TAR on DVD or download

[theschnauzers]

At the time many of us came over here, Amazon was having problems with defects in its on demand platform DVDs for season 12 which had just come out, although there were no such reports for the season 13 sets, which came out at the same time.

Amazin has fixed those problems and you can now order season 12 from Amazon.

Amazon also released seasons 14 and 15 last week (both also include the Elimination Station web series (as does season 13).

So you can now buy seasons 1 to 15 on DVD, seasons 13 to 24 are on I Tunes, and Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime have seasons available on live streaming.

[TheRabbi]

Thanks for the heads up, I didn't realize season 14 and 15 were out.  That's a pretty quick turnaround from the 12 and 13 launch.  I'll get around to ordering them sometime in the near future.

 

And I'd still be cautious with season 12.  I ordered them only about 2-3 weeks ago, and still had the same issues that others were having.  Episode 8 would not play when selected from the menu.  However, if I clicked 'play all', and then FF'd the first 3 episodes on the disc to get to episode 8, then it would play fine.  So either way a workaround is available.

 

Looks like Mel and Mike booted Kisha and Jen off the s14 cover, and Zev and Justin booted Sam and Dan from the 15 cover.  I find both moves a bit puzzling, especially the 14 one.

[Quilt Fairy]

Is there any new info about the quality of the S12 DVDs? I've been holding off buying them - waiting for a sale, mostly, but don't want a defective set, either.

[Quilt Fairy]

It looks like most of the DVD seasons of TAR are on sale at Amazon, down from $35 to the $21.50-$25 range. Don't know how long that will last.

 

Also, Season 1 is available for $7.49.

[jjj]

Okay, looks like it is finally time to buy Season One!  I feel like I watched that about a quarter-century ago in black-and-white; it just was such a simpler time... teams gathering around the campfire... team abandoned in Alaska before bunching was invented...

[Lantern7]

I highly recommend it. It's the only TAR DVD set that I have, because I want extras on my DVDs, dammit. TAR1 is a stark contrast to the current version, but you have memorable teams and priceless moments.

[blackwing]

I think Season 1 might be the only "official" one, right?  As in, it was physically produced and marketed in stores.  I believe all the other ones are just produced by Amazon (downloaded and burned copies of the episodes that aired on TV) when someone orders it.  Too bad, I'd love to see some seasons with extras or commentaries, but I know that will never happen.

[auntlada]

Seems like 7 was official, but I'm not sure. It was available long before any of the others (besides 1). I don't know if it had extras.

[SnideAsides]

1 and 7 were both official - if memory serves, they were both released on the same day. The day the Family Edition began, as it happens.

[blackwing]

Ah that's right.  I remember that now at the time.  The cynic in me said that 7 got released because it featured the CBS darling, Rob Mariano.  It could be that it was just the most recent season.  But if they were trying to build on the fan base, you would think they would have released them in order.  Obviously sales of the official versions didn't do too well.

[TheRabbi]

1 and 7 both had a handful of extras.  Commentaries from a few teams on 4 episodes, and a "reliving the race" 20-30 minute featurette with said teams, well, reliving the race.  There were also anywhere from 2-15 minutes of optional extra clips in each episode which were nice.  The only extras on any of the Amazon DVD's are the elimination stations that started in season 12.

 

Also, season 16 and 17 are now available for purchase on Amazon.  I haven't even gotten around to watching 13 or 15 yet (watched 12 and 14 when I bought them), so I'll wait for a little while (probably after the holidays) before grabbing more seasons.

[Thalia]

I started watching TAR during Season 16.  I am putting together a Christmas list and I thought I'd put down an earlier season or two.   Does anyone have any recommendation about particularly fun or must see season that I should consider?  Thanks! 

[Rusun]

The next two just after: TAR17 and Unfinished Business. No regrets, guaranteed!

[auntlada]

I started watching TAR during Season 16.  I am putting together a Christmas list and I thought I'd put down an earlier season or two.   Does anyone have any recommendation about particularly fun or must see season that I should consider?  Thanks! 

 

If you're looking for a season earlier than 16, I'd recommend including the first season if you haven't seen it, just for the establishment of the series. It's got a different feel from any season after, and you can see where some things are less polished, but it's still got a good feel and it's exciting. We still quote lines from it while we're watching the current season.

[Lantern7]

It's all a blur to me. I saw TAR16 and TAR17 advertised. I know TAR17 has Nat & Kat and poor Claire getting smashed by the watermelon, but I'm drawing a blank on TAR16. Is that the one with Caite? (checking Wikipedia) Yes, it is. Missable season with her in there, though Jet & Cord were mostly cool.

[Lingo]

Seasons 1 and 5 are probably the best choices.

[Rusun]

Seasons 1 and 5 are probably the best choices.

 

Agreed, with 3 and 12 being worthy runner-ups.

