I am really getting tired of the annual release dates for this series. Fox is not friggin HBO. I know they are doing their best work in doing great extras and all, but the only season I listened to every commentary on was season one. Do we really need commentary on EVERY episode? Why can't Fox do a handful of commentaries on key episodes and just let the rest lie? They do that with every other release they put out. Or is it a Groening thing? Either way, whoever is responsible for holding these things up, I wish they would stop. Seeing MASH and others come out at a good rate and this one creeping along at one per year is rather frustrating, and it is the series I look forward to the most!

Personally, I don't care for the commentaries. I listened to a few on the first season and didn't think they were that great. "Oh, I'd forgotten about that joke. Ha-ha."

Its the commentaries and what makes it worse is that one of the people involved joked that "they had run out of ideas on what to say so some tracks just have them singing songs and laughing."

As I understand it, the commentaries have been "in the can" for some time now, and the delay is for some other reason.

Is season 3 still tentatively set for July?

At the pace of the releases I will be a grandpa and dvd's will be a thing of the distant past.

Please hurry FOX!

That reminds me, dad. Uh, there's something I need to tell you...

Are you pregnant?

Eh, they will come out when they come out. It's on syndication all the time.

This probably the only DVD I WANT BARE BONES! I don't care about commentaries! I just want the episodes as they were origionally produced!

Who cares about the commentaries? I hate them, bo-oring!
The extras so far have been pretty crap too.

Just gimme the episodes with 5.1 and perfect picture and I'm happy.

fi-fi

I think this needs to be added to the FAQ thread, it seems like this question is asked every week.

Really? I frequent the boards and I guess I missed the past posts on this subject! But it is a serious question! Kinda like Seinfeld on DVD, the threads always get closed but I don't think I ever seen a definitive answer on if/when/why they aren't on DVD. I am really wondering if anybody knew what the deal was with the annual release dates on these sets when Fox puts out everything else at a good rate.

The commentaries for the next 3 seasons (or 4, I forget) were recorded quite some time ago.

It isn't the commentaries that are holding up the set.

Where did you hear that the commentaries for the 3 or 4 seasons have already been recorded? I am fairly certain that is not the case.

Have people written to Fox and Groening/Gracie to complain about the delay and the lack of interest in commentarries or are they just bitching on this cahtboard?

I have no idea how the myth that commentaries have been canned for future seasons has begun, but this should dispell it right now. This was taken from the February 6th USA Today talking about the 300th episode.

"It is here, on the Fox lot, that most of the 300 reasons to love The Simpsons have been hatched. On this particular day, executive producer Al Jean is supposed to work on six of them: five new episodes plus a Season 3 DVD.

Sure beats a desk job at a nuclear plant.

On Jean's to-do list this day:

Recording a trans-Atlantic guest voiceover with Ian McKellen for an episode in which the Simpsons go to London (God save the Queen).
Cutting 23 seconds from an episode in which Krusty the Clown runs for Congress.
Rewriting a first draft of the Skinner-Krabappel nuptials.
Reworking an episode featuring Lisa as a grade-school Evita, which has gone through initial animation.
Arranging for Nancy Cartwright to read a new Bart line for the 300th episode on Feb. 16.
Joining Simpsons creator Matt Groening to watch and comment on episodes for the Season 3 DVD."

It's obvious by the reference to the "Feb. 16" show that this trip to the FOX lot didn't happen a lot earlier than the article was written.

Here's the link to the article: http://www.usatoday.com/life/televis...simpsons_x.htm

UUUmmmmm.....not to sound patronizing or anything, but have all of you been living under a rock the last couple of months? Matt Groening is working full-time on ATP2003 in LA. This is going to be his mission until the event ends. He's not going to work on anything else. http://www.atpfestival.com/events/index.php?event=2
Everything else is going to have to be put on hold. And that includes yellow cartoon characters.

Actually, guys, I LOVE tha commentaries! (of course, I live and breathe the Simpsons.....)

I'd much rather wait for them to do the sets right (inluding commentaries). Great picture quality and 5.1 sound aren't too important for a show like The Simpsons IMO, so I don't see much benefit to putting them on DVD if you're going to leave out the extras.

In fact, although I love the show, I will not be buying any of the South Park sets without commentaries (I bought season 1 because I got it for $9.99 from Media Play and because they at least offered commentaries on CD). South Park definitely does not need 5.1 sound and great picture quality (which the DVDs didn't even deliver, anyway), so what's the point of releasing them on DVD, if you're not going to have good extras.

On the other hand, even though I've never been a big Futurama fan, I'm planning to buy the S1 set because it has good extras (commentaries), and because it can be found relatively cheap.

I like the extras and the commentaries and hope they continue on all the future sets. No matter how long it takes for them to be released.

I could care less about the commentaries. If the season sets would come out faster barebones, that's fine by me.

Two words: Marketing strategy.

Look at the anticipation that is building up for these sets. Marketing folks love that.

I guess that it's understood that commentaries are the sole reason that these dvd's take so long, but here's a little tidbit to reinforce that idea.

"In a March 13 article by The Los Angeles Times, Matt Groening confirms that it's the scheduling problems with recording commentary tracks that keep delaying The Simpsons' DVD releases:

'We're doing audio commentaries for every episode, much to the chagrin of Fox Home Video,' said Matt Groening, creator of 'The Simpsons.' 'They want us to put this show out much faster than we're able to crank out these audio commentaries.'

'Although things are going much faster these days,' Groening joked, 'we've run out of things to say, and we're just like whistling and doing little songs and stuff.'

www.snpp.com/news/dvd.html

I like the commentary. Well worth it to me.

True, but a good marketing group is going to realize that people will eventually become frustrated, lose interest, and revolt.

I, and a lot of people, will not buy new copies of this set, for no other reason than to keep Fox from getting our money.

I know of at least six people who have extended their no-new DVD purchases to all Fox titles.