Back in 2005, when MGM's home videos were briefly being distributed to retail by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, one of the releases was
Fame - The Complete 1st Season. A month ago, as a tie-in to the new remake theatrical film, MGM and current distributor Fox Home Entertainment released
Fame - The Complete Seasons 1 & 2, at a cost of $39.98 SRP in the USA for both seasons (38 episodes) on 9 discs.
Now MGM/Fox has announced that they will be breaking those two seasons out into individual DVD sets again, separate from each other. Both
Fame - Season 1 (a 4-disc repackage of the same content released separately in 2005) and
Fame - Season 2 (available on its own as a 5-DVD set for the first time) will be available on
January 12th. The
Season 2 set will also contain the "
Fame: Then and Now" bonus featurette, which is no surprise as it was on the combo release. But what might be surprising for consumers, though (it certainly has us scratching our heads!), is what MGM has decided to charge for the prices of those new sets. Each of these 4-to-5 disc collections will go for $39.98 SRP in the USA, and CA$54.98 SRP in Canada...the same cost MGM charges for last month's 9-DVD release!
For fans who already own the four-year-old
Season 1 set, getting
Season 2 package separately might make more sense if it didn't cost the same list price as the two-season pack, but MGM and distributor Fox will apparently leave it up to consumers to decide what's best for them, based on what discounts are offered at various retailers. Below is a look at the revised packaging for
Season 1, and the package art for the
Season 2 set as well. No word has come down about seasons 3 through 6 yet, but stay tuned and if we find out anything then we'll let you know!
UPDATE: We've quickly gotten e-mails, Twitter tweets and comments over at our Facebook fan page telling us that Walmart stores are already carrying these separate season sets. Apparently the early availability there is some sort of Walmart exclusive, so check your local store. Your mileage may vary, though, as I haven't seen them at my own local Walmart (and yes, I'm there often, and my wife can tell you I absolutely live in the DVD section).
