TimeLife announces "The Lost Episodes" of The Carol Burnett Show (1 Viewer)

[potnoodle]

I can answer that.


No, neither the Elephant story nor Harvey in briefs have been released on any of the Time Life sets. Sorry.


The episode where the Family plays Password (the Elephant story) has not been released to DVD by anyone yet.


The episode where Harvey forgot to change to boxers is available both by Time Life and Columbia House. As far as I know, the outtake of Harvey in briefs has never been seen. Not even on bloopers shows. It has only been talked about.

An edited version of the Elephant story actually appears on one of the bonus extra discs in the "Mama's Family" complete collection set, along with a bit of background to the sketch by Vicki Lawrence and Tim Conway.

 

[David Deeb]

I was interested in this set.


But it seems that after researching it a little, and then after reading through parts of this thread, there seems to be multiple versions of this thing. At least two different versions at Time Life online, and another version at Costco, and another version at Wal-mart. Plus repeated skits on previously released sets which are also in multiple versions.

Why have they made it so difficult? I'm no longer interested. Sounds like a joke trying to sort through what you might get on one set vs. another set.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

And David, who knows what TL has in store for their next set in this series as we know there will be one sometime next year.

We do? Don't get me wrong, I hope you're right, but this is the first I'm hearing of it, and I suspected that since they've released one big set of the "later years" and one big set of "the early years", they might stick a fork in it and call it "done."

 

[Brian Himes]

I was interested in this set.


But it seems that after researching it a little, and then after reading through parts of this thread, there seems to be multiple versions of this thing. At least two different versions at Time Life online, and another version at Costco, and another version at Wal-mart. Plus repeated skits on previously released sets which are also in multiple versions.

Why have they made it so difficult? I'm no longer interested. Sounds like a joke trying to sort through what you might get on one set vs. another set.

Ok, I'll try and clear things up a bit.


Time Life has released two large sets for the series. On their website they have called both of them The Ultimate Collection. That is not exactly true. The first set released was The Ultimate Collection. It contained episodes from the series later years (Fall of 72-Spring of 78) or seasons 6-11. The new set just released is The Lost Episodes set. It covers the series early years (Fall of 67-Spring of 72) or seasons 1-5.


Each large set is broken up into three smaller sub sets. This was done so Time Life could release those smaller sets to retail before releasing the large sets to retail.


The real confusion comes in when those smaller sets are released to retailers with exclusive content. The original Ultimate Collection had two retail exclusives with exclusive content. One for Costco and one for Walmart. The This Time Together set (the second set from the original Ultimate Collection released to retailers) for Cosco had a 7th bonus disc which had two episodes on it that were not found in the larger set. Wal-Mart had a single disc exclusive release for the This Time Together that contained three episodes that were not found in ther larger set.


The Lost Episodes set has only had the first sub set released to retailers so far. Again, Wal-Mart and Costco have exclusive versions of this set. However, everything in their exclusive versions is contained in the larger set released by Time Life.


There is a Christmas DVD that was released to retailers that is same across the board for all retailers. No one got any exclusive content on that disc.


Time Life then released a separte brand new set called Carol's Crack Ups (a 6 disc set). Every retailer, except Costco, were offered the same set. Costco had and exclusive version that contained two bonus discs. The first disc contained previously (to Time Life) unreased episodes and the second disc contained some exclusive bonus features.


As for repeated sketches, yes, on the new Lost Episodes (the larger Time Life set) there are a couple of sketches that were from previous releases. These were part of the bonus features on the set.


Still with me? Now, I'm gonna throw another monkey wrench into this whole thing.


Columbia House originally released a 31 Volume set with 62 complete unedited episodes. All of these episodes are from seasons 6-11. Of those 31 discs, there are 8 episodes that have not been released anywhere else. And, there are 7 episodes in the Columbia House set that are edited on the Time Life Ultimate Collection.


So, yes it is rather difficult to wade through all of that to get every episode of the series that has been released so far. What's more frustrating is the episodes on the Columbia House set that are unedited but are edited on Time Life. Those edites are all music releated. I have a list showing which Columbia House volumes have those episodes and their exclusive episodes.


If you are just looking to get the most episodes at good price, get the two Time Life sets. The original Ultimate Collection has been released to retail and is available at Amazon. At the moment, the larger Lost Episodes is only available at Time Life. Amazon also has the 6 disc version of Carol's Crack Ups and the Christmas DVD.

 

[tunesfan1]

Ok, I'll try and clear things up a bit.


Time Life has released two large sets for the series. On their website they have called both of them The Ultimate Collection. That is not exactly true. The first set released was The Ultimate Collection. It contained episodes from the series later years (Fall of 72-Spring of 78) or seasons 6-11. The new set just released is The Lost Episodes set. It covers the series early years (Fall of 67-Spring of 72) or seasons 1-5.


