I thought I'd give myself a shameless plug and post the following links to some comments/reviews I did for the fantastic full-season DVD sets of our all-time favorite sitcom -- THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW. :)

Any serious (or even semi-serious) fan of this series who doesn't own each of these season DVD sets needs to have the old head examined for walnuts! (Err...I meant to say "rocks"). :)

These DVD-on-DVD compilations are the BEST TV-on-DVD products yet produced, IMO!

I'm guessing most everyone here will agree with my glowing comments in the links below. (Full Season 1 and Season 2 Reviews are located in the "Season 3 Review" thread.)

And just remember one thing kids of Bonnie Meadow Road ...... "A second with you is like a year with an angry mob!" :lol:


THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW: SEASON 1, SEASON 2, AND SEASON 3 REVIEWS. (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=186778)

THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW: SEASON 4 REVIEW. (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=195666)



http://images.dvdempire.com/gen/movies/532130t.jpg http://images.dvdempire.com/gen/movies/546034t.jpg http://images.dvdempire.com/gen/movies/580228t.jpg http://images.dvdempire.com/gen/movies/587440t.jpg

http://www.tvguide.com/magazine/covers/newimages/69041201.jpg http://www.tvguide.com/magazine/covers/newimages/61120901.jpg

Great Link! Thank you!

Now you've got me wanting to read some of the other articles in those TV Guides! Garry Moore in exile?

Yeah, I know what you mean, Garth. :)

Here's another I'd love to look at (circa January 1964). .........

http://www.tvguide.com/magazine/covers/newimages/64010401.jpg

The headline "YOUR SCREEN MAY ONLY SHOW HALF THE PICTURE" is intriguing. Sounds like a "Pro OAR (Original Aspect Ratio)" article from 40 years ago.

I'm wondering if that article IS about movies being shown in the awful, hacked-up "Full Screen" (1.33:1) ratio on TV, rather than the intended original Widescreen ratio (like we can see on DVDs and via TCM, which is a great cable network showing all movies in their OAR.

Originally posted by JudgeGarth
Now you've got me wanting to read some of the other articles in those TV Guides! Garry Moore in exile?

I got that particular TVG issue (4/12/69) off EBay and read the Garry Moore article. It just discussed how he'd been one of the busiest men in tv, and very well-paid for it, but by 1969 he was doing very little on tv. He lost both his original primetime variety show, as well as the host job on I've Got a Secret, in 1964, and his comeback variety show in 1966 had flopped. He had however made a deal to start hosting the syndicated revival of To Tell the Truth that year, and he held that job until he retired for health reasons in 1977, so thanks to his new job, he wasn't in exile anymore.

I still haven't been able to get the TVG issue w/ Reiner on the cover (1/4/64) yet, but fortunately I know of a couple college campuses that have TVG on microfilm, including my alma mater, Baylor Univ. in Waco, TX, so I can read those articles if and when I want to and can make the trip. I was in TVG heaven when I found all those old issues on microfilm in the library when I got there. :)

Thanks for the info, Jehobden! As I recall, Garry Moore got so mad when his Tuesday night variety show was cancelled in 1964 that he quit "I've Got a Secret", took a trip around the world and went into self-imposed "exile." He re-emerged in 1966 with a new variety hour but that was a big flop.

Yes, when I was in college (30-something years ago!) I also used to go to the library and pore over old TV Guides.

Question for all DVD-on-DVD fans (which is everybody here no doubt :)) .........

I searched many threads in here, and didn't see anybody discussing the "fuzzy"/"out-of-focus" problem that we see on a few episodes of TDVDS on the DVD boxed sets.

Hasn't anybody been slightly bothered by the slight "flickering" or "fluttering" (for lack of a better description) video on a few eps. (mainly in Season 1)?

"Punch Thy Neighbor" and "A Word A Day" are two of the shows affected from season one (but for just about 8 to 9 minutes each -- not the whole episodes).

There are also a few shows from the other seasons that are fuzzy in places, including "Three Letters From One Wife", which goes "blurry" slightly at the 15:35 mark in the show (and stays that way through the end credits -- the only time I've noticed the credits flickering on any episode).

