'Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies' Gets a Digital And Physical Release Despite Cancellation

I was not able to watch the last four episodes of Arrested Development’s third (and, at the time, final) season. They aired on a Friday night against the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. To make matters worse, my cable was giving me static. Still, there was a solution. I waited eagerly for the season to be released on DVD, as I had for the first two.

At the time, which was right in the prime of the DVD boom, waiting for a canceled show to hit DVD was a viable solution. Companies were pumping out box set after box set of popular shows and shows that didn’t find an audience during their inaugural run. Some were even granted a second life. For instance, you can thank DVDs and Adult Swim for the thousands of hours of Family Guy that now exist.

In recent years, with the rise of streaming, DVD releases have become less prevalent. What once took up aisles and aisles of space at your local Best Buy is now relegated to one kiosk. This has also led to canceled shows being harder to find. There was hope that, with streaming, even canceled shows would have a home. Recently, we’ve been flooded with examples of why this is no longer the case. Still, there is hope.

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, a prequel to the 1978 film, recently aired on Paramount+. It premiered in April, aired its last episode in June, and was removed from the service shortly after. Even at a time when the WGA and SAG are striking against corporate greed, it was pretty shocking. It seemed as if the show would just disappear.

Now, fans of the series, like Jen, have hope. Paramount announced this week that not only is the prequel now available to purchase digitally, there will be a physical release in November! That’s great news! While it’s not guaranteed that other companies will follow suit, this can hopefully set a precedent. More people deserve to have their work seen.