Cagney & Lacey - Creator Barney Rosenzweig Explains Timing and Differences from Limited and Retail DVDs

Late last year we informed you that Visual Entertainment Inc. (VEI) would be releasing Cagney & Lacey on DVD, and we later (in February) learned it would be The Complete Series of the show! We followed up in April with word we passed along from show creator Barney Rosenzweig about what sort of plans were being discussed in the early stages. Now there's been a new update from Barney at his blog, and here are some of the biggest highlights culled from it about the latest DVD plans:

• There will be 2 releases:
  • A Limited Edition planned for the summer, set in "an attractive box," containing all episodes with Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly, plus the original TV movie with Loretta Swit, and the first episodes where Meg Foster portrayed Christine Cagney, and additional add-on material: some of it taken from the archives and seen before, but there's also a new interview of Sharon and Tyne specifially recorded for this set. Also there's this exciting bit of news: "This Limited Edition will be signed by Sharon and Tyne...(I)t will be a true collector's edition."
  • A fall release at retail, "cheaper by as much as 50% but will not contain most (if any) of the added material and will not have the Swit or Meg Foster work included." He goes on to point out that "It will be a very Spartan presentation of what we call the 'true series'...the 119 episodes with Sharon and Tyne."
• The Cagney & Lacey - The Complete Series: Limited Ediiton set will have a 3000 unit run, and Barney has already heard from over 2000 fans expressing interest...he predicts it will sell out fast, only "to the most stalwart of fan." He also says this: "In the next few weeks, I will let you know how to order directly from the distributor. I am sorry to report this will not be made available in the UK or anywhere outside of North America, but you very wonderful fans abroad can still make your purchase direct from the North American distributor...and at a low enough price that will allow you to be able to afford to purchase separately your own NTSC player. There will be no PAL release of this package in the foreseeable future."
• Barney points out that "the time for action (that is, 'purchase') of the Limited Edition is still weeks away"
• He concludes by saying that there is still something for fans to do now in order to participate: "Tyne Daly, Sharon Gless and I are getting together next week in New York to tape our comments about the 30th anniversary and this special release. Here, at last, is what I want you to do: Send us the questions you would like answered..."; he goes on to explain how to do that. Unfortunately, that week has already come and gone, because this blog post was made 10 days ago, on Friday, May 11th. We didn't know about it until late this past Friday (when the important week was already past!), when our good friend Paul K. Bisson - who was part of the team of experts who helped Time Life bring us the great Six Million Dollar Man DVD - was the first to alert us to Barney's update. We regret we were unware of this sooner, so we could have passed it along in time!

Please visit Barney's blog to read the full post and get all the information in the proper context. And stay tuned, because we'll be trying to bring you the latest developments as soon as we're able to!