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We've had an interesting several days here, trying to track down info about a supposed DVD release of Boston Public. Our fun started last week, when we got an e-mail from reader Thomas Naferson, who told us he had run into the actor who played teacher "Harry Senate" on the show, who was known for his unusual style of getting through to the kids (such as firing off a gun in class). Mr. Naferson's note said, "I ran into Nicky Katt from Boston Public in New York City three days ago, got a pic and autograph. Told him I LOVED Boston Public and wished it would come out on DVD and he said it is! He said that he had just finished doing some commentary on the first episode for the DVD release!"
That's great, but unfortunately it's not enough for us to go ahead and post a news story...while we would love to trust everybody who writes in to us, we've been pranked before with info that was deliberately false (but we didn't fall for it). So rather than jumping on Naferson's info, we tried to find some way to confirm it with a second source. Because even if true, any extras Katt had recorded could be for an overseas release (a situation we recently ran into with Stephen Collins and Tales of the Gold Monkey). We first tried to find some way to get ahold of Katt himself, and had no luck there...we just don't know how to reach the man directly. So we went to Fox Home Entertainment, who would own the USA rights to release Boston Public on DVD.
While we worked with Fox to track down the absolute correct person to speak to on this particular title, we began getting information from other readers that a DVD release of this show was being mentioned on various radio programs. One person, "Chris," told us that they heard about it on Hot 93.5 in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Another person posted at the Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB) discussion board for the series that a Canadian show called "Movie and DVD Week" was saying that the DVDs would be out in the second month of next year (and mentioned some frankly unbelievably low prices, too!). Then this past weekend a number of readers (starting with "Connor"; thanks to him and EVERYbody else who e-mailed on this entire topic!) wrote in to tell us that this was also mentioned by the morning host on an XM/Sirius Radio program. It was apparently said that Katt was quoted in one of the New York City newspapers as telling that he was in town doing commentary for the DVDs.
But by this time we had a problem: our regular contacts at Fox were saying that they had no knowledge of such a release. Could it be a project that hadn't reached their ears yet? While that was checked into, we checked with Fox in Canada (after all, a couple of the sources were Canadian-based), talked to Fox's P.R. firm, and we even talked to our friends at Shout! Factory (who has licensed Fox properties in the past) to see if it could be something coming from that quarter. Nope...no dice. And today we got the final word from Fox Home Entertainment in the USA, telling us that they have no DVD plans on the schedule for Boston Public after all. They haven't ruled out that something could be happening in other parts of the world...but nothing here in the states.
Sorry, that's a rumor that I personally wanted to be true, and I regret having to post news tonight passing along Gord's info from Fox that it's not happening. That doesn't mean it won't happen in the future, of course. And don't forget that Ally McBeal (another show from David E. Kelley Productions) just hit North America this past week...years after the entire series was available on DVD in the U.K.; perhaps Boston Public will come out over there first, and then over here. It would be great, wouldn't it? Besides McBeal, the only David E. Kelley shows on DVD have been all seasons of his first show, Doogie Howser, and all seasons of his most recent hit show, Boston Legal. Plus "Volume 1" (all of the first season plus a few from the second season) of The Practice, and the first season of Picket Fences. Kelley's other shows are MIA on DVD, including Boston Public, L.A. Law, Chicago Hope and short-lived programs like Snoops, The Wedding Bells, Girls' Club and The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire. We hope that many of these, including Boston Public, can come off the MIA list at some point soon. If it does, we'll certainly let you know, so stay tuned!
  
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