Fraggle Rock DVD Petition

[Drtooth]

Let's not stop at DVD!!! Let's see them rerelease videos, as well!

 

[Luke]

David

Hey David,

While your enthusiasm is much appreciated i think it's the wrong thing to do to explicitly tell them that you want the whole thing in season by season format and NOT 'Best Of' compilations.

First off, it's usually best not to tell media people how to do their jobs, (cos they are cranky - LOL) but more importantly - what happens if the Henson company had some distributor who wanted to release a compilation DVD and not go the whole hog and support a release of the whole 98 episodes.

If that happened, and Henson looked at the petition and saw that out of say 5 thousand signatures, 50% had specifically said they do not want a compilation and will ONLY buy a season by season box set - well then they might just think it isn't worth the bother and you'd end up with no Fraggle DVD at all.

I think it's important to show that you give your support for a Fraggle DVD and mention that PREFERABLY you'd like them to be in a boxed set - but you'd buy ANY Fraggle DVD in a heartbeat !

Just my two cents,

 

[Jessie]

-Luke-

I kinda agree with you on that one. When I was writting the letter thing, I did some research on petitions and they said the best ones state what they want, why they want it, but most importantly they state the latter two in a non-threatening way. If you tell someone what you want, you end up making demands and it puts them on the defensive. So perhaps it would be best if we "suggested" or said "we would appreciate any DVD's but my preference is, etc." :0) But those are just my 2 cents and who knows what they are actually worth. :0)

 

[BlueFrackle]

Guys,

Hey Guys,
Today we reached 400 Entries !!

Keep spreating the word !!

www.PetitionOnline.com/Fraggle

See ya

 

[DaViD Boulet]

While your enthusiasm is much appreciated i think it's the wrong thing to do to explicitly tell them that you want the whole thing in season by season format and NOT 'Best Of' compilations.

If it was clear that there was a strong demand for the entire series...then the marketing department would try to take advantage of the opportunity.

First off, it's usually best not to tell media people how to do their jobs, (cos they are cranky - LOL)

media people are releasing Muppet Treasure Island in Pan and Scan only. Media people decided that "The Last Emperor" didn't need a new transfer and the old sub-standard (horrid looking) laserdisc master would do just fine for DVD. Media people decided that no one wanted Ben Hur on DVD until fans petitioned the studio. Media people tried to give us a full-frame only Willy Wonka.
Sounds to me like Media people should listen to the people who love and buy their products.

but more importantly - what happens if the Henson company had some distributor who wanted to release a compilation DVD and not go the whole hog and support a release of the whole 98 episodes.

Hopefully, being informed that the fan base take their Fraggle series seriously...they'd find another distributor.

if that happened, and Henson looked at the petition and saw that out of say 5 thousand signatures, 50% had specifically said they do not want a compilation and will ONLY buy a season by season box set - well then they might just think it isn't worth the bother and you'd end up with no Fraggle DVD at all.

Is this serious? If anything, we might have a healthy delay while the right distributor was found. If Henson took our desires seriously enough not to release them in chopped-up best of collections, then knowing how strong the desire of the collector was, they'd do what they could to get the product out knowing how strong the demand was. I'd rather wait and have it done right than get a shoddy incomplete product that then is the only DVD incarnation we're offered.

What we do NOT want is for people just to sound like generic fraggle fans and have a "test" DVD compliation released...with some themed collection or something...and then end up only getting 10 or 20 episodes.

Just look at the travesty surrounding the South Park DVDs right now. Rhino was releasing the complete series...season by season. Then they sold the rights to Warner. Warner's marketing department said "oh, this is a cartoon...cartoons are for kids...kids don't care about things like "seasons" so we'll just release some cute little compilation discs."

The South Part Collectors have been petitioning Warner with mail and every campaing imaginable...but to no avail.

I do NOT want this to happen with Fraggle Rock. It's already happend with the Muppet shows. We're the fans and we deserve the entire series. Anything less is NOT acceptable.

If we have to wait a few years for the "right" company to come along and liscense the product then that's what we should do. We shouldn't have a shoddy and incomplete product that's pandered down just because the first company who wants to liscense the rights doesn't care about doing justice to the art of this series.

If we let the stuido know how important it is for us to have the complete series in order of release, we're only helping the Fraggle fan. It only goes to show the studio just how much demand there is for this wonderful series and how much the fans really care about it.

I want them all. I want them in order. I'm going to tell Henson so they don't make the terrible mistake of just releasing a few small "collections" discs which serves no-one's interest but the casual viewer.

-dave

 

[Luke]

David

I know you are passionate about this but it isn't like Henson have companies lining up at their door to release Fraggle Rock on DVD - i'm just worried that if compilations aren't acceptable then you are unlikely to ever see Fraggle Rock on DVD.

