$129.00 For Season 1 of I Love Lucy Bluray! WTF?

[Jack77]

So according to a report posted on TVShowsonDVD.com, the I Love Lucy Season 1 Bluray is going to retail for $129.00! WTF? Is this some kind of joke or are the powers that be at CBS/Paramount insanely greedy? I don't know about you fans, but I'm not that stupid to shell out that kind of money for one season when it's in B&W too. I mean why the hell upgrade for that kind of money when the show is already in HD on DVD and you can pay as $9.99 for one season! They're saying this is going to be the Ultimate Collection? Well for that kind of money, every episode better be colorized and perhaps in 3-D. I mean honestly, I can see $129.00 for the ENTIRE series on Bluray and giving you the option to watch every episode in color too, but there is no way I'm going to be paying that much money for a bluray upgrade when it already looks great remasterd in HD on DVD! Shame on CBS/Paramount to spoil the long, awaited good news!

[ajgenard]

$129.99 is the suggested retail price and that's usually very high compared to the actual retail price. Amazon had a pre-order up for $90.99 but they took it down. Even at that price, it's WAY too much for a single season of any show in any format. I could see initial pricing around $50, maybe even $60 but that is just unreasonable.

The Dick Van Dyke Show suffered the same fate when it debuted on Bluray last year at a whopping $315 for the complete series. Like a week after it's release the price was slashed to $150 and never went back up - probably cuz nobody was buying at that ridiculous price. So I'm fairly confident it will come down to earth sooner rather than later. Unfortunately classic sitcoms have become a niche market and we'll likely be dealing with very few Bluray releases with very high prices.

[OH Nuts!]

Totally agree with both of you; those prices sound like highway robbery. I bought the ENTIRE series on DVD for $130 about 5 years ago - and that includes the hour long shows.

I know many go gaga over Blue Ray but to me regular old DVDs are still awesome. Also to start going blue ray I'd have to chuck my analog TV and get a new burner since the one I have now can only burn to DVD. Not worth it to me. Besides, something so-called bigger and better than blue ray will eventually come along. And then you have to shell out $$$ all over again. A racket if you ask me.

(The only upgrade that was worth it to me was going from VHS cassettes to DVD. I converted 99.5% of what I have to DVD, and all the space I saved, plus the other advantages made the upgrade worth the hundreds of dollars.)

[tlc38tlc38]

I was going to place my order but the link doesn't work now. Maybe they're fixing the price---haha! Just imagine if a box set comes out...it'll cost $600 or $700. I really want this but I will buy them season-by-season so it's not such a chunk of change all at once.

[Zoneboy]

This release will be like all other blu-ray issues, it will start at a price that is outrageous and then it will eventually drop to a more affordable one. The MSRP for this set is absolutely ridiculous and I can't believe that anyone would be foolish enough to pay it.

[Jack77]

Oh yes, there are certainly fans who will pay that price and CBS/Paramount knows this, however if we can all pass the word around to all Lucy fans NOT to buy it when it first comes out, then CBS/Paramount will immediately bring it down to a reasonable price!

[Jack77]

.

[Kirk W Morgan]

I bought I Love Lucy on VHS in the mid-late 80's from Columbia House,Three episodes apiece 'themed' in no particular order. I believe I paid about 35.00 each. Then the first DVDs while in order had only 4 maybe 5 episodes apiece,Then came the season DVD sets...Then again the season sets in slimmer cases.I also purchased 'the movie' DVD.I DO Love Lucy as much as anyone but I'm THROUGH buying anymore sets.Hopefully I'll live long enough to see blu-ray become passe' and a couple formats after that. !

[Jack77]

I can understand the need to upgrade from VHS to DVD, but really what's the point to go to Bluray when the last set that came out was already remastered in HD! For me to buy it and at a reasonable affordable price, no more than $40.00, it would have to be colorized and some real good extras like lost interviews with the cast on talk shows. I just don't see the logic spending over $100.00 on one season when it's fine the way it is on DVD! I mean how much better can it look in B&W on Bluray?

[ajgenard]

Originally Posted by Jack77

I can understand the need to upgrade from VHS to DVD, but really what's the point to go to Bluray when the last set that came out was already remastered in HD! For me to buy it and at a reasonable affordable price, no more than $40.00, it would have to be colorized and some real good extras like lost interviews with the cast on talk shows. I just don't see the logic spending over $100.00 on one season when it's fine the way it is on DVD! I mean how much better can it look in B&W on Bluray?

As a huge fan of bluray, I'll also be the first to admit that it's simply not for everyone. If you are a videophile/perfectionist/home theater enthusiast who values presentation as much as the content itself then bluray is for you. In all my journeys and conversations with people I'd estimate this is a meager 5% of the viewing public at most. The fact is the majority of people truly can't tell the image is better or simply don't care if it is. And even to that small minority, the biggest outlier in "being better" on bluray is how good of a job they do on the transfers (already done for ILL) and subsequent encoding to disc. A show like Lucy that was shot on B&W film and the negatives still exist has the potential to look tremendous - and gauging from it's treatment in the recent past it will indeed be a reference-quality bluray.

So yes, I fully agree the DVD sets are perfectly fine for most people especially considering the amount of work and care that was put into them. They were gold standards in television DVD releases when they first came out. They still are.

As far as the notion of something better than bluray eventually coming along, that isn't necessarily true. There are many indications that bluray will likely be the last physical format we see. The world is trending towards streaming their video content or downloading it. The music industry went through this same sea change over the past 10-15 years and look at it now: hardly anyone buys CDs anymore.

[tlc38tlc38]

As much as I want the Blu release, I think I'm going to hold off on it (and The Andy Griffith Show Blu-rays as well) until the price comes down to at least $40-$50 a season. $90-$130 is just too high for one season, I don't care how classic the show is, it's not worth that especially when I already own the seasons on DVD. But don't worry Lucy...I still love you!

[OH Nuts!]

Originally Posted by Jack77

I can understand the need to upgrade from VHS to DVD, but really what's the point to go to Bluray when the last set that came out was already remastered in HD! For me to buy it and at a reasonable affordable price, no more than $40.00, it would have to be colorized and some real good extras like lost interviews with the cast on talk shows. I just don't see the logic spending over $100.00 on one season when it's fine the way it is on DVD! I mean how much better can it look in B&W on Bluray?

Exactly. Although I would NEVER want a vintage show from the 50s in color. For me, it would destroy the feeling of authenticity. But I know there are some who go apes**t over any original B&W transformed into color. For those, Blue Ray would pick up a lot of the fine nuances I suppose. But my B&W I.L.L. DVDs work fine for me.

[folbartman]

So the question still remains..... why the high price???? We saw the article in TV guide stating the fans will be blown away by this set...... we still have no indication what that means. If there are substantial features and differences from this set and the first season DVD set.... I will buy it. We all know holding out could affect anything else from being released.

I do remember Greg Oppenheimer mentioning season one never had the proper remastering done... he remastered season one DVDs on some adobe program for CBS. I think the remastering may be a part of it but..... don't think it would drive the price so high..... so what is??? Maybe color?

[lucy&vivfan]

I would pay $130 for COLORIZED sets, but honestly, Blu-Ray? Over it. Unless it is an action movie, there is not benefit to movies or TV shows in Blu-Ray.

[McGillicuddy]

The frustrating thing is that there's going to be new extra material on Blu Ray that you otherwise won't be able to have. That's how they're going to lure in the true Lucy fans!