Several notable TV series are going out with a bang on DVD this holiday season, as home video marketers cap successful rollouts of season sets with pricey collections containing the entire series.
One of the most highly anticipated releases is Warner Home Video's Friends: The Complete Series Collection, which includes all 236 episodes from the sitcom's 10 seasons. The huge boxed set, accompanied by a 60-page commemorative book and retailing at $299.98, hits stores November 14. That's one day shy of a year after the studio released Season 10.
Warner also is releasing The West Wing: The Complete Series on DVD on November 7, the same day the studio is issuing the seventh and final complete-season set of the series. The big boxed set, also priced at $299.98, features all 154 episodes on 45 DVDs, along with all the bonus features from the regular season sets plus the original pilot script and an introduction by series creator Aaron Sorkin.
Warner research found "strong consumer interest for 'complete season' DVD collections," said Jeff Brown, the studio's senior vp and general manager of TV and franchise.
Not to be outdone, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is wrapping up its series of "complete season" sets of M*A*S*H with a 36-disc boxed set that contains all 11 seasons, the MASH film, and two bonus discs of never-before-seen extras, including a trivia game, a featurette on the show's fan base, and a 30th anniversary reunion of cast and crew. The Martinis and Medicine Collection is due November 7 at a suggested retail price of $199.98; season 11 comes out individually the same day.
A&E Home Video, too, is following its June 2005 release of the seventh and final season of Homicide with Homicide: Life on the Street: The Complete Series. The package, due November 7 at $299.95, includes all 122 episodes on 35 DVDs, presented in limited-edition "file cabinet" packaging. A bonus disc will include several Law & Order crossover episodes--which have never been released on DVD--and Homicide: The Movie.
Comments (26)
I got them for 18 bucks a piece at wallmart
In the U.K we have had the complete boxset for over 2 years (with so far 2 different packaging, the first one had 2 opening doors with new york all the cover, and the 2nd is the same as this one). I can't understand why america would get it so late, however it says america gets a booklet with it, we didn't
you needs to buy it,they show 6 episodes a day!
*curses germans and their low prices*
once again,the money is key to everything.
If we, the public stopped buying the stuff, maybe they would get the point. WE DO NOT NEED LOTS OF DIFFERENT DVD RELEASES OF THE SAME SHOWS OR MOVIES WITH NEW AND IMPROVED ANYTHING.
Just give us the works first off and be over with it.... Maybe a plain version and Directors cut, released at the same time then be done with it...
nuff said
Where is The Untouchables?
It's not that Pricey people!!!! Use your math skills: $300/10(seasons)= $30 each season come on, not pricey at ALL!!!! :)
I already own most of the series. I'm not about to start all over and buy the pricer set because it has extras not on the individual sets. But I do agree with what telvisnostic said. You just save for it, and you can buy it if you really want to. Not to mention after a few months the prices do go down a little. I do have one concern. Now it does not happen often, but every now and again you do get that DVD set that has the defective DVD. It would totally suck if you buy this whole set, and you are watching it to make sure all the DVD's are okay, and one disc is messed up. Then you end up spending time trying to get a new set that has all good DVD's in the set.moreless
Lol, in Germany you could buy a box with all ten seasons of friends for 89€, which is less then 100$.
I own the Buffy Collection and the WitchHunter Robin, Samurai Deeper Kyo, WWE Wrestlemania and sets. I'm eyeing the Sex and the City set next.
You save up enough money and you trully love the show, then I have no problem with it.
What I need is a Golden Girls set, Designing Women set and ADW set.
I think the price has to do with the money needed to be paid for the music.
It really bothers me when the studios come out with a season set with special bonus features never before seen. It is really a bad situation for the collectors who have collected the season sets. I do agree that season sets and series sets are expensive. I wait until stores go out of a business and buy a bunch at a time.
Way too freaking much. I MIGHT buy a series for 50-60 or a season for $15-$20, but NEVER will I buy a season for $50 and a series for $300!!!
Way too expensive. I don't understand the greed of the studios. Some series get released with 20 1 hour episodes for $50, some give 20 episodes for $20. It's ridiculous sometimes how much you pay for a season and how much difference there is in price. Especially when there are little extras. They'd probably sell more if they weren't so expensive!
I'm not buying another TV series on DVD until larger-capacity formats come--too many discs. OK, I'll end up getting season three of "Arrested Development," but that's because it's my favorite show. $300 and who knows how many discs for "Friends" is ridiculous, especially on regular DVDs. Who can even manage all those discs?
Good gravy! How much for a boxed set of THE SIMPSONS! Yikes!
The sad fact is, only the most affluent will be able to buy an entire TV series' inventory of episodes [those lasting five seasons or more] in a "mega DVD box set". Where does that leave the "average viewer", who only has X amount of dollars to spend on DVD's in the first place? The mark-up on those box sets {it costs less than $2 to create one DVD, on average} only benefits those companies greedy enough to entice "yuppie" collectors into buying "complete" TV series...which means "the rest of us" will have to slog through edited repeats of those shows on local stations and cable. It's just not fair...........
wait until they make the entire gunsmoke collection.
Good idea, but i'm not interested in any of those shows. Maybe if they released something good, it'll be worth the money.
i'm thinking of getting the friends, but its pricey
I would buy one if I got some gift certificates that I could use towards it or something like that. Other than that, it's not the kind of item that I'd just have to buy. I can be patient and collect a few at a time. But I do think it's a great marketing idea.
Well at least they are realeasing the individual season as well. Which is the way I have been collecting them.
Honestly, easier in the long run to just wait. As soon as blue-ray becomes commercial viable & whole seasons will fit on a single disc, entire series runs will probably retail for just a little over what season boxed sets sell for now.
meh not like whole season collections are anything new.
angel was released a year or two ago along with buffy.
I am gonna buy the whole Friends boxset as i have only a few vids and it is a cracking show!
should be 20 bucks a season.
that sweet,but pricey!!