News From Paul Simms About the DVDs!

[Adamantium]

I found this at TV Barn:
(I'm not sure if I'm allowed to copy and paste or not, so don't tell anyone I did that )

"Thanks to everybody who sent in suggestions for extras on the upcoming NewsRadio DVDs. Paul Simms was very happy with them, and took the time to respond with some remarks. These remarks have been cobbled together from two communiqués, one from back in December, and one from, uh, yesterday. (Members of the NewsRadio Newsletter mailing list received the first update in a more timely fashion, and I have no good excuse for why it took me this long to write to everybody else.) Please bear in mind that even if your suggestions are loved and cherished, it doesn't necessarily mean they'll make it on to the set. Budget, time, space, and general feasibility all play into it. Mr. S. offers his apologies for the time this is taking. Without further ado, his thoughts...

Any word on a release date? "Not yet, but we're currently planning on recording the episode-commentaries in late April."

Deleted scenes: "Good idea, but I think this one just might be technically impossible. Many times the original assembly (the editor's first cut) never even got dubbed off onto videotape. Once we got the cuts closer to what we wanted, we made copies, but who knows where they are? And the only stuff that would really be good are the last 2 minutes we took out of the show to get it down to time. And unfortunately, during those long editing sessions, we never really kept track of what the last cuts were. The good news, though, is that some of the moments we really liked that never made it on the air ended up being included in the blooper reels."

The Pop-Up Video episode: "If the Seasons 1+2 DVDs do well enough that Sony wants to release Season 3, we'll definitely include the Pop-Up Video episode."

Commentaries with guest stars and crew members (in addition to cast members): "That would be fun. I just looked at an Episode Guide, and unless I'm mistaken, the celebrity guest stars in Seasons 1+2 were: David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, John Ritter, and Norm McDonald. So if there's enough space on the DVDs to include one or a few of these, we'll see what we can do.

As far as crew members, it completely depends on space, but I do think it would be fun and enlightening to include commentary from people like line producer/first AD Kent Zbornak, script supervisor Robert Spina, prop master Jode Mann, PA/post-production-coordinator Todd 'Spider' Chambers and editor Tony Hayman -- to give people a more nuts & bolts perspective on how we went about putting these episodes together.

Do you think anyone would have any interest in commentary on one episode by me and former NBC executives Warren Littlefield and Don Ohlmeyer? It might be funny to hear us all reliving our former arguments about the show."

Behind-the-scenes photos: "Another good idea I hadn't thought of. At some point, I think, I inherited NBC's NewsRadio photo file -- which has lots of candid shot from the onset photographer they usually sent. I could also contact cast and crew and see who has exceptionally good pictures they took themselves to include. I'm assuming that, like me, no one else really wants to see any of the standard publicity photos we took."

A tribute to Phil Hartman: "My instinct is to save that for the Season Four DVD. On which, we could probably locate and include the selection of clips we showed at Phil's memorial service -- which included our favorite Phil moments from the entire series."

Promos: "I will contact the NBC promo department and see if these are available. Because I do remember that some of them were pretty funny. But I don't currently have copies of them."

Spanish subtitles: "I think that the foreign-language versions of NewsRadio syndicated in other countries featured actual foreign-language dubbing, rather than subtitles.

But maybe I'll try to locate some of those, and include -- just for fun -- a secondary audio track featuring some of the foreign-language dubbed dialogue."

And in the 'snowball's chance in hell category,' members of Led Zeppelin discussing the finer points of NewsRadio:
"That would be awesome.
Also, as you've already noted, I think there's a 'snowball's chance in
hell' that it could actually become a reality.
But what-the-F: it's worth a shot, I guess.
I'll put my best people on it."

-------------------------------
In much sadder news, one of NewsRadio's creative forces, writer Drake Sather, passed away on March 3, 2004.

Mr. Simms asked me to pass along the following:
"He was a vital and integral part of the show. I worked with him -- pre-NewsRadio -- for two years on 'The Larry Sanders Show,' and even when his name wasn't officially on a NewsRadio Season 2-5 script, you can be assured that his contributions were a big part of every episode.

If anyone out there wants to help remember him and help his family, here's the information:

Checks should be made out to:
CNB f/b/o Sather Children College Fund

And they should be sent to:

Mark Freedman
12400 Wilshire Boulevard Suite 850
Los Angeles, California 90025 "

Anyone who makes a contribution, no matter how small, will receive at least a thank-you note from Mr. Simms. Just e-mail me (newsradionews@h...) and let me know and I'll forward yourcontact information to him. Make sure to include your mailing address."

***
This is from me now:
***
I'm glad they're gonna release the Pop-Up Video episode in the season three set. And there will be a season three set, even if I have to buy every single copy of the First two seasons myself!

[Freakzilla]

More extras ideas: In the season 4 set, the original versions of some of the scenes in "The Secret of Management". If they release season 5, they could include some segments of an episode of the Donny and Marie talk show that include a tour of the set.

Can't wait 'til NewsRadio is finally on DVD. I hope it's a huge hit and that every episode will be on DVD some day.

[whipwarrior]

I'll second that! And for the 5th season DVD, I think they should include the entire Donny & Marie show as an extra, because it featured some great moments with the whole cast, which is still nearly unprecedented among talk shows.

-Dale

[barwars]

Ive been thinking of getting this all along.... but this post alone makes it a definate.

Ive never seen the show, but I loved Phil Hartman on SNL

[Freakzilla]

At Amazon.com, someone who gets the NewsRadio newsletter posted about the DVD's. They wrote that about 20 commentaries have been recorded. A large number of people are taking part in the commentaries, including the cast, writers, producers, and even former NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield. The post also said that the DVD should be out by October. It sounds very interesting.

[Adamantium]

Originally posted by Freakzilla
At Amazon.com, someone who gets the NewsRadio newsletter posted about the DVD's. They wrote that about 20 commentaries have been recorded. A large number of people are taking part in the commentaries, including the cast, writers, producers, and even former NBC Entertainment President Warren Littlefield. The post also said that the DVD should be out by October. It sounds very interesting.

I thought I'd go ahead and post the list of people doing the commentary.

Paul Simms, Dave Foley, Stephen Root, Maura Tierney, Andy Dick, Vicki Lewis, Joe Rogan, Khandi Alexander, Josh Lieb, Brad Issacs, Joe Furey, Lew Morton, Brian Kelley, Julie Bean, Kent Zbornak, Tom Cherones, Brad Grey, and yes, former NBC President Warren Littlefield.

This is going to be GREAT!!!

The entire original cast (minus late Phil Hartman) including Khandi Alexander. Which I wasn't sure if she would look back at the show, since she left it early and moved on in her career. I'm glad that's not the case.

Warren Littlefield is the biggest shock and oddly enough, the one I want to hear from the most. I had always blamed him for the demise of "NewsRadio" but once I thought about it, he kept the show coming back. It wasn't untul after he left NBC that the show was cancelled. He just didn't help it get ratings.

[Freakzilla]

I wonder if during the commentary, when Littlefield is laughing, someone might say, jokingly, "I bet now you wish you'd put us on after 'Seinfeld'."

This DVD is going to be great. The only drawback is that it's still 28 episodes, which means "Injury" won't be in the set. Let's hope Littlefield does commentary on the season 3 set.

[barwars]

.... still waiting.

[Skywalker]

Originally posted by barwars
.... still waiting.

And it's pissing me off. Seasons 1 and 2 should have been released in March. What the heck is taking them so long. I could care less about extras I want to see the episodes.