Check It Out! (1 Viewer)

[Dave Lawrence]

VEI is releasing the Don Adams sitcom Check It Out!

Link

While not the funniest show ever, I remember enjoying this Canadian series as a kid when it aired in the US in the 80s in weekend syndication. I’d hoped it would someday get released but at this point never expected it to.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

I did see some of the episodes back in the 80’s too but for me it was ok and nice seeing Don Adams back on tv again.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

Guilty pleasure for me. Corny as anything but pure, silly escapism and nostalgia, taking me back to simpler times.
Snagged this and right on the heels of downloading every episode from Tubi, too. Excessive? Yep. But that's me!

"Can you give me Geritol?!!"

 

[Lecagr]

Always been a fan of Don Adams so I'll probably be in for this, most likely will be a buy for me. I remember watching some episodes on TV in the 1980's during the series original run. Episodes can also be currently watched on line on the Tubi website.

 

[MartinP.]

Dave mentions why I guess I'd never heard of this before, it was a Canadian series.

 

[dietcola]

i'm in! i have all the episodes already, but these will no doubt be in better shape. never thought this'd get released.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

"Well, don't just stand there!"

The folks at VEI certainly aren't just standing there: I've already got this thing on the way from Niagra Falls.

Niagra Falls!
Ah, no. Not gonna go into that.

I hope to be checking this out this weekend!

 

[Purple Wig]

Liked this when it was on in the 1980's.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

Here's that mini-review that no one asked for.

The discs are here and I've been going between the Tubi downloads and the dvd versions and, well, they're close but the downloads have more color and sharpness. Why? I'd guess it's an encoding issue.

There are 6 discs in the usual wallet holders tucked in a snapcase, with 11 episodes per disc. Dual layer, decent picture and all, but much softer than the downloads, colors are a tad muted and while the dvds have less mpeg "noise" and less picture cropping, there's still the issue of The Jaggies on slanted/curved lines and moiré patterning, like a PAL conversion gone South which is the same as the streaming versions. This is more evident when using hardware to upscale, but overall, the shows look like 80's videotape on a modern tv. And the mono sound is clear, punchy and adequate. Maybe a little too adequate as when watching with headphones you can hear the hard edits between some takes.

The content of the show remains intact-- I haven't seen any edits apart from maybe 1 second of blank space between opening credits and main program. The run times for the online versions and the discs are consistently the same.

A caution, once again, about these VEI discs: They seem to be pressed to a certain spec that doesn't work well with pc snap-in drive hubs. It's like the player grips "snap" between the top and bottom layers of polycarbonate and, as a result, could possibly cause cracking of the disc hubs and most certainly cause some to scrape and drag in the player (I always give a slight, manual spin before closing the lid or tray to check jus' in case). Sure enough, Just like the 3's Company set and others, these don't sit right. They work fine in a drawer-type clamping player.

The show itself? Corny as ever and great comfort food and escapism to blow off a bad day at work or whatever. Just like going back to the 80's! And, the goofy things like having Bannister walk in the store wearing the Inspector Gadget coat still give me a chuckle.

Like the show? Got the old bootlegs with the TVLand logos or whatever? Ditch the boots and grab this set while it's available cheap. It's not perfecto, but good enough. Aaron Schwartz is a scream, Henry Beckman isn't with the show enough, Marlene (Kathleen Laskey) is still like "Wow!" and Don Adams delivers, as usual, in the verbal and physical comedy.

Well don't just stand there.. Check it out!

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

Bonus pic to show detail (same frame as Post 6):

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks for the review. I’ve never seen this show before, but I know of it. As a Get Smart fan, I’ll have to pick this up.

 

[bmasters9]

I'm considering this show too-- one thing I'm wondering: is the content of it somewhat similar to the 70s ABC police comedy Barney Miller (being that this one is set in a supermarket, with Don Adams as the manager, like Hal Linden was as the titular police captain in Miller)?

 

[Lecagr]

So this is a 6 disc set with 11 episodes each disc for a total of 66 episodes. 11 episodes can easily fit on one disc, especially since this is a 1980's sitcom and the episode run times are shorter, only about 21 minutes each episode. Not a high priority for me currently but I will probably get around to order this eventually.

 

[Robert Saccone]

I'm considering this show too-- one thing I'm wondering: is the content of it somewhat similar to the 70s ABC police comedy Barney Miller (being that this one is set in a supermarket, with Don Adams as the manager, like Hal Linden was as the titular police captain in Miller)?

I’ve been watching it on t
Tubi. This show is nothing like Barney Miller. It’s almost slapstick comedy with lots of sexual innuendo.

 

[bmasters9]

I’ve been watching it on t
Tubi. This show is nothing like Barney Miller. It’s almost slapstick comedy with lots of sexual innuendo.

I'll try it on Tubi sometime in the future for somewhat of a test-drive-- may like it, may not, but at least I'm gonna try it.