The Simpsons shorts from the TRACEY ULLMAN SHOW - on DVD?
 

Is it true that the only Simpsons Shorts to be released on DVD exist:

a) as a special feature on The Simpsons Season One DVD set

b) featured as clips on the episode, The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular on The Simpsons Season Seven DVD set

That's it, right? That's all we get? If so, when will we see more? If not, where can they be seen/bought on DVD?

the outtakes on season one are from the original unaired pilot , not the tracy ullman show, and yes I believe the only clips available are in the 138th episode show. I doubt the shorts will ever make it to dvd.

Matt Groening said that he did not want them released on DVD, however I think he said they might release them on cell phones (WTF?).

The Season 1 DVD actually does have the very first short, Good Night, on it. That's the only one on DVD though, aside from the clips in The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular from Season 7.

Hopefully someday Groening will realize there's a market for the shorts and release a DVD with all 48.

You really think Groening is sitting on these because he's convinced there's no market for them?

There'll probably be a separate release.

No, he's sitting on them because he doesn't like them and doesn't want them to be seen. Money changes everything though, and eventually he'll realize that fans want them, and will just get them online or through bootlegs, and he'll release them himself to make even more money.

Wow there's really 48 of them?

There where three seasons... which technically means the simpsons have been around since 1987, not 1989 (when the half-hours started)... but honestly I've seen some of the shorts (my mother LOVED tracey Ulman and taped many of her episodes)... there actually, sadly, not that great...

I just found this link on alt.tv.simpsons:

GROENING'S REPEATS U-TURN

I don't think they should put out a separate release of these, but just include them on a season set as a bonus feature. I think on the 10th season in celebration for the 10th anniversary of the Simpsons would be ideal.

I'd love to see the Tracey Ullman shorts on DVD, whether it'd be part of a future season release or a DVD release itself. I saw most of the shorts when I was about 5 years old, they always caught my eye. Of course when Tracey Ullman came back on and the shorts ended, I switched the channel.

Granted, most of these shorts are extremely dated (Lisa acting like a brat? Homer is a righteous parent?), but they're an important part of Simpsons history, and to not release them on DVD whether Matt Groening likes them or not would be kinda disappointing.

Well they are technically the ideas that became the Simpsons characters. They are worth watching maybe once, but I'd much rather have several of the series episodes instead. Obviously there would be a market for the true completist, but I'd only watch them as an extra on a season set. I wouldn't pay for a seperate DVD - not even for Bartron. ;)

I agree the one or two I've seen were pretty rough. Interesting from a historical perspective, I suppose.

My most wanted Simpsons special DVD feature is footage of the voice cast in action. I've seen Dan Castellaneta and Harry Shearer on Conan performing their various characters and it was fascinating to see.

More extensive footage of this nature can be found on the Simpsons episode of Inside the Actors Studio if you happen to catch it in repeats on Bravo. Since a lot of the voices are double-ups (actors talking to themselves doing another character), I'm not sure how watching them do voice-overs for an episode might work. They may all record their parts separately.

I heard he's sitting on them because it's a money/rights issue between Tracy Ulman & Groening. Tracy gets money every time those Ulman Simpson clips gets shown and there's some bitterness because she didn't have anything to do with creating it.

Tracy Ulman is crazy! She didn't create The Simpsons, so why should she have any bitterness?! At best, she should be honored to be recognized with The Simpsons.

Give Tracy a cut and release the shorts. What good are they doing in the vault?

I think Groening is the bitter one. Screw that. A contract's a contract. Suck it up and release the episodes.

From what I've heard, when the actors act with themselves, they normally switch back and forth between the characters live, unless their is some kind of overlapping dialogue.

I was referring to Matt being the bitter one (he'd be paying out money to someone who did not create it).

You can easily find all these shorts via other means...

Oh, I see. Then how about this take on it: Matt should be grateful to The Tracy Ulman show for broadcasting his shorts. Without her show, he might never had had a platform.

I really hope Groening changes his mind soon and makes a deal to get these eps released on dvd as well as the Oprah animated interview (I don't think that's on dvd yet). I hope Ullman doesn't make us buy season sets to get them even though I'd buy them anyway.

Agreed. It bothers me when fame ruins a once-amicable relationship. I should mention that Tracey apparently sued to get a piece of Simpsons merchandising because they started out on her show, but she lost. I don't recall any merchandising before the show itself began, so I can't see why she should have any piece of merchandising revenue.

I don't know if Groening is holding out because he doesn't want to pay Tracey if the shorts are released, but if he is, he just needs to suck it up. Those original shorts were part of her show, so she needs to be paid if any part of the show gets sold to the public. That's what she paid you money for, Matt, to use your cartoons as part of HER show!!! She shouldn't get anything from the actual series (unless she got some kind of trademark rights on the characters, which I doubt), but I don't disagree that the original shorts are technically part of The Tracey Ullman Show.

That said, I think a lot of it may be that Matt isn't as proud of those early shorts as he is the rest of his work. It's always hard for an artist to show work he isn't proud of, especially when it's early concepts that have grown so much -- you really never want to revisit the time when you were just figuring things out. Mike Judge had similar problems with his Beavis & Butthead stuff, and gave us edited "director's cut" shorts as a result. Sucks for us, but it's his call to make, unfortunately.

It probably wouldn't have been a very unusual arrangement if Ullman had been contracted for some kind of ownership or cut of the royalties on "The Simpsons," would it, though?

Seems that if she had had a better contract drawn up for her show, she probably could've gotten a piece of the Simpsons action.

Well, possibly, but when you hire someone to provide cartoon shorts for your show and you haven't created the characters, it doesn't matter that you've bought the right to use the shorts in your show, you still don't own the characters. Now if she'd hired Groening to do animated shorts based on characters she and the others played during the live-action skits, and she'd created those characters, then he couldn't just do a spin-off show and not pay her for the use of the characters, even if he was the one who did the animation.