April Fools Joke 2003

[Sascha]

Edit: This was an April Fools Joke - there's nothing true about this posting except for the fact that Buena Vista is now the new owner of the DVD rights. This also means that the boxes will now slowly disappear from stores. No new boxes will be produced by BMG. And Buena Vista will also NOT produce any boxes in the near future.

Jason once mentioned that the DVD/Video rights for MSCL will fall back this month from BMG to Buena Vista (Disney) - see here.

We can now confirm that this is true. As of today, Buena Vista is the new owner of the DVD rights. A BV representative contacted us (MSCL.com) a few days ago and informed us about the plans for a Special Edition release of the My So-Called Life Boxset but urged us to wait with an official announcement until Buena Vista officially re-acquired the rights (which they did today). She gave us some more interesting informations about that whole Buena Vista vs. BMG / AU issue, but I'll focus in this topic on the new DVD box set (I'll open another topic for more details).

In cooperation with MSCL.com and OLS, Buena Vista wants to offer the fans a "true experience" and presents the MSCL DVD box set as an "astounding example" of the possiblities of the DVD medium (yay! )

The following features are already confirmed:

6 discs with all 19 episodes in a special collectors box set.
Remastered video from the original master tapes.
Interviews with cast & crew (those are *not* the interviews Dan did for AU) - Tom Irwin, Devon Gummersall, A.J. Langer, Devon Odessa, Wilson Cruz and Claire Danes (!) are confirmed so far, only Jared Leto and Bess Armstrong declined. The interviews aren't yet recorded, so we hope for even more cast members to join.
Commentary Tracks for the Pilot Episode and episodes 11 ("Life of Brian") and 19 ("In Dreams...") with Winnie Holzman, Ed Zwick and Devon Gummersall.
Commentary Track for Episode 14 ("On the Wagon") with Winnie Holzman, Marshall Herskovitz, A.J. Langer and Wilson Cruz.
Featurettes:
- "The Casting"
- "The Girl With the Red Hairs" (14 minutes)
- "Making Of" (featuring previously unseen scenes) (76 minutes)
- "I Call Her Red - The Music of Snuffy Walden" (14 minutes)
- "The Search for a Timeslot"
- "Operation Life Support" (56 minutes, with excerpts from E! Television, MTV, ABC and interviews with Steve Joyner and former ABC CEOs Ted Herbert and Stu Bloomberg)
- "Life After LIFE?" (25 minutes, Winnie Holzman talks about her old plans for season two)
- "Timeless Teenage Angst"
- "Once Again Thirtysomething - The Bedford Falls Team"
- "What Are They Doing Now?"
- "My So-Called Reunion"

Interactive Features: Shooting Scripts, Easter Eggs (*g*), MSCL FanListing

Trailers: More than 14 trailers from ABC, MTV and FOX Family
A recording of the MSCL session at the Museum of Radio and TV in 1995 (around 60 minutes)
32 minutes of deleted scenes and over 60 minutes of so-called "dailies" (stuff that was taped, but not used or reshot later)

DVD-ROM section: All shooting scripts including all revisions, interactive feature "The History of MSCL" with hundreds of perviously unpublished images. We're currently negotiating with some of the fanfiction authors and Bedford Falls to include a "Best of FanFiction" on the DVD. If you published a story on MSCL.com, please be sure to check your e-mail inbox today for any details.

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French (German is not confirmed yet)
Audio: English: Dolby Stereo 2.0 (not 4.1), Spanish (2.0), French (2.0)
Region Code 1, NTSC
Street Day: November 1st, 2003
Suggested Retail Price: 68 US-$

We prepared a special page on MSCL.com with some early pictures of the box artwork and more details about this Special Edition: http://www.mscl.com/dvdse

Note again: This was an April fools joke - so nothing about it is true. But if someone from Buena Vista Home Entertainment is reading this -- feel free to use it as starting point for your plans for a rerelease...

[KrokRos]

So, still no chance of getting the Bonus Disc?

[TomSpeed]

I was in Best Buy last week. There were no MSCL discs on the shelves. I felt kind of sad. There probably won't be any DVDs to replace them.

[Jason R]

Rojek's latest statement to Gord Lacey of TVShowsOnDVD.com this weekend is that there will be two bonus discs. Also, the lunchboxes are leaving Hong Kong this week. Almost everyone has received refunds as well.

And I was just asked to model for the cover of GQ (just as likely).

All that I can promise you is that this will, indeed, be a very bad week for AnotherUniverse.com. I'll keep you posted.

[Megs]

Rojek's latest statement to Gord Lacey of TVShowsOnDVD.com this weekend is that there will be two bonus discs. Also, the lunchboxes are leaving Hong Kong this week. Almost everyone has received refunds as well.

And I was just asked to model for the cover of GQ (just as likely).

All that I can promise you is that this will, indeed, be a very bad week for AnotherUniverse.com. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for the updates, Jason.

[andrewgd]

All that I can promise you is that this will, indeed, be a very bad week for AnotherUniverse.com. I'll keep you posted.

Gee, I thought this week they were getting their website back? Huh. And I figured that'd count as a good thing.

[queenbri2244]

ok, i'm late reading this, but i'm a little confused. i'm excited that the ownership went to people with more money and initive to do good things with this project... but what about those of us that bought the dvds already? do we get all that bonus footage? or is it just going to those who buy it from buena vista? cuz i'm gonna cry if all that comes out and i don't get it... (esp after paying like $115 for it)


e-mail me at briannamarchand@hotmail.com please.

unless replys to this automatically go to e-mail

[Natasha (candygirl)]

As indicated by the thread title and the first sentence of sab's post, this was an April Fool's joke - there is no new edition.

Edit: This was an April Fools Joke - but the fact that Buena Vista is now the new owner of the DVD rights is true. This also means that the boxes will now slowly disappear from stores. No new boxes will be produced by BMG.

[queenbri2244]

yup. feeling stupid now.

i saw that... but i thought some of it was.... ya know, lemme just bow out quazi-gracefully.

[Natasha (candygirl)]

If you think you feel silly, imagine how the rest of us felt on April 1 before Sascha changed the thread title and admitted it was a joke!

[Bolt]

This is SO wrong.

[Greybird]

This is SO wrong.

I'd have to agree. Sascha, please consider deleting this thread. It isn't funny any more. (I'd say it never was, but I've always detested practical jokes, especially around 1 April.)

They're obviously not trying to prepare any second release at Buena Vista. And when the boxed sets (genuine, not bootlegs) are now going for US$200+ on eBay, they're throwing away a chance to print money.

This thread is just too depressing for words, really. Please put it out of our misery.

[Sascha]

I considered it, but I won't delete it (maybe I'll edit it a bit). Not every April fools joke is only meant to be funny - it's also about putting the finger on a wound and showing what could have been if AU (or BMG or BVHE or...) had done it right. If I wanted to put everything out of "our misery", I'd need to remove many other threads, especially the "Freaks and Geeks on DVD" thread... (it really hurts everytime I see that F&G Special "Yearbook" DVD edition with three bonus discs and dozens of audio commentaries.)

[Greybird]

The "Freaks and Geeks" set actually exists for sale, though. This fantasy of yours does not. That's the difference.

I'd contend that we can very easily visualize what a "proper" special-feature-laden set would look like. Any number of films and series serve to provide examples. A piece of imagination this detailed just heightens the pain.

[fnordboy]

There is no reason why this thread should be deleted.

If anything just lock it so nobody can keep posting in it. If something is so painful and wrong to look at than it shouldn't be constantly bumped back to the top of the list.