This past August, Fox came out with
The Simpsons - The Complete 12th Season. It was the latest in-order release of the show's season sets, available only in DVD format. And - as all seasons have been since the sixth - it was made available in either standard packaging or "collectible" packaging (with the plastic cover molded to resemble the face of a popular character from the animated series).
The show has always been broadcast only in standard definition through the 19th season, but beginning with Episode #10 ("Take My Life, Please") in Season 20, the show converted to high definition (and included a blackboard gag in the re-worked opening credits that said "HDTV is worth every cent"). With the upgrade to high-def for the broadcasts, fans wondered whether a Blu-ray Disc release could be far behind? The answer seems to be at Amazon!
Overnight this past evening the folks at the
ReleaseLists.com website let us know (thanks!) that - with the 21st Season now broadcasting on the Fox Network - Amazon has now begun taking pre-orders for
The Simpsons - Season 20 on both
DVD and high-def
Blu-ray Disc. These listings are prior any official announcement from Fox Home Entertainment, so instead of a street date they only say "
This title has not yet been released. You may pre-order it now and we will deliver it to you when it arrives."
Pricing is available, however, showing $49.98 SRP for the DVD and $59.99 SRP for the Blu-ray (and you can lock in your copy of either of these at a nice discount if you place your order now). Note that this will be the first Blu-ray Disc outing for
The Simpsons other than
the theatrical film. Right now Fox is announcing their remaining slate of home videos for December, and some of their January titles as well. ReleaseLists.com believes that this title will come out in December or January, but there's no guarantee (some titles are available to pre-order at Amazon this way literally for months before the studio formally announces it). There are no other details available for the
Season 20 set at this time, nor cover art. Stay tuned, though, and we'll update you with more on this, when further developments occur!
What about home video releases of Seasons 13 through 19? We're sure they will be coming, too...never fear. Fox wouldn't miss on delivering those to you, sooner or later. And while there are some listings at Amazon for each of those seasons on DVD, unfortunately they are of the "Sign up to be notified" variety often seen at Amazon for "speculative" releases. In other words, they don't mean that the e-tailer knows for sure that a release is coming, it just means that Amazon is collecting names of potential customers in case it's ever released. Amazon had a similar listing for "Harry Potter Book 7" before the sixth book came out, because the release of that book was pretty much a sure thing. We think the DVD releases of
The Simpsons 13th through 19th seasons are sure things, too...but apparently Fox wants to get the most recent season out first with
The Simpsons - Season 20 on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. We'll keep you informed as we know more, so as we said...stay tuned!
