Despite the scratches in the Paul Henning Estate's prints, the MPI releases were done by people who really care about the product and were filled with terrific extras over and above the original cast commercials. I see no need to move backward until we have all nine seasons on DVD.
Just...
I don't think you'll see the sponsor-oriented theme song extensions when Paramount continues the series. That was a happy by-product of using the 16mm prints from the Henning estate. The 35mm master material was probably shorn of any sponsor-related material decades ago to prepare for the 35mm...
I'm not nostalgic for any syndication-quality 16mm prints of The Beverly Hillbillies either. I'm nostalgic for the way they looked on CBS Wednesday nights at 8pm Central for the better part of a decade. And they looked a lot better than MPI.
But, having said that, I wasn't disappointed in...