Party of Five on DVD?

[Guest]

Is it Party time yet?
Posted by David Lambert
12/09/2003


E! Online's biggest gossip girl, Kristin (from "Watch With Kristin"), has the scoop on something worth celebrating. She reveals in her online Weekly Chat that a Party of Five DVD release is in-the-works "right now".

You can read what she says for yourself, but be aware that there's nothing more to it than what I just said, and that there are MASSIVE spoilers at this link for upcoming stories on several popular television shows. If you want to avoid those, then just quickly zoom to the very bottom when you click here...it's the last item on that web page.

Our sincere thanks to Jeff Harris and also to Rodney, for tipping us off about this fresh-from-the-grapevine info!

Link to this page:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=897 Party of Five

This is a copy of a post from tvshowsondvd.com. Nothing more of a mention of possible PO5 DVDs, but here is to hoping.

[Natasha (candygirl)]

From tvshowsondvd.com

Columbia TriStar came to us earlier in the week and asked if we could help them out. They can't decide which cover to use for the release of Party of Five: The Complete First Season so they want feedback from fans of the show.

If you head to http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/po5/ you can see both covers and vote for the one you like. You'd better hurry though because we're closing the voting at 11:59 pm PST on January 16. Please feel free to post this news on Party of Five forums and fans sites, or forward to your friends and family.

Please note: you can only vote for a cover once.

[Sascha]

"The Complete First Season"?? OMG, if they really release all episodes and not just a bestof ... that's gonna cost me...

BTW, I voted for the darker cover image.

[TomSpeed]

I can't wait for Paty of Five on DVD. I'm a big Neve Campbell fan. Wild Things anyone?

Oh, I also voted for the dark cover.

[Natasha (candygirl)]

The latest from tvshowsondvd:

It's finally Party time! And YOU helped make it happen!

TVShowsOnDVD readers will remember that early this year we asked for your help to tell Columbia Tristar which cover art you prefer for an upcoming release of Party of Five - The Complete 1st Season. Today the box set was unveiled, and we are excited to tell you that the winning choice of our readers (by an approximate 2-to-1 margin) was what Columbia decided to use for this release!

May 4th is the release date for this 5-DVD set, which will run you $49.95 SRP for 984 minutes of programming. But it's not just 22 first-season episodes you get. Look for the following extras to be included on the set:

* Commentary tracks from cast & crew
* Featurette: "A Family Album" (behind-the-scenes)
* Featurette: "A Look Back" (new interviews with the cast, including Neve Campbell and Scott Wolf, among others)
* Bonus Trailers

We've been excited about this release, and it's almost here. Thanks to all the wonderful readers at TVShowsOnDVD who participated in the cover art voting; it was very successful, and we're glad you're excited about this release, too.

You can view the cover here.

[Natasha (candygirl)]

More news from tvshowsondvd:

In case our news this morning wasn't quite enough for you, we have the official press release for you from the studio for Party of Five - The Complete 1st Season. We thought you all would be interested in this one, because it has new, more detailed info for you about the supplements. Enjoy!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Beloved, Long-Running TV Show is Finally on DVD

PARTY OF FIVE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
Coming Home on a Five-Disc DVD Collection May 4

Culver City, CA (February 23, 2004) - PARTY OF FIVE, the long-running FOX-TV show that has impacted a generation and launched the careers of Neve Campbell (The Company,Scream Trilogy), Scott Wolf (Go) and Lacey Chabert (Daddy Day Care, Not Another Teen Movie) will be available in a five-disc collection, featuring all 22 episodes of the Golden Globe winner's ("Best TV Series, Drama") premiere season as well as an extensive collection of DVD bonus materials. PARTY OF FIVE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON will be available May 4, 2004 from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.

After the sudden loss of their parents the Salingers must band together to keep their own lives on track, discovering first loves, last calls, and themselves along the rocky road to growing up. Headlined by a young, sexy cast, this long-running series (1994-2000) firmly found its place as a pop culture phenomenon for all ages. Shot-through with equal doses heartache and laughter, PARTY OF FIVE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON remains an emotional knockout.

DVD Special Features for PARTY OF FIVE: THE COMPLETE SEASON include audio commentary with the cast and show creators, a retrospective featurette examining the cultural impact the show has had and an extensive, nine-part documentary featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes footage.

