Simpsons DVD's (1 Viewer)

Has anyone heard about the status of the rest of the Simpsons Season's DVD releases? Fox has got to realize that at the rate they're going (1 season per year) some of us may not see the light of day by the time they're all released.

I'd assume season 4 is comming out this summer, although I haven't heard anything official, but I think they need to start churning out at least two seasons a year.

-Bryan

The reason for the delay is the commentary tracks, the current show has priority so the tracks themselves don't get recorded until the winter months. I suspect that as long as the Simpsons is on the air you will see a DVD release every year, and when the Simpsons finally ends it run, you will start to see them come out faster as they will have more time to devote to the commentaries.

Other avenues have been discussed in this forum, about replacing the commentaries with a seasonal overview type deal, or by just recording commentaries for select episodes.

But, the reality is that we've just got to deal with what we're getting, this isn't exactly the thing that Fox wants most either, I'm sure if Fox had it entirely its way they'd get out more than 1 set a year, but with the Simpsons guys wanting commentary on each episode its just not possible.

Casey, quit saying it's the commentary tracks. It's not.

It's all about Gracie Films and their requirement to approve every little thing about the releases. They have 100% approval on it, and it's not just Matt who has to take time to view and approve every second of DVD content...it's Al and others attached to the show.

While they are still busy making new eps, time is at a premium for them and it takes them a long time to get around to it.


Fox would LOVE to release these quite a bit faster...

David, of course I will defer to you on this matter, but I just want it to be known that I didn't make up the commentary story.


Full Interview here

I'm not pointing this out to anyone to argue a point, just to say that I certainly didn't pull the commentary stuff out of thin air. Of course, like I said, Dave would know more about this than I so in the future I will be more in line with his response.

It's the commentary tracks AND the control that Gracie wants to have over the DVDs. When I walked by the Simpsons building on the Fox lot last Oct, I was tempted to go in there and kick some ass, but it was late on a Friday and I think they were all gone :frowning:

Gord

It IS. Matt Groening told me personally at the Comic-Con two years ago. He said FOX just wants to put them out as fast as they can. Matt wants to make them special and put out a quality product.

Not to mention that Matt Groening and a few other writers/producers/directors are also doing the commentary tracks for Futurama. Hopefully once they finish up Futurama, they can focus on the simpsons

Well, if they were all gone, it would've been real easy to kick ass.


Anyway, there was always another reason I brought up the commentary. See for awhile there was a rumor going around, and I even saw it propetuated in a prior thread on this board, that there were (anywhere from 2 to 6) seasons worth of commentary tracks in the can. Anyone that has listened to the season 3 tracks knows that isn't the case, but still I'd hate for anyone to still be left with that notion.

Quality product?!?! Just give us the damn episodes! I don't care about the commentary tracks, and I assume 90% of the people who buys these sets don't care either. Columbia seems to have the best policy. We're getting the second season of Married... with Children allready in March. Sans extras, but I don't care.

OK, you can now kill me for praising CTHV.

Agreed, I'm not wanting to derail this thread from the release date discussion... but commentaries on every episode do very little to bring up the quality. I'd love a complete multi-commentary release with a mini-docu for each episode, but the fact is the extras we are getting are pretty bad, and the commentaries are predicably boring! At best, these have been mediocre releases.

And you translated that to mean commentary tracks specifically? It sounds like Dave said, that Gracie is checking every little detail, and make sure they are special.

-vince

The Futurama commentaries have been finished and recorded for quite some time, which is why the show is coming out so fast in the USA. The commentaries were originally recorded for the Region Two release, which were released years ago. All the commentaries up to season three (I believe) of Futurama were recorded before Futurama had been cancelled.

and also just to reenforce what I said earlier about them recording commentaries in the winter months I Direct You to This article from last year's USA Today Its actually a pretty interesting piece overall.

I trust what Gord and David said, but the fact is that while Gracie might want final say over everything, these commentaries don't speed up the process any. So I don't want anyone to think that I'm doing this to go "ha ha David I was right," because I have no doubt that what David said is true. Think of it merely as I'm siting my sources and that's all. But Gord and David have access to sources I don't which is why I trust them.

I'm torn on the commentaries, I like them, I enjoy them, and I get multiple listens out of most of them. Yet, could I live without them, absolutely. Do I think that there are other ways to do basically the same thing, probably, but I can live with the sets as they are. I think the real problem is that this is a very long running show, if this were only a six or 7 year series than 1 a year wouldn't be so bad of a deal, but when its more than double that is when people are really groaning. I mean, I don't blame them, I don't want to be 38 when season 16 hits DVD (I'm 23 now) but honestly I don't think I will because I'm still pretty sure that things will get sped up once the series run is over. I don't know if that will be after season 16 or not, we'll just have to see what Fox does with that.

I enjoy the Simpsons i have, never listened to the audio commentary on any of them. I have to say that the VIDEO of the first 2 seasons sure doesnt blow me away. I know they are "older" episodes, but you would think that with a year between each release they would look better than they do. Case and point, my remastered Robotech i got today looks great! And that show is older than the Simpsons.

I don't mind that they're taking their time on the commentary tracks because I listen to each and every one of them. The commentary tracks (IMO) are some of the most enjoyable commentary tracks in DVD history. No doubt that I would love for them to release the DVD's much much faster, but not at the cost of quality. And these box sets have been high quality.

I agree 100%. Well... releasing them a little bit faster would definitely be nice though.

I agree too. The commentary tracks are the ONLY reason I buy the DVDs. I have EVERY single episode on tape and have seen them each many, many times. For me to pick up the DVDs, I NEED something more.

Okay, Casey. You were right. I was wrong. My humblest apologies, sir. :b

Whatever the reason may be, speeding up the Simpsons DVD release schedule would be very much appreciated by fans everywhere. If they can release SEVEN Star Trek seasons a year, surely we can see TWO Simpsons seasons a year!

David, no need to apologize. Besides, I learn more from you and your posts, and the stuff you and Gord do for TVShowsOnDVD.com than you could ever possibly know.

This is just an observation about these Simpsons threads in general, but I want to say it. To some extent I wish I had never mentioned the commentary tracks, because everytime they're brought up in a Simpsons thread, they start this cycle of thoughts. The one that basically dominates this thread, whether or not they should keep doing the commentaries, what to replace them with, how to do it differently, whether or not people listen to them or enjoy them. This sort of mirrors a Simpsons thread from just a couple weeks ago, and not that its bad to discuss this sort of thing but eventually you get to the point where everything that can be said has been said, kind of like on the MTM Season 2 discussions. So, if/when in 3 months this question comes up, I won't be the person to mention the commentaries, someone else can start that cycle.