The Carol Burnett Show FINALLY Coming To DVD!

[Jordan Catalano]

The Carol Burnett Show - Official In-Store Sets this Fall with 1-DVD, 2-DVD, 6-DVD and Ultimate 20-DVD Titles! ***UPDATE: EARLY INFO ABOUT CONTENT***
Carol herself picks the episodes, and joins the cast for extras, in Time Life's 4 different releases
Posted by David Lambert
4/18/2012


If you've ever seen a DVD of The Carol Burnett Show offered for sale in the past in the USA, and it was originated by any other seller than the Columbia House "club" membership program or the old Guthy-Renker direct-sale program, then what you saw was an unauthorized bootleg that put money in the hands of pirates, rather than Carol and her team of well-deserving co-stars and crew. This highly-desired variety program has been tough to bring to DVD for various reasons, but now the folks at Time Life have tackled this and are preparing the first-ever authorized in-store releases of the series! Yes, this won't only be available online, but in your local participating retail stores, too. The folks at CarolBurnettFan.com, a fansite endorsed by Carol herself, have this morning gotten the scoop on these FOUR releases that Time Life is preparing:
The Carol Burnett Show - The Ultimate Collection (20-DVD set): For the ultimate collector, this long-awaited package contains 50 episodes, along with more than 10 hours of new, never-before-seen bonus features enclosed in a creatively-designed collector's box!

The Carol Burnett Show - Carol's Favorites (6-DVD set): 18 complete, unedited episodes featuring the most popular (and hilarious) sketches and characters, including Starlet O'Hara in "Went with the Wind," The Family, Tudball & Wiggins, The Oldest Man and additional movie parodies. Guest appearances include Carl Reiner, Steve Martin, Betty White, George Carlin, Shirley MacLaine, The Jackson 5, "and many more."

The Carol Burnett Show - The Best Episodes (2-DVD set): 6 all-time classic episodes chosen by Carol Burnett.

The Carol Burnett Show - The Best Of (1-DVD release): Budget-priced single-disc release with specific sketches that are fan favorites, including "Went with the Wind," classic sketches of The Family, Tudball & Wiggins, and others!
These will all be available on Tuesday, September 25th, and again you'll be able to find them in stores as well as online! All episodes of the 25-time Emmy-winning show are hand-picked by Carol for these DVDs. They're not up for pre-order yet, so pricing isn't available at this time...nor do we have package art, either. But we do have a list of extras to pass along to you from CarolBurnettFan.com, where you can go to get some additional information (and where you really ought to be hanging out if you love The Carol Burnett Show...or any of Carol's other fantastic work, including All My Children, Glee, and The Secret World of Arrietty).

We'll have more information for you soon about these titles, but in the meantime CarolBurnettFan.com passes along word from Time Life that "all configurations will feature detailed and generous bonus features, specially produced for this historic release, including:"
A laugh-filled roundtable discussion with Carol Burnett, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner, reminiscing about 11 years of fun and entertainment they created.
A personal tribute from the cast honoring the much-beloved fellow cast member Harvey Korman.
Multiple featurettes on the history of the show, the genesis of key characters and sketches, Carol's fans, and the influence Carol and the show have had on several generations of comedians and television hosts.
New and exclusive interviews with fellow entertainers and guests on the show, including Carl Reiner, Ken Berry, Betty White, Florence Henderson and others.
How exciting! I can't wait to see these, and we know you can't either. We'll bring you additional information (and package art) from these 4 DVD titles, just as soon as we can, so stay tuned. And Happy Birthday to Carol Burnett, who turns 79 a week from tomorrow. How sweet of her to give us, her fans, the gift of this DVD announcement!



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While it's not all the episodes, this is still really exciting!

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Yay.

[ChenoKahn]

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just jizzed.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

^TMI

[Mister Matt]

I wonder if these will be the full episodes not seen in their entirety in syndication?

[EricMontreal22]

I suspect they will be--TV shows on DVD have gotten better at not phucking up and using the syndicated version... Though music rights could be an issue... Still yaye!

[CarlosAlberto]

I wonder if it will feature any segments pre-1970. Those episodes have rarely been shown at all if ever after their original run.

[jasonf]

I remember a skit where Tim Conway was a bumbling soldier - Harvey Korman told him to load a cannon and would go off to fight. Conway agreed and struggled with the weight of the ball. Somehow the ball ended up in Conways pants -- I remember laughing hysterically at this as a kid but haven't been able to find the skit since. I HOPE it's in one of these sets!

[PalJoey]

Can I get a dedicated DVD-set of just the Steve & Eydie performances on the Carol Burnett show?

And one of the Bernadette Peters performances?

