lotsofdvds

Are future volumes of Larry Sanders and Mad About You essentially dead in the water? I'm guessing in the case of Mad About You probably so, since they released that Best Of collection. But all we got for Larry Sanders was the first season.

wnyx1440

I would love to see more seasons of Larry Sanders released. I heard the first volume didn't sell well though (most likely due to the initial high price point). I read a while back in Entertainment Weekly that they were releasing a "Best of" collection... whatever happened to that?

GoVegan

It seems as if Mad About You was treated pretty oddly for such a popular show. I mean for the first season they took 22 episodes and compressed them onto two single-sided discs, slightly out of order - so some episodes reference things which happen later. The second season was at least an improvement, but then they dropped the releases altogether. Granted they came out a bit earlier in the TV on DVD cycle, but I have trouble believing that full season sets wouldn't sell well if they were released now.

RobCA

I was so disappointed when they stopped releasing Mad About You in season sets... there were some of my favorite episodes in Season 3, and subsequent seasons, that I was really looking forward to getting on DVD.

Rob

lotsofdvds

I see that Mad About You is airing like at 2am on Nick (!). I really don't want to have to go that route.

Michael Corvin

Count me as one who would love more Mad About You. My wife never saw it in its original run and so I got her hooked on the DVDs.

And yes, those were quite early tv on DVD releases, I imagine they would sell just as well as some of the other crap out there if they released them now.

calhoun07

What kills me is crap like Punky Brewster and Give Me a Break and Charles in Charge and She Spies and so much other crap just come out in clusters and we wait for TV that was actually worth it, wondering if it will EVER come out. Thank God that Fox figured out what the problem was with Mary Tyler Moore (the price is ALWAYS the problem. You can't charge 25.00 for one classic show on DVD then charge 50.00 for the same type of show in a different set). Now if only the people who oversee Mad About You and Larry Sanders could likewise get it together....better to release those sets now than before the TV on DVD boom dies down, which it inevitably will.

Buford T Pusser

A friend has all of the Larry Sanders on tape. He should burn them and sell them on eBay. We borrowed them years ago and watched about five a night.



When Mad About You came out Mrs. Pusser and I loved it. Parts and situations/points in life, etc. mirrored what was happening with us so that helped personalize it for us.

But for some reason we haven't shown much interest in rewatching the show.

Lokimok

I also remember hearing about a Best Of collection for Larry Sanders. I think Shandling was even involved in making extras for it. I don't think it's a good idea & probably wouldn't buy it, but I'd be all over more season sets.

At the very least, HBO should be rerunning the show on their comedy channel...

JoeyOhhhh

Sadly HBO doesn't own the show so they can't air it unless they make a deal to air them. I had found the entire second season online, and the first 2 episodes of season 3, but thats it. I'd like to see more Larry Sanders

hiccup

I'm a huge fan of Mad About You and this news of no further releases (at least what is known at the moment) is quite distressing. I haven't picked up the first two seasons yet, but I have always wanted to. I liked the show during its original airing, but loved it when I saw reruns and just really got into the show. Sure it might sound funny, but before Oxygen and Nick at Night picked it up, I had to watch most of the seasons throught he Lifetime network.

slop101

Looks like there's gonna be some more Larry Sanders dvds in the fall with some great extras by Shandling himself (though it's not clear if they'll be best-of or season sets):

Shandling: This is so important to me. All during this [making Over the Hedge] what I was working on was putting the Larry Sanders DVDs together. They’re supposed to be out in the fall, in November. That was all consuming. I’m so proud of… God knows until you see them. They said ‘What kind of special features do you want to do?’ First of all, I’m not the kind of guy that likes to rehash the show and so forth and so on. I’m still learning about the show and what happened and the process is revealed. I said, ‘Just get me two hand held cameras and I’ll visit people I want to visit, that I want to catch up with, that I don’t get to talk to because I’ve been so busy and during the show I didn’t get to talk to them, without any preparation.

It’s very hard to describe. It is so real and unedited, so there’s these sections where I talk to Sharon Stone that is real life, that goes on for thirty minutes, that’s a private, intimate track. Then I talk to Tom Petty. I can’t explain it other than you cannot see it coming – it’s not an interview situation. I go over to his studio, I hadn’t seen him in a long time. It’s the core of what Larry Sanders is about, which is about being. It’s a very interesting, private little track. Seinfeld – I walked through Central Park with Seinfeld, we shot four hours. That one I’ll have to cut down a little bit, but it’s great insight. It’ll feel unedited and raw.

http://www.chud.com/index.php?type=news&id=6564

lotsofdvds

Normally I'd agree, but those extras sound awesome.

slop101

I don't understand this - you may not get every episode, but you're still getting something.