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE:

Audio commentary with the cast
Audio commentary with the creators of the show
"Party of Five: A Look Back" featurette
Nine-part making-of featurette, "Party of Five: A Family Album"
How It All Began (A look at how it all started.)
The Cast (A look at how the family of 5 came to be.)
A Happy Place (A look at working on the set.)
Dogs and Babies (A look at the "other" cast.)
Fan Mail (A look at the fans who supported the show from the beginning.)
The Show Hits its Stride (A look at how the show became a hit.)
The Golden Globes (A look at the prestigious award won by Party of Five.)
In Retrospect (A look back and final thoughts about the start of the show.)
Party Of Five Abroad (A look at Party of Five in Foreign Languages.)

Rated: Not Rated
Color
Closed Captioned
Running Time: 984 Minutes
DVD Catalog # 02865
UPC Code: 0-43396-02865-4
SLP: $49.95 DVD

[fnordboy]

More news on the eve of the S1 release:

Party of Five - Info about extras, and Season 2 info!

With the first season of Party of Five only a day away we thought fans would like to know a bit more about the extras included on the set.

Commentary Tracks - There are 3 episodes with 2 commentaries each (6 total). The episodes are: "Pilot," "Thanksgiving" and "The Ides of March." The cast will be on one track and Amy Lippman & Christopher Keyser will be on the other.

Featurette - "Party of Five: A Look Back" - This is a 9 part featurette examining the show. Here are the titles and the length of each one: "How It All Began" (4:55), "The Cast" (9:46), "A Happy Place" (6:56), "Dogs & Babies" (5:00), "Fan Mail" (6:03), "The Show Hits its Stride" (4:31), "The Golden Globes" (7:01), "Remembering Party of Five" (8:44) and "Party of Five Abroad" (6:02). The total length for this featurette is 58:58.

Party of Five: A Family Album - This featurette (22 mins) includes some early material (screen tests) and interviews with the cast about how they got the job and what it was like on set.

We saved the best news for last. Columbia TriStar has informed us that they're already working on the second season and plan to have it released on November 16. I know there are people unwilling to pick up the first season of a series until they see some commitment from the studio to release the entire run, so there you have it. Columbia TriStar is serious about Party of Five, so now you can pick it up knowing that they're already hard at work on the second season. Great news!

[kappster]

Anyone pick up a copy of this DVD set early? I am wondering if they changed the music. At the price they are selling it for, I am sure they probably did, but haven't seen any official word on it. I am hoping that they didn't. Can't wait to watch it again one way or another. I am still planning on running away with Julia Salinger.

[kappster]

I picked up party of five today and watched the pilot episode over my lunch hour. so far so good. The picture was good....way better than MSCL. Didn't notice anything wrong with the sound. Packaging was OK, but nothing special...pretty plain. Has just a 2 page insert with the episode names and very brief synopsis. I am happy to have it...hope they keep them coming.

I can't decide if they changed the music or not because i didn't recognize any of the background songs. They did play REM 'Everybody Hurts'...so they must have paid up some money.

[kappster]

Damn it...they definately replaced a good bunch of the music. Of course, I knew they would have to, but had hoped by some miracle that they didn't. I know because in the last episode, they didn't play Annie Lennox 'why' or Cranberries 'ode to my family' which I definately remember being in the original. Disappointing, but unfortuately understandable.

Where are my fellow Po5 fans?

[MyLifeIsBrians]

Damn it...they definately replaced a good bunch of the music. Of course, I knew they would have to, but had hoped by some miracle that they didn't. I know because in the last episode, they didn't play Annie Lennox 'why' or Cranberries 'ode to my family' which I definately remember being in the original. Disappointing, but unfortuately understandable.

Where are my fellow Po5 fans?

PO5 Fan right here. I am so happy that the show is on DVD and in decent quality I will overlook the music. It would have been great to have the original but I guess the replacments will have to do. Why did they not include the original music anyways? Royalty fees?

[fnordboy]

PO5 Fan right here. I am so happy that the show is on DVD and in decent quality I will overlook the music. It would have been great to have the original but I guess the replacments will have to do. Why did they not include the original music anyways? Royalty fees?