In case no one knows WHY this is the case .... I wrote Image Entertainment directly and asked them if this was DVD Transfer problem (which it looked like to me).

I got a rapid reply from Image, stating that they ARE aware of the "blurriness" in a few shows -- and they stated they've done everything possible to clear up the problem. But, due to "warped film" at the source level (which is the original 35mm films stored in Hollywood), not all the blurriness could be completely corrected.

It's more annoying if you've got a huge TV screen (over 40 inches), which is what I've got. So maybe that's why I notice it more. However, it still isn't a huge deal that should keep any true-blue TDVDS fan from getting these great DVD sets.

I was just curious if these "blurries" were bothering anyone else.

P.S. -- I'm just thankful that these 40-year-old films didn't have more "warped" sections in them. Otherwise, it would have been wiser, IMO, for Image/Brownstein to have used other prints (and not these originals) for the DVD transfers.

I'm still wondering, though, WHY Image *didn't* go with a alternate print for these "warped" sections of the shows? Like, say, for instance utilizing the prints used by Columbia House a few years ago when C.H. produced an excellent (for VHS) set of 10 videos for its "Great TV" series of tapes.

I still have "Punch Thy Neighbor" via the Col. House VHS series, and no part of that print is blurry at all. Which means (I would think) that Image could have spliced in that print for the 8 minutes, instead of going with the fuzzier 35mm print.

I, myself, would have preferred that option rather than blurriness. Even though it would mean dealing with a second-generation source print, and probably a more "grain-filled" section of the episodes in question.

David VP, I did not notive this "bluriness" on my viewing of these episodes thus far. This may be partly due to my 13-inch television on which I watch all of these episodes! I did, however, notice, on occasion, some black, vertical lines appearing on the screen. These occured only for about 3-7 seconds at a time, usually just once per episode, in maybe three episodes per season. A fine example of this is when Laura explains to Rob that her love letters were written about God, not she in "Joe Coogan". I guess the reason why no one has complained about these minor flaws is that we are all thrilled with the fact that we are getting this much. Flaws and all, these episodes certainly have never looked better!

David VP, I did not notive this "bluriness" on my viewing of these episodes thus far. This may be partly due to my 13-inch television...Yes, the small screen makes any defects not as noticeable. (Now I'm sorry to have alerted you to these blurries -- which definitely are there. Just don't look TOO HARD. :))
I did, however, notice, on occasion, some black, vertical lines appearing on the screen. These occured only for about 3-7 seconds at a time, usually just once per episode, in maybe three episodes per season. ...Now that's something I hadn't noticed as yet (even on a 50-inch screen). Funny. Now *I'll* be looking for *that*! LOL! :) or :(
I guess the reason why no one has complained about these minor flaws is that we are all thrilled with the fact that we are getting this much. Flaws and all, these episodes certainly have never looked better! I agree. Even with a flaw here & there, they look great.
We must also realize that these DVDs are being done more than 40 YEARS after the shows were filmed. I guess in that amount of time, some visual defects are bound to pop up.

I know this is "Off-Topic" (and the show isn't a sitcom) .... but ......

For those of you who remember the show (it aired originally in 1964-1965, just when TDVDS was in its 4th season), I'd like to recommend another great TV-on-DVD product: "JONNY QUEST".

It's a great-looking 4-Disc boxed set, with all 26 episodes of the first (and only) season of the original JQ cartoon series from Hanna-Barbera.

If you remember watching Jonny as a kid on Saturday mornings (where it resided, on ALL THREE NETWORKS at some point, from 1967 to 1980), then you'll love this DVD set. ..........

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0001MZ7J6.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I've noticed a small edit in the season-three Dick Van Dyke Show episode, "The Life And Love Of Joe Coogan". There's a very funny line by Rob that has two words cut out for some unknown reason on the DVD-Video.

See if this is the case on your copy. ...........

In the office scene where Rob is talking to Laura on the phone, after Laura's line, "I don't like your tone!", Rob says: "You're gonna hear a dial tone in a minute, because I'm gonna hang up on you!"

