Some news regarding a few complete TV series forthcoming on DVD on 9/26/2023...Details Below. (1 Viewer)

[rmw650]

Just spotted this news on Bill Hunt's The Digital Bits website in that three TV series will officially be completed and released onto DVD format only on 9/26/2023 and here is that snippet from that article and the series in question...

Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment is releasing Blue Collar TV: The Complete Series, Step by Step: The Complete Series, and Pinky and The Brain: The Complete Series, all on DVD only on 9/26

No cover art to these as of yet but will post when it becomes available, so these can be now added to the completion list of TV series.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Hm.

Blue Collar and Pinky and the Brain are straight repackagings. I wonder if Pinky will include the much loathed Pinky, Elmyra and The Brain season?

Step By Step, IIRC, will be one of the shows that is making its debut on store shelves, with most, if not all, having been Archives releases. So pressed discs for everyone!

Nice that WB is getting stuff out still.

 

[justarandomstan]

Cover art for these is available, but TVShowsOnDVD is now behind a paywall so one can't simply see a hi - res version of them just yet.

Having bought the Martin Complete Series set recently, I'd advise people to stay away from those new complete series sets if possible. They all come in those bulky plastic all in one DVD cases, however the disc holder is NOT attached to the spine of the case in any way. This isn't a singular case with Martin, because I've seen other CS sets released by Warner through the Studio Distribution Services, and they're all presented that way, thus exposing the discs to possible damage during shipping and whatnot.

My Martin set even arrived with a huge crack on its outer spine, but that's because Amazon's packaging nowadays is absolutely atrocious.

For what it's worth, I'll be sticking with the individual releases on both Step By Step and Family Matters (that's also been announced). They look better and their cases are sturdier. Thinking about going that route for Martin as well and selling my complete set to recoup some of my investment along the way.

 

[justarandomstan]

Step By Step, IIRC, will be one of the shows that is making its debut on store shelves, with most, if not all, having been Archives releases. So pressed discs for everyone!

There was a 6 episode collection under the Television Favorites banner released in 2006 but that was about it as far as Step By Step's store shelf presence up until now.

 

[bmasters9]

For what it's worth, I'll be sticking with the individual releases on both Step By Step and Family Matters (that's also been announced). They look better and their cases are sturdier.

They may indeed be that, but there is an issue of subtitles-- the all-in-ones that you seem to be against actually have subtitles, whereas the original MODs don't.

 

[justarandomstan]

Content that was originally released as a MOD would NOT offer subtitles as part of those brand new complete series sets.

The Step By Step complete set (for example) would not offer subtitles, at least per the packaging that's available on Amazon.

The Growing Pains set only offers subs for season 1 & 2 as they were originally released by WHV while the rest of the series was put out by Warner Archive.

The same rules will apply for the Family Matters set that's coming out soon. Season 1 - 4 will have subs, while the rest won't.

They may indeed be that, but there is an issue of subtitles-- the all-in-ones that you seem to be against actually have subtitles, whereas the original MODs don't.

 

[justarandomstan]

Here's the cover art for the Pinky & The Brain set:

 

[bmasters9]

Content that was originally released on MOD would NOT offer subtitles as part of those brand new complete series sets.

The Step By Step complete set (for example) would not offer subtitles, at least per the packaging that's available on Amazon.

The Growing Pains set only offers subs for season 1 & 2 as they were originally released by WHV while the rest of the series was put out by Warner Archive.

The same rules will apply for the Family Matters set that's coming out soon. Season 1 - 4 will have subs, while the rest won't.

View attachment 193679 View attachment 193680 View attachment 193681

--If they are not going to have subtitles (I thought all releases of this kind would; that's what I assumed when I saw the first of that kind [Maverick, I believe it was]), then will these releases otherwise be regular discs, instead of the MODs of before?

--Also, why is Warner Bros. using the CBS condensed complete-series format for these releases?

 

[justarandomstan]

The Maverick complete set has subs on season 1 & 2 since those were originally released by WHV. The rest of the show I believe doesn't (have to check my sets). Those releases will be regular pressed discs, but there would not be any additional content compared to the original sets.

As to your second question, ask Warner. The obvious answer to that question would be that is that it is just cheaper.

 

[bmasters9]

The Maverick complete set has subs on season 1 & 2 since those were originally released by WHV. The rest of the show I believe doesn't (have to check my sets). Those releases will be regular pressed discs, but there would not be any additional content compared to the original sets.

Even so, this is very much an affordable alternative to the expensive MODs that have cost a lot to get (not to say that you're wrong about how much better-made the original MODs are; just saying that those usually cost a lot, and have, as I understand it).

