Yes, this was an April Fools’ Day joke.
Sources at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment have confirmed to me exclusively that AfterMASH will be released on Blu-ray in a deluxe 12-disc collector’s edition set later this year. Said Senior Vice President of Corporate and Consumer Communications David D. Davidson, “AfterMASH is one of the most beloved television series of all time and one that fans have been clamoring to see in high definition for years. We have spent over a decade working non-stop to produce the best possible collection with new transfers from the highest-quality masters. We are very proud to be issuing AfterMASH on Blu-ray.”
The set will include both seasons of the Emmy award-winning spin-off of M*A*S*H, which aired on CBS from 1983-1985. The set will include more than 40 hours of special features:
- The unaired series finale (deemed “too brilliant” by CBS executives to be broadcast in 1985) that reunited the entire cast of M*A*S*H for a poker game
- An exhaustive five-hour behind-the-scenes documentary
- A featurette called “The Two Mrs. Potters” about the two actresses who played Colonel Potter’s wife
- Four hours of bloopers
- Interviews with more than two dozen members of the cast and crew, including sound re-recording mixer Fred Tator, post-production supervisor Joseph Silver, second assistant director Marsha Gutierrez and head of transportation James Nordberg
- A roundtable discussion with the writing staff hosted by Ken Levine about the never produced third season
- Test footage from Larry Gelbart’s proposed AfterMASH spin-off called AfterAfterMASH starring Rosalind Chao
- A “Spot Alan” featurette that reveals for the first time that Alan Alda made a cameo appearance in every single episode of AfterMASH
20th Century Fox also hopes to include the unsold pilot episode to W*A*L*T*E*R, but Gary Burghoff owns the 35mm film negatives, positives and interpositives and will only allow them to be used if 20th Century Fox lets him move forward with his proposed musical based on M*A*S*H (reportedly, Burghoff sent 20th Century Fox a demo tape of him singing the show-stopping number “Henry’s Dead”).
“AfterMASH: The Complete Series” will be released on Blu-ray on June 31st, 2013.
Good thing I remember what day this is today. Good one, RJ. 😉
Wowww! Almost had me there 😉
Oh my gosh! I totally fell for it. The Henry’s Dead song didn’t even tip me off. This is the greatest!!!
June 31. And the roundtable included the head of transportation. Good Grief.
Not the roundtable – the interviews. 12 discs. That sounded wierd to me, but no! I still didn’t get it.
There’s also an Easter egg in this that will let you watch the “Fighting Nightingales” pilot film about the 8063rd nurses starring Adrienne Barbeau and Kenneth Mars.
(And I predict that — within two or three years — at least one website out there will begin repeating the claim about the Alan Alda cameos…..)
Although this may be an April Fools joke, I would like to see Fox release AfterMASH in the DVD-MOD format.
Amazing they can re-master the crap show for Blu-ray, but not the best show to ever air on tv.