For me, personally (as someone mentioned earlier), when a show goes south along the way, it taints the quality that came before. Whenever I watch a really good early ROSEANNE or WILL & GRACE episode, there's always a melancholy voice in the back of my mind saying "it's such a damn shame this show went in the toilet..." It just makes it hard for me to get enthused about these shows as a whole (from a collecting standpoint) because I see a series as a complete whole, not isolated, individual, not-affected-by- other-episodes seasons/episodes.

Then I guess I see it more in a "glass half-full" kinda way, instead of "half-empty" like you.

I can easily cut off a show in my mind. Sex and the City ends for me at season 4 finale. Will and Grace is over at season 3. Friends ends at season 4. Next month when season 6 of ER is released, I'll be done with that. Most shows go down hill for me a couple of years before they finally end. I just pretend those seasons never happened.

I don't watch TV so the only chance I get to see a TV series is when they come to DVD. Sure I catch a few pieces while I'm at friends homes but I don't get into shows until I sample their first season which I buy very cheap ($10-$20) to test the water. I also find buying old favorites that I remember from TV land as worst than I remember so I have a few first seasons but will not get the rest. I do have all of STOS, STNG, ST-DS9, and the movies but not Voyager or Enterprise. If I come across the entire sets real cheap I would get them. The way my brain works is that even bad Sci-Fi is better than comedy sitcoms or even drama.

I didn't used to be but then I bought Farscape, all as they came out (non-Starburst editions)
Now I really really hate ADV
I spent about 660 dollars buying them all individually right when they came out
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/6...2785lb1.th.jpg
41 DVDs in 26 sets (plus the movie) it takes up nearly a whole shelf

once all the starbursts are out they'll prob have a box for cheap with all the extra features I didn't get in my original version

so now I never ever buy a tv show untill it is all out (it hurts for lost and bsg but it'll be worth it)

I'm hit and miss with some things.

For example, 'The X Files. When I used to live in England we were always behind episode wise to what was shown here in the US so I would always tape and watch them. Then I moved to the US and my wife would get them for me for Xmas and birthday because it had been a while since I had seen them. At the point I moved here it was probably around season 7 and for one erason or another just stopped wtahcing the show and it actually didn't have anything to do with the show itself. Therefore when the original sets dropped in price and I was able to snatch them up at Costco for $40 a piece I just hadto because I had yet to see them and I didn't want to buy the newer slim packed versions because the ones I already owned for the oriinal releases and I'm kind of a sucker for special features.

'Medium' is a show that my wife and I started to get into but due to work could never watch the episodes in chronological order so when the first 2 seasons were relased we snapped them up so we could watch them and catch up on everything.

As for 'Scrubs', I just love that show and the writing so have to get those ones when they get released.

'24' - I watched the first season and since then have waited until the following seasons were released on DVD before watching them. Seasons 2-4 I used Netflix for and I believe that my wife may have picked them up at Target recently for $16 a piece, and now I can't wait for Season 5 which I'm sure I'll get for Xmas.

The only one that concerns me is Lost, and only because I've heard the horror stories about the later seasons of Abrams' previous project (I've never watched an episode of Alias). I don't expect The Office to take a nosedive.

For something like The Simpsons, I have no problem collecting only the seasons that I enjoyed as a whole (which, coincidentally, correspond to the "heads" cases).

I can relate to that. After over three years, I'm STILL waiting for season 2 of both "Happy Days" and "Mork & Mindy".

But then you just get burned again when they put out a "complete' collection with fancy packaging, cheaper pricetag, and bonus content -- like both Alias and the West Wing did. :)

I have Smallville upto s3 and resisted buying the rest, even at very cheap prices for the same reason as OP.

But that's the case for virtually everything...almost everything, especially technology, can be found better, cheaper, later. My PS1 which cost hundreds, what, 7 years ago, I could probably find a later version of it for 20 bucks at a garage sale.
If it's a show I like, I usually will try to collect each season, because though the seasons may vary in quality, generally there are some keepers in every season. I have started waiting till the first or second price drop, though, unless I can get a good price release week.

I agree with you on the sitcoms. As for serialized dramas, it really gets me when they just end the show with no satisfactory conclusion to the series. I absolutely hate that and refuse to buy a series that just abruptly ends without wrapping up existing story-lines. For that reason, I usually avoid buying them when the are still on the air. There are exceptions. For example, Veronica Mars concludes the season's storyline with the season. I happily purchased both seasons.

i bought alias seasons 1 and 2 and lost season 1 and rented grey's anatomy 1 and 2 to catch up. i don't really have a problem with buying tv shows before the series are over. i just try to catch up as much as i can so i can follow the story line.

I wonder if there are any plans of releasing The X-Files Complete series on dvd.

I'm with you on this one. I buy my TV DVDs one set at a time, and only keep the seasons I'll rewatch again and again (which usually are the first five seasons). Completely agree about Alias and the bizarre dilemma of the OP.

As for shows currently on the air, it's pretty simple: I'll continue buying each newly-released season on DVD until I get to one that I don't like, and then stop.

I am skittish about buying TV shows on DVD period anymore because 1) so many of them get marked down tremendously later on, especially if they land on a buy one get one free sale at Deep Discount DVD.com. For example, I wanted St. Elsewhere season one and Boston Legal season two but why drop thirty dollars per season when, by this summer or maybe a little later, I can drop thirty for both of them together? In the meantime I have plenty to watch.

And I do get nervous when I see a bunch of season one sets flood the market and there are no guarantees the rest of the series will be out on DVD. With new shows that come out on DVD before the next season airs (with the rare exception...WB I am looking at you regarding EVERWOOD) you don't have to worry much about it, but for older shows you never know. And when you think the music rights on the older shows are settled, suddenly they are pulling crap with the later sets that is intolerable.