Al Jean: No further seasons of The Simpsons will be released on DVD

I wonder why the change of heart.... massive fan backlash, perhaps?

 

I saw a youtube thingy where a fan said they stopped dvds because of FXX basically being a Simpsons channel. That made sense to me somehow. Maybe over time since then they've noticed something missing ($$$) and went back to dvds.

 

That is something I hope they improved for this upcoming release: I'm sure not going to hold my breath, but if they'd go back to the type of packaging they had early on, I'd be fine with that.

 

I can imagine something like that coming to fruition, but *after* the show is no longer in production so it could contain all of the seasons and truly be complete.

 

Are you meaning the digipak of the first seasons (all three discs being in one)?

 

Correct...

 

Buying.

 

I bought some static free cd sleeves for this purpose. While I love the whole design of the packaging (and Futurama), the cases don't do their job. It's a fatal flaw. They wanted to not have any plastic (aside from the disc) but it made people buy plastic sleeves. The ironing is delicious.

 

I disagree about going Blu-Ray only, often DVD is good enough...especially when it comes to older programs.

I don't consider it wasting money when it comes to multiple formats...as long as there is consumer demand for it. A comparable situation is with books. Despite the arrival of ebooks, there is still a market for physical books (pbooks) and I'd dislike the phase out of pbooks. Likewise with comics, although there has been a move to an electronic version of comics they don't compare to the physical comics (just the size issue alone is a factor that works against the electronic version [having to scroll around on a page is not what I want to do when reading]).

 

I agree that DVD packaging has gotten worse in recent years. As an example, the anime series Bleach was initially released in a case which contained a plastic page for each disc and the entire package was placed in a slip case. While the case was okay it was subject to damage.

Then they released it in a terrific case: Each DVD had its own thin DVD case (each case was about half the thickness of a regular DVD case) and they were all put in a slip case. Great protection for each DVD and the entire package took up only a little more space than the first collections. Unfortunately, they then moved to a worse case: conventional-sized DVD case with pages for the DVDs.

Not as bad as the case for Star Trek - The Next Generation (three seasons in each case), with pages that each hold four DVDs that overlap each other (you have to remove one DVD to get to the other). It was so bad that I purchased a DVD holder for the DVDs.

 

Agreed on all points!

 

I own several titles that sound like the type of packaging you're referring to: In short, I don't care for it at all, but the sets themselves were decently priced, so I guess I will live with it...

 

I have another that's like that, but with fewer seasons: the all-in-one of The Fugitive (1963-67 ABC adventure series w/the late David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble, the title character): the case for the first three seasons' worth (1963-66, B/W) is as you describe w/the TNG release, while the other case (fourth-season, 1966-67, color) has all 10 discs of that final season on flip panels.

 

Watching the Season 18 set of The Simpsons right now.... I'm only a few episodes in so far, but there have already been cameos from Metallica and the White Stripes!

 

I can not figure out why they made the season 18 box longer than all the previous ones. It seems they love to annoy their fans with the dvds.

 

Maybe they had deleted the box template thinking they wouldn't need it anymore and had to make a new one.

 

Until you mentioned it, I didn't even realize there's a difference in the size... I didn't have Season 18 by the others in the collection (it's set aside for viewing), so it was a little surprising to see that... It is weird...

 

Finished watching Season 18 a couple days ago.... I had only seen maybe 3 or 4 of these episodes before, so most of it was new to me.
Overall, it was certainly not among the best seasons ever... a few episodes were stinkers.... but as with most of the later seasons, there were still plenty of great gags and clever jokes that made it worth watching.

One bit I particularly liked, from the "24 Minutes" episode:

Principal Skinner: "Lord, give me guidance!!"
(zoom out to reveal he's on the phone)
"Yes, the guidance room, the detention center. Thank you, Mrs. Lord."

 

Season 18 has my least favorite moment from The Wife Aquatic where Homer is beating fish to death on a fishing boat while the tune At Last plays. He beats the fish in slow motion with the guts flying everywhere. I had been waiting to hear the commentary to hear what they said about it. Their take was 'What did you think happens to fish before you eat them' or something like that. I still find the match up of visual and song to be in bad taste. The song seems to heighten it.

 

Seems like a Family Guy-style joke. :/

 

You could tell some of the newer writers started consciously going for South Park and Family Guy humor at times, which lessened the show during those days. Though I did think the Family Guy/Simpsons crossover was one of the show's high moments of the past decade.

 

Season 19 dvd coming out this December. I have a question for anyone who bought season 18; does anyone have a regular sized box that isn't a bootleg? I'm wondering if they redid the box or not.

 

Mine doesn't have plastic trays for the discs, if that is what you are asking.

 

I know they no longer use those, but what I'm asking about is the width of the box being the same size as all the seasons before it.

 

I will have to check and get back to you.