I would be interested in this DVD TV series especially after the excellent review here BUT seriously $200.00 for 4 seasons??? What are they,(Time-Life), on drugs???? Will wait for eventual price drop!!! Anybody else think that is just ludicrous pricing?????

Did you not take into account the music rights cost? That was one of the big holdups for this not getting released sooner. Music licensing rights is obscenely expensive.

From the Time Life website:


Time Life paid the money to get those rights. They have to make their money back somehow. It's not like this set will sell for just $40.

It's not the first time Time Life has snagged an exclusive tv series release with a hugely inflated price. I think they wanted like $200 bucks for the old Get Smart complete series a few years ago. Now I can it for 50 bucks on Amazon.

Well, Get Smart was always going to have a general retail release on a different label (HBO) to follow Time-Life's short exclusivity window.

China Beach, both the complete set and the already-announced Season 1, will only be from Time-Life's home video imprint (Star Vista), so there won't be a rival studio to undercut the pricing once all four retail releases come (and I assume retail versions of S2-S4 would be dependent on S1 selling well).

A show like this is a catch-22 situation that no video label can hope to please everyone with: you either pay the obscene music licencing costs to appease the fans (and pass those costs on through a higher retail price), OR you make edits/do music replacements at a much lower price (like WKRP or Happy Days), but then the fans complain that the shows aren't complete or not "as-broadcast." I think most "fans" would rather have complete shows, even if it means paying more. This is probably why it's a Time-Life release: the mass-retail DVD labels wouldn't have taken on the risk.

If $200 is their "standard" price, you can be sure there will be periodic coupons throughout the year (like maybe 15-20% off or something) to bring the price down a bit, particularly around the holiday season. You'll never see it for $10 bucks a season, though, unless you get lucky on a second-hand copy at a flea market.

Sorry Music rights or not I would just never pay that much per season for a TV series!!! I'm sure the company is not going broke paying for those music rights either-!

If its too expensive for you, then that's fine. I was just pointing out why it's so expensive. Alot of fans have wanted the show on DVD for years, so at least it's getting released with all the music intact for those interested.

There are a lot of shows I would gladly pay $50 a season to get unedited.

I ordered a set for my mother as it was one of her all time favorite shows. They had a coupon before Memorial Day that took $16 off so it came out to $183. Obviously the price is not ideal even with the discount but as others said a set like that (with all of the costs associated with music licensing) is not going to be cheap.

This kind of set with similar pricing is probably the only hope of ever getting The Wonder Years on DVD. I hope Time Life steps up to the plate to take a swing at that one even if like the China Beach set some songs here and there have to be left out (Beatle$, Hendrix, etc. The more difficult ones to obtain due to costly licensing).

Agreed-

If $200 for that series is too expensive, I hope you don't own a single Star Trek season on any format.

I paid $179.95 for the Time Life Six Million Dollar Man collection. 5 seasons, a bonus disc and all the reunion movies. Not cheap by any means, but the amount of content IMO more than justifies the purchase. It would literally take me over a 1 year to finish watching it and I haven't even made the time to watch any of it yet because of the overwhelming amount of content.

Music rights are expensive and DVD profit margins are thin. If people say, "I'm not paying more than $X for a season of ____ since I bought ___ for $X at Big Lots!" I can see why studios won't even bother with this kind of "niche" release. It's not worth their time and effort. Maybe this one title wouldn't bankrupt their company, but they're not in the business of releasing stuff that they're going to lose money on.

I don't know that I'd pay this much for WKRP just if it had the actual music. I have the dvd set of the first season, and as a guy that's watched WKRP since I was 2 or 3, and seen each episode a hundred times, I couldn't tell you that the music was replaced. Well, that's not exactly true. You COULD tell that the music wasn't original, but the songs they used didn't sound that out of place. For the most part, the music sounded alright. For me, at least, the show wasn't about the music. It was about the people at the radio station and the crazy situations that they'd get into. Only once or twice, when they had to cut a scene because the song was playing over the dialogue, did I really notice anything.

That mentality is exactly the reason why so many shows are sitting on the shelves unsold, which leads the studios to cancel future releases.

China Beach is without a doubt a niche release. But I'm sure there are plenty of people who are more than happy to fork over the $200 to have it in their collection, especially with all the music intact.

Look at the horrible job First Look did with Baywatch. It was one of the highest rated and iconic syndicated shows worldwide. You would think this was begging for a decent DVD release. However, they replaced the theme song and all the music cues in the episodes with generic crap. They did a half assed job to get cheap crap on the market. Only 3 of the 12 seasons made it out there. You put shit product on the market and people won't touch it.

It's funny, it wasn't too long ago when $50 a season was seen as a reasonable price. Remember when X-Files was like $120 a season?

They used tons of classic songs on this show, so the price is no surprise. The Miami Vice set is expensive, too.

Actually I own ST the original series, ST next generation, and the 10 ST trek film + bonus disc...all REGION 2 and MUCH cheaper than their USA counterparts!

That's not exactly fair, because Deep Discount had a complete series bundle--of the blu-rays, no less--for $81.70 earlier this year, which is about $27.25 per season. I should know because I'd been biding my time on that show, and at that price, I was finally willing to bite.

Of course, as I said earlier, China Beach/Time-Life is a whole other situation, so it doesn't compare anyway.

Same here. There are certain shows that imo are worth it. And I agree that it is better to look at it as $50 a Season rather than one $200 purchase. At least people have a choice, there are quite a few shows, especially one and done's, that will never be available on physical media.

I really have no interest in this show but am thinking about purchasing it as a vote for studios that clear music. I bought every season of Miami Vice for that reason years ago (hoping Universal would fix Quantum Leap), and have yet to watch an episode. I will eventually though.

Ed (please G-d before I am a senile old man).

I've never watched China Beach, but I'd gladly pay $200 for the complete series of a show I'm a fan of it meant it was completely uncut and and was original broadcast masters.

How many shows are stalled and haven't even been released due to licensing rights? I'm glad Time-Life is able to get the fans what they want.

Isn't The Wonder Years one of those shows held up due to music issues? That'd be sweet.

If you think China Beach is Pricy go to http://skyking.com and check the price of the Sky King Box Set IMO, Worth the $plurge.

Ed. Ed. Ed!!!

http://timelife.com/products/china-b...WMDhIZXZjoE8lw

FYI, just to let you all know. China Beach is on sale for $179.95 with the coupon "DEALDAYS"

Still not a bargain by any means, but it's a little cheaper.