On the DVD, the words "On You" are muted. But you can easily see Rob mouthing the words. So the words are indeed in the script. And it's not a case of the studio-audience laughter drowning out these words.

Can't figure out WHY this small edit was made. I'm nearly certain the "on you" words are there when you see the show on TV.

Could this be an audio dropout instead of an edit? Audio dropouts can result from damage in the original elements or perhaps a problem with a transfer?

But the audience laughter doesn't drop out. Just the dialogue.

Just noticed an interesting "dubbed" line in Season Four's "The Ghost Of A. Chantz" ------

Buddy's line (while talking to the ghost): "Look, if you don't want the lights off, we'll leave them on" had to be re-dubbed after filming. This is evident if you look closely at Buddy's mouth during this line.

Morey blew the line -- He said "If you don't want them ON we'll leave them OFF". So they had to dub it the other way around.

The more you watch these eps., the more of these little things you'll notice.

Another highly noticeable dub comes in "A Surprise Surprise Is A Surprise" -- in the last scene, Rob's line "Westside Highway" was dubbed. Underneath, you can see he really mouths "Westside Expressway".

Originally posted by David VP
...Another highly noticeable dub comes in "A Surprise Surprise Is A Surprise" -- in the last scene, Rob's line "Westside Highway" was dubbed. Underneath, you can see he really mouths "Westside Expressway".
Yes! I have long noticed that flub, but wasn't sure what was actually said at the time of filming. In fact, Dick seems to make a lot of those, and they have to be dubbed in correctly later.

Steve

Here's some information regarding the "Best Of Dick Van Dyke" DVDs,
being released along with the Season Five full-season set on
June 29th, 2004. ..............

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=202523

It looks like all those bonuses included on those sets, we already have. David VP, if you buy these sets, please enlighten us as to whether or not these sets include any extras that we don't already have.

There won't be any NEW bonuses on the Best-Of discs. If they did that, Image would catch all kinds of hell from people who bought the season sets, then had to re-purchase the Best-Ofs just to get a few bonus extras.

Obviously, Image doesn't want to open THAT door of Van Dyke wrath!

Makes sense to NOT put any "new" bonuses on the 4-ep. DVDs. In fact, I would be one of the ticked-off buyers if Image had put a few new extras on JUST the Best-Of discs. I'm going to buy one of the budget-priced Best-Of DVDs (just to have a "sample" of one of them) -- but I don't really want to buy all 5 (no need to).

You can get the Best-Of discs for a mere $7.30 at DeepDiscount. :)

You can get the Best-Of discs for a mere $7.30 at DeepDiscount.


Actually, at FYE.com you can get the best-of sets for only $4.99 each!

My own quote .........

There won't be any NEW bonuses on the Best-Of discs. If they did that, Image would catch all kinds of hell from people who bought the season sets, then had to re-purchase the Best-Ofs just to get a few bonus extras.
Guess I was wrong. :(

I've purchased Volumes 1 and 2 of the "Best Of" discs, and can tell Van Dyke DVD collectors that there's AT LEAST one special bonus feature that's on the Vol. 1 Best-Of disc that is not on any of the 5 full-season boxed sets (which was quite surprising to find).

The item in question is an Emmy Awards video clip (in color) from the 1966 Emmy telecast, which equates to the fifth & final year of the Van Dyke series.

I've double-checked every disc in the 5th-season set, and this clip on the "Best Of" is definitely not among the three awards we see presented on the fifth-season discs.

The "Best Of" Emmy clip features writers Bill Persky & Sam Denoff getting their award for writing.

The Best Of Volume 2 has an Emmy clip that IS contained also within a boxed set.

I'm soon going to be getting the remaining 3 "Best Of" discs. If I find any more "surprises", I'll post them here.

Very odd, indeed (IMO), that ANY bonuses would be placed on the value-priced Best-Of Van Dykes that would not also be on the season sets.

