The Simpsons

Small Screen Specials, Series and Direct-To-Video
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Re: The Simpsons

Post by droosan » April 9th, 2015, 11:14 am


So .. seasons 1-17, season 20, and the movie are on DVD.

Want the rest..? Digital download/streaming services, only .. maybe. Someday in the future.

Because, pirates. :roll:


I'd think perhaps recording a commentary track for each and every single episode could be 'done away with' for DVD sets going forward, and Fox could release 'bare-bones' boxed sets of at least seasons 18 & 19 to test this notion that the DVD market is dying (and thereby reward fans who have stuck with collecting the series, thus far).

This looks like a job for Warner Archive (or the Fox equivalent) ..

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by Dacey » April 9th, 2015, 11:19 am

The Simpsons is actually virtually impossible to find online.

Not that I speak from experience, but... ;)
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Re: The Simpsons

Post by GeorgeC » April 9th, 2015, 1:18 pm

I tend to think the decision to drop DVD releases is VERY short-sighted.

This is driven by greed most likely and they are NOT looking at the bigger picture... To a lot of fans who were STILL buying the show on DVD, this is like giving them a BIG MIDDLE FINGER. This is a very, very dumb PR move on Fox's part. If they are smart, they will change their minds well within a week. I would change that decision yesterday if it were me!

Fox has made a lot of money off The Simpsons... They may not want to admit this in public but the show is probably as important to them as Star Trek and Star Wars are to the companies that own those series, too.

The Simpsons is probably the most popular animated TV series in history and DEFINITELY one of the most popular sitcoms, too. I hesitate calling it the most popular TV show in history, period, but it has been around for going on three decades now. There is very little else on TV that has been around as longer or longer in continuous production other than news TV programs and some soap operas. Think about it --- there hasn't a been a time since 1989 when there HASN'T been a new season of new episodes of The Simpsons! A lot of other TV series have gone on hiatus for a season or two, or even decades before they were brought back IF ever! ( => See Dr. Who, Red Dwarf, Star Trek, etc.)

Unless the the powers-that-be at 20th Century Fox think they have made all the money they are going to off The Simpsons, this has to be a pretty stupid decision if NOT for just the PR backlash from the fanbase still buying the DVDs alone.

Go into Wal-Mart once in a while, folks... I would suggest that as much as some people want to deny it there is a general reality about the average person's entertainment AND what actually sells to the masses. DVD still makes up AT LEAST half the video section in those stores if not more than half... Even today! Best Buy, Barnes & Noble and all the other companies still carrying home video releases in-store sure haven't abandoned carrying DVD, either!

3D Blu ray is pretty much dead by-and-large. It was a fad and that bubble popped a while back.
DVD is VERY much NOT a fad and it'll be around for quite a few more years and IF the hardware manufacturers are smart they'll keep supporting the format with backwards compatibility because it'll be around for at least another decade I'd imagine...

I think it's criminally stupid and the only reason NOT to do more Simpsons DVD releases is what Droo said... but ironically, they'd probably still make more money if they went ahead with DVD releases DESPITE the pirating. I personally think the no-DVD argument is fairly weak as far as piracy goes. You can find new episodes within a day or two after they're shown on TV online so they're being streamed almost right away, DVD or no DVD!

Once in a while, the home video companies do an EXCELLENT job cutting their own throats!

Blu ray has been a double-edged sword, IMHO. I think for a lot of TV animation -- particularly a lot of the Hanna-Barbera/UPA-like material, it doesn't do a heck of a lot... An upscaled DVD release of say PowerPuff Girls would look almost as good as a Blu ray release. The average person would NOT see a big enough difference to justify the Blu ray purchase. (I would say Simpsons does NOT require Blu ray, either, for the same reasons as most of the contemporary H-B animation... For anime, it's a split on whether the HD authoring really makes a difference or not...) There is nothing in the color or line-pattern of that show that would really benefit from an HD release. When you have more detail, subtle colors, and a lot more than 8-10 shades of color onscreen then, yeah, a Blu ray release is not a bad option IF you can sell enough discs to pay for it!

On the other hand, no question the films and TV shows that are filled with detail (Disney classic features, a lot of anime, and definitely the Ghibli stuff) DO benefit from HD disc release. Certainly, most live-action shot on film WILL show a lot more detail on Blu ray and generally look better in HD IF the show's creators put in the money to do a decent job on the show's presentation.
(Ironically, some sci-fi series would NOT benefit from an HD release until the special effects are redone! Early CG on show shows was done for standard-definition/regular TV. That's why there is no Blu ray release of any part of Babylon 5! Also, some other shows which had 'classic' effects done with models, those effects were finished off on tapes geared towards standard-def TV. They had to redo ALL the major special effects shots in hi-def CG for Star Trek: TNG because the original FX were finished on SD videotape!)
Yes, the companies are AWARE that DVD has been cracked forever... The problem is that it is STILL very expensive to prepare films and TV shows for Blu ray. They will only do Blu ray releases IF they think they stand to make a substantial profit and AT LEAST ENOUGH money to justify the additional expense of an HD/Blu ray release... and to think the electronics company jerks are STILL talking about Ultra HD disc hardware coming out in the next year! Companies are STILL not fully on-board with Blu ray and that format has been around just under 10 years!

