Another DVD release of the complete series

[ajgenard]

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Dic...hrough-5/19471

As you probably know, 2003 and 2004 saw the DVD releases from Image Entertainment of The Dick Van Dyke Show in season sets, culminating in the 2005 release of The Complete Series on DVD. Winning almost every award in the book, these sets were chock-full of bonus material of all sorts...and as a result of those extras, the season sets still have a list price of $39.99 SRP. Then, in 2012, Image - which is now owned by RLJ Entertainment - put out a Complete Series release of the show on high-def Blu-ray Disc, and followed up last year with individual season sets on Blu-ray of all 5 seasons of the show...complete with exclusive-to-Blu extras, for $59.98 SRP each.

Now, on May 20th, Image/RLJ Entertainment intends to go back to DVD format, with all 5 seasons getting re-released individually once more, but in a bare-bones "episodes only" version devoid of all the extras. Why? Well, because passionate fans of the show should already have the features-heavy version of the DVDs by now, if they want them. And fans who would like to own the seasons, but don't care about the extras and don't want to pay the higher cost for them, will be able to get these new "episodes only" versions - all available on that same street date - for just $24.98 SRP each (meaning that the discounted street price ought to easily be under $20 per season set. This is similar to what Image/RLJ did with Twilight Zone last year, except that was the entire series package, while this is individual seasons. Package art for these new versions is not yet available, but stay tuned!

I just don't get the point of this. Image is certainly whoring out their license to distribute this show almost to the point of oversaturation. On top of the phenomenal season releases a decade ago, there have been a plethora of low-cost collections (The 'Best Of' Collection, 50th Anniversary Collection, Carl Reiner's Favorites, now 'Classic MTM Episodes' coming out in April) - and even some collections of these collections. Not to mention the mountain of public domain releases from various labels.

Instead of investing time and money to author new discs, why wouldn't they simply repackage their already-reference-quality discs, like CBS/Paramount has done with I Love Lucy? Each of the original season releases is 5 discs and stripping away bonus features may be a measely single disc's worth of material. If they really wanted to push it, they could cram a whole 36 episode season on 3 discs ala Mill Creek but then the quality suffers. I'm not really buying the explanation for a barebones version. To me it seems like more of a money grab than anything. If they want an inexpensive option then just put the old discs in newer slimmer (and obviously cheaper to produce) cases and pass those savings onto the consumer. Many labels do this and it's good business sense.

Given the plethora of releases already out there, I'm doubting this has much of a market. Is anybody here interested in buying such a thing? Maybe I'm wrong...