 

[rmw650]

Stan, thanks for supplying the photos to these upcoming releases. Appreciate it greatly!

 

[Robert13]

Curious if the aspect ratio will be corrected on the STEP BY STEP dvds. Some seasons were released in open-matte full screen while others were pillar-boxed. It would seem weird to have certain seasons aspect ratios differ all within the same set.

 

[jcroy]

Hm.

Blue Collar and Pinky and the Brain are straight repackagings. I wonder if Pinky will include the much loathed Pinky, Elmyra and The Brain season?

Step By Step, IIRC, will be one of the shows that is making its debut on store shelves, with most, if not all, having been Archives releases. So pressed discs for everyone!

Nice that WB is getting stuff out still.

Hmmm ..... Interesting that Warner is releasing complete series sets of shows previously released via Warner Archive.


Off the top of my head as a possible wish list, I would pick up Without a Trace and the quinn martin FBI (nine seasons from 1965 to 1974) if Warner decides to release them as complete series sets on the mass market. These two shows' season sets were released by Warner Archive in quick succession around a decade ago or so.

 

[Paintbeanie]

Also note that Family Matters: The Complete Series is listed on Amazon with the same release date as well.

 

[chrislong2]

Curious if the aspect ratio will be corrected on the STEP BY STEP dvds. Some seasons were released in open-matte full screen while others were pillar-boxed. It would seem weird to have certain seasons aspect ratios differ all within the same set.

Yes, that's my question too. Warners screwed up on some of the original season sets. The episodes that were pillar-boxed they did so by actually chopping out the actual 20-25% of the picture. I know because one of the affected episodes is the S3 Christmas Story which was ALSO earlier released correctly on the 6-episode Best Of disc mentioned earlier so you can compare the two. The one on the season set was pillar-boxed and lost a significant amount of the picture as compared to the same episode on that 2006 Best Of disc. I didn't know Warners had it in them to screw up basic things like this, but they did...

 

[jcroy]

Yes, that's my question too. Warners screwed up on some of the original season sets. The episodes that were pillar-boxed they did so by actually chopping out the actual 20-25% of the picture. I know because one of the affected episodes is the S3 Christmas Story which was ALSO earlier released correctly on the 6-episode Best Of disc mentioned earlier so you can compare the two. The one on the season set was pillar-boxed and lost a significant amount of the picture as compared to the same episode on that 2006 Best Of disc. I didn't know Warners had it in them to screw up basic things like this, but they did...

The strangest Warner case I came across where this also happened, was the dvd releases of the pilot episode of Babylon 5.

There was a 2004 dvd release of this B5 pilot in the "TV Premiere DVD" series, which was in a 16:9 widescreen ratio.

See on Amazon


In contrast, the original 4:3 fullscreen version of the pilot is on the B5 movies dvd set.


Comparing these two versions side-by-side, it was obvious the "TV Premiere DVD" widescreen version was a lazy assed cropping of the original 4:3 fullscreen version. Basically 20-25% of the picture chopped out.

 

[Sky King]

Hi guys,

Aside from Maverick, no interest in other titles.

John

 

[Robert13]

Yes, that's my question too. Warners screwed up on some of the original season sets. The episodes that were pillar-boxed they did so by actually chopping out the actual 20-25% of the picture. I know because one of the affected episodes is the S3 Christmas Story which was ALSO earlier released correctly on the 6-episode Best Of disc mentioned earlier so you can compare the two. The one on the season set was pillar-boxed and lost a significant amount of the picture as compared to the same episode on that 2006 Best Of disc. I didn't know Warners had it in them to screw up basic things like this, but they did...

That’s the exact episode where I noticed it as well. All the heads get chopped off and it looks like bad camera work but it’s actually badly cropped.

 

[justarandomstan]

Here's the cover art for the Family Matters set:

 

[justarandomstan]

Well, after a decade of collecting, I finally fell victim to a counterfeit set.

The worst part of it all is the fact that this set (A Family Matters complete set with the individual season releases) was sold and shipped by Amazon itself, and not via a third party seller (at least that's what it said when I made the order). I am always very careful about all of this, because I know there's plenty of scammers out there.

How do I know? I popped a couple of discs from the MOD seasons and a couple of discs from the WHV pressed disc seasons - all 4.35GB. Not a single dual layer disc. Compared the brand new season 1 - 4 discs to the S1-4 ones I'd bought in the past, and well, my originals were all 7+GB per disc.

Also checked my Step By Step MODs, all dual layers at 7+GB a disc.

Be careful out there folks....

Got issued a refund, but the bitter taste in my mouth would be there for a while....