Although the studio still hasn't officially announced it yet, at the beginning of this month here at TVShowsOnDVD we
exclusively revealed the final box art and release date for Warner's planned
December 4th collection on DVD for
Smurfs - Season 1, Volume 1. The 2-disc set will cost $26.99 SRP, and contain 19 cartoons. The info about this release was first made public between temporary tattoos given away at July's San Diego Comic Con, and a trailer found on the recent
Popeye DVD release from Warner.
What's the story behind that count of "19"? Our good friend Earl Kress has
revealed the answer at his blog a couple of weeks ago, in a post called "The Worst Kept Secret", and for those of you who haven't seen it there yet, we want to pass it along. Here's an exact quote from Earl's blog:
Season One originally aired as an hour, two eleven minute episodes and one full half-hour story. But as early as Show #3, they began repeating cartoons. Show #3 has “Vanity Fare” which was also in Show #1. It didn’t make sense to release 21 hours of Smurfs (the number of Season One episodes) with a lot of repeats in them, so they are in the order of the original hours, but without duplicates. Here is the list by disc:
DISC ONE:
1 The Smurf’s Apprentice
2 The Smurfette
3 Vanity Fare
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4 King Smurf
5 The Astrosmurf
6 Jokey’s Medicine
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7 St. Smurf and the Dragon
8 Sorcerer Smurf
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9 The Smurfs and the Howlibird
DISC TWO:
10 The Magical Meanie
11 Bewitched, Bothered and Be-Smurfed
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12 Smurf-Colored Glasses
13 Dreamy’s Nightmare
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14 Fuzzle Trouble
15 Soup A La Smurf
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16 All That Glitters Isn’t smurf
17 Romeo and Smurfette
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18 The Hundredth Smurf
19 Smurphony in ‘C’
The lines between the titles denote what would have been each original hour show, 1 - 9. No word yet on whether these will contain main and end titles.
Thank you so much, Earl! Be sure to bookmark his blog and keep in touch with all the interesting animaton history he talks about there. And stay tuned here at TVShowsOnDVD, too, and we'll keep you posted on any other details that come to light as Warner makes their formal announcement. In the meantime, here's that box art again:
