Complete Series Photos! (1 Viewer)

[Ethan Riley]

I thought I'd do a thread where we can share our complete series collections. We talk about wishlists, we talk about individual season releases but sort of forget it once the show has gotten all their seasons released. Sometimes the assembled season dvds look great, year after year, sometimes they change the box format or the series logo or something else and the show ends up looking--off. First, here is an example of excellence:

Once Upon a Time

ABC/Disney knocked it out of the park with the aesthetics of these releases. The slipcovers look good, the art was good, the quality was top-notch. The whole seven seasons look great together on a shelf.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Dynasty is another series that more or less kept its consistency, and it was released over many, many years. All the seasons got standard-sized keepcase covers. Season 2 actually fit into a single case, while seasons 3-9 were all released as half-seasons. The season 1 pictured here was released by Paramount a good 15 years after its initial Fox release, which added a slipcover. I show these with the Reunion mini-series. This was a Region 4 release. Also along for the ride is the Colbys, which was a beautiful set from Shout.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Scandal had an interesting release history. The seasons were coming out with nice, consistent slipcovers. Then sales dropped and season 6 was cancelled. Then fans were writing to Disney to complain and Disney, just this once, put it out as a two-pack with season 7 (at a hefty price) and called it a day. However, this knocked out the consistency of the 7 seasons with that big fat finale there...

...but I found by removing ALL the slipcovers you get a very nice keepcase set like this:

 

[Ethan Riley]

Desperate Housewives: this one really didn't win me over with its aesthetics. The first four season came out in these big, fat whale editions for some reason. They had some sort of clear plastic coating over the boxed set. I have no idea what it's ever for. Just makes it harder to get to the dvds. They had subtitles like "The Dirty Laundry Edition," as if there was ever another edition. The fifth season dropped the plastic stuff, but it was still fat. Then suddenly, seasons 6-8 went to Jenny Craig, I don't know. They got skinny now, and not nearly as fancy.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Melrose Place. This is another one that didn't sell that well on dvd, but enough fans wanted it that they kept putting it out anyway. The first three seasons got big hefty packs, but it made sense unlike Desperate Housewives, because Melrose would do 30+ episodes a year in its heyday. Then, I guess because it's cheaper, season 4 came out in a keepcase. Then seasons 5-7 trickled out as half-season releases. No worries--they were still quality releases, but they sure look funny altogether. The short little blu-ray there is the 2009 reunion series. That release had quite a history, too. It was offered as a dvd MOD on amazon.com...for about five minutes. It sold out way too quickly and they kept saying, oh, when we get enough orders we'll print more. But they didn't. Then many, many years went by and suddenly it was offered as a blu-ray MOD. I thought it was a joke, but I ordered it anyway, the day it was announced. Then I waited forever and the thing shipped to me. Now it's out of print again.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Three's Company. One of the best things ever to come out of Anchor Bay. Season 1 was a very simple keepcase because it's only 6 episodes, while the rest were jewel cases. Still nice-looking and colorful on the shelf.

 

[Ethan Riley]

And now a shelving disaster! This is my collection of Downton Abbey. I was late to the game and didn't start watching it until the 4th season was already out. I found that season 1-3 pack at Best Buy on sale for about $25 so I snapped it up, loved it and then went to get season 4. Didn't know that I was too late to get season 4 with its slipcover, the studio had already dropped it by that point. Season 5 and 6 of course look great with their slipcovers. Then you get the first movie. I don't know why I had to buy it, but I got that big fat "Special Edition" monstrosity as you see below. Downton Abbey is actually infamous for multiple releases of the same material, over and over, and they do love their "Box O'Junk" editions. For the new movie, I wisely settled on a nice slim 4k with slipcover.

 

[Ethan Riley]

A complete collection of Shameless is going to have its issues. The first 7 seasons came out on blu with a box. Then the box was dropped for seasons 8-9 because Warners went to MOD-only and it was cheaper. Then they went even cheaper and stopped issuing them on blu for the last 2 seasons, but they got the boxes back?? That and the fact that a couple of the seasons changed the series logo just for fun makes for some weird shelving consistency.

 

[Ethan Riley]

The Originals suffered a similar fate at the hands of Warner's MOD program. First of all, season 1 blu is so big and fat because they issued it along with dvd copies. Then season 2 looks great. Then season 3 because a MOD and they dropped the box and for some reason added a "Season 3" banner even though it already says third season elsewhere on the spine. Then in season 4 the banner is dropped. Then in season 5 the blu-ray is dropped. Originals complete collection takes the cake because every single season looks different.

 

[Ethan Riley]

The Gilmore Girls looks just great on a shelf. They are pictured here with their Netflix mini-series reunion.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Glee started out okay, but they lost their slipcovers by season 3 and lost their blu-ray releases by season 5. Still, the quality is there, although I think this series has the loudest spines of anything in my collection.

 

[David Weicker]

I’m all about consistency. I make custom covers (or just the spines) so that series look nice on my shelves. And I feel that slipcovers are a waste - they get removed immediately.

Worst series packaging - the German Blu releases of Dark Matter (and yes, S2 is a digipack)

Spoiler

Here is my Complete Series TV collection

Spoiler: TV Shelf

 

[Ethan Riley]

Little House on the Prairie was a good release--one of the most dramatically improved series when you compare the old dvds to these blu-rays. The dvds were floating around for years and they are just awful. Lionsgate had some restorations to work with. The series sold pretty well at first but sales dipped and there was a struggle wondering whether it would be finished on blu. They finally decided on MODs for the last three seasons, and they dropped the slipcovers to save money.

 

[bmasters9]

My copy of the condensed all-in-one of Emergency! (this is the version that's not very popular with some, with the discs stacked atop each other in those mini-spindles)...

 

[Dave Moritz]

Compete box set of new and old Battlestar Galactica and Space 1999.

Compete box set of the original Star Trek series and Star Trek Next Generation.

 

[tsodcollector]

i got complete series of perfect strangers seasons 1&2 from warner sadly it's gone out of print,and also seasons 3-8 on tsod
for warner archive.i'm getting close to complete head of the class ,i've got head of the class seasons 1-4 getting close to season 5,and then it's been completing my hotc tsod collection.

 

[bmasters9]

My copy of The Untouchables all-in-one...

 

[TV_Fan]

Love my Gimme A Break Complete Series put out by VEI and now out of print. Not only is the box aesthetically pleasing but the cases are pretty sturdy. After VEI stopped putting out the season sets the complete series was the only way to get the series.

 

[Gordiac]

There's no way I could share mine one by one, so...

 

[bmasters9]

There's no way I could share mine one by one, so...

View attachment 147102

Plenty of great entertainment in all that, IMO.