Was your first box set a "Grail" show? (1 Viewer)

[Regulus]

Mine was. In 2002 Thunderbirds became my first DVD box set that I purchased. Within a month I had all of the Gerry Anderson "Supermarionation" TV sets along with UFO and Space: 1999. T'birds was the first Sci-Fi show I ever saw, and it had a place in my heart because of it. When it was announced that it was being released on DVD I was there on the day it was released. I purchased a set every few months or so until September, 2006 when I saw an ad for an "Adult Product" aired during a kids show. I dropped my subscription to a Pay TV provider and went TOTAL home video. 11 1/2 years later it amazes me how many sets I have purchased. Needless to say how many of you purchased a "Grail Show" when you made your first purchase?

 

[Radioman970]

Monty Python megaset. $125 on some store tired to yahoo I think. LoooOOooong time ago. late 90s I think. Still lovin it of course.

I went total home after MST3K and the original Screen Savers on the old techtv ended. (read this next part with the same "stop wait don't" as Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka) "i regret it so much" :p

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Yes.

$119.99 for TNG season 3, shortly after it was released in 2002.

Those prices are why I can rarely complain about a set being more than $20 these days, too.

 

[Vic Pardo]

My first box sets were all anime. I got quite a few as review copies when I was reviewing anime for a magazine 15 years ago. But the first set I actually bought was "Star Blazers" Series 2 at a distributor's table in the dealers' room at an anime convention in 2003. Not exactly a "grail" show. I already had Series 1 on VHS--that would have been closer to "grail" status.

No record of how much I paid--but it was way too much! Voyager Entertainment charged HIGH prices for their limited lineup (all Space Battleship Yamato and its American version, Star Blazers).

 

[TravisR]

Yes. The X-Files season sets were the first ones that I bought. I was buying the individual discs of The Twilight Zone prior to that though.

$119.99 for TNG season 3, shortly after it was released in 2002.

Those prices are why I can rarely complain about a set being more than $20 these days, too.

Yeah, I'm sure I paid less for the entire series set of The X-Files on Blu-ray than I did just for the first two of the XF DVD seasons.

 

[tlc38tlc38]

The first TV show on DVD I bought was season 1 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

The first complete box set I bought was "Buffy the Vampire Slayer": The Chosen Collection.

 

[bmasters9]

The first TV show on DVD I bought was season 1 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

The first complete box set I bought was "Buffy the Vampire Slayer": The Chosen Collection.

The first regular seasonal I got was the original Fox first-season double-sided release of O-R ABC Dynasty.

The first all-in-one I ever got was Shout!'s of Barney Miller.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

No. The first TV show season boxed set I purchased was The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The First Season, but it was not my grail show. It was expensive, too! I believe I purchased it for $40 at Best Buy. This was when the DVD craze was just starting, and there were slim pickings for "classic" or vintage TV show season sets. In the beginning, shows like I Love Lucy and The Twilight Zone got "Best Of" single disc releases, but season sets came later. I remember seeing Sanford and Son season sets in the early days. My grail show was Bewitched but it took a few years for Sony to release it.

 

[BobO'Link]

It's been too long and I do not remember, but I'd say likely not. My grail shows didn't come until much later in the release cycle. Of course all those early purchases were of titles I truly liked with no blind buys. Stuff just cost too much back then.

You could say my first DVD purchase was somewhat a grail purchase - it was Batman: The Movie - the one from the 60s TV show. I walked into WM in another town and found it for $5 in the dump bin. I immediately purchased it. At the time the only way I could play a DVD was on my computer which had a 19" CRT (purchased for gaming and the possibility of watching DVDs).

 

[Jeff Flugel]

I can't recall exactly what was my first ever TV boxset...but looking at my Amazon history (which only goes back to 2003 or so), I do see the Red Dwarf Series I and II sets. I remember being very excited not only about having the episodes on DVD, but all the wealth of extra features the BBC loaded those sets with. I can't remember anything else before that, though...too many boxsets down the pike for me to have any clear recollection. But I can say that Red Dwarf is certainly a grail show for me. I paid $52 for both seasons together and thought myself lucky.

 

[Race Bannon]

Believe it or not, it was Land of the Lost.

 

[jcroy]

Beavis and Butthead vol 1

 

[Doug Wallen]

The day I purchased my dvd player, I also purchased two volumes of Star Trek episodes, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 from Circuit City. They were intent on selling me on Divx - didn't bother with that...I'm not even sure box sets were a thing yet.

I remember that the cost of the first two box sets I saw were terribly overpriced. Star Trek:TNG and The X-Files. Sure did want them but couldn't afford them (inside Media Play and both listing for $119.99).

