The Beachcombers (was supposed to be) On DVD (In Germany)


The Beachcombers is an incredibly iconic Canadian TV series, but sadly a very hard to find one. Sadly only around a total of 20-or-so episodes of the British Colombian TV series are available publicly (and by publicly, I mean un-official YouTube uploads). Sadly it looks like we may NEVER get a official and/or digital release of the series, but back in 2017 it looked like there was going to be a release in of all places Germany.
The German Title-Card for the series.
The Beachcombers was released in Germany under the title Strandpiraten, and the series was very successful, almost all the episodes of the original series were dubbed in Germany. Considering its success it would only be natural that the series was going to be released on DVD?

 Enter PIDAX, a German DVD distribution company (think Criterion Collection but German). PIDAX is known for releasing rare and old films and TV series on DVD. The Beachcombers (or in this case Strandpiraten) would be a perfect fit. A 3 disc DVD set was announced that would contain the first ever 15 episodes of The Beachcombers, which would be the first time ever the show was released on any form of home media. Pictures of the cover were also released which depicted Nick, Relic, and Jessie on the waterfront, an amazing cover if I say so myself. 

 The hype for the DVD release was pretty big, and lots of pre-orders of the DVD were made, but then there was a change, on the PIDAX website the list of episodes included on the DVD were changed, instead of the first 15 episodes, it included some of the last episodes of the series. 
(LEFT) The original episode list, (RIGHT) The updated list
These episodes that replaced the original episode selection are mostly regarded as the "Syndication" episodes. Usually (but very rarely) when The Beachcombers gets shown on TV, there are a set of episodes that are always shown, these episodes (as said before) are some of the last episodes of the series, and are usually regarded by fans of The Beachcombers of when the show started to decline.

 I really don't understand why this was done, They did not give any explanation on it, so it is a real mystery now. I've been under the impression this was a licencing issue, but this is not a theory that has evidence to support or back it, but the most likely reason of the change was problems with footage, because a few weeks later, PIDAX released a statement about the release. 

And that's the end, sadly, or is it. I really am confused to why this was canceled, The reason why I am confused is because how much of the DVD seemed to have been completed, Cover Art was posted online, pre-orders were being taken, and most interesting of all, a amazon listing for the DVD (which is still up at the moment, you can't order it though) which features screenshots/caps of scenes of the very early episodes, which makes me question, how could these exist? Did PIDAX have the DVD finalized and the rights holder of The Beachcombers request that they change the episodes they were planning to release? Was the "extreme material difficulties" not having German dubbed versions of the episodes available? So many questions we will probably never have answers for. 
Pictures from the very early episodes of the series sourced from an Amazon listing for the DVD
I love The Beachcombers, and I really want to see it on DVD, but every-time I feel that we are close to an actual release or re-distribution of older episodes, we get snubbed. Sadly I hate to say it but I doubt the original series of The Beachcombers will probably never be released, I still hope though, but events like this just feel like another nail in the coffin for my hopes.

 REFRENCES

 Archived PIDAX store page for the DVD (v1)
Archived PIDAX store page for the DVD (v2)
Amazon.it listing for the DVD
PIDAX's cancellation announcement


Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 22, 2019 at 10:32 AM

    I am happy to hear that they do some of cartoons that I remembered like 'Extreme Dinosaurs' and 'Mummies Alive' has been released into dvd with both English and German Languages so I still watch my cartoons on English version. I do wanted to request more of my favorite cartoons to be released into dvd like 'Starla and the Jewel Riders','Creepy Crawlers', 'Dog City,' 'Biker Mice From Mars and of cause 'Gormiti Nature Unleashed'. Because I've been waiting for many years to be released but never happened and I am not getting any young so it would make me happy to final have them as my dvds collection. so is it possible to make it happen in 2020? .

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