South Park, email to Comedy Central (1 Viewer)

[DaViD Boulet]

sent to [email protected] (the only contact info I could find on their website)
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Dear Comedy Central,
I’m a South Park fan. And like every other S.P. fan I’ve spoken to, I want my South Park episodes released in chronological order on DVD so I can buy them all and enjoy watching them in the order they were originally shown on television. We do not want “best of” or “theme” compilations!
South Park fans like myself have petitioned Warner about this issue time and time again. The last time representatives from Warner participated in a live chat with the hometheaterforum.com group they indicated that the choice to release S.P. episodes as compilation DVDs was not theirs, but one that came from Comedy Central.
So please, decision makers at Comedy Central, give the die-hard South Park fans the DVD collection they want—give them every episode on DVD in order of original release. If you don’t, we’ll be forced to buy region-free DVD players and purchase the R2 PAL discs to complete our collections.
Ever Hopeful,
David Boulet

 

[Daniel L]

David,
I e-mailed the guys at the official South Park web site to ask them who's responsible (pointing out R2 releases). Their response blame this whole mess squarely on Warner. It was a sly remake about Warenr only controlling the R1 releases.
Daniel L

 

[Julian Lalor]

I think the blame for this does rest with Warners. Comedy Central had no problem with the first 2 series being released on DVD through Rhino. As soon as Warners took over, out come the "themed" discs, a la "Friends".

 

[Blu]

Warner strikes again!

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Just giving Warner the benefit of the doubt that they weren't blatantly lying to us when they said "it's not our decision...it's comedy central's".
might as well hit this from both sides. The worst that can happen is that C.C. writes back and says that it's Warner's decision...and then we can go back to Warner again to try to get this cleared up.
-dave
p.s. why don't some of you shoot an email to Comedy Central at the address provided above just to push the tide a little.

 

[John_McKittrick]

Did any of you buy these disks today?? If so how much were they?
John

 

[Brett Hancock]

I agree. Themed discs need to stop. The real reason I am signing this is so that everybody can sign the petition that I have. The link is in my sig. thanks
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Sorry about the previous Sig.
"Hell hath no fury like a womens scorn for sega."-Brodie Bruce
South Park season-by-season Again on DVD.
Beavis and Butthead on DVD
Family Guy on DVD

 

[Dave F]

Warner lied?! Gasp! And they have such a great track record lately![/sarcasm]

Warner:

-Dave
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DVD List
"The page you are looking for is here no more. Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'"

 

[David Lambert]

Agreed that we must at least PRETEND to believe that WB spoke the truth in blaming this on CC.
We should hit them from both sides. At worst, the result will be pressure from CC toward WB from the inside.
Actually, the worst will be that nothing changes and none of us buy these theme sets at all, so both WB and CC lose money.
Sooner or later they will understand that we are voting with our dollars.
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DAVE/Memphis

MORE TV ON DVD, PLEASE!
Do you like TV on DVD? Then check THIS out!
.....http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/.....

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Let's see what Warner Home Video actually said in the chat, and see if we can figure out what they really meant. You have to remember, these are guys are masters of obfuscation and the non-sequiter answer. Example:
WHV: The Babylon 5 DVDs had better outsell the VHS tapes or there won't be any more.
Fan: But nobody bought the VHS tapes because we were expecting the DVDs. You announced them yourselves.
WHV: Hey, *we* never made that announcement. That must have been somebody else.
Note that the last response is totally irrelevant to the point: which is that fans avoided the tapes because they were expecting the DVDs. It doesn't matter why they believed that or who made the announcement. (For the record it was Mike Finnegan of Warner Home Video, in an interview with "The Big Picture", March 2000, who said "Yes" the show was coming to DVD. Finnegan was one of the participants on the Warner side in the last chat. Hell, he may have been the one who typed the "we didn't make the announcement" answer.)
So, what did WHV really say about South Park?
quote: SOUTH PARK is programmed by the good folks at Comedy Central. The compilations have reflected their programming choices.[/quote]
Notice that WHV never says that Comedy Central decided to do "best of" collections. They say that the network "programs" the release, and selects the episodes. Which would be equally true if Warner Home Video said to them, "We refuse to release full season boxed sets. There's no market for them. We're only doing 'best of' and 'theme' sets, so select the episodes you want to use."
That's my best attempt to translate that answer from Warner Weaselspeak (tm) into ordinary English. It makes their answer literally true, and utterly deceptive at the same time, which is about par for the course. I think that Warner mandated the limited boxed sets and is passing the buck to Comedy Central. I find it too much of a coincidence that CC supposedly changed its programming philosophy just when the show moved from a DVD distributor who supports season boxed sets to one that doesn't. And WHV's non-denial denial did nothing to change my mind on the subject.
Regards,
Joe
[Edited last by Joseph DeMartino on November 06, 2001 at 10:15 PM]

