The age of The Simpsons on DVD/Blu-ray is over: D’oh!

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The Simpsons are close to finishing off their 26th season on Fox and will be back for a 27th this fall. While everyone’s favourite four-fingered yellow family may continue churning out new episodes on TV, our ability to watch them on DVD/Blu-ray is over. Long-time Simpsons show-runner Al Jean was answering fan questions on Twitter several days ago when he revealed that Fox will no longer be releasing seasons on DVD and instead shift distribution solely to digital platforms.

Al Jean points at the dying DVD market as the reasoning behind this decision, but part of me questions whether sales really are that bad or if Fox is wanting to steer more people towards FX Now and its Simpsons World app which contains every Simpsons episode. Unfortunately for those of us outside the U.S., Simpsons World remains inaccessible; however that's something Al Jean is hoping will be remedied in the future.

So at the very least it seems as though the Simpsons gang will continue to record commentaries for episodes as well as supply deleted scenes and things of that nature, but once again, these will only be found on FX Now/Simpsons World. Currently you can find seasons 1-17 of The Simpsons available on DVD (as well as that bare-bones release of season 20) with season's 13-17 (and 20) also available on Blu-ray. Should the show ever go off the air, Al Jean suggested that there could be a possibility of a complete series box-set making a return to physical media.

While I don't see myself buying any more seasons of The Simpsons (my Simpsons collection consists of seasons 1-10) I'm still a firm supporter of physical media; I want to hold that DVD/Blu-ray in my hand, I want to display it on my shelf, I want to bring it into the bathroom and read the back…wait, scratch that last one, I definitely don't do that. Having everything online somewhere just doesn't do it for me. I may sound like a dinosaur but until the last DVD/Blu-ray/4K Blu-ray disc rolls off the line…that's what I'll be buying. Now excuse me while I go yell at this cloud.