I know that I’ve very much not alone in my love of The Office, nor am I the only person who eagerly scoops up the DVDs when they come out, but it’s not always easy to decide exactly which DVD to buy. ‘Retailer exclusives’ tug your wallet in every possible direction, as retailers will offer you special incentives to buy these DVD from them and them alone. Retail is nothing if not manipulative.
All of these exclusives are ‘The Office’ items that you usually can’t get anywhere else, so the cruel games of temptation are intense. And Best Buy usually wins. I’ve never seen a comprehensive list of the bonuses, but after seeing Season Five’s ‘Beet Box’ set, I’m compelled to assemble one.
Season One consisted of only six episodes, and was released before the show became popular enough to warrant exclusives. As a result, there were no notable retailer exclusives just yet.
Season Two (released in September of 2006) saw at least three retailer exclusives.
- Target offered a bonus DVD that included an 8-minute video blog of the filming of the ‘Booze Cruise’ episode (which can now be found on YouTube . You know, until NBC finds it and destroys it. Watch it while you can.
- Circuit City offered three downloadable cellphone games.
- Best Buy kicked everyone else’s retail butts by offering the ‘Severance Package’, which included both seasons on DVD, as well as branded Dunder-Mifflin stationery, including a neat storage box, a pen, sticky notes, a notepad, Michael Scott’s monthly planner, and Dwight’s business card, in magnet form. I’m a fan of anything that says ‘Dunder-Mifflin’ on it.
Season Three was released in September of 2007, and included a handful of exclusives.
- Target offered special ‘brown paper’ packaging, a printed draft of an episode, and a 23 minute question and answer session with the cast of the show.
- Circuit City offered a mousepad with an image of the cast.
- Costco offered a three-season bundle with a Dunder-Mifflin soft lunchbag.
- Best Buy offered the ‘Welcome Aboard’ package, another box which matched the scale of the Season Two set. This included a Dundie Award, a mini-Dwight Bobblehead, and a ‘Welcome’ letter as penned by Michael. The Dundie Award is an especially awesome ‘artifact’ from the show that’s just neat to have around, but not as cool as the more complex one offered on the NBC website.
In terms of practicality, I wish I had a Dunder-Mifflin lunchbag.
Season Four (September 2008) also had four retailer exclusives.
- Target included the script for ‘Dinner Party’, as well as a bonus disc with a convention Q&A session from 2007. I can only imagine how strange, and potentially boring, an Office convention would be.
- Circuit City offered the same script, but with a keychain of a stapler in Jell-O.
- Costco included the same script, and a business card holder from Dunder-Mifflin. So far, Costco seems to be the way to go if you’re after a full Dunder-Mifflin collection.
- And Best Buy offered the ‘Fun Run’ pack, in a similar box to the previous two seasons. This also included the omnipresent script, a Dunder-Mifflin water bottle, a wristband, and a ‘Support the Rabid’ t-shirt (available from NBC’s website also).
- Also worth noting, FYE.com offered Costco’s Season Three lunch bag with the purchase of this and any other season of The Office.
And finally Season Five, released last month, in 2009.
- Target offered specialized packaging again, designed to look like a ream of paper. It also included the script for an episode (though I’ve never seen the appeal of scripts, except to see where the actors went off-page), four neat magnets, and a bonus disc that includes 45 minutes of crew discussion of the show.
- And finally Best Buy offered the awesome ‘Beet Box’. Taking a few steps to the left of their previous paper boxes, this one is actually designed to look like it came from Dwight’s beet farm. Included are the most amazing, simple ‘Shrute Farms Beets’ shirt that I’ve ever seen (and proudly wore, once I got the mousepad-rubber stink out of it), an especially pungent ‘Shrute Farms’ mousepad, a stress ball shaped like a beet, a ‘Do Not Disturb’ door hanger (since the farm also functions as an inn) and a Shrute Farms magnet. Some reviewers saw this as some kind of decline from previous sets, but I really think that it kinda blows everything else away.
For Season Six? I’m going to make a bet right now that Best Buy will have a ‘Jim and Pam’s Wedding’ theme that includes an invitation, at the very least. You can quote me on this.
