Bewitched Season 8?

Hey guys are you going to buy the Box set of Bewitched? I think it will come out around Christmas this year.  I just hope it includes the black and white episodes of seasons 1 and 2... and some extras so I will probably buy it...what about you guys?

I very much doubt I will.  I'm sure it will be akin the crappy Jeannie complete set, which means little to nothing new and probably VERY tacky looking.  And if it's the same as the Japanese set, then definitely not.  Neither Tabitha nor the Nicole Kidman travesty belong in the set with the original series.     

We'll see what it has and what it looks like when it comes out (and if by some miracle they fix the messed up eps.)  But based on Sony's track record with this series and their complete sets, I'd say it's 99.2% sure that there won't be anything on it warranting a second purchase.

Are the messed up episodes from season 3 that you are talking about like the Ben Franklin episodes?

Yep, the BF eps, as well as Nobody But A Frog Knows How To Live, plus the HORRIBLE mastering job on S5's Cousin Serena Strikes Again, Pt 1.

But even though I might wish for them to be corrected, I know Sony will simply release what was already put out.  Shame.

What was wrong with the Frog episode? Just curious?

I had the Ben Franklin episodes on factory VHS tapes from Columbia house & simply then
burned them to a DVD-R with my DVD stand alone Burner, so i have them uncut & in their
entirety as originally seen & they look great, as good as episodes on the DVD set do.

Nobody But A Frog Knows How To Live i burned from my Sony DVD set as well to DVD with the black blank footage that was in between a few scenes for a few seconds edited out, so it is fixable too, S5's Cousin Serena Strikes Again, Pt 1 was fine except for the colour being far too strong on it, but all you have to do is turn the colour down about 5 notches from 23 to 18 on your remote & it is perfect.

I believe all the other episodes were basically fine with no real flaws.

Larry Tate :)

I am not about to take the time to fix what should have been correctly mastered to begin with.  The complete series would be the ideal time to correct those errors, but I know they won't.

I believe the real trouble with CSSA, Pt1 is that it was mastered from video of a 16mm print.  The color is not only too strong, but slightly off as well, leaning to red and the grain is just hideous.  But at least that one, as you say, is somewhat fixable with simple TV adjustments, although it looks FAR from perfect.  In fact, so many of the 5th season eps suffer from low-level (or no) color correction and unrestored prints.  A real shame.  It really stands out as the worst looking of the DVD sets.  But of course, that's because Sony spoiled me by having such good transfers on this series as a whole.  And without the music, effects and laugh track substitutions that plagued S2 of I Dream of Jeannie.  I am VERY grateful for that.

Mike, about half-way through Act II of NBAFKHTL, right after the Tates and Mr. Saunders leave for the night, there is a brief fade to black and then back up, losing about 4-5 seconds of action and sound, almost like fading out to a commercial, but it isn't a commercial break.  It's weird.  Someone goofed in the transfer, and they should have fixed it.  It doesn't ruin the episode, but it should have been corrected.

With the Frog episode there were two earlier instances where the empty blank footage extended about 2 or 3 seconds longer then it should have but was not as noticeable as they were in between scene breaks while the one later was right in the middle of a scene.

In that case nothing was lost in terms of action or sound as what happened was the blank footage was inserted into the episode itself in addition to the episode inbetween two camera shots & did not right over any actual visual or audio footage, so it is odd but does not effect the actual episode content in any way, i confirmed this with the factory Screen Gems VHS tape release of it that i own.

With SSTS Part 1 i did not see any grain issue at all so i believe it was from a 35 mm print & remastered as per usual, the tint was fine too & once i turned the color down the episode looked sharp as a tack & as good as any we had seen previously from a visual quality perspective.

Myself i don't agree re season 5 as i see a restored & remastered set every bit as good as any other prior or since.

The odd episode has the odd issue but no more or less then any other season set does.
Season one for example in episode #15 Visions of Sugar Plums had a grainy issue as it was from a 16mm print & not restored, one or two episodes each season had such or otherwise glitches in regards to them.

Larry Tate :)

Thumbs down for me, sorry. I don't pay to see commercials, and nor does anybody else, I don't think. Also, Sony would probably have to pay the companies involved for getting those commercials, which would add to the overall production costs of the disc mastering. Just get commercials off of YouTube, or get a hold of the 16mm films from somewhere and have those converted to DVD.

 Neville, I believe you are the first person I have ever heard that DOESN'T want the original BW related commercials. I guess, to each their own. But I do think that people pay to have commercials when said commercials involve EM or anybody from BW, particularly when those commercials involve BW.

Anyway, I LOVE this set!! I'm so happy to FINALLY have all 254 episodes in my possession on DVD. I love that Sony included EM's intro on every episode along with the "Be Right Back" bumper.

The color and clarity on the few episodes I've watched so far is fantastic!

I think people pay for the episodes, not the commercials.

Any extras are nice, but I wouldn't want it to increase the price of the set. I'm not willing to pay for them.

Those of us old enough to have enjoyed "Bewitched" on ABC primetime would love to see the commercials again because it brings back fond memories of our childhood.  I'd love to see the Chevy and Quaker Oats openings and closings as menu play options, similar to what I'm told we'll see on next week's Lucy Show -Season One."

"Nothing is better for thee than me!" -- Quaker Oats tag line circa 1964-5.

I'd certainly like to see them too and similar things in any DVD set, I just wouldn't want it to add $5-10$ to the price of a set.

I always said if I ran one of the original sponsor companies like Chevy, Quaker Oats, Kodak or Oscar Mayer (which are all still in business today), I would kick in a nominal fee to restore and remaster the the original sponsor openings and commercials for the dvds, and voila... built in advertising each time someone pops in an episode to watch!  In this day of webisodes, downloads, on-line ads, etc. you need to think outside the box.  Certainly, if I worked at Sony I would have approached the companies about doing this. A win-win for all involved.

Edited by JohnMor - 7/16/2009 at 09:24 pm GMT

David,

Thanks for the early info on the video Q for S8.  I'm way behind in viewing BW but getting there.  I just watched the 1st ep in the S4 set today.  I still remember that 1st "Dr Bombay" appearance in the last ep in the S3 set   Looking forward more of the Dr's episodes.  The way that he told those jokes when popping in at the house was classic....Darrin & Sam's "lead ballon" responses are great

Some great S8 lines:

Serena's Youth Pill
SERENA: "Well the children where upstairs playing at the time and there wasn't anything else to do."

LOUISE: "I'm really worried about Larry.  He's acting strangely.
SAMANTHA: "Oh, well they all do sometimes."


Tabitha's First Day at School
MRS. PEABODY: "Class, this is Tabitha Stephens.  Say 'Hello' to Tabitha.  And this is Tabitha's mother, Mrs. Stephens.  Say 'Goodbye' to Mrs. Stephens."


3 Men and a Witch on a Horse
DARRIN: "The odds on Count of Valor have dropped from 30-to-1 to 5-to1."
SAMANTHA: "Really?  That groom must be a real blabbermouth."


Hansel and Gretel in Samanthaland
OLD WITCH: "I heard that!"

John,

All great picks.  I haven't seen most of the S8 eps in a long time but I remember that one about Tabitha's 1st day at school.  Classic

 Hi, does anyone know when Bewitched season 8 is coming out in the UK? Thanks.

Play.com apparently lists season 8 Region 2 as being due for release on November.2nd, 2009 so it is going to be a while over there, but at least now you can set your anticipation dials.

The same day a complete set of all 8 seasons is supposed to be released for 99 pounds.

Larry Tate

Good News for all of you who are Liz Montgomery fans:  Christina Applegate who played Kelly Bundy on Married with Children is doing a film about our lady Liz called "Everything Is Going to Be Just Fine" in which she will playing her.  The film is due out in 2010 and her mother Nancy Priddy did play several characters on BW most notably in Season 7 she was a flight attendant.  The film is in production now!!

