Time/Life Press Release: The Carol Burnett Show: The Ultimate Collection (1 Viewer)

Ronald Epstein · Jun 4, 2012

[FONT=arial said:
THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW: THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION [/FONT]]

Tory · Jun 4, 2012

For that price it should be the whole series, certainly more than just 50 best of's. I'm really disappointed.

JohnMor · Jun 4, 2012

Originally Posted by Tory /t/321236/time-life-press-release-the-carol-burnett-show-the-ultimate-collection#post_3934363
For that price it should be the whole series, certainly more than just 50 best of's. I'm really disappointed.

Well, to each his own. For $9.09 a disc, or $3.99 per uncut hour-long episode, NOT even counting all the bonus material, I think it's extremely well-priced. I actually expected this to be a bit more. Very happy. My pre-order is in!

JoeDoakes · Jun 4, 2012

It would be great to have a detailed disk contents list. I still would like a parodies only set.

Garysb · Jun 4, 2012

Tory said:
For that price it should be the whole series, certainly more than just 50 best of's. I'm really disappointed.

Music rights are expensive. I wonder if the Garry Moore Shows will be complete or just feature Carol.
Time Life has had coupons for discounts up to 20% or 25% off in the past. Hopefully they will again.

AndyMcKinney · Jun 5, 2012

Tory said:
For that price it should be the whole series, certainly more than just 50 best of's. I'm really disappointed.

No idea if you're familiar with past Time-Life sets, but if you are, you'd know that all their big "gift" sets (like Six Million Dollar Man last year) have almost always been at the $200 price point, or higher, so it's not unexpected. As others said, I figured it'd be more (around $250 or so). You can bet there'll be plenty of TV advertising before Christmas on this one.
As desirable as this set sounds, I certainly won't be looking at it seriously until I find out how many of the 50 episodes are overlapped with the previous 31-volume Columbia House collection. If there's only some overlap, I'll probably get it. If there's a lot of overlap (say, half the episodes or more), then I certainly won't be buying unless it ends up at the sort of clearance-level prices that some of T-L's sets get to once they've been out a long time.
I'm a bit surprised that they are including some sketches from seasons 1-5. Guess we should be thankful they were at least able to licence those for use, if complete "early" shows were out of the picture. If this set sells well enough, then maybe we can hold out hope for some sort of "early years" follow-up release out in the future.

derosa · Jun 5, 2012

AndyMcKinney said:
No idea if you're familiar with past Time-Life sets, but if you are, you'd know that all their big "gift" sets (like Six Million Dollar Man last year) have almost always been at the $200 price point, or higher, so it's not unexpected. As others said, I figured it'd be more (around $250 or so)

Well, the SM$M set is complete. And it's 100 episodes, plus the movies and lots of bonus material.
I think $200 is in the high range, mostly because I think fans either want a less expensive set
(perhaps with 40 episodes for $100) or they'd pay more for everything. These high priced
incomplete sets seem to run counter to the logic expressed by fans on this site everyday.

Garysb · Jun 5, 2012

I am sure if they did something like the syndicated Carol and Friends which was just the non musical sketches they could release a set with many more episodes. People just don't like or want to accept that it cost a lot to include musical performances which is one of the reasons why variety shows from the 50's and 60's were rarely if ever syndicated. If you want the complete shows you have to pay for it. On these boards it has come up many times would you pay more for shows without music replacements? People say yes I want it as originally broadcast until they see the cost. With a variety show its not just the cost of the music rights, its also payments to musicians, dancers, and all the behind the scenes people. Some of these shows are 40 years old. Hopefully the musical performances and the musical sketches hold up. On a related topic I would love to see a DVD release of the Fred Astaire TV specials from the 50's and early 60's. They were restore and shown on the Disney Channel back in the day. It is a shame they were never released on DVD.
Remember there are also going to be smaller sets of the Carol Burnett show sold at retail including Amazon. A single disc, a two disc, and a six disk set. The single disk will have 3 complete shows with a $12.99 list price. They were listed on Amazon but then taken down per TVshowonDVD. I don't think it has been said but I would guess the smaller sets will include material from the Ultimate set . Kind of the best of the best.
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Carol-Burnett-DVD-Update/17002

Brian Himes · Jun 5, 2012

AndyMcKinney said:
As desirable as this set sounds, I certainly won't be looking at it seriously until I find out how many of the 50 episodes are overlapped with the previous 31-volume Columbia House collection. If there's only some overlap, I'll probably get it. If there's a lot of overlap (say, half the episodes or more), then I certainly won't be buying unless it ends up at the sort of clearance-level prices that some of T-L's sets get to once they've been out a long time.