Yeah, it would cost too much to include the original music used since they would have to pay each owner of every individual piece of music. Look at the Roswell set, nearly every song in that was changed for that very reason (not that it makes it a bad set, it is a pretty good release). Unfortunately they didn't think about home video rights when they made their original contracts. We shouldn't run into these problems with future sets made for new shows. Hopefully....

[Natasha (candygirl)]

Yup, same problem that they had with the Felicity DVD sets as well. Musical clearances are the reason why shows like the Wonder Years and Miami Vice haven't been released on DVD yet. They paid to use the music when the show aired, so if they want to keep the original music they have to negotiate with the artists again to get the songs on DVD. The musicians have the right to say no or ask for millions of dollars, so the money people have to decide if they want to fork out the money and raise the price of the DVDs, risk the fans' ire by replacing the music, or simply not produce the sets at all. In some cases, only a few songs have to be replaced (Dawson's Creek) or the execs decide to exclude an episode that they couldn't get musical clearance for (the Profiler). For mscl.com newbies, you might be interested to know that the music in My So-Called Angels was almost not cleared. Jason joked about having to replace the music with kazoos.

A good article that Sascha posted in the Freaks & Geeks thread:

http://www.computeruser.com/articles/22 ... 01,03.html

May I see your license, please?
The reason for the high cost of some DVDs is the music inside them.

By Dan Heilman

Fans of the beloved (if short-lived) TV series "Freaks and Geeks" were delighted to learn over the summer that the series would be released in its entirety on DVD in October. What might not have tickled them quite as much is the price tag: $120 for a mere 18 episodes.

Why so steep? According to Paul Feig, the show's co-creator, a significant part of the expense is going toward making sure that all the music used on the original series is also on the DVD set.

Set in the late 1970s, "Freaks and Geeks" contained a healthy helping of vintage music to add flavor to each episode, usually by such stars of the era as Deep Purple, Van Halen, and Ted Nugent. Using those songs in a broadcast episode doesn't come cheap, and attaching them to the episode in perpetuity via DVD is even pricer--and it's one reason why some DVDs are so expensive.

In general, it costs money to use an existing piece of music for any purpose that might generate income for the user. In the case of a network TV show like "Freaks and Geeks," NBC and its affiliates shared an annual flat fee to a music publisher's association (usually BMI or ASCAP) for the right to use recorded music on the network's shows.

But that's just where the expense starts. It also must purchase synchronization rights, or the right to use an existing recording (as opposed to music commissioned specially) in the context of a movie, video, or TV show. That's why most TV shows use incidental music that's written and recorded in-house--and one reason why a show like "The Sopranos," which uses nothing but existing songs for its soundtrack, are so expensive to produce (and why a DVD set of 13 "Sopranos" episodes costs $100).

Another variable is the fact that the cost of licensing music for use in DVDs varies widely. An unknown musician will naturally be thrilled to have a song featured in "The Sopranos," and will allow it to be used for little or even no money. But that seldom happens on such a high-profile show; networks such as HBO routinely pay per-use licensing fees of anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 to feature prestigious musicians in their original programming, and subsequently, their video releases.

Add in miscellaneous costs (such as $70 per hour to have an expert run a copyright search on a song); expenses arising from where a song is placed (using it over the credits costs about five times as much as putting it in the background of a scene); and the right to use the song in a permanent medium like DVD instead of in a single broadcast (three times the cost), and it's clear why existing music is used so seldom in TV shows, which are made on a shoestring compared to most movies.

All this expense results in either high prices for the end product or, in some cases, rather tacky shortcuts. People who rented cult favorites such as "Valley Girl" and "Slap Shot" on VHS after originally seeing them in theaters might have noticed that the soundtrack music wasn't quite right. In both cases, generic music that resembled the Elton John and Psychedelic Furs songs that were in the original movies was substituted for the home-video editions (the "real" music was restored to the "Slap Shot" DVD). It's a shortcut not unlike the one record labels use when they want to put out an oldies compilation on the cheap: Skip the original recording in favor a newly-made soundalike version, all to avoid paying expensive mechanical royalties.

It's easy to see why the vast majority of TV shows are accompanied by commissioned scores or ultra-cheap "buy-out" library music. But in the case of "Freaks and Geeks," there can be little dispute that the producers of the DVD made the right aesthetic call, even if the added expense has to be passed down to consumers.