My first box set was the first Volume of The Prisoner, two discs with each in its own case, inside a slip case containing the first 5??? episodes of that show(from a Best Buy in Atlanta). My first complete series set was Hill Street Blues from Shout!

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Yes. The X-Files season sets were the first ones that I bought. I was buying the individual discs of The Twilight Zone prior to that though.


Yeah, I'm sure I paid less for the entire series set of The X-Files on Blu-ray than I did just for the first two of the XF DVD seasons.

I got the X-Files Blu sets for around 90 bucks through Fox Connect... if I had been an early buyer of X-Files on DVD, I would've paid less for the whole damn series than I would've paid for one season in 2002.

But, I wasn't an X-Files fan at the time, so all I can say is that I picked up TNG on Blu in total for roughly the same price as only three seasons on DVD.

 

[Ron1973]

I don't remember if my first box set was The Phil Silvers Show or Charlie's Angels. I got a good deal on both of them, and I'd probably say they were grail shows. I wasn't familiar with the antics of Bilko, but I liked Silvers as an actor, and it certainly helped I got in on the $20 price mistake from Amazon Canada. With Charlie's Angels, I had started watching some of the episodes on one of the HD channels on satellite and fell in love with it all over again. I think I got it for $30. Well worth it for both of them!

 

[Carabimero]

My first DVD boxed set was The Twilight Zone, a grail show. My first BD boxed set was ST:TNG season 1, a grail show.

 

[Blimpoy06]

It's hard to remember what my first DVD box set was. I had some VHS box sets before DVD came out. Most TV shows released on VHS and even DVD in the early years, were only two to four episodes in length. Babylon 5 and Lost In Space had partial box sets of three VHS tapes in a volume. I did a mail order for season one of Xena on VHS. That was a costly and unique purchase in the 90's.

A&E released many of the British shows on DVD in partial box sets in the late 90's. I picked up The Avengers, The Prisoner, Danger Man, The Saint and Space 1999. My first complete season on DVD might have been The Simpsons season one. I remember that was a big deal. Was it one of the first season releases?

 

[The Obsolete Man]

A&E released many of the British shows on DVD in partial box sets in the late 90's. I picked up The Avengers, The Prisoner, Danger Man, The Saint and Space 1999. My first complete season on DVD might have been The Simpsons season one. I remember that was a big deal. Was it one of the first season releases?

A little research shows The Simpsons was an early release (September 2001), but beaten by The X-Files by over a year. The first season of X-Files was released in May 2000, if you can believe that. They got two more seasons out before S1 of The Simpsons was released.

I wasn't aware until now that complete season releases began that early. I figured 2001 was the earliest that complete sets were released.

 

[Flashgear]

My first commercial and licensed studio released DVD box sets were all from Image...Twilight Zone box set #1, and I Spy box set #1 in 2002 or early 2003...both expensive sets at the time...these were not organized season releases, of course, so I think my first "season" release in proper airdate order was Image's Combat! "season one, campaign one", in 2004...followed shortly by the second volume of that great tv series, which I eventually completed in it's entirety...before CBS/P became involved in releasing any of their great heirloom properties on their own (and botching so many of them), Image seemed to be the only game in town for my most desired "grail" shows...thank goodness for them and a few others like A+E at the time...Image morphed into RLJ Entertainment, and other than giving us Boris Karloff's Thriller and Naked City has done nothing of interest since...

In retrospect, we can only regret the slow pace at which our Classic TV on DVD collector's market developed, before the crushing effects of the 2008 recession really hindered the industry in a lasting way...and now, the twilight of DVD itself, with sporadic releases by Warner Archive...oh, and Fox, Sony, Universal and CBS being so slow off the mark, or doing nothing at all with their great holdings...as always with thanks to Shout Factory, TGG Direct, Time/Life StarVista, Roxbury/Infinity, VCI, A+E, Schanachie, Mill Creek, VEI, MVD, Goldhil/Liberty, etc., And also lamenting the passing of our Golden Age Timeless Media Group...surely the Greatest of all the independent labels!

 

[TravisR]

I got the X-Files Blu sets for around 90 bucks through Fox Connect... if I had been an early buyer of X-Files on DVD, I would've paid less for the whole damn series than I would've paid for one season in 2002.

That's right, the Blu-ray series set was $90 from Fox and I believe that's what I paid for the first season from Amazon so for the cost of one DVD season, I got nine Blu-ray seasons. I have to say though that compared to the cost of laserdiscs and considering that not every XF episode was on laserdisc, $90 for one season was still an amazing deal at the time.