Discussing June’s Poll

8 Comments

Last month’s poll asked “Do you own M*A*S*H on DVD?” Of the 173 people who voted, 62% answered “Yes, the complete series.” Another 20% answered “No” and the remaining 17% answered “Yes, one or more seasons.” I am actually a little surprised that so many people do not have any of the DVDs. Personally, I own the The Martinis & Medicine Collection. I purchased (or was given) the first five seasons on DVD but decided to stop after Season Five assuming — correctly, as it turned out — that the entire series would be released on DVD at some point after all eleven seasons had come out individually. I sold those five seasons when I got The Martinis & Medicine Collection.

For the people who have one or more seasons on DVD, what is keeping you from getting the complete series? Did you buy most of the individual season sets and thus feel like buying The Martinis & Medicine Collection would be double dipping? Or perhaps you only want certain seasons in your personal collection.

And for those people who do not own any of the DVDs, are you content to watch M*A*S*H on television? Or are you still deeply attached to your Columbia House VHS tapes?

8 Replies to “Discussing June’s Poll”

  1. “For the people who have one or more seasons on DVD, what is keeping you from getting the complete series? Did you buy most of the individual season sets and thus feel like buying The Martinis & Medicine Collection would be double dipping? Or perhaps you only want certain seasons in your personal collection.”

    Pretty much for the reasons stated: I only wanted the first seven seasons, as I do not care for Seasons Eight through Eleven, and then once the Martinis and Medicine set was released WITH SPECIAL FEATURES, I was among the many fans who complained to Fox about the issue, which is why they temporarily pulled the M&M set and released the GFA set to make up for it.

    Also, as I’ve said many times before, I feel that complete series sets for long runners is impractical. Complete series sets need to be reserved for shows that actually lasted a season or two at best, as that’s more practical and it makes more sense.

    1. I cannot think of any other series that has had a complete series set released followed by a set with the bonus/special features. That is what frustrates me the most about the complete series sets. You support the show buying each individual season set as it comes out and then have to shell out big bucks to repurchase all the episodes in order to get the bonus features.

      Of course, I have stopped buying DVDs due to Netflix/Hulu, although there are some really cheap sets on Amazon these days that I have been eying.

  2. I purchased the first couple of seasons individually because at the time there was no box set I could find. I think I got a little over half way through the series when I finally found a box set. After doing the math, it was a little cheaper to get the remaining singles. Afterwards I purchased sets instead of individuals for shows like “Miami Vice”, “Married With Children”, “Seinfeld” and a bunch of others. When they release the seasons individually first, then release them as sets is what makes me mad.

  3. I bought each of the seasons as they were released then I bough the Martinis and Medicine Collection as well. I wanted the extras (before they released those separately) and the original motion picture. I watch the individual season discs and am saving the Martinis and Medicine collection discs as backup or for use when I travel since it is easier to fit into a suitcase!

    1. Having the complete set as a backup is a good idea. I worry about replacing a single disc from the Martinis and Medicine collection if one were to go bad suddenly.

      1. Agreed. Eventually I am going to get an external hard drive and rip the DVDs as a digital source. That would mean I would not have to use the DVDs at all!

  4. I am from India; and am a huge MASH Fan. I have with me the complete MASH collection including the 30th anniversary reunion. I also have the MASH movie- and also AfterMASH- a friend from across the seas send across a dvd- but i think it is not an authorized version- and someone had converted the vhs tape to dvds

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