No More Simpsons on DVD
 

Al Jean tweeted that FOX has discontinued releasing complete Simpsons seasons on DVD. This would most likely go for BD as well.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>.<a href="https://twitter.com/TheSimpsons">@thesimpsons</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EverySimpsonsEver?src=hash">#EverySimpsonsEver</a> I personally am v sorry to see DVDs discontinued We did them purely for the love of hearing ourselves talk</p>&mdash; Al Jean (@AlJean) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlJean/status/585822651651727361">April 8, 2015</a></blockquote>

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

Fuck you FOX. I've got every season so far and two of every season once the head packaging was released. And now I'm going to have an incomplete collection? They could've at least finished out the rest until Season 20 since they've already released that one. This is nonsense.

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Both formats for this show are done and over with according to Al Jean as of Season 17...but hoping Olive or Shout picks this series up and continues onwards with it, much like what Olive Films is doing with King of the Hill.

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

I agree someone at Fox is all round dumb - even the recent Emmy winning Bob's Burgers is relegated to DVD-R status .... cheap Fox, really cheap.

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That's really too bad. I have about 12 seasons on DVD. I never bought any when they went to blu ray, but I was going to eventually. I enjoyed all the special features. I wonder if they didn't sell well?

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

I love the commentaries on these! Damn it!

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

I've bought ever Simpsons release on Day 1, even the "best-of" discs with redundant episodes. I switched to Blu-Ray when those started being put out (and was surprised they did that with the shows that weren't produced HD) but thought about still buying the regular DVDs of those just for OCD-completeness sake. Hopefully there'll be enough backlash that the rest get put out eventually, at least in Japan (which is still getting Glee on Blu-Ray despite its being dumped here.)

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

<---Waiting for complete collection. :D

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

I've just been buying them on DVD when cheap but I also have so many unwatched seasons. I probably would have stopped buying them sooner if I'd been watching them as I got them. I would have liked to picked up the blu-rays instead of dvds but the price is always too steep for me, considering how awful the episodes are for those seasons.

Anytime I've watched in the last decade, I get Poochie stuck in my head because everything they made fun of with the survey in the episode is what they're doing now but not as a joke.

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

They have a new annoying character in the newer episodes? (Latest one I've seen was "Steal This Episode" which was pretty funny, had a nice jab at Hulu Plus in it.)

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

I was thinking more along the lines of them saying they wanted realistic stories but zany unrealistic antics.

The annoying character could really be any celebrity though.

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

This really upsets me as I've talked about in the thread in HD Talk. I've bought every set plus the movie twice and now to have an incomplete collection blows big time. A complete set would be cool someday but I imagine it'll be crazy expensive plus for fans like myself who've bought all the releases it would suck double dipping on that many sets. Fox can fuck themselves.

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

And for some of us it would be a triple-dip because we already own two versions of most of the seasons thus far. This is a huge blow to me as a collector as The Simpsons was always one of my favorite shows and favorite parts of my collection.

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

I think they will eventually release some kind of complete set but that is a low-blow for people like me that have faithfully been buying them for years and years.

Fox could have easily kept pushing out a token release once a year with no supplemental features. It's a pretty nasty business move which isn't fan-friendly at all.

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

(On a tangent).

With these turn of events, wonder if this means Family Guy will go dvd-mod (or dvd discontinued altogether) for the next season set release.

So far, only an amazon placeholder has showed up for the next (hypothetical) season set of Family Guy.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00T6KIIWW


(Bob's Burgers, American Dad, Cleveland Show, etc ... have already went dvd-mod).

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

This is more proof that the economic principle of supply and demand doesn't apply when it comes to home video.

This is total bullshit, FOX.

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This is one of the main reasons why this along with so many shows are being discontinued, sold via MOD or strictly on DVD.

I know most who are "collectors" are budget conscious and can't afford to buy every season of their favorite shows at new release prices. But, the studios also can't afford to continue to make the product and sell it at a loss when many here wait for 60-70% discounts. There is physical production costs along with promotional and advertising costs associated with making The Simpsons and any other show and movie on DVD/BD. It's not as simple as transferring the discs and assuming that FOX or whatever studio is already making money on it because it already aired on TV.

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

Let's be realistic though, Fox started releasing these sets in 2001. After fourteen years they should have a relatively good idea of what sales will be like for these sets. If they don't I'm not sure what to say to them. I have a hard time buying that the drop in sales for the sets went down so much recently that they couldn't justify releasing them at all anymore. It isn't like they released two or three sets and they were failing and they quit. They put out eighteen fucking seasons, that's a good bulk of the show. I truly believe that the faithful fans like myself were buying the one release a year. I'm sure there may have been some drop off in sales over the years, but you don't put out eighteen sets because they aren't selling at all. It's pretty common sense. It seems very coincidental to me that this happened right after the launch of The Simpsons World app.

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

I think that Fox really screwed up the releases of The Simpsons by limiting them to one per year and not releasing the current season.

The way they trickled out onto the market, they were always going to be two decades behind. They should have been released at two per year until they caught up with the current season, or at least released the current season alongside the catalog releases. This strategy made The Simpsons a perpetual deep catalog title, which meant that as demand for catalog titles shrank, The Simpsons lost retail shelf space and consumer interest.

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

I'm not sure why they stopped releasing two a year to begin with in all honesty. They did two a year for a while (seasons 6, 7, 8, and 9 plus seasons 13 and 20) and then went back to the one a year schedule. It would have made a lot more sense to keep them coming out at two a year and catching up. If they had done that we would have been caught up long ago. They fucked it up and now the fans who bought all the sets are paying for it.

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

This is a more systemic situation than just The Simpsons not being released.

Studios *hate* physical media. They've maintained an uneasy relationship with it for decades, knowing they could make a buck. But, now streaming offers them the opportunity to supplant physical media once and for all. This gives them 100% control over the product (outside of piracy).

Want to watch Alien? That'll be a fee for one viewing. Want to watch Tootsie? That's another fee for one viewing. Want to *own* Alien and Tootsie? You can own a digital copy that they can deactivate at their whim--and there's nothing you can do because you signed signed your life away with the Terms and Conditions.

Just remember: streaming and downloading makes things more convenient than physical media!

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

Hoping Shout or Olive Films will secure the licensing rights to this show and release the remaining seasons for the mass audiences, but I agree, FOX HE committed a huge error here and they better rectify this and fast.

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I think it'll be hard for a company like Olive Films or Shout Factory to license it though even if Fox was willing to let someone do so. I imagine they'd want a bunch of money for licensing.

Re: No More Simpsons on DVD
 

I fully agree with all your points. The great undercurrent going unmentioned is that retailers are shrinking the space available for physical media. The section getting hit hardest are television releases, it's harder than ever to find a DVD or Blu-ray of hit shows at retailers like Target.

Fox's home video department was rolling in the easy sales afforded by the early Simpsons' years which everyone with half a brain knew were going to be the biggest sellers. They should have been far more aggressive a decade ago with the show's release schedule before the market imploded. They had a misguided notion they would wait around for Blu-ray and hopefully re-release the earlier seasons in the more expensive format, getting customers to double dip. The studio waited too long and now we have come to this terrible predicament.

If people weren't aware, Fox's home video division has gone through massive lay-offs the past three years. There is practically no one left to release anything, one of the driving forces behind this decision.