DVD Release Date: October 25, 2005 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
B&W/Color
MSRP: $39.95
Number of Discs: 5
Number of Episodes: 38
Running Time: 967 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: 25 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: Both sets
Closed-Captioned; Colorized set includes Spanish and
Portuguese languages as well as Spanish, Portuguese,
Chinese, and Thai subtitles.
Special Features: "Bewitched, Bewildered and
Be-Bloopered" (technical errors from the show) and
Sony TV DVD Previews
Introduction:
After a very short four month wait, Sony Pictures Home
Entertainment brings you The Complete Second Season of
Bewitched in both color and in the original black &
white! This season begins with some wonderful news.
Samantha and Darrin are expecting a baby! More
magical mishaps ensues this season as the couple
prepares for and adjusts to the arrival of their first
child, daughter Tabitha, who appears to have inherited
Sam’s unusual talent! So join Elizabeth Montgomery in
… Bewitched!
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
There are so many good episodes this season. All 38
could be considered memorable but I’ll try and break
it down to the best of the best as best as I can. In
the season premiere, “Alias Darrin Stephens” we hear
of Sam’s wonderful news but Darrin is turned into a
chimp by accident by Aunt Clara; “A Very Special
Delivery” has Endora showing Darrin what it’s like to
be expecting a baby—literally; “Trick or Treat” guest
stars a very young and pre-Marcia Brady, Maureen
McCormick as little Endora; Endora turns Darrin into
an 8 year old in “Junior Executive;” “A Vision of
Sugar Plums” is a rework of the first season episode
and this episode is rarely seen in reruns; “And Then
There Were Three” is exactly that as Sam’s baby
finally arrives; another rare and reworked episode is
where Sam meets Darrin’s parents for the first time in
“Samantha Meets the Folks;” and there is also a
two-part episode titled “Follow that Witch” in which a
private detective blackmails Samantha.
Some famous guests this season include Maureen
McCormick (“Trick or Treat”), Bill Mumy (“Junior
Executive”), James Doohan (“A Strange Little
Visitor”), Richard Dreyfuss (“Man’s Best Friend”),
before he was Dr. Bombay on Bewitched, Bernard Fox
played Osgood Rightmire (“Disappearing Samantha”), and
before she was Esmerelda on Bewitched, Alice Ghostley
guest starred as Naomi the maid (“Maid to Order”).
Packaging:
Like season one, we get nice slim cases! Like season
one, one disc is contained on one side of the case and
the other disc is on the other side--there is no
overlapping at all. But this set is a five disc set,
so this time we have three slim cases. The first two
slim cases hold two episodes each and the third slim
case holds just disc five (on the right side, if you
are wondering). But before we get to the full slim
case details, let’s go back to the box. The cover of
the box is a nice purple background. It has the
attractive Bewitched logo in script with a photo of an
animated Samantha on top of that. There is a nice
photo of Samantha in the middle, with Darrin to the
left and Endora to the right in a nice city type of
background. The back of the box has synopsis of the
show and the set, with three nice snapshots on the
left side.
On the front of each slim case, there are pictures of
various cast members. Case 1 has Samantha, Serena and
Uncle Arthur. Case 2 has Samantha, Aunt Clara and
Endora. Case 3 has Larry, Darrin and Samantha. On the
back of each case, there is a listing of all of the
episodes on the discs contained inside as well as a
brief description of those episodes.
The art contained on the discs is simple, purple color
with the city skyline in the background and pictures
of different characters on each disc. Disc 1 has a
picture of Uncle Arthur, Disc 2 has a picture of
Serena, Disc 3 has a picture of Samantha, Disc 4 has a
picture of Darrin and Disc 5 has a picture of Endora.
Disc 1 contain episodes 1-9, Disc 2 contains episodes
10-18, Disc 3 contains episodes 19-27, Disc 4 contains
episodes 28-36, and Disc 5 contains episodes 37, 38,
and the special features.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menus are pretty simple like the first set. Each
menu screen on each of the five discs is different.
They have one thing common; they have an animated
Darrin & Sam. The black & white set the options are:
Play All Episodes and Episode Selection. On disc 5
there is also an option for Bewitched, Bewildered &
Be-Bloopered along with Previews for other SPHE
products. In the colorized set, the options that come
up are Play All Episodes, Episode Selections, and
Languages (only on the "In Color" set). The Episode
Selections option takes you to a simple menu where you
can choose the episode you want to see (pictures from
the episodes are shown in what appears to be picture
frames on a wall). Languages (which is available only
on the "In Color" set) allows you to select what Audio
and Subtitles you want. You can see a few menu shots
above from the black & white set.
