GL on DVD!

[Wendy]

It depends on what brand of Blu-Ray/DVD player you have. Some are easily hacked, like Phillips. But I have, for example, yet to see a hack for Sony, etc.

[sheilaforever]

Haven't seen a release date but apparently it is the "pilot episode from 1979" (whatever that is, don't know if they did a recap special for the first German showing) and then the first 20 consecutive episodes which aired in Germany.

They showed episodes from 1979-1992, all in all 3119 episodes which ran from 1986 to 1999 on RTL (Bertelsmann). I doubt that this DVD release will be a success but we'll see. It is released by the same company as the B&B box sets...

[RogerNewcomb]

Soap Classics has the distribution rights for the P&G shows so not sure what this other release is. No one is allowed to do anything like that as far as I know. Of course people sell DVD sets online that they made so not sure if it's something like that. At some point if more companies, especially Sony, gets involved in and starts making a profit with DVD sales, it will be interesting to see if any take more interest in copyright of their material. YouTube has been heaven for us soap fans but if it ever becomes a detriment to someone's sales more things could get flagged. SNL is the best example I can think of in terms of policing clips on YouTube.

[RogerNewcomb]

Does anyone remember Colbert's 72 season GL DVD? Would be nice.

[sheilaforever]

Don't know how the licensing deals worked 20 years ago, but RTL Group/Bertelsman had the German rights for GL (1979 onwards episodes) and payed for the dubbing. The episodes used to be in their vault and were to be destroyed. That was the moment the German DVD producer showed up, inspired by their B&B DVD sales, and made a play. Apparently they bought all/some of these episodes from RTL and now want to release the DVD sets to make money. Soap Classics or P&G aren't involved at alll.

[RogerNewcomb]

Thanks! Turns out this IS linked to Soap Classics and the work they're doing with international distribution. The hold the worldwide distribution rights for the P&G shows at this point so makes sense. More later.

[DAYSjunkie1987]

Any news yet on episodes, Roger? Cannot wait to get a copy!!!

[Soapsuds]

I asked him on Facebook but no news yet

[RogerNewcomb]

I will put out the full episode list on Tuesday and will add some other notes on the process.

[Soapsuds]

Notes?

[Chris B]

Probably notes about episodes they can't include. I'm sure if they don't do that fans will complain about certain key episodes, but it was probably problems with the music clearances.

[RogerNewcomb]

Will actually be tomorrow. Yes, Chris, just notes about certain episodes and how the process worked. Slightly different than ATWT in terms of tapes being available, timing, etc. But very excited about this and looking forward to more releases in the future. I'm doing a radio show (Pop2Reality) tonight at 10pm ET and will talk a bit about the DVD, among other topics. Hope companies aside from the P&G soaps take notice and we get DVDs from all the daytime shows at some point soon.

[~bl~]

Okay thanks for letting us know. Will the podcast be updated? Also will soapclassics.com update their free video anytime soon? Will it be ATWT again or GL?

[RogerNewcomb]

I believe the show tonight will get archived so people can listen later. Not sure about Soap Classics, we haven't chosen future online episodes but I suspect Valentine's Day would be next for one of the shows. It may depend on how many hits it got bringing people to their website. I hope so.

[DavidsMuse]

Springfield's 1984 Valentine Day's masked ball would be my choice for the free online GL episode. Lujack began romancing Beth, and Alex revealed herself to be back in town!