Fox and The Simpsons

[Shawn Elestren]

Surely I am not alone in thinking that Fox really, REALLY, REALLY needs to step up their effing game when it comes to Simpsons box sets on Blu Ray (and DVD too). Since 2001 they've given us 13 seasons to date. That's averages 1.3 seasons a year.

I don't count the Season 20 release from 2009 because it was not released in chronological order. Only half of these episodes were in actual HD, meaning that by the time Fox gets off their asses and releases Season 21, the first season to be entirely done in HD, we'll already be in August 2017. A full 11 years after Blu Ray first hit the market.

DOES THAT MAKE ANY GODDAMN SENSE TO YOU? TO ANYONE???

What the hell is their problem with releasing this show. It's a MAJOR cash cow. It's generated Billions of dollars, yet they act like they couldn't give a damn. They need to do this faster. Their schedule is a joke.

Please do not respond to this thread with old, easy observations that Season 20 didn't have any extras just so Fox could milk us for more money some time in 2016 (7 years after it's first release). That shit has been done to death already.

[Clark Kent]

It's a steady source of revenue, major corporations like Fox use that stream to manage profits in an orderly manner for their shareholders. So certain titles will be held back for specific quarters of the year. Disney does the exact same thing with some of its properties. I do not foresee anything changing in how Fox handles the BD releases.

[Kryptonic]

I think the reason it takes so long is because they record commentaries for every episode. At least...that used to be their reason.

[Shawn Elestren]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

So certain titles will be hold back for specific quarters of the year.

A year has 4 quarters.

Release 4 seasons a year. Make lots of money in each quarter. Revenues go up and stay up.

Makes sense to me.

Waiting until 2017 to get Season 21 doesn't make sense at all. As a matter of fact it's COMPLETELY ASININE!

[Mavrick]

I've been wondering the exact same thing for a few years now. The only thing I can think of is that maybe they just can't fit 3-4 season releases a year into their budget. Thats all you read about the show these days, the cast agreeing to take a pay cut yet again and the studio telling us they don't have the budget to keep the show on air unless the cast take big pay cuts.

If Fox are strugling to keep the budget for it to stay on air then maybe they can only afford 1 or 2 releses a year for the show. I would love to see the rest of the show released on DVD, 1 season each quarter would do the trick.

But then would they be able to schedule everyone in for the commentary track recordings? I guess that can be another hurdle.

[Shawn Elestren]

Originally Posted by Mavrick

But then would they be able to schedule everyone in for the commentary track recordings? I guess that can be another hurdle.

But how many of us REALLY want commentaries? I can't think of a better way to ruin an episode than to listen to some schlub yacking over the soundtrack.

[StringerBell]

Originally Posted by Shawn Watson

But how many of us REALLY want commentaries? I can't think of a better way to ruin an episode than to listen to some schlub yacking over the soundtrack.

+1! I've always felt alone in that opinion, nothing ruins a film/TV Episode for me worse than listening to inane blabberings over it.

[Drudge]

Fox has a lot on its plate I guess but sit I'm still waiting on Married w/Children and the X-Files series on BD

[Clark Kent]

Originally Posted by Shawn Watson

A year has 4 quarters.

Release 4 seasons a year. Make lots of money in each quarter. Revenues go up and stay up.

Makes sense to me.

Waiting until 2017 to get Season 21 doesn't make sense at all. As a matter of fact it's COMPLETELY ASININE!

There is also the belief that the group of buyers for these seasons would be tapped out of funds if they had to spend that much on the Simpsons in one year. Most brands like to target their hardcore fans with one or two focused releases a year.

[BDrischBDemented]

Originally Posted by Shawn Watson

But how many of us REALLY want commentaries? I can't think of a better way to ruin an episode than to listen to some schlub yacking over the soundtrack.

I do. I'm usually ambivalent towards commentaries, but the ones here are always very insightful, informative, and often very funny. Given that there are no behind the scenes features for the episodes, the commentaries pretty much fill that void.