BTW --- Each "Best Of" volume also contains the "Meet The Cast" bio text screens, as well as "The Ottoman Tripper" one-question trivia game (with ensuing falling over/sidestepping the proverbial ottoman video clip from the show's opening). I *assume* the trivia questions used on the Best-Of discs are the same ones we see on the boxed sets (I can't quite recall).

All-in-all, the Best-Of series looks like a very good bang for the buck. :)

My thoughts regarding the Season-Five Dick Van Dyke Show
DVD boxed set :) ......................

DVD-On-DVD: SEASON FIVE. (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=203515)

Thank you for such a great review!

You're welcome, algebra.

I've updated the "Commentary" info in my review for "Dear Sally Rogers" -- changing Ann Morgan Guilbert to Larry Mathews for that audio commentary.

Thanks for your kind words, algebra. :wave:

Has anyone else felt this way? ....................

While watching these great episodes on the fabulous DVD-Video discs (and, of course, noting that each one has its full, uncut running time of 25+ minutes, or just under 25 minutes on a few shows), I began wondering: Hey, where are the "3 minutes that haven't been seen since their original run in the 1960s"??

I've only encountered two episodes thus far that have made me sit up and say to myself: "Gee, there's a scene I don't remember ever seeing before on the syndicated versions".

The 2 being: "Go Tell The Bird And The Bees" (Season 5) and "The Ghost Of A. Chantz" (Season 4). There's a few minutes in the office with Rob, Buddy, and Sally that I never had seen during the "Bird/Bee" episode; and the very first scene in the hotel lobby in "A. Chantz" I don't recall seeing. That ep., on syndicated prints, normally begins with Mel's line: "What's wrong gang?" But there's a lot of dialogue that actually precedes that line by Mel.

So, I'm just wondering if I'm all alone in feeling this way? Do most of you Van Dyke Show fans here have one of those "Hey, I've never seen this scene" while watching some/most of the eps. on the new Image DVDs?

I'm finding it strange that I actually HAVE seen nearly every minute of every show. And I did NOT watch the first run of the series from 1961-1966. I was too young to remember seeing it then (being born in late 1961).

I guess the answer might be that SOME TV stations have shown certain scenes over the years that OTHER stations have cut out. While another station/network might cut out a *different* hunk of a show, and include a portion that was excluded on another station.

When adding them all up, it might = The full 25-minute show.

Anyway, I just found it odd that there haven't been more of those "I've never seen this" moments with regard to the DVD-Video versions.

(P.S. -- And I *know* that the Image releases are definitely giving us the FULL, uncut episodes. So the explanation can't be that these eps. are STILL being butchered and chopped up.)

Please weigh in here, you guys, with any of those scenes that YOU have never seen except on these DVDs. I'd be interested in hearing about them.

Thanks. :)

David VP,
I must say I agree with you for the most part. I do not have many "gee whiz" moments when it comes to content on these dvds. I'm only a year older than you are, but I have, however, been watching this show under many different outlets over the decades, and I started early. The scenes that have been brought up on this board by others as having been restored, I remember seeing (maybe as a kid), and hadn't noticed their restoration until they were pointed out. I'm sure that gradually, over time, more and more of the show was removed for commercial space.
An interesting project that I've chosen for myself is to go through my VHS tapes scene-by-scene and compare them to the dvds. But frequently finding myself in need of more than 24 hours in my day, I just haven't gotten around to it yet!

Steve

Originally posted by David VP
Please weigh in here, you guys, with any of those scenes that YOU have never seen except on these DVDs. I'd be interested in hearing about them.

Thanks. :)

David,
After reading your post I remembered hearing some unfamiliar dialogue in some of the uncut DVD episodes. I may be wrong here, but in The Bad Old Days (S.1) when Rob is dreaming I thought I hadn't seen the part when Laura scrubs the floors. In Season 2, It May Look Like a Walnut, when Rob and Laura are talking there was some new dialogue (approx. 5 mins in the episode) In The Alan Brady Show Goes to Jail, before Rob and Laura do their tap dance chained together, they sing a duet. Well.....that's all I could find for now. I'll keep looking though!