Obviously, I'd rather have full season sets than best-of collections, but I'd rather have something than nothing at all. It's a great show that has mostly stand-alone episodes, and if you're a fan, how could you turn it down, especially with those extras? I just don't get this mentality of "all, or nothing" - explain it to me.

lotsofdvds

There's also the whole catch-22 of it all. People won't buy "best of's" because they want to wait for full seasons, yet if the collections don't sell then the studio might take that as complete lack of interest. They aren't the brightest bulbs...

wergo

"Mostly stand-alone episodes"? Well, there were a few, but I'd hardly say "most." And they certainly weren't the BEST ones. In fact, it was the building of tensions between characters all season long that made the episodes at the end so damn funny. The shows were presented on broadcast as a series, and that's how they deserve to be presented on DVD. I frickin' HATE Greatest Hits albums. I never agree with the choices, they always highlight the lame commercial drivel and leave out the coolest songs, they're usually edited single versions and the songs that were chosen as singles in the first place were usually made by corporate suits, not the artist. Transferring such heinous practices to the realm of television is just obnoxious. I want the original albums in their complete form and I want the full seasons of TV series' in their complete form.

slop101

Why are you assuming the episodes on the dvds would be cut?

The book analogy is also incorrect, as the episodes would not be "abridged".
A more correct analogy would be that, say you're a fan of Sherlock Holmes, but you won't buy any SH books that are in print, because you can't get the out of print ones - again, this makes no sense.

And as far as the catch-22, if the dvds are coming this late, I doubt there would be any double dip.

But this could all be moot, as the Larry Sanders dvds could very well be season sets - and even though I have the season 1 set, I hope they re-do that one with a better transfer and extras.

slop101

I do too - I'm not saying otherwise.

What I am saying is if you could ONLY get a greatest hits album from your favorite band, and not their regular albums, why would you not get the only release from your favorite band?

slop101

ahhh! again, wrong analogy - that might apply if you were missing chapters within an episode. Even with random episodes, you're still getting complete episodes with a begining, middle and end. This isn't 24.

Paul Drake

Episodes may have a beginning, middle, and end, but there were occasional story arcs spread among episodes.

These seasons weren't very long so why not combine 2 seasons in one release? That would excite consumers much more than a lame "best of".

John Sinnott

I agree with Vandelay. I won't buy this unless it's a boxed set with EVERY episode. I don't pay for abridged books, and I don't want a less than a complete series. I (and I assume Vandelay) don't listen to music on the radio either! I want the whole album not just some random songs. I don't watch trailers in the theater either, because I want the entire movie, not just some assorted bits.

Yep, me and Vandelay, non sequitur isn't even in our vocabulary!

james2025a

They did release a "Best of" for Larry Sanders in the UK. It had about 14 episodes or something like that on. Its weird because as far as i know they still havn't released the series 1 set out in the UK though. I do remember that the transfer quality on the best of was FAR superior to the Season 1 quality though. The episodes were great....but i still want to see them release all the seasons. This was quite possibly the best TV comedy show ever created.

ThatGuamGuy

I take it, then, that you would not buy a book of short stories unless it had every single short story ever written by the author? [Or, at least, were part of a chronological compilation of all of 'em.]

There are certainly shows where I want every episode ... but, for instance, if I could find a 'Family Guy' compilation which had all the episodes I want, I'd buy that. But I would have no interest in owning every episode; there are *maybe* a half-dozen with true repeat value, in my eyes.

'Saturday Night Live' is also a good example; I haven't been a huge fan of any of the compilations they've released thus far (except Walken), but I am 100% sure I wouldn't be interested in season sets. (At most I'd rent a few.)

I'd love it if more creators took Mike Judge's route and said "There are episodes which are terrible which I don't want people to pay money to own." Imagine being able to buy the very few good 'Simpsons' episodes of the past five years without having to buy all the bad ones too...

wergo

Yeah, but this isn't like the 'Looney Tunes' sets, where each episode is distinct and they can just pick the best ones to sell first, there's continuity involved. If the short stories were intended to be read individually, I wouldn't mind. If they were serialized chapters, then yes, I would definitely refuse to buy the collection because it wasn't complete.

I don't mind a collection of Beethoven string quartets chosen at random but I balk at the thought of excerpts of movements WITHIN each quartet. Fragments from a larger work are inexcusable.

Take Hank's restaurant debacle, for instance. Can anyone honestly say that that didn't get funnier as it went on BECAUSE is was spread over a season? Sure, just getting the episode where he falls asleep on the Seinfeld set is funny, but it's not as satisfying when it's not the payoff for all the hassles over the previous episodes.

Other studios have played this game, but at least they gave the audience a choice; You want the complete 'Sex And The City'? It's available. You want seperate season box sets? They're available. You want cheap "best of" discs? They're available. Same with 'Friends.' There's even 'Best of Buffy' sets (though all but the Spike one are region 2) for those people (who are they?) who want them. But that's offering MORE choice for the fan (or the casually curious). 'Larry Sanders' is offering LESS. I don't hate (though I question the worth of) the idea of making a "best of" set available, as long as the season sets (or, even better, a "complete" box) are also available. This is questionable counterproductive marketing.

John Sinnott

My post was sarcasm. Sorry you didn't catch it. Vandelay's comparison of an episode of a sitcom to a chapter of a book is fallacious and doesn't even make any sense. (You can watch every other episode of a sitcom and enjoy it on TV, but you can't do the same with skipping chapters in a book, as most people already know.) I was trying to come up with an equally idiotic analogy, but didn't quite succeed.

I hope they come out with season sets too, and probably won't by a "best of" collection either. I just can't stand badly flawed logic. A personal pet peeve I guess.