Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman - The Complete Series Coming from Shout! Dec. 2013 (1 Viewer)

[Ron Lee Green]

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Mary-Hartman-Mary-Hartman-The-Complete-Series/18907

TVShowsondvd just announced this.
This is pretty epic news for classic TV on DVD lovers in my opinion: an obscure SONY 1970s series with over 300 episodes that hasn't been in reruns lately. I never thought the series had a huge fan base, but glad to see Shout and Sony still working together.

 

[LeonaB]

Just ordered mine!

 

[MatthewA]

I never thought I'd see the day.

Now all we need is Fernwood 2Night.

 

[Ethan Riley]

Utterly astonished!

 

[Mr. Handley]

WOW...this is FANTASTIC news! I did a blind buy when Volume 1 came out a few years back and was hooked. Between this and the Naked City complete series, it's going to be a great winter of viewing!

 

[classicmovieguy]

About time. Wonder if they fixed the problems with some of the episodes from the first volume?

 

[JohnMor]

LOVED this show when it first aired, but wasn't going to bite on sets that might never finish. NOW I can buy!

 

[PODER]

Wow! I have mixed feelings about this release. On the one hand, I adored the series and had just bought the VHS of six episodes when I met Debralee Scott out here in Santa Monica. She was a delightful lady, and I ended up giving her the tape, since she didn't have one of her own. I lost track of her when she moved to NYC, and it wasn't until much later that I learned her fiance, Port Authority Office John Lewis Levi, was one of the First Responders who died on 9/11. Then in 2005 she moved to Florida, where she passed away in her sleep following several days in a coma. So while I know I'll be grabbing this one up ASAP, I'll be watching it with a bittersweet feeling ....

 

[John Karras]

With over 300 videotaped episodes, let's just hope that Shout doesn't have another one of their encoding "anomolies" a la "All In The Family" season 7 and wind up making the entire series look like bad color kinescopes. It would also be nice if they could fix up that early episode that has an entire section missing and repeat footage from another episode instead.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Wow! I have mixed feelings about this release. On the one hand, I adored the series and had just bought the VHS of six episodes when I met Debralee Scott out here in Santa Monica. She was a delightful lady, and I ended up giving her the tape, since she didn't have one of her own. I lost track of her when she moved to NYC, and it wasn't until much later that I learned her fiance, Port Authority Office John Lewis Levi, was one of the First Responders who died on 9/11. Then in 2005 she moved to Florida, where she passed away in her sleep following several days in a coma. So while I know I'll be grabbing this one up ASAP, I'll be watching it with a bittersweet feeling ....

Wow, what a tragic story. It's tough sometimes to watch shows when you know how the story ends for favorite actors. I know I had that bittersweet feeling while watching Combat! on DVD with my son. But the release of MHMH bodes well for the totally subversive Fernwood 2night, which no doubt inspired The Larry Sanders Show on HBO.

 

[JohnMor]

With over 300 videotaped episodes, let's just hope that Shout doesn't have another one of their encoding "anomolies" a la "All In The Family" season 7 and wind up making the entire series look like bad color kinescopes. It would also be nice if they could fix up that early episode that has an entire section missing and repeat footage from another episode instead.

Given that that was a limited error that didn't affect any subsequent seasons, and was then fixed by Shout, I doubt it's really anything to be concerned about.

 

[ClaudeNorth2013]

Great news! For years, I was hoping that Shout or another third-party company would do this. MHMH is a show that needs to be released in a "Complete Series" set.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I never thought I'd see the day.

Now all we need is Fernwood 2Night.

If they were release a Complete Fernwood 2 Night/America 2 Night set, I'd definitely be on board with that! Liked it much more than Mary Hartman.

 

[John Karras]

Given that that was a limited error that didn't affect any subsequent seasons, and was then fixed by Shout, I doubt it's really anything to be concerned about.

I'm more concerned that this process of taking videotaped elements and converting them to film-look during the encoding process has started to pop up in other releases. Remember, Shout was totally oblivious to the All In The Family issue until some of their customers pressed for some answers.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

About time. Wonder if they fixed the problems with some of the episodes from the first volume?

I know that Sony was made aware of the problems, so there is a good chance that they have been rectified.

 

[JohnMor]

I'm more concerned that this process of taking videotaped elements and converting them to film-look during the encoding process has started to pop up in other releases.

Which other Shout releases had that issue? I haven't heard about them. I know neither S8 or S9 of AITF had it.

 

[John Karras]

Which other Shout releases had that issue? I haven't heard about them. I know neither S8 or S9 of AITF had it.

I never claimed that the other releases were Shout products. Simply that encoding tape to film-look has started to appear in various transfers (e.g. The Danny Kaye Show, That Show (Joan Rivers)).

 

[Brian Himes]

I'm totally onboard with this one. I have never seen the entire run of the show, but I have seen a good majority of it. I'd say just about half of it, acutally. Sadly, I am not able to pre order it to get the lower price that is being offered now. I will have to wait until tax time to get it.Yes, I do hope that the messed up episode will be fixed.

 

[Mark Tay]

To understand what went wrong with the Sony release we have to start back at the very, very beginning…
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman premiered on January 5th 1976 (at least on stations which were early adopters of this syndicated soap opera spoof). It ran weekdays (i.e. five episodes per week) with continuous new episodes through Friday, July 2nd 1976. At which point, having been on the air for 26 weeks and tallying up 130 unique episodes, it reached the end of “season one.” It was now time for cast and crew to take a well deserved break. Producer Norman Lear announced that videotaping of season two would begin in early August 1976, with the season two premiere occurring on Monday October 4th 1976. Unfortunately for rabid fans of the show, this left a gap of 13 weeks from the end of season one until the premiere of season two. Obviously re-runs from season one would be broadcast during the gap, however with a slight twist. An editor took the best (or most important) sequences from the original 130 episodes and created a new digest version of season one, condensed down to only 65 episodes. This digest version of season one allowed new fans of the show, to catch up on all that had transpired previously, and created a very nice build up as well as smooth transition right into season two.

In 2007 Sony released the first volume of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman on DVD. Their intent was to include the first 25 episodes of season one, complete and unedited. However, three episodes on the DVD set were mistakenly substituted with digest versions from 1976. This unfortunate mix up occurs on what should have been episodes 22, 24 and 25. Owners of the DVD set can rest assured that the remaining episodes are all complete as originally aired. One can easily distinguish original early episodes by their end credits which crawl up the screen. The end credits on the digest versions fade in and out.

I sent the above info to Shout Factory to hopefully keep them on their toes. As long as Shout Factory does not accidentally transfer any of the digest versions, things should be fine. I'm very much looking forward to this release!

 

[Neil Brock]

And the great thing was, no one guessed this when I gave my hint a couple of months ago! I guess I'm getting better at making the clues tougher, for those who complained about them being too easy.