[Mister Matt]

TV shows on DVD have gotten better at not phucking up and using the syndicated version

Good, because the original DVD releases of Ellen were a DISASTER. Only a few selected syndicated episodes and one of them only the second part of a two-part episode! I remember it having the "previously on Ellen..." with scenes that are not "previously seen" on the DVDs. I think they may have fixed it on a later release, but I never checked on it again after that.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah I know many of the older shows in particular suffered--Facts of Life (don't laugh) springs to mind. They come back from an obvious commercial break and you can hear the remainder of a laugh track for a joke that was edited out... I didn't think more recent shows suffered quite as much simply because syndication time is now closer to primetime as well, in terms of how much time for commercials they are allowed to have, but that's interesting about Ellen. (I'm a bit surprised full seasons of the show haven't been released actually--maybe they have, I admit I've never looked)

[best12bars]

The Carol Burnett Show (with full episodes) is already available on DVD through Guthy Renker. Again, she picked the episodes, and she sat with Harvey Korman and Tim Conway for on-camera introductions before each episode.

One big difference is that these discs had only 2 shows per DVD instead of three. Still, they were complete.

The issue is the music licensing for each. You've got big production numbers with medleys of songs, you've got The Jackson 5 and other artists and groups performing their numbers. That's why these musical numbers were cut from syndication and the show truncated to half-hour installments.

The Guthy Renker discs aren't cheap either. They passed on all the licensing expenses to the consumer. So the DVDs clock in at $19.99 per disc. Two episodes.

I'll bet these Time Life discs won't be cheap either.

[best12bars]

Here's the link for the full episodes. They're $19.95 each, with the first one at $9.99 as an "introductory offer."

This is the set a friend of mine bought (and I borrowed), and I've watched quite a few of them.


LINK

[EricMontreal22]

Those are the ones they still have late night infomercials for, right? (A few times late at night I've flipped by, so excited to see they're actually rerunning the show, until I realize it's an ad) These might come at a better discount since they're apparently selling them retail, amazon.com etc...

[best12bars]

Perhaps, but Time-Life usually follows the same strategy as Guthy-Renker or Columbia. Their collections are almost never cheap either.

And unless Carol convinced everyone's estates from George Gershwin to George Harrison to agree on cheap licensing fees, I can't imagine them being "reasonable."

[EricMontreal22]

I don't see them being super cheap by any means, but I think there'll be some deals. Time Life are releasing more retail product (not just the system you mention) and that press release emphasizes three times that they will be sold in stores "too!!" lol

[best12bars]

Just looking at some of their other titles (like Smothers Brothers), they sell 3-disc "best of" sets (not even full episodes) for $27, and 4-disc (11 episodes) for $35. That's the discounted Amazon price, not retail. These are with music licensing issues as well.
LINK

[EricMontreal22]

Well volume three goes for 20 bucks... I dunno, I know deepdiscount, etc, helped me out with some of the Muppet Show sets, I got the first three volumes for $14 dollars each--but you're probably right, and those weren't Time Lifen (but did have music issues which is why I bring it up).

[best12bars]

The 20 buck version you're looking at of Season 3 is only one disc.

Same price (for example) as the Guthy Renker discs.

[PalJoey]

Some things are just worth paying for.

[best12bars]

I agree that if you can afford it, they are worth it. I have really enjoyed watching the original full episodes again, and I had forgotten just how different the show is when it's presented as a true "variety" show, rather than a sketch comedy show (as seen on Carol Burnett and Friends). It has a whole different feel, a different pacing, and just seems to resonate more.

Some of those old musical medleys were great fun, too. They would take a composer (like Berlin or Arlen) and give it a "concept" setting, like a saloon or a cruise ship, and then add a small boy-meets-girl plot ... while singing the composer's catalog.

Mini-musicals, once a week.

[PalJoey]

Or sometimes they just sang endless medleys that I wished would never end


Carol and Eydie Gorme Sing a Medley of Every Song Ever Written for a Movie

[EricMontreal22]

Some Amazon seller (at least on the Canadian Amazon) claims to be selling new, sealed copies of the 9pack release... FOr $160, but that's probably cheaper than buying them originally

[PalJoey]

There have been also been several sellers selling DVD-R versions of the series.

[EricMontreal22]

Yeah I assume you'd have to be careful of that... (I admit, much to my guilt, I recently broke down and boutght a 60 disc DVDR set of the complete Peyton Place someone was selling--for actually barely any money which didn't make me feel as bad... But I had read several times that the big studio that owns the show and licensed it to Shout! factory didn't think their first two volumes sold enough and wouldn't license more--although Shout! has said it's their most requested series).

[fflagg]

Many years ago Columbia House sold DVDs of complete episodes, two per DVD with intros for many with Carol, Tim, and Harvey. There were about 25 DVDs of 50 total eps. I hope that the upcoming DVDs are not the same 50 episodes!!

The 50 episodes were from the 1972-78 years, with one ep from 1979 [when she did a summer season of shows on ABC].

Re the 1967-72 seasons, the plus side is that the guests were of a higher caliber than many guests from 1972-78; the down side is that the sketches are not as good in 67-72.