I think we have to face facts here - they need to press 100,000 discs to release something on a big scale in the shops, a boxed set of one season would cost say $30/40'ish and the show totalled over 100 episodes. Don't you think thats a big risk for them ? I mean they haven't even done this for TMS, Bear or even 'The Hoobs' - all have compilation releases. I really don't see it happening with Fraggle Rock.

Henson KNOW that there are a small group of dedicated passionate fans who would buy full season sets in a second - it's the same 500 fans who are signing the DVD Petition and there are probably 10,000 more who might be tempted in the shops, but it isn't enough right now. It just simply wouldn't be profitable for them and EMTV would never let them take that kind of a financial risk while the company is up for sale.

Maybe in a few years it'll be cheaper to press DVD's, and distributors will find ways to make pressing smaller quantities cheaper, or maybe Henson might be able to sell a small quantity themselves via mail order. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Your opinion is fine and i'd love to see the full seasons released but i would also support a compilation right now, hopefully as a 'test' because i find it doubtful that anything else would be done. At least then fans would have something rather than nothing !

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I mean they haven't even done this for TMS, Bear or even 'The Hoobs' - all have compilation releases. I really don't see it happening with Fraggle Rock.

hence why it's important to let them know just how badly the fans want the entire series.

Henson KNOW that there are a small group of dedicated passionate fans who would buy full season sets in a second - it's the same 500 fans who are signing the DVD Petition and there are probably 10,000 more who might be tempted in the shops, but it isn't enough right now. It just simply wouldn't be profitable for them and EMTV would never let them take that kind of a financial risk while the company is up for sale.

Maybe. Maybe not. Many studios have viewed products as not having a large enough appeal to be profitable as "season" sets...only to discover...because the fans let them know...that there *was* an appeal for full-season sets and that they could have realized a profit. South Park. Friends. Just 2 examples of how studio "experts" decided that they couldn't turn a profit with complete sets only to discover after the fact that they were wrong.

I personally think that people would buy the sets and Henson could easily make their money. If they packaged them in affordable groups...then casual viewers would only have to buy the few discs they were interested in and collectors could purchase every one. If each disc or collection was packaged separately as a $20 disc...the casual viewer has just as much inclination to buy it as they would a "compilation" disc.

BTW, I look at the Muppet Show as an indication of just how serious DVD/muppet collectors are. Time Life released the first 10 volumes of the "best of" and...much to their surprise...they couldn't print them fast enough. The discs are perpetually on back-order because so many fans want them and they want them ALL. Now Time Life is considering releasing the rest of the shows to complete the entire series.

For the Muppet show this will ultimately work fine because the shows are variety and don't have story lines or characters who develop or "progress" one show to the next. But for Fraggle Rock, artistically it would be a shame to chop them up and assemble them randomly.

Maybe in a few years it'll be cheaper to press DVD's, and distributors will find ways to make pressing smaller quantities cheaper, or maybe Henson might be able to sell a small quantity themselves via mail order. I guess we will have to wait and see.

That's true. But even now it costs less to duplicate a DVD than it does a VHS tape.

In any case, the worst that will happen here is that we don't get the complete series despite our desires to have it. The more people who let them know that they love the series enough to buy them all, the more incentive Henson will have to release them that way. Regardless of how large or small the core fan-base who *really* want the entire series is, if they wisely package the discs so that they can be purchased for individual sale as well (agreed that $30 or $40 box sets-only are NOT the way to package them), then there's nothing to discourage the casual viewer from picking up as many discs as they feel inclined to purchase and contribute to the overall success of the release.

Look at the Muppet Show. Fans can buy each disc separately for $15 - $20. It just so happens that most fans buy all 10 discs

 

[Luke]

David

Yup i think you definitely have a point there - it would mean a heck of a lot of DVD's but individual DVD's in season order might well be the way to go, and also be profitable and in the event that it wasn't as in demand as we thought they could just stop production without losing too much money.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

That's exactly what I'm thinking.

On a single-layer DVD we could get 4-6 episodes. Dual-layer DVDs could store more + extras. Either way the discs themselves could be priced between $15 and $20 each.

Hopefully, just as with the Muppet Show, South Park, and other series that have cult-fan appeal, ultimately there will be enough demand to get them all released. In the meantime, at least we're building a real collection and not a disjointed assembly of wonderful, but out-of-context episodes.

 

[BlueFrackle]

David + Luke,

Hey,
So you mean release one Disc with the first 6 eps on ?

And then One disc containing 6 eps at a time ?

I think it is a good idea, For us it would be great to see them in order, And to other buyers they wouldnt be any the wiser if it was a Compilation disc or in order !

Maybe once we get more entries in the petition, We should tell Henson the ideas?

see ya