[Sandycat]

Agreed, with 3 and 12 being worthy runner-ups.

I'm watching my beloved season 5 on Hulu Plus. Colin is unreal, what a hot head. I agree, seasons 1, 3, and 5 are totally worth it. Hulu Plus has 22 seasons available.

[Camera One]

That's good previous seasons are available to watch now.  I started watching the Amazing Race many seasons in... I'm not even sure which was my first season.  It might have been the Family Edition or the one before that.  I've also missed a couple of seasons along the way.  At some point, I'll probably start at S1 and then figure out which ones I haven't seen.  It's tough to look up each season without being spoiled who won.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Camera One

[Molly by golly]

That's good previous seasons are available to watch now. I started watching the Amazing Race many seasons in... I'm not even sure which was my first season. It might have been the Family Edition or the one before that. I've also missed a couple of seasons along the way. At some point, I'll probably start at S1 and then figure out which ones I haven't seen. It's tough to look up each season without being spoiled who won.

I started watching TAR the season right before the family edition and if I hadn't loved Season 7 so much I know I wouldn't have been able to get through that family edition. Ugh!

If you haven't seen 1-6 I definitely recommend them. I, 3, 5 and 7 are my favorites of the early seasons. Some people I know don't like Season 3 due to a contestant I'm incapable of accurately describing here, but I still loved it in spite of that person.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Molly by golly

[limecoke]

Just found TAR on Hulu Plus. Have watched on CBS from season one but it's fun to revisit the craziness. Maybe it's just me but I love season 3 with all it's ups and downs and the one who shall not be named. Seriously, watching her meltdowns should not be missed by any TAR fan as well as the incredible patience of her stalwart partner.

 

I recently watched 1-4 on DVD so just started 5.  I'd forgotten Mirna and her whackdoodle accents and, "Come on Charla!!!"  Then there's Colin - another one who defies description.  Great stuff.  Thank you Hulu!

 

I do agree that 4 can be missed.  Bad casting, constant fighting with personal attacks galore.  Not a pleasant season.  1,2,3,and 5 are not to be missed.  

Edited December 15, 2014 by limecoke

[green]

I started watching TAR during Season 16.  I am putting together a Christmas list and I thought I'd put down an earlier season or two.   Does anyone have any recommendation about particularly fun or must see season that I should consider?  Thanks! 

 

My favorite is Season 2.  But Season 1 is where is all started so maybe start from the very beginning especially if it is on sale like mentioned above.  Then add Season 3 and Season 5 as well.   Those four seasons are the "jewels in the crown" of TAR for me.

 

Unless you want a complete viewing experience you can skip Season 4.  The casting was terrible.  Half mactor teams, half real people.  Both sides hated each other.  Endless arguments and yelling and screaming over such " exciting" things as places in line.  Now all seasons have their moments and I am a completest myself but if you aren't then Season 4 is totally skipable as is Season 6.

 

As for the "extras" on TAR1.  I found the commentary pretty lame and didn't like it.  Weirdly Karyn from Lenny & Karyn gave the best commentary and The Frats not so good.  I don't like the curtain ripped open and the magic exposed either.  So I basically hate "extras" on DVDs.  If it is already a classic and good then leave it as a finished painting and don't start doodling around the edges.

Edited December 15, 2014 by green

[NewDigs]

I'm sharing the Season 2 love, Green! My love of the Chas (Oswald and Danny) knows no bounds and Season 2 also gave us Blake Mycoskie who was so moved by the Race's Argentinian leg that he went on to found Toms One for One.

It was a kind of oddball collection of Racers with Hope and Norm, the Grandmothers, Peach and Mary, Cyndi and Russell and more! I think I learned about paper underwear that season, maybe.

IMHO, start with Season One and just work your way through, in order. I might have to do the same. Those early seasons are a real kick.

[Lingo]

Paper underwear was Season 3.  But they're all good.  :)

[Sandycat]

I'm sharing the Season 2 love, Green! My love of the Chas (Oswald and Danny) knows no bounds and Season 2 also gave us Blake Mycoskie who was so moved by the Race's Argentinian leg that he went on to found Toms One for One.

It was a kind of oddball collection of Racers with Hope and Norm, the Grandmothers, Peach and Mary, Cyndi and Russell and more! I think I learned about paper underwear that season, maybe.

IMHO, start with Season One and just work your way through, in order. I might have to do the same. Those early seasons are a real kick.

I started season 2 today. I totally forgot how much I loved it. Wil isn't as bad as I remembered, I had in my mind that he was Colin lite, but so far not really so. I'll always love Oswald and Danny.

[Thalia]

Thanks everyone!  Seasons 1 and 5 were under my tree this morning!  I put them there myself, but I'm still happy!  :-)

[Sandycat]

Paper underwear was Season 3. But they're all good. :)

LOL! Teri and Ian. I just started season 3 today. I just love Ken and Gerard, another of my all-time favorites. It's amazing how clearly I remember these early seasons. They really made an impact.

