Batman: The Animated Series DVD - Hey, these aren't the first five episodes! (1 Viewer)

[Lanny_B]

I rented the DVD, and these are definitely not from the first season. I was very bothered so I looked up some episode lists online (link). Episode 2 has ROBIN in it, and I know he didn't come for a while (besides that the quality of the series degraded by then). So is there a reason they're in this order? Is this supposedly in the order of the STORY? That's the only thing I can come up with.

All I want is the first couple seasons. Those were the good ones. Looks like that's not going to happen, huh?

Can someone please help me make sense of this?

 

[Dan Rudolph]

What DVD did you rent, accordign to the site you linked to, the first five episodes are On Leather Wings, Christmas with the Joker, Nothing to Fear, The Last Laugh & Pretty Poison. These are the episodes on "The Legend Begins", which is the only DVD released so far in R1, AFAIK.

 

[Lanny_B]

Strange Episode List that makes no sense to me (mixed up seasons):

1. On Leather Wings (aired as #2)
2. Christmas with the Joker (aired as #38)
3. Nothing to Fear (aired as #10)
4. The Last Laugh (aired as #15)
5. Pretty Poison (aired as #9)


The real first five episodes from the first season, in the order they were aired.

1. The Cat and the Claw (I) (9-5-92)
2. On Leather Wings (9-6-92)
3. Heart of Ice (9-7-92)
4. Feat of Clay (I)(9-8-92)
5. Feat of Clay (II) (9-9-92)

So this is clearly not the way the show was aired. The second one is the 38th episode, for crying out loud. So, the big question is, is there a reason for this strange order, where all of a sudden Robin appears, out of the blue, in the second episode, and then disappears again for the rest?

----
edit: Here's the DVD I rented.

 

[Matthew Chmiel]

The episodes on the DVD go in order of which episodes were produced first rather than which ones aired first.

 

[JonZ]

Yea this bothers me too.

Id rather have them by season and order they aired instead of production.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Id rather have them by season and order they aired instead of production.

Season order is pretty much impossible for BM:TAS for reasons that have been explained many times in other threads. I like production order myself, as it allows one to track their progress in terms of animation design and so forth. The only time it gets to be a problem are with two-parters, where the the second part was produced much later than the first part.

 

[Rob T]

The only time it gets to be a problem are with two-parters, where the the second part was produced much later than the first part.

And for that reason, I'd like a creator designed production schedule.
But that surely won't happen now. :frowning:

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Season order is pretty much impossible for BM:TAS for reasons that have been explained many times in other threads. I like production order myself, as it allows one to track their progress in terms of animation design and so forth. The only time it gets to be a problem are with two-parters, where the the second part was produced much later than the first part.

With either strictly Season or Production order, you are going to have two-part episodes that are split up.

Production order is fine with me as long as they stick they put the two-part episodes together, and that the episodes make sense in that order. E.g., All of the episodes pre-Two Face Harvey Dent episodes come before the episodes where he becomes Two Face.

Speaking of which, I read somewhere (I think it was Toonzone) that the last episode on the next DVD will be Two-Face part 1. Hopefully, Two-Face Part 2 will be the first episode on the next disc.

 

[Lanny_B]

Either way, this all sounds like poor, poor judgement on the DVD front. The only thing I'll give WB is that they are putting Batman TAS on DVD at all, and that they are not doing best of sets (that actually, is still worth a big 'thank you'). That said though, five episodes per DVD is such a crappy disappointment. I understand that there are some 65 episodes in the first series before it was changed to Batman and Robin. Still, if they don't want to make that one set, divide it in half with 30 episodes per set, or even into 20 episode parts - but NOT five episodes each with long waits inbetween.

I rented the first disc, as I'll do with the next ones until they all come bundled in a resonably priced collection. Unfortunately, my sales won't do much to show WB that I want Batman on DVD because I won't be buying them. I wish there was something I could do, but I'm not going to waste my money either.

P.S. I love my transformers and Simpsons collections.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

P.S. I love my transformers and Simpsons collections.

Transformers has extra sound effects that aren't supposed to be there, and Season 1 has missing visual effects.

 

[Lanny_B]

Does it? Actually, I do think I noticed some strange effects on Transformers when I put it in surround sound, which is why I turned it off. Still, I'll take that over this Batman ordeal.

I forced myself to watch the second episode on the DVD, the Batman and Robin one, and it was utter crap - completely different from the first episode which was obviously done by a more skilled team.