Cheap The Dick Van Dyke Show - Season One (5 Disc Box Set) (DVD) (Dick Van Dyke) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of The Dick Van Dyke Show - Season One (5 Disc Box Set)

The Dick Van Dyke Show is one of TV's best ever. Funny, well-acted, just absurd enough to seem like real people. And, in spite of their obvious bedroom arrangement, Rob & Laura are still the sexiest couple in TV history.

I can't wait to get Season Two--and I hope both sell well enough for them to release the other seasons. I also hope this encorages someone to release complete seasons of "The Andy Griffith Show".

A New Pinnacle In TV Boxed Sets!
Image Entertainment's DVD-Video release of "The Dick Van Dyke Show Season One" is a superior example of TV-on-DVD. Just about as close to "perfect" as you could get, in my opinion.

The Dick Van Dyke Show, which ran for 5 seasons on CBS-TV from 1961-1966, seems as fresh, funny, and (above all) REAL today as it did all those years ago, when it barely was able to survive its rocky, low-rated first season.

This glorious 5-disc set contains each of the 30 first-season programs. We also get the exceptionally-nice bonus of the series' original pilot, "Head Of The Family", created by resident series genius Carl Reiner, which starred Reiner himself as Rob Petrie, along with a completely different group of actors portraying the show's other characters. The CBS pilot aired on July 19, 1960, its one and only network airing.

Every facet of this DVD set is a treasure of gold. Everything!  Starting with the ultra-classy packaging, with the outer slipcase representing a facsimile of an old-fashioned B&W TV (right down to the vent holes on the back!). The image on the "TV" on the front of the slipcase shows Rob Petrie falling over the living-room ottoman, taken from the opening credits of the show. This picture (which is actually a removable insert card which can be slid in and out of the mock "TV screen") will yield a "motion picture" effect when tilted from side to side, or up and down. If you move the picture just right, you'll see this nice 3-D-like effect, with Rob starting out in a standing position, and then proceeding to fall over the ottoman. Very cool!

The five discs are housed in separate "ThinPak" DVD cases, which each has a different picture on the front. These cover art images are excellent, and can be looked upon to represent a mini Photo Gallery in and of themselves. There are also some additional still photos on the back and on the inside of each ThinPak case, along with complete episode information for that particular disc, including episode numbers, film dates, original air dates, and a short synopsis of each program. Chapter stops are also included.

A small 4-page printed insert also comes in this package. This mini-booklet provides some informative general information and "Did You Know?" fun facts concerning The Dick Van Dyke Show and its cast.

Apart from the programs themselves, the large amount of effort utilized in creating just this first-rate packaging is readily apparent.

Each single-sided disc has 6 or 7 full-length, unedited episodes. Each program has a running time of just a tad more than 25 minutes, including the ending credits. So we know they're the full programs, without any scenes cut out. Very nice! For marathon lovers, there is a "Play All Episodes" feature, for uninterrupted back-to-back viewing of that disc's programs.

Video Quality .... Picture quality is, in a word, Perfection! Or, at least "Near Perfection", let's put it that way. Considering the decades-old age of these programs, I think it's safe to say, due to the intense and very lengthy restoration and re-mastering process that was undertaken here, that these episodes have never looked any better. The black-and-white photography is very sharp and clear, bringing out some details you probably never knew were even there while watching these episodes originally in the 1960s on the smaller 19-inch monitors of the era.

Sound .... There's a very adequate Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtrack employed for each episode. This original mono sound does very nicely. All dialogue is easily heard and understood.

Extras .... An amazing wealth of bonus material has been assembled for this boxed set (as well as its Season Two sister set, which actually contains even MORE than this volume!). Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner provide commentary tracks for two episodes. There's also retrospective interviews and featurettes with the cast & crew, Emmy Awards clips (which are great fun to see, transporting us back to the 1960s with the click of a remote button), Photo Galleries, network promos, and some original commercial spots. A fabulous amount of added-value content for a TV program from the early 1960s!

