You may recall that we groused about how, after releasing all the seasons of M*A*S*H as individual DVD sets, the folks at Fox Home Video were creating a maddening situation for devout fans of that series. Concurrent with the last release, they also issued the Martinis and Medicine Collection, which included all eleven seasons plus three discs worth of bonus material. So if you'd already shelled out serious cash for the first ten seasons — and if as a die-hard lover of M*A*S*H, you wanted everything — you had to buy a set that mostly included copies of shows you'd already purchased…and at a higher per-disc price. This is all part of the "Make You Buy It Twice" mindset that pervades too much marketing of DVDs these days…and also comic books, non-comic books and other types of entertainment that have loyal followings.
We were ticked off about that. Now we see that Fox is putting out the bonus materials as a standalone set so you can get it without buying the whole $150+ complete set.
So, do we think this is a step in the right direction? Well, it would be if they'd announced it before some people shelled out money for the fancy set. Somewhere out there, there are M*A*S*H fans who purchased seasons 1-10 at the individual price and then, to get the extra stuff, bought the Martinis and Medicine set…and now they're finding out they didn't have to buy the first ten seasons a second time to get the bonus material. I didn't do that but if I had, I'd be pretty angry about it.