Kurt

In "Washington Vs. The Bunny" the entire tag scene was cut out. I find that these shows originally had three commercial breaks: one at about 3 minutes into the show, another at about 12 minutes into the show, and the final which separates the show from the tag scene and the ending credits. When the show airs on TV Land, they only have two commercial breaks, and therefore have and opportunity to edit out some minor diologue before and after the commercial break, to make it look as though there never really was a commercial break there.

I have no proof of this, but I do find that syndicated versions of these episodes are "sped up". I have watched many syndicated versions of episodes along-side of the DVD versions, and have found that the syndicated versions are sped up by five seconds per minute. In other words, having no proof, I see that TV Land is playing back 1 minute's worth of footage back in 55 seconds. Thus, in 22 minutes, 24 minutes of the original footage was actually shown. This allows TV Land to not have to cut out 3 minutes of footage, but about 30 seconds to one minute.

Has anyone else noticed this?

In "Go Tell the Birds and the Bees," there is some hilarious dialog between Buddy and Rob, at the beginning when they are in the office, that I had never seen before. I was rolling on the floor! It was quite a significant scene, IMO. Buddy was telling Rob when his father talked to him about the facts of life ("I'd been married 2 years!" :rofl: ) It was so funny!

Lolac

:lol:

Thanks guys and gals.
And Lolac, that Birds/Bees scene you spoke of is the same one I mentioned in my post (see above). So that one most certainly must be one that's been cut out often for syndication.

My gee whiz moment in addition to those mentioned above was in "Uncle George" when Rob, Laura, Uncle G and Ritchie are in the kitchen and just before Rob leaves for work and and Laura asks Rob to bring home a loaf of bread and George chimes in with a jug of wine and Rob turns towards to the camera and says : "and thou" and walks out towards the garage. I really notice when they are longer than 20 seconds. There is another one in "My husband is a check grabber" an whole additional 30 seconds or so in the restaurant with the whole gang.

I know for a fact that our local channel used to speed up the show so bad that in a couple of episodes Laura sounded like Alvin the chipmunk :lol:

Re. the "Best Of" discs ..............

It looks like all those bonuses included on those sets, we already have. David VP, if you buy these sets, please enlighten us as to whether or not these sets include any extras that we don't already have.
I've now received all 5 Best-Of Van Dyke discs put out by Image Entertainment.

They are a very good value for the buck.

As I mentioned previously, there's ONE bonus feature on the Best-Of discs that doesn't show up on any of the 25 discs that comprise the 5 full-season collections -- that being a 1966 Emmy Awards clip with writers Persky & Denoff getting their '66 Emmy from Eva Gabor and others.

There are three other 1966 Emmy clips included in the S.5 boxed set, but those are all different from the one on the Vol. 1 Best-Of disc.

After checking each Best-Of disc, I can definitely report that that Emmy clip is the only bonus on the Best-Ofs that's NOT somewhere within the boxed sets also.

FYI/BTW -- If anybody gets Volume #5 in the "Best Of Van Dyke" series of DVDs, be sure to check out the Easter Egg. It's an original TV commercial for "Kent Cigarettes", featuring Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke on the set of the Van Dyke Show.

To get to the Egg, go to the Chapter Menu for the episode "What's In A Middle Name?", and "Left Click" while the "Opening Titles" chapter is highlighted. This will take you directly to the hidden TV commercial, without another remote-control keystroke required.

Also: this Kent ad is definitely included within the full-season sets too.

I wonder why the DVD producers would put a bonus on the best-of discs that is not on the regular discs. It makes no sense at all.

THREAD BUMP....................

I thought perhaps some of the "New to Van Dyke" people here might like to see this thread. Anything I can do to aid in the sales of a few more of these remarkable and essential DVD boxed sets, I shall be willing to do. Because the world NEEDS more "Dick Van Dyke Show" DVD owners. :) :D

Here's a newer link to make your "DVD-On-DVD" mouth water a little bit more (regarding the recently-released "5-Season Mega-Set" of TDvDS) :) .........

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?&postid=2565833#post2565833