DVDaria: What Now?

Hey y'all.

Wow. I go away for a couple weeks, & I almost miss the biggest story to hit this ng in 5 years. The likelihood of the Daria DVD release of our dreams could be on the horizon by the end of this year. However, I remain cautiously optimistic: while the word from Those Who Know has gone from "absolutely not" to "absolutely kinda maybe," there's still the chance that the high-ups at MTV might decide "Naaaah, forget it." (I had similar feelings of elation for a sixth season on MTV, only to have my hopes cruelly dashed.)

As I type this, I'm watching my well-worn VHS tape containing the first Daria Day marathon & most of the Season 2 eps. The tape skips & pops, the sound fades in and out, and I wonder how many more fast forwards & rewinds any of my Daria tapes will survive. Therefore, I NEED all of Daria on DVD. I need a *legitimate* release on DVD (because as a lawyer, it would suck if I were to get busted for buying bootlegs.)

However, what do we do while we wait for the final word? Keep gathering more signatures for the petitions? (I'm still keeping the links below in my sig for now.) Do we write (POLITE) letters to MTV Consumer Products Division? Do we start collecting frozen lasagna boxes again? What do we do if, come next year, Daria ends its run on Noggin and there's STILL no DVD release in sight? (Frankly, I'd rather keep the fan momentum going for now, regardless of what Noggin decides to do with the show.)

Meanwhile, I'll keep drafting letters & bugging Comedy Central & watching my tapes (& the Daria movies that I bought on both VHS & DVD), and work & hope for the day that the DVD set hits the market (& I get ANOTHER call from my credit card company questioning my unusual purchases).

Save Daria. Amen.

Chirping into the night (with a special "Super Freak" chirp to Rick James, RIP), Cricket

"Daria" on Comedy Central e-mail: http://www.comedycentral.com/help/questionsCC.jhtml Phone: (212) 767-8600 Snail mail: NO LONGER ACCEPTED! DVD petitions: http://www.the-wildone.com/dvdaria/ http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=323

On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 18:18:23 +0000, Cricket opined:

Hold your horses there, Cricket. It's not at all likely to be released by the end of the year. It takes months and months to produce a DVD for home release. The reason why they come out so quickly after the release of a movie to theatres is that DVD production starts very soon after post production wraps on a movie. We are talking about the space of a year or two, at least.

I think that the fan response to this has shown them they will make their money back and then some. The current "TV Series on DVD" craze has meant the release of some pretty obscure titles recently. Like "Undergrads" and the live action "Tick" series.

Keep the pressure on. Keep those cards and letters coming.

Michelle

<< The likelihood of the Daria DVD release of our dreams

M K-H replies:

<<Hold your horses there, Cricket. It's not at all likely to be released by the end of the year. It takes months and months to produce a DVD for home release. The reason why they come out so quickly after the release of a movie to theatres is that DVD production starts very soon after post production wraps on a movie. We are talking about the space of a year or two, at least. >>

Okay. I can wait that long. (Hmmm . . . a 10th anniversary boxed set would be worth waiting for -- even though THAT means waiting until 2007!)

<< > However, I remain cautiously

MTV

I think that the fan response to this has shown them they will make their money back and then some. The current "TV Series on DVD" craze has meant the release of some pretty obscure titles recently. Like "Undergrads" and the live action "Tick" series.

Aaaaah ... if only "Downtown" were among those DVD releases. (But, one campaign at a time!)

As long as Daria is released on DVD before <shudder> Spy Groove, I'll be satisfied.

<< > However, what do we do while we wait for the final word?

Keep the pressure on. Keep those cards and letters coming. >><BR><BR>

And, sign the petitions if you haven't already! (Links are still in my signature below.)

[But, what do I do with all these frozen lasagna boxes? ;) ;) ]

Cricket

"Daria" on Comedy Central e-mail: http://www.comedycentral.com/help/questionsCC.jhtml Phone: (212) 767-8600 Snail mail: NO LONGER ACCEPTED! DVD petitions: http://www.the-wildone.com/dvdaria/ http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/showinfo.cfm?showID=323

Michelle Klein-Hass wrote:

Well it doesn't take as long as you might think. First I don't do videos/DVD's the closest I get is a friend who video tapes local events and converts them to DVD's in his home studio on less then state of the art equipment.

DVD's for new movies take longer because of the tons of film/video they look at for the "extras" on the DVD's. They might have interviews with the stars/director/producers, bloopers, the "Making of" videos, trailers, etc. Not to mention deciding on how the DVD menus will look, will there be a PC game, or easter eggs on it, getting the studio to sign off on how it looks....

Movie DVD's can make a ton of money so they take extra care in making it right. Older movies don't seem to take as long to convert to DVD. Do you think their going to spend 6 months getting a SCI-FI classic like "Omega Man" ready for the stores at a cost of $200K-$500k just for design/video prodection? Not to mention the cost of the DVD production run. They'll spend a few weeks trying to dig up whatever film/video they can find, maybe do a interview with the stars, then slap the thing together in a few days editing.

So Depending on how much they add to the "extras", they could have the DVD(s) ready for mass production in a few weeks/months. So for "Daria" they'll look at the sales of the Daria DVD's they've already done and decide how much money to put into the series DVDs, which won't be much. If they only sold 100000 copies of each of the DVD's before (at $10 each) they're likely to spend maybe $100k-$200k producing all of the Daria series DVD's.