Extremely Lame

I can be a bit anal retentive at times, so here’s something that really annoys me. If you’re a television studio and decide to release something on DVD, please please PLEASE release it in its entirety or don’t do it at all. Don’t release the first couple seasons and then nothing else. I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only completist that pretty much is compelled to buy the rest of a series once the first season is bought (unless later seasons really REALLY sucked or there are like 20 seasons, like The Simpsons or Law & Order). Hell, there are print-on-demand sites like Lulu.com that will print things as demand comes in so you aren’t stuck with a warehouse full of books if they don’t sell. I’m certain that some DVD authoring company could easily set something like that up.

The TV shows that I’m thinking of that got this shabby sort of treatment are Hill Street Blues (first two seasons out of 7) and a number of Nickelodeon shows I grew up with like The Adventures of Pete and Pete (2 seasons out of 3) and Clarissa Explains it All (only one season out of five).This half-hearted attempt at a release annoys me so bad that I feel that even shows that I completely abhor (such as Life Goes On) don’t deserve this. And that’s saying something. I still hold a grudge against the person who made my life a living hell from second grade through most of the way through high school.

It seems to be a total crapshoot when it comes to great shows being released on DVD. We got both Sledge Hammer! and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. in their entireties, but we can’t get a studio to release great shows like Get a Life or Parker Lewis Can’t Lose to save our lives. Before you point out that Get a Life was released on DVD, Chris Elliot remarks here*  that it wasn’t a legitimate release and the actual release with commentary and extras is stuck in legal hell.

*Suicide Girls interview, so some places of employment may block the entire site despite this particular page being mostly safe for work