The Carol Burnett Show - Official In-Store Sets this Fall with 1-DVD, 2-DVD, 6-DVD and Ultimate 20-DVD Titles! ***UPDATE: EARLY INFO ABOUT CONTENT***

If you've ever seen a DVD of The Carol Burnett Show offered for sale in the past in the USA, and it was originated by any other seller than the Columbia House "club" membership program or the old Guthy-Renker direct-sale program, then what you saw was an unauthorized bootleg that put money in the hands of pirates, rather than Carol and her team of well-deserving co-stars and crew. This highly-desired variety program has been tough to bring to DVD for various reasons, but now the folks at Time Life have tackled this and are preparing the first-ever authorized in-store releases of the series! Yes, this won't only be available online, but in your local participating retail stores, too. The folks at CarolBurnettFan.com, a fansite endorsed by Carol herself, have this morning gotten the scoop on these FOUR releases that Time Life is preparing:

• The Carol Burnett Show - The Ultimate Collection (20-DVD set): For the ultimate collector, this long-awaited package contains 50 episodes, along with more than 10 hours of new, never-before-seen bonus features enclosed in a creatively-designed collector's box!
  
  
• The Carol Burnett Show - Carol's Favorites (6-DVD set): 18 complete, unedited episodes featuring the most popular (and hilarious) sketches and characters, including Starlet O'Hara in "Went with the Wind," The Family, Tudball & Wiggins, The Oldest Man and additional movie parodies. Guest appearances include Carl Reiner, Steve Martin, Betty White, George Carlin, Shirley MacLaine, The Jackson 5, "and many more."
  
  
• The Carol Burnett Show - The Best Episodes (2-DVD set): 6 all-time classic episodes chosen by Carol Burnett.
  
  
• The Carol Burnett Show - The Best Of (1-DVD release): Budget-priced single-disc release with specific sketches that are fan favorites, including "Went with the Wind," classic sketches of The Family, Tudball & Wiggins, and others!

These will all be available on Tuesday, September 25th, and again you'll be able to find them in stores as well as online! All episodes of the 25-time Emmy-winning show are hand-picked by Carol for these DVDs. They're not up for pre-order yet, so pricing isn't available at this time...nor do we have package art, either. But we do have a list of extras to pass along to you from CarolBurnettFan.com, where you can go to get some additional information (and where you really ought to be hanging out if you love The Carol Burnett Show...or any of Carol's other fantastic work, including All My Children, Glee, and The Secret World of Arrietty).

We'll have more information for you soon about these titles, but in the meantime CarolBurnettFan.com passes along word from Time Life that "all configurations will feature detailed and generous bonus features, specially produced for this historic release, including:"

• A laugh-filled roundtable discussion with Carol Burnett, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner, reminiscing about 11 years of fun and entertainment they created.
• A personal tribute from the cast honoring the much-beloved fellow cast member Harvey Korman.
• Multiple featurettes on the history of the show, the genesis of key characters and sketches, Carol's fans, and the influence Carol and the show have had on several generations of comedians and television hosts.
• New and exclusive interviews with fellow entertainers and guests on the show, including Carl Reiner, Ken Berry, Betty White, Florence Henderson and others.

How exciting! I can't wait to see these, and we know you can't either. We'll bring you additional information (and package art) from these 4 DVD titles, just as soon as we can, so stay tuned. And Happy Birthday to Carol Burnett, who turns 79 a week from tomorrow. How sweet of her to give us, her fans, the gift of this DVD announcement!


UPDATE: In the headline space, I refer to this update as "early info about content"; I should begin by saying that this is NOT detailed information yet. Time Life is still finalizing things, and isn't ready to share that level of detail so far. However, we've been getting a LOT of response from fans, who have asked if the TL releases will all consist of episodes previously seen on the DVDs from Columbia House and from Guthy-Renker, or whether it would contain new-to-DVD episodes as well. And if so, will any of those episodes consist of the earlier ones that haven't been seen in syndication for a long time?

I quickly touched base just now with our contact at Time Life on these questions, who we're grateful to for taking a moment out of his hectic day to fill us in on the answer. As indicated above, part of his response is that TL is still finalizing things, and doesn't have all the detailed information yet. But he assured me that there will indeed be new-to-DVD/long-unseen content on their releases, along with previously-on-DVD material (such as the fan-favorite "Went with the Wind" installment). We know that this is great news for many of you, so we wanted to pass it along right away! They are working on finalizing everything, including pricing, so stay tuned for further updates.