All Or Nothing

I was surprised to see the complete Mary Tyler Moore DVD box set is rated so poorly at Amazon. It's as good a show as TV ever had. But here's what happened:

The first season was released to much fanfare, and with a lot of nice extras. Similar released were planned for all seven seasons. It soon became apparent, however, that (alas) demand had been overestimated. So soon only bare bones DVDs were put out. But by the fourth season they said screw it and just released the entire show all at once.

This means all the faithful fans who bought the first four seasons now have to buy them all over again to get the last three. (And despite what my friend Jon Hein, who created the Jump The Shark website, has said about the show, there was never any letdown in later seasons. Jon believes Mary changing apartments hurt the show, but I'd say, if anything, the show got better then, partly because with Rhoda and Phyllis gone they could concentrate on the superior office episodes.) I'd be pissed off too, except I already have them on videotape and haven't made the DVD plunge yet.