While April of this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Despecialized Editions, it will also have been 10 years since the last official copies of the original theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy (a mouthful, I know) were pressed and sent to retail stores. In April 2011, the 2006 GOUT DVDs ceased production, and were sold in stores up until September 2011, just before the Blu-rays were released.
Yes, the DVDs were an absolute JOKE of a product, but at least it meant the original versions were legally available to the general public in SOME form. While Harmy has done the community a HUGE favor by saving the greatest film trilogy of all time from becoming lost media and I can’t thank him enough, I also can’t help but feel like we lost something when the official releases went into the vault. It marked the end of an era when George’s Original Unaltered Trilogy was out in the open for all to buy, and the general public could view the three movies that made him so successful in the first place.
I never knew they were still pressing those DVDs in early 2011. Or selling them right up to the blu ray release, They really did take the biscuit with that “Limited Edition” text they put on those 2006 DVDs!
They even said “for a limited time” on the official trailer for the 2006 DVD: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmtnEQS8ICw
5 years being the “Limited Edition” and also “for a limited time” 😃
They “took the biscuit” (I love that phrase, and will be using that for the next few weeks!) with the quality of the 2006 DVD release too!
Although I do still treasure my copy of it, as a victory for all the fans who campaigned for them at the time, and won.