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by Ben » April 9th, 2015, 2:09 pm

Wow...what with his, um, "prolific" number of posts in the past couple of days, I'm so glad we didn't cut George's forum access off when he asked us to and threatened to never make another appearance here ever again... ;)

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by GeorgeC » April 9th, 2015, 8:38 pm

Thank you, Ben!

Anyhow, update on the 20th Century Fox situation.

Go to the Digital Bits or any decent home video site and they'll confirm this.

20th Century Fox basically wants to stop making 5-inch disc altogether...

Yes, that means DVD AND Blu ray!

NO MORE new seasons of The Simpsons on disc, PERIOD!

Now, the funny thing is that The Digital Bits is a site that has a reputation for promoting home media and the 'next big' home theater experience...

Their outlook on next-gen disc (Ultra HD) went down the toilet. They won't bother to tell their readers to invest in Ultra HD disc. They honestly think with the attitude displayed by the home video companies that it's a waste of money to buy those players. I would tend to agree... There have been problems with the way Blu ray has been handled and I think a new format release is a VERY bad idea unless these companies can get together and decide what will happen support-wise because the support for Blu ray has NEVER been as good as it was for DVD years back.

Ben's noticed this, I've noticed, anybody that goes into a store regularly or looks online will see that there have been cutbacks on the Blu ray disc releases.

The era of having spectacular extras is basically gone... Nobody can guarantee that the next major video release of a film will have much more than the trailer. Disney has been particularly conspicuous here. They have finally released the bulk of their classic animated features on Blu ray and frankly if you had these films on DVD before you will notice -- it pops out like crazy -- that very few of these discs have the extras from the DVD let alone anything created new for Blu ray other than an HD video master.

Blu ray 3D is basically gone from Disney's animated feature releases. At least for the US. (They did release a Blu ray 3D version of Frozen overseas... Haven't checked Big Hero 6 to see if that's had an overseas Blu ray 3D release.)

They are still doing Blu ray 3D releases of action films and the superhero stuff.

The announcement that they're releasing the original 6 Star Wars films to digital release I don't think is part of this... that's a separate issue (and frankly in my view, too little, too late... I'm sure the Blu rays were already ripped well before Fox got off its butt and actually did a formal pay-to-view, pay-to-download edition of those films. On the other hand, it could have LucasFilm that was blocking the digital release).

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by Ben » April 10th, 2015, 6:23 am

No probs, George...glad you decided to stick around. :)

Big Hero 6 did get a 3D release, at least in the UK, though I don't get Disney's reasoning for not continuing in the US: the files are there and they don't put them out digitally, so what's the point? I noticed Cinderella didn't have a 3D release and see that as interesting.

Disney just resigned with Imax, so maybe they see that as the best way to enjoy a big movie and will be able to cut their production costs without the added dimension involved. Certainly the amount of 3D releases has dropped substantially from all studios.

I personally think the SW digital releases are a knee-jerk reaction to someone telling Bob Iger they weren't already out there. The plan seems to be get them out quick (these are the 2004 editions as far as I can make out) so that a heap of fans buy these editions, only to find that the original originals will then come out as expected on all formats. This is just Disney (and Fox, who still own the first film) wanting to get digital copies out so that they can then release them again down the line, and nothing else.

Quite why they were never issued before isn't a big mystery: there are no digital copies of LucasFilm's properties so we can pretty much assume he didn't like the quality or ability to make sure the film were presented appropriately. Now they're out of his hands, though...

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by droosan » April 10th, 2015, 11:43 am

Only tangentially related: I just found out Shout! Factory will be unable to continue/complete its DVD sets of the 1980s sitcom Newhart, since 20th Century Fox has yanked back the license rights. Season 4 (released August 2014) will be their last, leaving fully half of the series' 8-season run unavailable. :(

At least Shout! was able to release complete boxed sets of The Bob Newhart Show and WKRP in Cincinatti during the past year .. TV shows with wide audience appeal which 20th Century Fox Home Video had started -- but long-since abandoned -- on DVD.

There may be something to the notion that Fox is becoming openly hostile toward physical media. :|

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by EricJ » April 10th, 2015, 2:15 pm

droosan wrote:There may be something to the notion that Fox is becoming openly hostile toward physical media. :|
I'm completely in the belief that Digital Media is a full-blown bubble that's doing mortgage-derivative damage to the industry--it's replaced renting, but any studios waiting for it to "replace disk" are in for a rude awakening--and boy, does this make me wish some fatal bit of excess would hurry up and make it pop pretty darn soon, so we can see what studios scramble to do in the fallout.
It's already starting to bite "the new 4K revolution" in the hinder, as studios and hardware companies can't decide whether or not to make the disks or lead the new format toward digital, each pursuing their new dream "replacement".

