Since August we've been providing reports, such as this one, about Imavision's upcoming 60-DVD release of Little House on the Prairie - The Complete Television Series. Imavision's DVD distributor for this show, Lionsgate, had originally shown this as available to own starting on November 4th, and continued to show that date on their official schedule to most retailers up until yesterday.
Despite that, readers such as Al Mayo had noticed as much as two weeks ago that Amazon's pre-order listing had changed the date to November 11th, a week-long delay. Only Amazon had that date, though, and an inquiry to the studio about it went unanswered. However, this morning we've confirmed through industry sources that the title has indeed been officially delayed until the 11th, and that Lionsgate is now officially informing retailers to change their listings to show the new date. Our thanks to Al and other readers for their e-mails.
And that's not our only Little news for today! Yesterday we reported that Imavision and Lionsgate will also be releasing a pair of themed "best-of" DVD titles for Little House on the Prairie on January 20th. At the time all we had were the titles of those releases, and the date, but today our industry contacts have also passed along package art, too! From it we can see several things.
It looks like the formal titles will be The Girls of Little House on the Prairie - Volume 1: Country School and The Girls of Little House on the Prairie - Volume 2: Prairie Friends. Each one concentrates on episodes that feature "stories of the Ingalls sisters", with the first one centering on stories that took place "at the Schoolhouse" and the other with stories "on the Prairie". Mary and Laura are prominently pictured on both covers, with Carrie also seen on the first volume (and their first dog, Jack, seen on the second).
From all appearances, these titles are meant to be introductory releases to sell in outlets such as supermarkets and school book sales and the like. The design clearly means to appeal to young females, the same audience that loved the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder which the series was based upon. The "volume numbers" are seen on the spines of each package, but not shown on the front. The Volume 1: Country School release comes with a bonus bookmark inside the package, while the Volume 2: Prairie Friends release includes a bonus mini-scrapbook and sticker sheets.