Each large set is broken up into three smaller sub sets. This was done so Time Life could release those smaller sets to retail before releasing the large sets to retail.


The real confusion comes in when those smaller sets are released to retailers with exclusive content. The original Ultimate Collection had two retail exclusives with exclusive content. One for Costco and one for Walmart. The This Time Together set (the second set from the original Ultimate Collection released to retailers) for Cosco had a 7th bonus disc which had two episodes on it that were not found in the larger set. Wal-Mart had a single disc exclusive release for the This Time Together that contained three episodes that were not found in ther larger set.


The Lost Episodes set has only had the first sub set released to retailers so far. Again, Wal-Mart and Costco have exclusive versions of this set. However, everything in their exclusive versions is contained in the larger set released by Time Life.


There is a Christmas DVD that was released to retailers that is same across the board for all retailers. No one got any exclusive content on that disc.


Time Life then released a separte brand new set called Carol's Crack Ups (a 6 disc set). Every retailer, except Costco, offered the same set. Costco had and exclusive version that contained two bonus discs. The first disc contained previously (to Time Life) unreased episodes and the second disc contained some exclusive bonus features.


As for repeated sketches, yes, on the new Lost Episodes (the larger Time Life set) there are a couple of sketches that were from previous releases. These were part of the bonus features on the set.


Still with me? Now, I'm gonna throw another monkey wrench into this whole thing.


Columbia House originally released a 31 Volume set with 62 complete unedited episodes. All of these episodes are from seasons 6-11. Of those 31 discs, there are 8 episodes that have not been released anywhere else. And, there are 7 episodes in the Columbia House set that are edited on the Time Life Ultimate Collection.


So, yes it is rather difficult to wade through all of that to get every episode of the series that has been released so far. What's more frustrating is the episodes on the Columbia House set that are unedited but are edited on Time Life. Those edites are all music releated. I have a list showing which Columbia House volumes have those episodes and their exclusive episodes.


If you are just looking to get the most episodes at good price, get the two Time Life sets. The original Ultimate Collection has been released to retail and is available at Amazon. At the moment, the larger Lost Episodes is only available at Time Life. Amazon also has the 6 disc version of Carol's Crack Ups and the Christmas DVD.

Brian, just a quick question please. I've got all the episodes that have been released to dvd(CH, etc.), but it IS definitely difficult at times, trying to keep up with getting everything with the exclusive discs involved. By the way, thanks so much for the information stating that the Walmart and Costco exclusives are all contained on the big set. My question FINALLY, is(and if you can't say your sources, fine), how do you find out this info about the content and wheather it's not included, and exclusive, OR included in the previous releases? Do you have to actually purchase the discs, because by looking at the dvd box, you can't tell what's included. You have to actually look at the discs to find out the show #'s, bonus material, etc. It's great what you've done to inform everybody, to save them from buying duplicate product, and it's greatly appreciated. I've been googling all over the place for info, and always come up empty. Thanks again.

 

[Brian Himes]

90% of my information comes from members here that actually purchase the exclusive DVD sets and report what's on them and I also check the Amazon reviews. There is always someone there reporting what has been released.

 

[tunesfan1]

90% of my information comes from members here that actually purchase the exclusive DVD sets and report what's on them and I also check the Amazon reviews. There is always someone there reporting what has been released.

Thank you very much.

 

[Brian Himes]

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.


Not to be misleading, but my above response was in regards to the retailer exclusive discs/sets and their contents. Not the general release sets (Columbia House, Time-Life). Those I actually bought when they were released. I wait to hear what's on the retailer exclusive discs/sets before I buy them so I don't duplicate what I already have. With the exception of the Costco This Time Together 7 disc set. I bought that set for the 7th disc and nothing else. So, I did duplicate the first 6 discs in the set. I only buy the retailer exclusive discs/sets if there are episodes that I don't have (either on Columbia House or the bigger Time-Life sets) or to replace Columbia House volumes because the picture quality is a bit better on the Time-Life discs/sets. I won't buy a retailer exclusive disc/set just for additional bonus features since bonus features are not important to me. No new episodes. No dice.

 

[David Deeb]

Ok, I'll try and clear things up a bit.


Time Life has released two large sets for the series. On their website they have called both of them The Ultimate Collection. That is not exactly true. The first set released was The Ultimate Collection. It contained episodes from the series later years (Fall of 72-Spring of 78) or seasons 6-11. The new set just released is The Lost Episodes set. It covers the series early years (Fall of 67-Spring of 72) or seasons 1-5.


Each large set is broken up into three smaller sub sets. This was done so Time Life could release those smaller sets to retail before releasing the large sets to retail.


