Let's Talk Season Eight! Yikes!

[TeeVeeCloset]

Hello everyone who wakes up at 5:30AM or earlier, tho I am older, Its been awhile since I saw Donna Reed Season 8 on Nick. So I was thrilled and still am that MeTV decided to spend the summer of Me running "new" episodes.

I own every release and re-release and even the general mills free DVD from over a decade ago, those were the days a DVD with your cereal which had a season 8 episode on it I think.

And TV Land ran the last episode featuring "Lesley Gore" when they were cool, still have my VHS recording.

I have returned to sitcoms for a VERY limited time for those who appreciated my mature serious writings for my love of television and my 37 year career in the best profession ever, especially classic sitcoms.

First MeTV seems to be only running 17 season 8 episodes, I will admit, like many a male, the loss of Shelley to the series was a major blow, yet we still had the lovely Candy Moore in three roles! (discussed by me in another thread).......

Now I admit like most of you, I have never seen seasons 6 and 7, but I have been recording season 8 episodes since I never see a DVD release ever being released. Though as usual at a painful 22 minute edit.

Donna knew when to call it a day, Season 8 to me is mostly poor slapstick, I found the way ahead of its time "The Big League Shock" the best of the season!

Starting with what MeTV started with "Author, Author" which was not the first season 8 episode was just silly and in my opinion only it kept going down hill.

Lastly I find the famous Screen Gems "I Dream Of Jeannie" scene transition music played almost ten times in each episode in down right annoying!

I wish the last season was in color, but as usual its in the written word on the script page and without seeing seasons 6 and 7 I don't know when the series actually "jumped the shark", but for my hormones it was when Shelley left....LOL....continued blessings to her and her health battles.

I loved the series, it is truly a classic, Donna was beautiful and my lifelong TV crush on Shelley lasted through One Day At A Time, and Candy Moore bonus appearances as 3 characters plus "The Lucy Show".

OK serious posters, lets hear your opinions and I won't get upset if you don't agree! LOL

I respect all seriously written opinions with well thought out words and education........

[stevea]

They showed/will show 24 episodes (they did start with episode 1 of the season--you must have missed it), so far all except 1 (yesterday's episode where Jeff ran for City Council was a MeTV edit of the network-length episode) are syndication versions, many missing the opening producer/director credits, due to ham-handed editing of the original syndication versions. It appears the episodes were never converted to HD, as the aspect ratio is slightly off. They have probably not been remastered from original elements, either, but I must say the quality isn't bad (wish I could say the same for the My Three Sons, S3-S5 episodes). Inexplicably, MeTV showed a couple of season 6 episodes before showing season 8. The only thing I can conclude is that these few episodes must have been mastered to videotape at some point.

The MeTV schedule indicates that after they are through running these season 8 episodes, they are returning to season 1. The reason they are not running the remainder of season 6 and all of season 7 is not really known, but I have 2 theories:

1. These episodes may have never been mastered to videotape, as they have not been in syndication (but were run on ABC daytime, back in the days of broadcasting from film). Therefore, they may not be "prepped" for current broadcast.

2. The contract with Bob Crane, for season 7 and maybe season 6, may be written in such a way as to make rebroadcast cost-prohibitive for these seasons. If true, that may explain why these seasons weren't syndicated (but it wouldn't explain why season 4 wasn't).

I lean toward the first explanation. My theory is that MeTV contracted with Sony for The Facts of Life, and got Sony to throw in Season 8 of Donna Reed.

By the way, the season 8 episodes that MeTV skipped or will skip are:

8-11 The Gladiators (only S8 episode with Bob Crane)

8-21 All This And Voltaire Too?

8-27 By-Line--Jeff Stone (final episode-with Lesley Gore)

My theory on the absence of 8-27 is music issues--it may be that the music broadcast clearances have expired. Haven't seen Voltaire, but it may have music issues, too. Having seen many of the episodes of Bachelor Father that Antenna TV skipped, I think that's the problem with those, too.

One other thing - someone posted that IMDB says Shelley Fabares appeared in an S8 episode, and I've read that somewhere, also. We found out she did not.

[stevea]

BTW, agree on Shelley and Candy Moore. Really liked Shelley's role on ODAAT...it was a total change from the DR role. It seemed like she really got into it.

[Kasey]

I am envious of those who are getting to see these, inferior as they may be. Hopefully someone has recorded most of them so I can get some DVDs in the future. I have the entire ODAAT from Comedy Gold and yes, Shelley's episodes were the highlights of those later seasons after MacKenzie P left.

