, Dean Martin Roasts, Carol Burnett, and Mama's Family (I believe all were packaged this way originally). Even Man From UNCLE could fit on shelves like standard cases. Land of the Giants from what I have read had issues.

I'm just wondering the precedence for TL re-releasing in completely different packaging down the road, or is it more likely we will just have to deal with this packaging but just hope for better deals later on.