[Monterey Jack]

Seeing as all of the "good" seasons (1-9) have already been released, I don't see what anyone is complaining about. Post-season 9 Simpsons has been terrible.

[Mobe1969]

Commentaries on selected "special" episodes are fine. Animators showcases are an utterly annoying feature and in my books a complete waste of time. Deleted scenes - great.

I wish they'd just hurry the F up. At the current rate it is like what - 16 months between 13 and 14?

Just get them out their. FXXX the commentaries and animators showcases

[Shawn Elestren]

Originally Posted by Monterey Jack

Seeing as all of the "good" seasons (1-9) have already been released, I don't see what anyone is complaining about. Post-season 9 Simpsons has been terrible.

Massively disagree. There has been a lull, no doubt. But it's still going strong, and with a much wider, diverse, and dynamic range of characters.

Originally Posted by Mobe1969

I wish they'd just hurry the F up. At the current rate it is like what - 16 months between 13 and 14?

Just get them out their. FXXX the commentaries and animators showcases

Me too. I hate animatics, and wireframes and the 'this is how we do it shit'. We've seen it a million times before. And forever who likes trivia...either spot it yourself or buy the Simpsons Episode Guidebooks. Commentary tracks on the Simpsons is like adding a laugh track to the X-Files.

[RudyC]

commentaries over movies i like

commentaries on cartoons like the simpsons and family guy i dont like... its mostly them just laughing at their own creation..its stupid.

[mzupeman]

They certainly could step up their game but, there aren't too many shows that give us more seasons in a year than The Simpsons does. As already said, this is something they can count on bringing in the money year after year, and it's something that's going to be profitable for them for quite some time. Another factor is that this is an animated show so it takes a long time for a single episode to get made, and the people involved with The Simpsons want to be involved in the Blu-ray/ DVD releases. So that's part of it, too. I'm happier with The Simpsons being released as a full season set year after year than what Family Guy has been offering us... these half-assed 'volumes' that contains minimal episodes for top dollar... and on DVD at that.

When the series ends, I'm sure they'll ramp it up, but that's not going to happen for a while.

[Shawn Elestren]

Then they should catch up to the current season and release one a year after that.

[HDMe]

The more seasons they release in a year, the more they risk their customers not being able to afford them all.

The more seasons they release, they faster they get to the end... and the sooner the price-bubble starts to burst.

The longer the seasons are out, the lower the price... if they released multiple seasons in a year, that just speeds it up.

It is frustrating as a consumer who wants more... but as a business, once they release a season they are kind of done... and once they release ALL the seasons, they are really done.

Also... think of syndication. Right now seasons 14-19 are only available in syndication SO FOX can charge more for those episodes during this window until they get released on DVD/Blu... It behooves FOX to milk that cow as long as they can, because once episodes are out on DVD/Blu, and then clearance sales and stuff allow those to be picked up cheaply... consumers have less need to watch in syndication and thus FOX loses that cash cow.

Thus, the slow release makes a LOT of business sense actually.

[Shawn Elestren]

In that case I think they should re-consider the status of the early seasons on available to the consumer. My 2001 box set of Season 1 has seen better days and is really quite thick. If they were to remaster it in 1080p (upscales, I know, but still preferable) and release it as a Blu Ray you'd have the entire season on 1 disc (13 episodes).

[tylergfoster]

You guys are all nuts. The commentaries on "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" are some of the best commentary tracks out there.

Anyway, Fox likes making money on the show, but the trick is, it's money they know they can make. So they will always pace themselves. They can have a weak home video quarter and know they have a Simpsons set to fall back on later. It may not make sense to you, but it's pretty logical; for them, reliability outweighs sheer profit, and they don't want to over-saturate the market to the point where their audience feels overwhelmed. If four "Simpsons" set hit a year, someone might say, "Oh, I'll just wait, that's too much for me at one time," and then fall behind, and so on.

[Josh5890]

The Simpsons are almost the only thing I still buy on DVD. I wish they would go faster but I have a wish list bigger than a 6 year old's list to Santa so I'm not in a great hurry.