With the
Season 5 announcement now complete, Image Entertainment is probably wondering "what's next for
The Dick Van Dyke Show on DVD?" Actually, though, they're not. They've already drawn up plans for five new "Best Of" releases, and will have them ready-to-go on the same day that
Season 5 hits the stores in June.
Paramount's
doing it with
Star Trek: The Next Generation. Fox
is rumored to be doing it with
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. What is "it"? "It" is taking television shows whose season-set DVD releases are already complete, and going back for more consumers with lower-priced "best of" discs that feature the favorite episodes along a common theme.
Feedback has shown for a couple of years now that season sets are the vastly-preferred method of fans to purchase their favorite TV series, and the strongest supporters of a series might even accuse a studio of "trickery" when best-of releases occur before season-by-season boxes do. So the release pattern has definately shifted to emphasize the box set format. However, the studios are now recognizing that they're "leaving money on the table" if they totally ignore the consumers who enjoy a series more casually: potential purchasers who won't spring for the higher-priced box sets which contain every episode, but simply want their favorite episodes which they can pop in and enjoy now and again.
So you can expect to see more and more of this type of release in the future, despite the fact that no two people will ever totally agree on which group of episodes represent the "best" a particular show has to offer. Image takes a stab at it, though, with
The Best of The Dick Van Dyke Show series. There are 5 volumes, each sold separately, and each full of 4 episodes (drawn from any season) that are sure to entertain most fans:
- The Best of The Dick Van Dyke Show - Volume 1
- "The Sick Boy and the Sitter"
- "Big Max Calvada"
- "Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth"
- "Dear Sally Rogers"
- The Best of The Dick Van Dyke Show - Volume 2
- "Where Did I Come From?"
- "That's My Boy?"
- "It May Look Like a Walnut"
- "October Eve"
- The Best of The Dick Van Dyke Show - Volume 3
- "100 Terrible Hours"
- "Uhny Uftz"
- "Never Bathe on Saturday"
- "The Secret Life of Buddy and Sally"
- The Best of The Dick Van Dyke Show - Volume 4
- "Oh How We Met the Night That We Danced"
- "My Blonde-Haired Brunette"
- "4½"
- "The Alan Brady Show Goes to Jail"
- The Best of The Dick Van Dyke Show - Volume 5
- "What's in a Middle Name?"
- "The Curious Thing about Women"
- "All About Eavesdropping"
- "One Angry Man"
June 29th is the street date for all five DVDs, which are sold separately for $9.99 each (suggested list price). Not surprisingly, they all have the same technical specs: 4x3 black-and-white video, English Mono audio, 100 minute running time, and no special supplements. And, finally, here is the cover art for all of these:
