Where's Lassie/Dennis the Menace? (1 Viewer)

[Bert Greene]

I've always had a curious affection for the Ranger Corey episodes. True, they move rather slowly (with pacing somewhere between that of oozing molasses and an Alaskan glacier). And, most of the episodes have their running-times comprised primarily of Lassie making friendly yelps at some newly-encountered woodland critter, like a chimpmunk or warthog or something. But dangit, I still like those Ranger entries. They always made me want to grab a backpack and go hiking in the woods. Or, take a nap. One or the other.

And, yes, "Dennis" definately needs to be available on dvd. It's way past time. I wonder if there are rights issues involving Sony and the comic-strip syndicate, or maybe even the Ketchum estate. Eh, it's probably just Sony and their aversion to b&w series.

 

[Sky King]

I was very disappointed with the Lassie 50th Anniversary Collection released by Sony and Classic Media.
For a 50th anniversary collection, one would think that remastered prints would have been used. Although as stated earlier, the B/W were watchable, the color shows actually looked worse than the older B/W ones.
It's apparent that this DVD set was just slapped together quickly to try to cash in on the 50th anniversary. Every B/W "Timmy" episode (no matter what the year) had the same 1959 opening. The color episodes also used the same faded opening. One or two of the "Jeff'" episodes had wavering music during the closing credits.
Where were the interviews with surviving cast members ??
On the other hand...the enclosed booklet was very good and although visually weak, the chosen episodes had good storylines.
This set could have been so much better.
See my review of this set on Amazon.

 

[MattPeriolat]

Well, that's the problem with Lassie, isn't it? With all due respect to Classic Media and what they have done, I doubt they have the resources to do restoration that major companies do. So there's the trade off: yes, you can get Lassie, but go in with lowered expectations. It's not going to look as good as Lucy or Twilight Zone.

I'd love it if another company could get a crack at Lassie, but if this is the best we can do for now, so be it.