Fewer episodes, more extras for Disney TV sets

Grey’s Anatomy makes its bow on Blu-ray

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 4/25/2008

APRIL 25 | Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is releasing its newest DVDs for Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and Lost with exclusive extended episodes and bonus features in an effort to offset the fact that the full season sets have fewer episodes than usual.

These episode-light sets, all with either ‘Extended’ or ‘Expanded’ in their titles, are a result of the weeks-long Writers Guild of America strike, which stopped series’ production for weeks in the middle of the season.

“It looks like most sets will have two or three fewer episodes, but it won’t be meaningfully different,” said Lori MacPherson, Disney’s general manager of North America. “We are compensating for that by making sure the bonus features are really robust.”

• Grey’s Anatomy: The Complete Fourth Season—Expanded, streeting Sept. 9 (prebook July 15), features a beefed-up “Forever Young” episode, including commentary by executive producer/director Rob Corn.

• Private Practice: The Complete First Season—Extended, bowing Sept. 16 (prebook July 22), features two stretched episodes.

• Lost: The Complete Fourth Season—The Expanded Experience, streeting Dec. 9 (prebook Oct. 28), boasts featurettes that will exclusively unlock secrets to the series’ plot line.

Grey’s Anatomy also will be available onBlu-ray Disc for the first time. Lost’s fourth season will be its second straight set to be released on Blu-ray.

“Grey’s and Lost are our biggest TV on DVD sellers year over year,” said MacPherson. “They have a broad audience base for Blu-ray. It’s still too early to take all our shows and put them on Blu-ray, but we are proceeding slowly and steadily.”

MacPherson hopes the exclusive DVD material does more than just smooth over strike issues and supports the TV DVD category in general.

“We acknowledge there are lots of different ways for people to get TV programming now—there is streaming, broadcast and iTunes downloading,” said MacPherson. “But what sets Blu-ray and DVD apart is that consumers buy them because they are collectible. So we pay a lot of attention to the bonus features and make the shows different from what was seen elsewhere.”

Other bonus-feature-packed releases streeting through the year include Desperate Housewives: The Complete Fourth Season on Sept. 2 (prebook July 8); Ugly Betty: The Complete Second Season, Sept. 9 (prebook July 15); and Dirty Sexy Money: The Complete First Season, Sept. 16 (prebook July 22).

Also, Samantha Who?: The Complete First Season and Brothers & Sisters: The Complete Second Season will both launch on Sept. 23 (prebook July 29).

Due to the strike, Disney recognizes some of these shows might not be top of viewers’ minds. For instance, Dirty Sexy Money and Private Practice have been off the air since last year and won’t return until later this fall. After a winter of re-runs, many shows, such as Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy, just returned with fresh episodes this month.

But Disney is deliberately streeting many of the shows close to their next season network premieres to maximize promotional opportunities.

“There is great synergy, where we can work with ABC to create a cohesive campaign to reignite interest in the series,” said MacPherson. “We can create a bigger campaign together than we could have done alone.”

With or without the strike, MacPherson believes these DVD installments will satisfy fans.

“Shows go on hiatus during the summer, and this was just like a hiatus during a different part of the year,” she said. “At this point, the strike isn’t a concern for us.”