Edited December 26, 2014 by Sandycat

[Thalia]

I watched the first two episodes of season 1 last night, and at first I was a little disappointed because it was so different from the current format.  But then episode 2 kicked in and I realized why this show became an immediate hit.   There was just the one @sshole in ep. 1, but episode 2 had crying, and cab stealing, and catty remarks, and couples who you just KNOW didn't make it past their elimination episode.  Good times.   

 

And I want to visit Victoria Falls.  

[auntlada]

It's been a while since I saw this season, and episode 1 is the hardest to remember. Who is the asshole? Frank, maybe? (In my mind, he's always Loud Pushy Frank.)

[green]

I thought everyone was cool in Episode 1.  Frank was fine.  He was used as the guy pushing so hard only to find himself coming up second to the casually strolling along Guidos.  It was like the running joke of Episode 1.  And note the Guidos edit in episode one was so totally different from what people remember them for now.

 

And Thalia, the show wasn't an immediate hit.  Well Episode 1 was but then a few days later 9/11 happened and all shows were per-emptied for awhile and by the time the second episode aired the ratings were way way down.  Sadly there were some people (way too many)  who had a knee jerk reaction to the attack that carried over to all things non-American ... like racing around the world.

 

Rating struggled for quite awhile.  TAR was always on the borderline of getting cancelled.  By season 3 people were sending letters to the network and the sponsors begging for the show to be saved.  There were real campaigns going on to do that.

 

That plus the Emmys finally allowing a quasi-reality TV award helped a good deal.  Remember "the business" hated all reality shows (still does but not as viscerally these days) as taking away their livelihood and looked down on them totally so this was a major breakthrough to have a Emmy for this new genre. 

 

The Emmy show broadcast during TAR4's airing and TAR3 was the only season -- due to broadcast eligibility rules for that season's Emmys -- to be eligible.  Everyone said either Survivor (the first big reality show on network TV) or American Idol (which was exploding in popularity at that time) would win.  I don't know if they split some votes or were ignored.  All I know was the presenter stared at the card with the winner's name on it in total disbelief then quite happily announced The Amazing Race was the winner.  "The business" people tend to give credit to the high production values the Race has had over the years so this may have been the main reason with the first Emmy as well but everyone including critics called in a major upset win at the time.

 

So suddenly CBS had a "class, Emmy winning show" that made it harder to cancel.  If I recall correctly, TAR was CBS's only major winner that year too. 

 

Then TAR5 came along and had a stellar cast after TAR4's lame one and the show caught on just enough not to face cancellation every other episode.  But it was a long, hard fight with fans dragging friends and relatives to sit down and watch it and talking it up at work and online.  It was kind of the reality show version of Star Trek that way.  A "save our show" effort.  For us old timers I think we will always think of TAR as the ultimate underdog winner among TV shows.

Edited December 28, 2014 by green

[Thalia]

Yes, Frank is the one I didn't like in episode 1.  He and Margarita were introduced as separated people who wanted to get back together, but then he kept yelling at her and I thought, "I'm no marriage counselor, and I don't even play one on TV, but I think I see the root of their marital problems."  

 

Speaking of 9/11, this is my second time trying to watch season 1.   I had rented the first disc from Netflix a few years ago -- September 2011 to be exact.  I got really depressed on 9/11/11 from watching all the anniversary coverage and thought I'd pop in TAR 1.1 to get my mind off of it.  And the first thing I see are... the twin towers as the group gathered together in NYC. I looked the show up on-line and found out that the first show had aired two or three days before the tragedy.  I quit watching on that day, but I'm glad that I've picked it back up.  

 

Phil looks like a baby! 

Edited December 29, 2014 by Thalia

[auntlada]

Yes, Frank is the one I didn't like in episode 1.  He and Margarita were introduced as separated people who wanted to get back together, but then he kept yelling at her and I thought, "I'm no marriage counselor, and I don't even play one on TV, but I think I see the root of their marital problems."

 

As I understand it, they did break up later. I think she remarried, and I'm not sure about him. We still quote first-episode Frank in our house, though. Each season, when the racers get to something one of us finds scary, like skydiving or tightrope walking, when the scared one says, "I don't know if I could do that," the other one says, "Oh, you'd skydive. You'd skydive your ass off." Except if our son is in the room, we leave the second sentence off, but it's understood.

[Lingo]

Hey, if you want to watch ALL the seasons -- or the first 22 anyway -- just get yourself a HuluPlus account.  I just discovered this fact over the holidays and I've been on a rewatching binge since!  Finished S2 tonight.