The real confusion comes in when those smaller sets are released to retailers with exclusive content. The original Ultimate Collection had two retail exclusives with exclusive content. One for Costco and one for Walmart. The This Time Together set (the second set from the original Ultimate Collection released to retailers) for Cosco had a 7th bonus disc which had two episodes on it that were not found in the larger set. Wal-Mart had a single disc exclusive release for the This Time Together that contained three episodes that were not found in ther larger set.


The Lost Episodes set has only had the first sub set released to retailers so far. Again, Wal-Mart and Costco have exclusive versions of this set. However, everything in their exclusive versions is contained in the larger set released by Time Life.


There is a Christmas DVD that was released to retailers that is same across the board for all retailers. No one got any exclusive content on that disc.


Time Life then released a separte brand new set called Carol's Crack Ups (a 6 disc set). Every retailer, except Costco, were offered the same set. Costco had and exclusive version that contained two bonus discs. The first disc contained previously (to Time Life) unreased episodes and the second disc contained some exclusive bonus features.


As for repeated sketches, yes, on the new Lost Episodes (the larger Time Life set) there are a couple of sketches that were from previous releases. These were part of the bonus features on the set.


Still with me? Now, I'm gonna throw another monkey wrench into this whole thing.


Columbia House originally released a 31 Volume set with 62 complete unedited episodes. All of these episodes are from seasons 6-11. Of those 31 discs, there are 8 episodes that have not been released anywhere else. And, there are 7 episodes in the Columbia House set that are edited on the Time Life Ultimate Collection.


So, yes it is rather difficult to wade through all of that to get every episode of the series that has been released so far. What's more frustrating is the episodes on the Columbia House set that are unedited but are edited on Time Life. Those edites are all music releated. I have a list showing which Columbia House volumes have those episodes and their exclusive episodes.


If you are just looking to get the most episodes at good price, get the two Time Life sets. The original Ultimate Collection has been released to retail and is available at Amazon. At the moment, the larger Lost Episodes is only available at Time Life. Amazon also has the 6 disc version of Carol's Crack Ups and the Christmas DVD.

Clear as mud! But thanks Brian. That's good info. Can't believe that at this point in DVD, they couldn't just group them by Season Sets like every other single TV series on DVD on the planet. Or at least come up with a "Volume 1", "Volume 2" etc. I guess Time Life is more interested in either confusing their customers, or abusing a tiny percentage of customers to get them running around looking for a bonus scene on an exclusive here or there. Shameful.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Clear as mud! But thanks Brian. That's good info. Can't believe that at this point in DVD, they couldn't just group them by Season Sets like every other single TV series on DVD on the planet. Or at least come up with a "Volume 1", "Volume 2" etc. I guess Time Life is more interested in either confusing their customers, or abusing a tiny percentage of customers to get them running around looking for a bonus scene on an exclusive here or there. Shameful.

Season Sets just weren't possible for this show due to the complicated music rights issues. Given that some of the episodes were edited on the first "big" set, it's obvious that there are some songs that are either unclearable, or (more likely) more expensive than Time-Life are willing to pay.


Another factor working against season set were the complicated rights/ownership issues of the first five seasons. Until this year, Time-Life would have only had access to seasons 6-11. Would you have proposed they make their first-ever release for this series "Season Six"?


Yet another factor making season sets undesirable (from a studio point of view) would be that most of the "crowd pleasers" are scattered throughout, and the really famous ones ("Went With the Wind", "The Exorcist", etc.) are all from those later seasons. I'm sure they wouldn't want to take the risk of their first big set not having the more well-known skits/episodes on them and maybe disappointing the casual buyers.


LIke it or not, the "collection of random episodes" is probably the only way a show like this was going to survive on DVD past a single release. I just hope Time-Life doesn't decide to call it quits after doing one "later years" box and one "early years" release. There might be the temptation for them to think "we marketed a big box each from the late/early periods. What kind of 'hook' would we be able to come up with for a third?


I also suspect sales will have to be very strong on The Early Years set for them to go back and work out another agreement on those co-ownership episodes from the first five seasons. If these don't sell extremely well, all future releases (if there are any) might be restricted to seasons 6-11.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Andy, watch and see as next year, TL will premiere something entirely different revolving around this series and maybe release a Best Episodes set involving all 11 seasons or something similar in nature. I'm just speculating is all but i got a gut feeling TL will milk this series out as much as possible.

we can only hope!

 

[tunesfan1]

ere


You're welcome.


Not to be misleading, but my above response was in regards to the retailer exclusive discs/sets and their contents. Not the general release sets (Columbia House, Time-Life). Those I actually bought when they were released. I wait to hear what's on the retailer exclusive discs/sets before I buy them so I don't duplicate what I already have. With the exception of the Costco This Time Together 7 disc set. I bought that set for the 7th disc and nothing else. So, I did duplicate the first 6 discs in the set. I only buy the retailer exclusive discs/sets if there are episodes that I don't have (either on Columbia House or the bigger Time-Life sets) or to replace Columbia House volumes because the picture quality is a bit better on the Time-Life discs/sets. I won't buy a retailer exclusive disc/set just for additional bonus features since bonus features are not important to me. No new episodes. No dice.

