I’ve finally come to terms with a miserable aspect of my personality: I am an extremely lazy bum. There are few things in life that make me happier than when a television station runs a marathon of one of my favorite shows. I can curl up on the couch with a bag of candy and a bottle of soda and barely move for at least four hours.
I also have an addictive side, especially when it comes to buying entertainment products like CDs and DVDs. Set me loose in a Best Buy with a credit card and I will love you for the rest of my days, just ask my mother – I love her and her credit card very much.
But combine those vices with the recent upsurge in TV-on-DVD sales in the United States, and you’ve got a very concerned (not to mention, very fat from all that candy) Kristen.
In June, Variety magazine reported on a study conducted by Adams Media Research and Screen Digest. The analysis found the amount Americans were spending on DVDs of television shows had jumped from $160 million in 2000 to $2.8 billion in 2004, making TV-on-DVD the fastest growing sector of U.S. video sales.
According to the research group, TV shows on VHS had produced meager profits in the United States before the advent of the DVD. The Adams-Screen Digest group predicted, however, that TV DVDs would soon be outselling the rest of the market, estimating profits of $4.4 billion by 2009.
I am forced to wonder: What makes this product such a hot-selling item?
Indeed, it is amazing, for it has the ability to bring shows back from the dead, as was the case with “Family Guy.” According to the show’s creator, Seth MacFarlane, the first volume of the series on DVD (which contained seasons one and two of the previously canceled series) was the number one seller of the year for TV shows on DVD in 2003. It was the number four seller overall, coming in just behind volumes one and two of the “Simpsons” and volume one of the “Sopranos.” Fox revived the show earlier this year.
Watching television shows on DVD also eliminates those pesky commercials. It used to drive my roommates and me crazy when we would sit down for our weekly 30-minute sessions of (don’t laugh) the “Real World” on MTV and be lucky if we got 20 minutes of show. God help me if I ever purchase a reality show on DVD, but at least I’ll know I can watch it straight through with no interruptions if I do.
If you’re an entertainment dork like me, TV DVDs often provide interesting behind-the-scenes interviews or commentaries. My personal favorite is the mini-commentaries by series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone that accompany the “South Park” DVDs. The approximately five minute clips at the beginning of each episode are short, funny and extremely informative.
I think the ultimate attraction of TV shows on DVD is that they put time back in the hands of the viewer. To a certain extent, movies have always had this appeal. Sure, the theaters designate the show times, but you can chose your time or chose your theater. With a popular television show, if you miss it during its regular air time (and you’re not one of those individuals blessed with the gift of TiVo), then you have to track down a rerun or tape it on a video cassette. And let’s face it, who even buys those bulky vestiges of the 1980s anymore?
But I’m forced to wonder: Can we have too much of a good thing?
Many retailers have complained about the rising influx of TV DVDs into their stores over the past few years. According to Video Business magazine, “a flood” of the product hit suppliers on June 7 of this year, with an 86 percent increase in the number of TV-on-DVD releases from the same week a year earlier.
However, it was when my older sister waved her brand-new copy of “Laguna Beach” season one at me this summer, pure glee glistening in her eyes, that I truly began to believe things had gone too far.

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