The other day we
broke the news that Universal Studios Home Entertainment was announcing a
May 13th release of the 3rd Season of
Saturday Night Live, in two different possible 7-DVD packages that both will go for $59.98 SRP for either one. We relayed how one package was called a "Limited Edition" and would come in what was described as a "Box," where the other would be the standard edition and be a "Digipak with Outer Box."
Lots of trying-to-be-helpful readers wrote in and tried to tell us that this was no real mystery, as both of the first two seasons came at first in a limited package that looks something like a hardback book which opens to a digipak inside, and that it later ran out of that version and was sold with the digipak alone. We patiently tried to explain to each person that wrote in that this is an entirely different situation: the different versions of those went under the same UPC code number (these do not), and did not get multiple release announcements for the same street date (as it takes months for the "book" packaging to run out and get replaced - with no fanfare - by the more generic package). We asked around to various sources, including the studio, but got our answer from a longtime retail industry contact.
We've exclusively learned that the "normal"
Saturday Night Live - The Complete 3rd Season DVD release will indeed be as described above, with a "book"-style package at first and then, down the road, a quiet replacement with the digipak only...with the same UPC code (0-2519-50172-9-9).
On the other hand,
Saturday Night Live - The Complete 3rd Season: Limited Edition will come under a different UPC code (0-2519-50347-3-9) and have the "book"-style package (with digipak inside the "book") inside of a more elaborate box. The box will also contain 4 collectible
SNL postcards. There will only be a single run of this Limited Edition, so get it while you can!
Pictures of the two packages aren't available yet, but stay tuned and we'll bring those to you just as soon as we can. In the meantime, Universal themselves has added to their initial release info the details that this will contain - as we expected - 20 episodes, 90 minutes long each, and with "All the Original Musican [sic] Performances."