Menus .... The menu structure is simple and easy to navigate. Each episode has its own separate sub-menu, where you get the chapter selections for that episode. Highlighting the icon marked "Extras" takes you to all the special features that are specific to that episode. A "Special Features" option can also be accessed from the disc's Main Menu as well.

In addition, there's a feature on selected discs called "Ottoman Tripper", which, when selected, reveals a single trivia question about the Dick Van Dyke Show, with 4 possible answers. Selecting the correct answer will reveal a snippet of the opening credits of the show in which Rob Petrie sidesteps the ottoman upon entering the living room. If an incorrect choice is selected, you get a clip of Rob tripping over the ottoman, with added "crashing" sound effects. A cute little bonus, again emphasizing the devotion and care the creators of these DVDs have taken in producing this product.

Rounding out the extras, there's a "Meet The Cast" feature (text only), with some brief info on the show's cast.

Long live The Dick Van Dyke Show! .... It now WILL live on and prosper thanks to Image Entertainment's beautifully-done season-by-season DVD compilations.

"Technical Glitch" Explained
The previous review regarding "distortion" on some of these Dick Van Dyke Show episodes sparked me to expand upon this problem a bit further. .......

A few scenes within these first-season shows (as well as a few from the subsequent Image boxed sets in this series) exhibit a kind of "video fluttering" effect. To clarify further, it looks to me as if the video goes just slightly out-of-focus and a little blurry for these few scenes.

Some of the episodes affected include: "Punch Thy Neighbor", "Forty-Four Tickets", and "A Word A Day". But keep in mind, this "flutter"/"fuzziness" problem does NOT exist for the WHOLE length of these episodes. In "Punch Thy Neighbor", the picture goes a little off-kilter near the beginning of the program, but then clears up again completely about 8 minutes later, with the final portions of the episode exhibiting the usual crystal-clear clarity that 95% (or more) of the episodes display throughout these Image Entertainment boxed sets.

Also consider the fact that on many (smaller) TV monitors, these slight blemishes might not be nearly as noticeable (if at all). The larger your television screen, the more you'll notice any minor video defects.

I was nearly certain in my own mind that these "fuzzy" scenes on these DVDs were the fault of the film-to-DVD digital transfers. But, after e-mailing Image Entertainment directly about this problem, I'm now of the opinion that I was in error about my original assessment of the transfers.

Image was kind enough to get back to me via return e-mail in a very short time period, and explained to me what the deal was regarding these video "hiccups". Here's the exact mail I received from Image .......

---------------

"Dear David,
The "blurriness" apparent during sections of these episodes is the result of damaged source material; more specifically this problem is caused by warped film. Image Entertainment has done all it can do to eliminate this problem using the technology on hand and hopefully new technological advances in editing will allow this problem to be corrected completely at some point in the future. Thank you."

---------------

This explanation straight from the distributor's mouth started to make the most sense, logically-speaking, to me. It's unfortunate, indeed, that not every single second of every scene is 100% pristine in video quality. However, it was kind of comforting to hear that Image Entertainment was, in fact, aware of the "blurry" problem I was talking about in my mail to them, and was forthright enough to give me the straight dope on what they knew about the situation. And it's kind of nice to just know that these shows, everything considered, look as good as they possibly can look, and that the slight fuzzy portions are NOT the result of neglectful work done by the people in charge of the digital transfers.

I accept, without reservation, Image's "warped film" explanation regarding this matter. Perhaps other individuals who have also noticed this problem will not accept it. So be it. But, as far as I'm concerned, the people at Image Entertainment are a class act all the way, and have proven this to me via previous correspondence (well before I ever even noticed this video glitch issue). They have always been very quick to respond to any inquiry I've had about their company and their products.

Having said all of the above, I really think it would be a shame for this minor picture-quality topic (and it IS minor, affecting only a small handful of total episodes) to be considered a "make it or break it" issue when someone goes to evaluate whether or not to purchase these otherwise-pristine DVD products.

For, even if you DO notice a few of these video blips, these Dick Van Dyke Show season sets, overall, are some of the very best TV-on-DVD products on the market today.