Hey Brian,

Just wanted to let you know, that's pretty much how I buy the product. Unless the bonus disc(s) have exclusive content, I won't buy them, just to buy them. The only hard part, or at least a little difficult at times, is trying to find out what IS the exclusive content for the Costco's or Walmart's, and if the material is contained on the big sets. You see, until a couple days ago, between you mentioning that both the Walmart and Costco exclusives material WAS contained on the big Lost Episodes set, and an Amazon reviewer stating what show #'s and bonus features were on the Costco 7th bonus disc, nobody, I think, had given a "defendant for sure" that the material was included on the big set. There were an "assuming"(I think that's the way it was put) that the material was on the big set but, that's as far as it went. I could be wrong, but I kept looking and looking. So, thank you, and John Mor SO much for all your hard work in bringing all this information to us here. It's greatly appreciated.

 

[FanCollector]

Just saw that BearManor Media is about to publish a book on The Carol Burnett Show. It's not available yet, but here is the publicity page for it:
http://www.bearmanormedia.com/the-carol-burnett-show-companion-so-glad-we-had-this-time-by-wesley-hyatt

Not much detail, but I did notice that they also count 276 episodes of the show, rather than 278.

 

[JohnMor]

Just saw that BearManor Media is about to publish a book on The Carol Burnett Show. It's not available yet, but here is the publicity page for it:
http://www.bearmanormedia.com/the-carol-burnett-show-companion-so-glad-we-had-this-time-by-wesley-hyatt

Not much detail, but I did notice that they also count 276 episodes of the show, rather than 278.

No surprise there, as 276 is the correct number. That's from the actual production logs Carol donated to UCLA.

 

[FanCollector]

No surprise there, as 276 is the correct number. That's from the actual production logs Carol donated to UCLA.

I know we settled the question here based on that evidence, but there are still lots of sources in error. I was just pointing out the number as an indication that the episode guide in the new book is that much more likely to be accurate and useful.

 

[David Rain]

So if some people believe that 278 is the actual number of episodes then what's contained in those two "extra" episodes? Or is there any proof whatsoever that they even exist?

 

[FanCollector]

I think we settled earlier in the thread that there were two reruns that have been mistakenly labeled new episodes in some sources over the years.

 

[AndrewCrossett]

Looking at Amazon right now, I'm seeing the deluxe 22-disc Lost Episodes that has 45 episodes and goes for $200. Then there's a 10-disc set that has 21 episodes and goes for $100... still out of my price range at the moment. But then there's a 6-disc version 16 episodes and goes for $31.


So is it true that the difference between the $31 set and the $100 set is only 5 episodes?

 

[tunesfan1]

You're welcome.


Not to be misleading, but my above response was in regards to the retailer exclusive discs/sets and their contents. Not the general release sets (Columbia House, Time-Life). Those I actually bought when they were released. I wait to hear what's on the retailer exclusive discs/sets before I buy them so I don't duplicate what I already have. With the exception of the Costco This Time Together 7 disc set. I bought that set for the 7th disc and nothing else. So, I did duplicate the first 6 discs in the set. I only buy the retailer exclusive discs/sets if there are episodes that I don't have (either on Columbia House or the bigger Time-Life sets) or to replace Columbia House volumes because the picture quality is a bit better on the Time-Life discs/sets. I won't buy a retailer exclusive disc/set just for additional bonus features since bonus features are not important to me. No new episodes. No dice.

Hello Brian,

Just a quick question please. For a couple weeks now, Amazon has several new configurations of "Carol Burnett-Treasures From The Vault" that come out Feb.9th. I've got the 6 dvd set on pre-order, hoping that somebody will have a response, before the release date, if these, or some of these episodes and bonus material are exclusive to this future set. Since you are so knowledgeable and have many contacts, are you able to fine out any information on this, AND if Costco might have an exclusive to this too? Thank you very much.

 

[Brian Himes]

Hello Brian,

Just a quick question please. For a couple weeks now, Amazon has several new configurations of "Carol Burnett-Treasures From The Vault" that come out Feb.9th. I've got the 6 dvd set on pre-order, hoping that somebody will have a response, before the release date, if these, or some of these episodes and bonus material are exclusive to this future set. Since you are so knowledgeable and have many contacts, are you able to fine out any information on this, AND if Costco might have an exclusive to this too? Thank you very much.

At the moment no one has announced any exclusive content for this release. As far as I know, this set contains everything that has already been released in the larger Time-Life set. Costco might release an exclusive version but I am not anticipating new, previously unreleased episodes at this point.