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

There is an ongoing comment thread in FEEDBACK. As soon as that thred gets a decent number of comments, I will be mailing a copy to a contact at Warner Brothers.
Please post in THAT thread, there is a link in my signature
-Vince
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http://www.musicianassist.com
AIM: VinceMaskeeper
Do you want SOUTH PARK on DVD in order, rather than themed sets? Join our overwhelming majority!!

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Vince,
No problem. Although my original intnetion was for this thread to be focued on contacing Comedy Central...making the assumption that there was at least an element of truth to what the Warner reps had to say. Could you forward these comments (and the ones on your own thread) to them as well?
BTW, have you signed or seen Brett's petition?
http://www.petitiononline.com/spdvd/petition.html
I'm surprised so few have bothered to sign it, but it's already established. If you're sending your comments to Warner, please also sign this petition, encourage others to do the same. Maybe you and Brett could join forces to help Warner see the light.
-dave
[Edited last by DaViD Boulet on November 07, 2001 at 08:49 AM]

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Yes, I bought South Park discs....the region 2 Box sets for series 3 and 4, done right. I just got sick and tired of Warner and said, screw you guys, I'm going home to watch my DVDs.
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"This movie has warped my fragile little mind."

 

[eric holm]

I just went to Best Buy and they were selling Southpark volumes 1 through 6 (I think) with each volume having 3 episodes. What is this? I was expecting to see something labeled Timmy or Christmas or more topic specific titles.
Are these a 'Best of' collection?

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

quote: I'm surprised so few have bothered to sign it, but it's already established.[/quote]
I haven't bothered as I know dozen of "industry" people, and they all laugh at internet petitions.
The fact that there is an entire website dedicated to starting petitions for stuff shows that it's all just silly-- they treat it as geeks whining. It's like the 4th grader you knew who started a petition for allowing bubblegum chewing, or wearing shorts in school. A petition solves very little.
Real letters are taken seriously. Someone I talked to once told me 10,000 signatures on an internet petetion carry about as much weight as 50 mailed letters.
-Vince
PS: Eric, the 1-6 columes are the good ones. Those first 6 discs were released properly in order-- and then they stopped. We are trying to get them to pick up with volume 7 and continue to release all the episodes in order!
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http://www.musicianassist.com
AIM: VinceMaskeeper
Do you want SOUTH PARK on DVD in order, rather than themed sets? Join our overwhelming majority !!
[Edited last by Vince Maskeeper on November 07, 2001 at 12:40 PM]

 

[DaViD Boulet]

quote: Real letters are taken seriously. Someone I talked to once told me 10,000 signatures on an internet petetion carry about as much weight as 50 mailed letters.[/quote]
Was that the case with Willy Wonka? 50 people complaining about the lack of WS would have accomplished the same goal?
Possibly. But printing out the comments on that petition and mailing it isn't that much different that printing and mailing the thread in the feedback area...you've basically got people's names with a brief comment following each one (and the comments on the thread are almost identical to those on the petition site). Does it really matter if the web-site behind that information was a forum or a petition site?
In any case, we all want the same thing...and we certianly want to hit the powers that be in the most effect way possible. Vince, are you going to send copies to Comedy Central as well?
-dave
[Edited last by DaViD Boulet on November 07, 2001 at 01:06 PM]