 

S1 really is a different animal, especially that first episode.  Actual stretches of no background music! (LOL) But I still think that jump into Batoka Gorge is the scariest thing they've ever done on the Race.

Oh, BTW, does anyone know of any LEGAL way for someone like me in the US to watch any international versions?  Rewatching past US seasons is great, but I'm jonesing for some new stuff.

[Sandycat]

I just finished season 4 on HuluPlus and I enjoyed it more this time than when I first watched it. I found myself loving Kelly and Jon and the Clowns. Millie was so intense. I'm onto season 6 (I watched season 5 earlier). I almost decided to skip it after the first episode because of Jonathan and Victoria, but I went onto the second episode. They are just horrible.

[cherrypj]

We're watching TAR on CBS.com (just finished S3). The drawback is that CBS doesn't offer captioning for the first 20 seasons (!). Are there captions on Hulu Plus?

 

(Survivor is also available; I'm about midway through Survivor: Amazon. Captions happily provided!)

[theschnauzers]

There are captions on the DVD sets (1-17) and on the seasons that can be purchased for download at I-Tunes (13-25). I have not looked at the new streaming site CBS has, so I don't know if they've hidden a setting that would have captioning on screen, but you might want to poke around that site and check for general settings and see if there's something that isn't obvious.

[cherrypj]

I have not looked at the new streaming site CBS has, so I don't know if they've hidden a setting that would have captioning on screen, but you might want to poke around that site and check for general settings and see if there's something that isn't obvious.

 

I've got captions for Survivor, but not The Amazing Race. The option is grayed out. Which is why I'm asking about Hulu Plus. I'm guessing there are no captions at Hulu Plus, either.

 

Oh well. My family can hear it. I've got the recaps.

[Quilt Fairy]

Looks like I bought those DVDs too early. I just noticed that the first 20 seasons are all available free on Amazon Prime Instant Video.

[theschnauzers]

Amazon Prime is fine as long as you subscribe to Amazon Prime. :)

[Quilt Fairy]

Amazon Prime is fine as long as you subscribe to Amazon Prime. :)

True, but I'm not ashamed to say that I do subscribe and I get my money's worth out of it in delivery charges alone. This is the cherry on top of the sundae. There've been a lot of complaints about the quality of the DVDs with Amazon's Video on Demand production and this gets around that. You also don't have boxes of unwatched-for-years DVDs cluttering up the attic. IMO, it's a win-win.

[TheRabbi]

Season 18 and 19 are now available for purchase through Amazon.  Here's hoping they keep on coming.

[stonetumbler]

Be careful with the Amazon Instant Video version.  I am plowing my way through all of them and some seasons have mislabeled episodes or episodes missing all together.  Just finished Season 8 and it was missing the next to last episode.  The one where the Pinks got booted.  I love to hate watch that season - there were some really good moments but the Weavers just kill every show.  

[TheRabbi]

I don't know if its only for Thanksgiving/Black Friday, but the DVD sets are VERY cheap right now.  New releases 18 and 19 are only 19.99, and I checked back through a few others and they are either 19.99 or 23.00, at least 10 bucks less than their usual prices.  I already bought 18 a while ago for full price, but am ordering 19 now.

 

Also of note, pre-orders can be taken for season 18 and 19 blurays since they were the first seasons filmed in HD.  The inital price on the site is 44.95

Edited November 26, 2015 by TheRabbi

[TheRabbi]

Seasons 20 and 21 are available for pre-order at Amazon. Mark and Bopper were certainly going to bump someone off the cover of their season, and it ended up being Art and JJ. In a genuine shocker, Trey and Lexi were bumped from the 21 cover by 10th place finishers Amy and Dan. Get those preorders in.

[Lantern7]

Seasons to forget. And damn, is CBS hitching their wagon to a runner-up on Dancing With The Stars two years ago? I mean, Amy & Daniel probably would have gotten far in the game had they not collapsed in the second leg.

[SnideAsides]

Would it have been better for them to drop Trey & Lexi for a fifth-placer from The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, which they probably would have done if not for Amy being on DWTS?

[Supay]

Seasons to forget.

 

20 yes, but not 21, arguably the best non-returnee season between 17 and 25.

 

Speaking of which, pretty bummed for Trexi, who I imagine Bill and Cathi resembled forty years ago, eh?

Edited April 12, 2016 by Supay

[Supay]

Seasons 18-21 are also going to be available in Blu-Ray!

[BK1978]

I really should buy seasons two and three as they are the only seasons I did not see.  Well I saw the final episode of season three and that is what hooked me in the first place but I only saw that first episode. 

[TheRabbi]

Still waiting patiently for seasons 20 and 21. My pre-order continues to sit there. It's been over a year since the last batch came out, after they were releasing in pretty quick succession up to that point. I'm guessing there's a pronounced lack of interest in the show, keeping it both off the airwaves and off people's shopping lists.