Video and Audio Quality:
Since there are two different sets, the video and
audio quality isn't precisely the same on both sets.
Both sets are closed-captioned, and every episode runs
approximately 25:30-25:45, give or take a few seconds.
There are chapters inserted at all of the appropriate
places. The following subsections get into the
specifics of the audio and video on each set.
Video and Audio Quality (Original Black and White):
The first two seasons of Bewitched were filmed in
black and white. The episodes were remastered in high
definition for this set. Overall, they look very good
and I was pleased with the video quality. There are 9
episodes on each disc (except for disc 5), so I feel
they could have spread them out a bit more. There were
no major compression issues even with that many
episodes per disc. All episodes appear to be unedited
with running times over 25 minutes. The audio track is
pretty good, in Dolby Digital mono. There are no major
problems, and the volume is at a good level. The black
and white version includes closed captioning, but no
other language tracks like the colorized set.
Video and Audio Quality (In Color):
There are no major concerns here. In fact, I was very
impressed by how clean the video on this set was, and
the audio quality, while not the most impressive thing
I've ever heard, was a lot better than just adequate.
There is a little bit of grain on the picture (what
would you expect for a show that is over 40 years
old?), but other than that, I didn't see any problems
with the video. One tidbit fans might notice, both
sets have the 1966 opening credits, like in
syndication. So we see the third season opening
sequence, rather than the first season.
I was impressed by how these episodes looked.
Everybody remembers the colorization of various
television shows and movies from the past, where
nothing looked natural and the colorization was bad
enough to make the movie or program unwatchable.
However, Sony has done a great job of the colorization
on this set, and I would be tempted to say that the
episodes look EXACTLY like the later seasons of
Bewitched, which were originally in color anyway.
There are a few problems with the colorization, but
they are really only related to the issue of hair
color, like we mentioned in the season one review.
The colorized set includes English, Spanish, and
Portuguese audio, as well as Spanish, Portuguese,
Chinese, and Thai subtitles. Although there are no
English subtitles, the set is still closed-captioned,
just as the black and white set is. The audio quality
on the Spanish and Portuguese audio tracks (for those
that may be interested) is horrible to say the least.
The audio sounds like it is coming through a pay
telephone, the voices sound nothing like the actual
actors, and most music and laugh tracks are missing
from these audio tracks. Fortunately, for the majority
of the people that purchase this set, the English
audio quality is fairly decent, in Dolby Digital mono.
Special Features:
Disc 5 contains "Bewitched, Bewildered & Be-Bloopered"
(6:55), which is basically just a bunch of clips from
the second season where a narrator shows where
technical errors were made in the show, somewhat like
those old Classic TV Rewinds that Nick at Nite used to
air. There are also previews for the Bewitched movie,
The Partridge Family S1 DVD, Classic Comedy, Classic
Urban TV, and I Dream of Jeannie DVD. All are old
trailers except for the Jeannie DVD trailer, which is
very neat and nice to know that it is coming, despite
it saying “own it on DVD today.” The special features
are exactly the same on both sets. Since the special
features include actual footage from the show, it is
important to note that regardless of which set you
purchase, both of them have color footage this time in
the special features. Last time it was black & white
clips.
Final Comments:
Sony released this set quite fast compared to most of
their other sets. They released season one when the
Bewitched movie came to theaters in June. They
released this set when the movie came to DVD. So,
what will they do for Bewitched S3 since they’ll have
nothing else to do for the movie? I hope this doesn’t
mean the show will now slow down on DVD or just
disappear, like Barney Miller and Charlie’s Angels.
Let’s hope they pair up Jeannie and Bewitched next
time, for double the magic. This set wasn’t as good
as season one in terms of special features, but the
episodes are just as good, if not better. This is the
last season of the option of having Bewitched in black
& white, so expect every other season in color.
Bewitched originally aired in black & white for its
first two seasons then moved on to color for the rest
of its run. I’d buy season two in black & white,
since I like how things aired originally. But if you
bought season one in color, buy season two in color,
then if the rest of the series is released, you’d have
everything in color. And if you are a diehard fan,
buy both in color and b&w!
Video Quality (Original Black and White): 4/5
Video Quality (In Color): 4.5/5
Audio Quality (Original Black and White): 4/5
Audio Quality (In Color): 4/5
Special Features: 3/5
Menu Navigation/Design: 4.5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by pavanbadal (b&w) / skees53 (color) on 10/06/05
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