Eventually all TV-shows go to DVD, whereupon almost nobody buys them. But...

what if, instead of 22/44 minute episodes (the current standard), the DVD had half/full hour episodes. The extra time would be made up of episode, season, or even series' story arcs and subplots not shown on TV.

While it means more work for the writers and actors up front, the long run result would be more DVD sales.
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 16 2011

T.G.F.J. and I buy (or rent or borrow) them; as we recieve neither digital broadcast nor sattelite TV, we view this as a refinement process allowing us to watch only the best of television, without commercials, whenever we want, and without paying for a sattelite dish and a DVR. Also, some DVD-packaged shows come with deleted scenes, alternate episode endings, extended episodes, never-aired episodes, and uncensored episodes (since many shows aired on both network and sattelite now produce two versions for the different s&p allowances, they just go ahead and make DVD-only versions as as well). All of these features could be a stepping stone to this Halfbake, which as a TV-on- DVD viewer, I heartily endorse. [+]

I guess that makes us almost nobody.
-- Alterother, Nov 16 2011


If you like a show enough to want extra material, you are probably going to want to own it anyway.
-- MechE, Nov 16 2011


I think they release TV shows to DVD because it costs very little compared to making the show to begin with, and there are enough people that buy them to make a profit. I doubt that creating additional scenes, subplots, etc. just for the DVD would be cost effective. Deleted scenes are a different story because they were generally filmed with the intention that they might be part of the show, but then were edited out. Again, the material is already there, so they might as well try to earn a little money off of it.

Like [Alterother] I watch the majority of my TV on DVD, but I'll give this a [-] because I can't imagine that the additional scenes written specifically for the DVD would be of the same quality. They could be interesting in a few cases, but as soon as everyone starts doing it I'd likely start looking for a way to see just the original TV version.
-- scad mientist, Nov 16 2011


My actual idea is to have each show either a full or half hour in length, but have them rigorously written in such a way that entire subplots or distinct levels of detail are added or deleted to accomodate a varying amount of commercials and censoring levels, without simply using filler.

An artistic challenge for writers, and music scorers.

I suppose I should've posted that instead.
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 16 2011


It would be nice if there were really long books of TV shows. I would love to read 'The Wire' in it's novel form by Vonnegut.
-- weedy, Nov 16 2011


This was done here before, but the emphasis was on omitting, in the DVD version, the editorial cuts designed to accommodate ad. breaks.
-- spidermother, Nov 17 2011


These days I wonder why anybody bothers with the tedious job of running a TV station. They could just put everything straight to DVD and do away with all that running around, trying to drum up advertising revenue.
-- DrBob, Nov 17 2011


[DrBob] Surely it would be easier to skip the tedious process of broadcasting programmes and then releasing them as DVDs, and go straight to the retro/nostalgia stage of saying "Do you remember that programme ...?" - "Yeah, wasn't it great?"? This would avoid the expense and inconvenience of making programmmes and the waste of the viewers' time in watching them.
-- hippo, Nov 17 2011


[spidermother] that was me too. (There is quite a difference between the two ideas)
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 17 2011


Good point, hippo. I agree!
-- DrBob, Nov 17 2011


So I could watch the version where all the characters are sexually involved, or the one where they're all prone to high speed auto chases, while somebody else could watch the one where they all like to cook and throw pots? Ideally they should all have the same ending.
-- normzone, Dec 30 2012


[normzone] I think you're crossposting.

This idea is that the DVD episodes of a TV show contain an extra subplot or two, whether of episode, season or even series arc, that isn't in the broadcast version, to fill them out to even half/full hour length.

Arguably this could be considered a (pre-existing) sub-Idea of the one you actually meant to post to, however the projected audience in this case is supposed to be the same one that watches the show on TV: the Idea is to get them to buy the DVD's after the show's run is over.
-- FlyingToaster, Dec 30 2012


" [normzone] I think you're crossposting."

Crossposting...Looked it up, thanks for the education, guilty as charged...you know how it goes, one thinks one's being funny...Can I plea bargain down to a lesser charge? First offense, and all that.
-- normzone, Dec 30 2012


lol, whatever, you know what I meant: you replied to the wrong post. I don't really see the humour if it was on purpose, but I haven't really been following the other post's threads that closely.

I don't consider them similar ideas, though somewhat related in that each start with a large program which can be sculpted down for a specific purpose.
-- FlyingToaster, Dec 30 2012



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