A year ago this week, at the
Home Media Magazine-hosted "DVD and Beyond" panel (which led into the 2007 annual DVD Critics Awards), HBO Home Video prez Henry McGee mentioned for fans of
The Sopranos to "reserve lots of money for Christmas, 2008". TVShowsOnDVD's Gord Lacey was present when he said it, and -
as we reported - Gord personally verified with him that he referred to a "Complete Series" package for the show. Now, just in front of this year's annual Entertainment Merchant Association (EMA) show in Las Vegas, HBO Video has announced the details of this release!
The Sopranos - The Complete Series will arrive on
November 11th, in a 33-disc package that will have 28 DVDs featuring all 86 episodes from the show's 6-season run, plus 2 DVDs full of bonus material (more on that in a moment), and 3 CDs full of music from the show's soundtrack. The box, which incorporates book-like material (56 pages of text and pictures) from and about the show, is said to weigh in at about 10 pounds! HBO's Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sofia Change, was
quoted by USA Today as saying, "It's really the biggest DVD gift set we have released to date, and that means both physically and metaphorically."
Cost doesn't come cheap for this, as the price is $399.99 SRP (a typical 30%-off discount, which many retailers offer on new DVD releases, would make the street price on this around $279.99...but that's up to the individual retailers, of course, and your mileage may vary significantly!).
For all that coin, though, you'll get a lot. Show Creator David Chase is featured in a brand-new interview conducted by none other than show mega-fan Alec Baldwin (
30 Rock, The Hunt For Red October). You'll also get a feature called "Supper with
The Sopranos", or rather two of them: each is a sit-down dinner/roundtable discussion filmed in 2008 at a New York City Italian restaurant: one with David Chase and other writers, and another featuring various of the actors who have appeared in the show. Then there is the Paley Center for Media panel discussion feature stocked with
"Whacked
Sopranos" cast, talking about their various grisly demises. You'll also want to catch the included
Sopranos parody clips taken from such various shows as
The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live and
Mad TV. And there are 16 new Deleted Scenes as well, including one where Tony Soprano and Doctor Melfi smooch in her office...better not let Carmela see that clip!
The Associate Press has circulated a picture of the packaging for this DVD set, provided to them by HBO Video, and we've got a look at it courtesy of
The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle website. Our thanks to each reader who wrote in with this info, including Bill Calhoun (who was first). As we said earlier, this announcement came just in front of the EMA Show in Las Vegas, which TVShowsOnDVD webmaster Gord Lacey is attending. While there, he saw the below-pictured DVD box, but nothing there for Blu-ray Disc. At the moment, HBO hasn't said a word about releasing this package in a high definition version, which may upset some fans (especially since the Season 6 half-season set releases were available in Blu). We'll try to find out more about that, so stay tuned for updates!