[TeeVeeCloset]

I stand corrected on many levels, I guess Candy Moore's last appearance was in "When I was your age" #267 1/22/66.....I was going by her credits listed on IMDB, should have known better!

Thank you to the poster who clarified that confirmed the Candy Moore listed at IMDB in a 1981 cheap explotation film is not the same Candy Moore we all know and appreciated in her brief acting career.

As for the 22 minute season eight edits, I of course expect it in 2017 airings, but believe when shown on Nick at night I believe the standard was 24 minutes, sadly brand new network sitcoms run a mere 20 minutes, so at least when syndicated we won't have to miss scenes.

Lastly I was going by a thread announcing that MeTV was going to start airing Season eight episodes that falsly gave the wrong start date, so I was watching the season 8 episodes but thought without researching that maybe they were season 6 or 7 episodes. So by following the false reported start date I thought they didn't start from the beginning since "Author, Author" was shown on that day.

Real lastly, I stand by the poor writing and premises of what is a miserable season turning the characters into cartoon versions of their previous selves.

I can see the pain in Donna's eyes as she tries to preserve a tree by singing with her friends, painfully trying to put a stereo together, being an author and writing about her family with false information, again to me much slapstick and situations that were painful throw back to the 50's, this was 1965, that is why I appreciated "The Big League Shock".

And Midge is just a very poor sterotypical sitcom neighbor without any thoughts.

No wonder why "The Dick Van Dyke Show" was the darling of smart writing and "The Andy Griffith Show" the series with heart that lacks so much in Donna's final season.

It has been a pleasure seeing them and wish for a season 8 DVD release and please if the Crane estate is an issue with seasons 6 and 7, resolve it, otherwise lost forever.

[stevea]

I think I read somewhere that Donna wanted to call it quits after five seasons, and Screen Gems (also maybe ABC) made concessions to keep her. I think I also read this is where the ownership issues cropped up with the last three seasons. The copyrights on the first five seasons are Todon Of California (her and Tony Owen's production company), and for the last three are Screen Gems...all this is in the small print of episodes with the proper opener.

[1960'sTVfan]

I'm not a Donna Reed fan but I watch The Joey Bishop Show on Antenna TV and enjoy it very much. Good show and underrated in my opinion.

[Television17]

Would you have Season 8 Episode 12 "Rally 'Round The Girls, Boys " on DVD? My dvr deleted it.

[Ronny G]

I'm a little behind, but I just watched the season 8 episode, "Author, Author," There was a funny scene where they do a spoof of the opening credits. You know, the opening where Donna sees the family off for the day, and hands them their lunches as they leave---only this time, Donna is really upset with them for making fun of her becoming an author, so she has this disgusted look on her face as they leave. She basically rushes them out the door. Alex pops his head back in for his kiss, but this time Donna puts her hand on his face and shoves him away! LOL

[biffbronson]

Patty Petersen was beginning to mature nicely in these Season 8 episodes. I'm thankful to Decades for airing these. Today's was "Calling Willie Mays" from 1/29/1966.

[stevea]

Did Decades skip most of season 6 and all of season 7 like MeTV did?

MeTV also skipped 3 S8 episodes, 2 of them due to (what else?) music issues, I think. One had Bob Crane and for some mysterious reason they don't seem to want to play the later Bob Crane episodes.

[TV Guy]

Decades played two episodes of season 6 and no episodes from season 7, which is what MeTV did in its final cycle. One of the episodes they showed from season 6 was “Mary Comes Home”. It had the wrong intro (a season 8 intro was used). The other episode had the correct season 6 intro on it, but it was clearly an episode leftover from season 5 that must have been broadcast out of order in its original run. Mary was there, with no explanation, Trisha was absent, and Jeff had his season 5 haircut.

I believe there are some music issues with some episodes of season 8, which is why they are being skipped. The majority of season 6 and all of season 7 are not available in syndication.

[stevea]

That other episode was probably 6-11 What Are Friends For? I have a copy of the sponsored original, and it has the season 4/5 intro (Copyright, Todon Of Calif.) (for season 6, ownership went to Screen Gems, which is why we have no DVDs)., still including Shelley Fabares. I agree, it's probably a leftover. The only mystery is why it was in with the season 8 episodes (if that's the one MeTV/Decades showed).

The Mary Comes Home episode makes a little more sense. With the season 8 intro., someone at Sony probably thought it was a season 8 episode.

[Too2muchtv]

Is Decades still showing in its current rotation the same episodes from seasons 6 and 8 that aired on Me? Right now they're at season 5, am wondering if they will go further or start back over at season 1.