Subject: Re: HELP! Missing two episodes from my collection
From: boyajian@ruby.enet.dec.com (The fox so cunning and free)
Date: 1992-04-11, 07:17
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <1992Apr11.015448.4423@digifix!uunet.ca>, digifix!sanguish@uunet.ca (Scott Anguish) writes...

} In article <1992Apr10.164116.1@eagle.wesleyan.edu>  writes:

}} I would really like to get a good copy of these (like, from those nifty  
}} laserdiscs). 

} are the episodes available on VideoDisc yet, and if so, from who??

I guess you're either new or weren't paying attention a couple of months
ago. The entire (except for the original broadcast version of the pilot**)
series was released in a single 15-disc boxed set in Japan at the tail
end of last year. Price is 518,000 Yen, which, depending on how the
exchange rate is doing, and how much the dealer you order it through
wants to mark it up after paying for shipping and import duty, can run
you anywhere in the $500-700 range.

Rumor has it that Lumivision has been negotiating with Worldvision Home
Video (owner of the rights to the series) for the rights to a domestic
set of the series on laserdisc, but I've heard nothing in the past month
as to how it's going. No official announcements have been made about
if, when, how, or how much?

My take: Judging by Lumivision's general pricing scheme, I would bet on
their charging $35 for a 2-episode disc. Which means that if they release
it as a single 15-disc set, as in Japan, you're talking $525. But knock
off a little, assuming that they'll offer a price break on such a one-shot
deal. That's not really a whole lot better than the price for a Japanese
set. Of course, the advantage would be not having to put up with Japanese
kanji subtitles, but they don't bother me a whit. On the other hand, the
advantage of the Japanese set is that you have it *now* (well, *you* can't,
but I do), instead of in some nebulous, indefinite future. And if Lumivision
decides to release them a disc or two at a time over a long stretch, it'll
be even longer to accumulate a whole set.

** The original broadcast version of the pilot is not available anywhere
   in the world in any format on commercially-released home video. Unlike
   the rest of the series, Worldvision does not have the rights to the
   pilot, which are held by Warner Home Video. And Warner had decided to
   release the extended home-video version of the pilot instead of the
   broadcast version. I have the Japanese laserdisc of the extended pilot,
   but it's also available on disc in the US.

-- "Buster, this trip downriver has been truly special. Downright Twainian in a Hitchcockian sort of way." --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, "The Mill", Maynard, MA) boyajian@ruby.enet.dec.com