http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Odd-Couple-The-Final-Season/10186

Kudos to CBS for releasing this show in a timely manner unlike Sony. This will complete the series. They are also releasing Gomer Pyle USMC and Hawaii Five-O quickly as well.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.net/graphics/news3/OddCouple_S5.jpg

This season has two of my favorite episodes, "The Hollywood Story" and "Our Fathers". Some very funny scenes.

My fears were realized today when I bought the DVD. There is an edit in the final episode. Right after Felix and Gloria are married, Oscar gets excited and says "I'm Free! I'm Free!" Then he starts to sing 'I'm Singing in the Rain." The singing has been cut out. After he says "I'm Free!" a few times, it fades to black and opens up with the final scene of the show. So one of my favorite moments of all five seasons is NOT in the DVD.

I have mixed feelings about the DVDs. It's better than nothing, but I don't consider my collection to be the complete series. It's just every episode. But not every complete episode.

Today I'm watching various DVDs in my collection and in the computer dating episode of the Odd Couple, they left in the part when Felix is singing the song "Smile". Why did they make an allowance for that song? Could it be they didn't want to go through a complicated edit by putting in a non-copyright song to work into his honking and banging his head on the wall?
The song was written by Charlie Chaplin, I read.

Isn't "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" supposed to be in "The Rent Strike" episode? I did not hear it. There are several song cuts and small line cuts related to musical numbers in this set.

Although the quality of the set on DVD is tons better picture-wise than Odd Couple's heyday first-run, where rabbit ears were the norm, it is a shame that CBS/Paramount did not do a better job at securing music rites for this landmark series. I wonder if greater care would have come about if Time Life had stayed with the series for the remaining 2-5 seasons? (They stopped after Season 1.)

In any event, I have learned that studio executives and estate holders of copyright material can demand anywhere from $10,000-$50,000 for as little as one LINE of a song in an episode! That's insane! However, if the copyright holders don't want to give up the rites to the music, the alternative would be perhaps $60 or more per DVD! At least you are getting about 3-4 minutes per episode that you can't see anywhere else in most cases. I would still recommend this DVD series, because it is as close to "complete" as we are ever going to get.

Jack