I had been going on the alternate theory, that maybe Fox is starting to cut costs in the belief that the Simpsons have finally had it, and while the network keeps their one other gravy train going (it's now second to the Cult of Griffin), the studio is second-guessing the idea of having to sell twenty-five season boxes, to people who probably don't want to buy #15 or #13.
And then I look at Warner also being paranoid of its own disk customers, and agree...okay, maybe Fox are a bunch of weasels.

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by GeorgeC » April 10th, 2015, 2:26 pm

Lemme put it as simply as I can to you guys -- this should be my main point..

I don't like it when companies force changes the consumers didn't ask for or didn't want... Innovate, yes, but to end product support when plenty of people STILL use something and it's still making a company good money is NUTS!

I already mentioned this BUT we're still in the process of transitioning to HD and they want to force yet ANOTHER HD upgrade and it won't happen for most people (many people are fine with DVD; a lot JUST got on board with Blu ray or will never bother after sampling it) and with the way the companies are acting even with Blu ray now Ultra HD is gonna flop. Very few consumers have asked for this and the product support for Ultra HD is NOT there from cable or home video, period...

It's one thing to innovate and people adopt product that actually can improve or makes things simpler -- and that's usually good in the long run. Smart phones have done that BUT also complicated everybody's lives at the same time!

What I don't like about this decision is that it smacks of utter arrogance and absolute certainty about something... and DVDs are still selling! Are they upset that these sets are 'only' selling 25,000 copies each (it's probably multiples of that) instead of a half-million? VERY FEW things are selling like they did a decade ago but the point is that the business is STILL there! There are a lot of companies that sell fewer amounts of hard 5-inch media (CD or DVD or Blu ray) --- product runs of 5,000 units and often less --- and they still seem to get by. It's amazing to me when a corporation decides that 'just' 150,000-200,000 sales is NOT enough for them to bother with it. Laserdiscs NEVER sold that much but that format was supported over 2 decades nonetheless!

They allowed VHS to gradually disappear... I think most of us were okay with that. THAT didn't happen overnight and I don't think the migration to DVD was forced hard on people, and yes, people still occasionally watch VHS (and a decent-condition VHS tape DOESN'T look THAT BAD on an HD set with proper 480i support).

This decision really feel likes Fox is trying to ram it down the throat of the consumer. I could use much harsher language but I think that would be crossing into the realm of hysteria. Seriously, this is NOT how a company should be responding to consumers. Consumers are supposed to dictate the directions companies take NOT the other way around!

I'd really hate to see the home video business go the way that the music industry did but YEESH! they seem to be hell-bound to follow that bit of stupidity, too!

The music business is a 50% or less shell of what it used to be because of really dumb short-sighted decisions by greedy people... Especially when they let their egos take over business decision making and/or lack common sense completely. The music industry will NEVER make as much money off digital downloads as they did when they actually sold a decent amount of GOOD records! There's always a bit of greed involved but there's no guarantee that the people running these companies (in any industry) are business-savvy, either, or understand that when you sell crap product to enough people they WILL stop buying it in droves... It wasn't just torrent sites that destroyed the music industry, crappy albums played a big part in that, too!

As big a pain-in-the-butt as it is to make a 5-inch disc, home video companies STILL make more money off hard-copy sales than they ever will off digital download... I think that's been proven with the math. It just seems very stupid to force the complete abandonment of the existing model. I don't think it'll happen overnight either way but hopefully Fox will be alone with this complete stupidity.

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by ShyViolet » July 20th, 2015, 4:35 pm

Wow SO sad about Alex Rocco dying. Loved him in The Godfather, and he was absolutely hilarious as Roger Meyers Jr. (His slightly hoarse voice always reminded me of Eisner's LOL!) "You take away our right to steal ideas, where are they gonna come from?"

RIP Alex. :( :(


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Re: The Simpsons

Post by Randall » July 20th, 2015, 11:38 pm

I loved his role as Al Floss in Jon Cryer's The Famous Teddy Z. Anyone remember that one-season wonder?

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by Ben » July 21st, 2015, 4:05 am

You do, Rand...that's all that matters... ;)

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by droosan » January 13th, 2016, 5:27 am

Push it to the limit! 8)




This needs to be expanded into a full-length DTV or special.

----------------------------------------

ADDENDUM: Actually, it seems Comedy Central has already kinda done that, with Moonbeam City (SFW, but probably not for kids). I love that all the characters look like 'Patrick Nagel' paintings..! :lol:

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by Ben » January 13th, 2016, 4:06 pm

Mmm....looks like someone has been watching Kung Fury...! ;)

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Re: The Simpsons

Post by Dacey » January 13th, 2016, 4:12 pm

"But before I could pull the trigger, I was hit by lightning and bitten by a cobra..."
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it's called the present."

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