This is how I feel too. I have the 31 Columbia House DVDs so I need to see a list of episodes for this new set before I buy it.

derosa · Jun 5, 2012

Garysb said:
If you want the complete shows you have to pay for it. On these boards it has come up many times would you pay more for shows without music replacements? People say yes I want it as originally broadcast until they see the cost.
Remember there are also going to be smaller sets of the Carol Burnett show sold at retail including Amazon. A single disc, a two disc, and a six disk set. The single disk will have 3 complete shows with a $12.99 list price. They were listed on Amazon but then taken down per TVshowonDVD. I don't think it has been said but I would guess the smaller sets will include material from the Ultimate set . Kind of the best of the best.
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Carol-Burnett-DVD-Update/17002

For me personally, I still might not buy the 50 episode set not because of the price,
but because of the fact it's episodes not of my choosing. I would much rather pay
more money for a multi volume set that would eventually complete the series.
I'd rather be buying episodes that are working towards owning all of them, than
buying another random set every few years as the rights change. If i'm going to
invest more than a few dollars in a series, I just want to know I'm buying the
definitive set. That's the key word for me, and why I jumped on SM$M
and other sets like that, that I won't ever replace, and won't ever be 'improved'.

AndyMcKinney · Jun 5, 2012

derosa said:
Well, the SM$M set is complete. And it's 100 episodes, plus the movies and lots of bonus material.
I think $200 is in the high range, mostly because I think fans either want a less expensive set
(perhaps with 40 episodes for $100) or they'd pay more for everything. These high priced
incomplete sets seem to run counter to the logic expressed by fans on this site everyday.

Well, a complete set of Carol Burnett Shows would be far more than 100 episodes, though (278, to be exact). Add to that fact that complete episodes from seasons 1-5 cannot be cleared at the moment (or certainly, not as easily/cheaply as the later ones) and the already mentioned facts of music royalties/payments that have to be paid (which is not the case on shows like $6mil), then Time-Life are doing the best they can with the options before them.
I don't think too many people on here would have the spare cash to spend on even a set of the complete seasons 6-11 (144 episodes), as that would probably cost $500-600. I think T-L have (wisely) decided to keep the price point from getting too high. I'm sure they want to keep it at a level where more people would be tempted to buy or give as a gift. I'm also sure more people would rather spend, say, $199 on three separate sets spaced out over the course of three years than be faced with an up-front cost of up to $600 all at once.
I doubt their core audience is "money is no object collectors", though I'm sure they're aware of collectors' concerns (which is probably why they opted for a "complete episodes with music intact" rather than an "and Friends" set of the syndicated sketches-only episodes.
Maybe there'll be a follow-up if this is successful enough. Even without the first five seasons, there's enough episodes for three big mega sets.

darkrock17 · Jun 5, 2012

AndyMcKinney said:
Maybe there'll be a follow-up if this is successful enough. Even without the first five seasons, there's enough episodes for three big mega sets.

No doubt that this will be successful, everyone loves Carol Burnett. With that said, Time Life would be a fool not to release more as well as taking over the rest of Mama's Family, maybe then we will finally see the show as it was meant to be seen, complete and uncut.

Carabimero · Jun 5, 2012

I am going to wait a year or two and try and get this on sale. If it was complete, I'd break the bank, but as is, I'll wait for a sale and then be happy to have it.

Albert71292 · Jun 6, 2012

I'm going to order this. All I have in my collection is 15 of the Columbia House VHS tapes, which I ordered before the CH DVD version was released. There will be some repeat episodes I'm sure, but the DVD set picture quality will be a HUGE improvement over what I have now!

Traveling Matt · Jun 6, 2012

It's a shame it isn't the complete series, but early kudos to Time-Life for what appears to be an appropriately-packaged set. This is how sensible all large sets should be when it comes to striking a balance between economy and disc protection.

Ben Phillips · Jun 6, 2012

JoeDoakes said:
It would be great to have a detailed disk contents list.

I agree. For $200, it doesn't seem like too much to ask to know which fifty episodes we're getting.

AndyMcKinney said:
Maybe there'll be a follow-up if this is successful enough.

I certainly hope so, although the marketing angle that this set has been assembled to include all of Carol's favorite material might make it a bit tricky. ("The Carol Burnett Show Ultimate Collection 2: Fifty Episodes Carol Liked Less Than the Last Fifty"?)
Don't get me wrong, I would love to see a second "ultimate" release, I hope there is one, and there will certainly be enough excellent material left to make one happen. It just doesn't seem like it's something they're necessarily planning on.

AndyMcKinney · Jun 6, 2012

Ben Phillips said:
I agree. For $200, it doesn't seem like too much to ask to know which fifty episodes we're getting.

Hopefully, they'll put those details out closer to release. If not, I guess we'll have to wait for the reviews.

I certainly hope so, although the marketing angle that this set has been assembled to include all of Carol's favorite material might make it a bit tricky. ("The Carol Burnett Show Ultimate Collection 2: Fifty Episodes Carol Liked Less Than the Last Fifty"?)
Don't get me wrong, I would love to see a second "ultimate" release, I hope there is one, and there will certainly be enough excellent material left to make one happen. It just doesn't seem like it's something they're necessarily planning on.

If it's very successful, I could see them releasing something. If not another "mega" set, perhaps some smaller-sized "themed" sets, like what's being released at retail?

TonyD · Jun 7, 2012

Doesthat release mention anything about full and unedited episodes in this set?

KPmusmag · Jun 10, 2012

Here is link for a DVD set of Carol Burnett specials, including Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall. Has anyone heard of this DVD company? Hopefully this will be a legit quality release...
http://www.amazon.com/Carol-Burnett-Prime-Specials-Collection/dp/B008817XAS/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339277198&sr=8-1-spell

Ronald Epstein · Jun 29, 2012

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