DVDs of Charmed were first released in 2005, after overcoming licensing issues with the commercial songs in individual episodes. The first seven Charmed DVD sets contain no special features in accordance with Paramount's "no extras" policy, and much to the chagrin of both the fans and of Charmed executive producer Brad Kern, who had stated many times that his efforts to persuade Paramount to include some form of extras were unsuccessful. This changed in 2006, when Paramount's television DVD department was taken over by CBS, resulting in a promise that the last Charmed DVD box set would contain bonus material.
The season 8 DVDs feature a new opening theme, having replaced the song "How Soon is Now?" with an instrumental piece due to the producers losing the license for the song.
Cover art
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Most regions share the same cover art; but the covers for Seasons 3, 5, 7 and 8 have been changed from their Region 1 releases. The one thing that every single season cover has in common, is the chandelier shining behind the logo.
A special limited edition of The Complete First Season was released which included a Tarot set. The cover for this set was identical to the standard season 1 set in every way except color (red as opposed to purple). Similarly, the Japanese release of season 1 was recolored pink, but all the photos remained the same (all Japanese season sets following this shared the same artwork as Region 2).
The third season cover art sees the pictures of the sisters on the front and back covers swapped around between Regions, however the background stays the same.The Region 1 release also positions the text "The Complete Third Season" differently to the other releases.
The season 5 release for Region 2 was a green cover with a group picture of the sisters and a cloudy sky as the background; this was completely changed for the Region 1 release with a bright blue box, the triquetra in the background and individual pictures of the sisters put together.
The season 7 boxset was first released in Region 2 with a yellow cover and the 'To Find A Lost Love' spell in the background. When released in region 1 format, this was changed to a purple box, Piper's picture was replaced with a season 6 promo picture (due to the lack of season 7 promos) and Paige and Piper swapped places. The background was changed to a screen cap of the cauldron used in 'Something Wicca This Way Comes'. In the region 1 cover, Paige's cream dress is coloured maroon, while in the region 2 cover it is coloured black.
For season 8, Region 1 has a Scrying Crystal under the chandelier, which is shown above the girls. For Regions 2-6, a red crystal ball replaces the scrying crystal. Another difference on the season 8 DVD cover is that they lowered Rose McGowan on the region 2 cover so that she would be on the same height as Holly and Alyssa. Also, the region 1 DVD box has a yellow color, the region 2 a black/grey one (since season 7 was already yellow in region 2), although both use a smoky effect. In the region 2 cover, the colour of Piper's top is darkened. The region 1 release was titled 'The Final Season', while other regions called it 'The Complete Eighth Season'.
These changes would also be made to the discs. The region 1 menus for season 5 were blue to fit the cover art, while region 2's were green. Yet the season 7 menus were yellow and season 8's were silver/grey (fitting in with the region 2 colour schemes) regardless of the region.
Set Layout
The Region 1 boxsets had individual DVD cases in the box whereas Region 2 releases just had one bookstyle case. Because of this, Region 1 releases had screencaptures at the bottom of the rear of the main box and episode descriptions on the back of each DVD case, whereas Region 2 didn't have screencaptures on the back, but included a booklet which had episode guides and screencaptures inside.
The disc art for each set is as follows. Disc one includes a picture of The Book of Shadows open to a blank page. Discs two, three and four have an individual picture of the actresses in order of billing, i.e.: Shannen Doherty, Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs (Seasons 1-3) then Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs and Rose McGowan (Seasons 4-8). Disc 5 includes a picture of all three sisters and finally, Disc 6 uses a picture of the chandelier, as shown behind the logo on the cover of every season box set.
Significant box sets
After the release of the fourth season, a special box was made containing all four seasons. It was a simple black box with the DVD boxes and a slipcase with gold lettering. It contains no special features.
- The "Book of Shadows" edition DVD collection was originally released as an exclusive to Australia (Region 4) on November 16, 2006. This limited edition run features Seasons 1-7, a numbered certificate, and includes a selection of the original illustrated pages used in the Book of Shadows prop featured in the show. A write-up of each seasons' episodes is followed by that season on six discs, which fit on one page. The book contains an extra page reserved for the separately released Season 8 DVDs. After the release of the separate season 8 DVD box, the DVD's of season 8 were inlcuded.
- The "Magic Chest" edition features all eight seasons, and comes in an ornate miniature wooden chest with leatherworks and a red velvet interior. It was released exclusively to Region 2 countries during March 2007.
- Paramount announced on June 21, 2008 that two "complete series" box sets that were released for North America on November 18, 2008. One set is a regular release, and the other a "Limited Deluxe Edition". Both packages are styled after the Book of Shadows in the series, with the deluxe edition being full size, and the regular release being scaled down. Both sets also include more extras, including the unaired pilot.
- The Book of Shadows DVD Region 4 was released alongside the Season 7 DVD. There was spaces available for the release of season.
- The UK received a second complete box set, titled "The Ultimate Boxset", with the same bonus features as North America, released on October 27, 2008.
On November 27, 2008, Australia received two options for the complete series as well. One set identical to UK's release, while the other a purple "stylish velour collector's box", with a velvet lining. Both sets contain the same extra features.
- A re-release of the complete series is in the works for November 2014. The original complete series sets have gone out of print and Charmed has gotten considerable attention recently due to the recent success of witch shows, talk of the reboot and its popularity on Netflix. The set will not include the bonus disc from the original complete series set, but will include all the features from the Season Eight set.
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