In watching Season 8, which  I hadn't seen the episodes in ages, I noticed a brand new necklace with the letter "S".  Was that a gift from someone or just part of the wardrobe? It reminds me of the heart necklace which was special to her through season 6 I believe.  Wasn't it true that her and Mr. Asher were on the rocks during the last season? I thought it may have been a gift from someone?? 

The heart shaped necklace was given to Elizabeth Montgomery by her husband Bill Asher
before the pilot was filmed, she wore it until the second to last episode of season 6 & thereafter
stopped wearing it & rumor hath it that she gave both copies she had away to members of the crew.

From this point onwards she wore a S for Samantha necklace (i don't believe it was a gift, just a prop) or a choker, the reason for the change?............again rumor hath it that the love that led to the gift was no more due to Bill Asher's roving eye.

Larry Tate :)

You know many had said Liz's energy wasn't that high during Season 8, and I have to disagree.  This was the first time that I have seen all the episodes in ages.. I think it's where the times were changing and after all she and Darrin had now been married almost 9 years and Now that I have all the seasons, I think seasons 7 and 8 are far the best.  I am glad Sam isn't playing lil ole housewife and now stands up and says her mind!!  I think she played Samantha very well and it was nice to see Sam evolve over the almost 9 years.  Aside from some of the remakes, season 8 is awesome! :)

Mike, I always said the same thing about how Samantha had grown when I defended S8.  She was not the same as she had been in 1964.  8 years of Darrin vs Endora, plus motherhood shows.

I think S8 is vast improvement over S7, except for a few dogs here and there.  The main thing about Liz's performances in S8 that I feel really shows she was at the end of her rope with the show and character was she mugged so cheaply throughout S8, especially on fade outs. 

And the speed with which they finished the eps (3 days usually during S8) really shows.  The coverage shot isn't nearly as plentiful or well-thought out this season.  Especially with some of the Serena eps.  They really took some shortcuts this season instead of shooting all the coverage they used to.  Plus the lighting was cheaply and quickly done as well.  They lit and shot very flat this year in order to finish the shows in such short time to minimize setups.

But to me, ep by ep, S8 is still more enjoyable the S7.  It has a looser more fun feel than that season did.

I Love Season 8 and have you noticed... Endora, Maurice nor Serena once turned Darrin into any sort of animal this season... so I think by this time they were just getting more used to Darrin because after almost 9 years of marriage Darrin had to grow on them some...  I am just glad that Liz aka Sam was more independent.... you know if they did a Season 9, I think Samantha getting a career would have been wonderful...maybe doing something that her character enjoyed...now that would have been great... and since season 7 has anyone noticed that Larry was starting to catch on?? I think by the last two seasons he knew something...

I've always been a big defender of Season 8.  I really think Liz's performances as Serena this year were the best.

One thing that's always bugged me though was how cheaply they did the Europe eps.  I mean, come on, there are backlot streets all over LA that could pass for European locales, but for 3 CONSECUTIVE weeks they redressed the recently cancelled Flying Nun's home.  The former Convent San Tanco was Hampton Court, the inn at Inverness and the town square in Pisa.  It's one thing to use the same set and spread it throughout the season, but to use the same set for 3 different places 3 consecutive weeks in a row looks REALLY cheap.  At least the Tower of London/Rome Museum set was spaced out 3 weeks.  I found it laughable as a kid when they first aired, but seeing them on DVD back-to-back only makes it worse.  

I agree with you on the Europe sets for instance you can tell the street of Rome was in another Europe episode.  They could have done that much better, but I did like them but 4/5 stars go to the first two the rest are funny in their own way :)

Do you know if any of Liz's early movies like "The Victim", "Lizzie Borden", "A Case of Rape" are on DVD? I watched two of them on you tube, but would love to have them on DVD.... You know it would be nice if they released a bunch of her 70s films on DVD!!  I really think the 70s episodes are my favourite by far from Bewitched.  Herbie J. Pilato stated that if Liz decided not to come back it would have run a few more seasons... I could see it running up to 1974, but I would say they would have had to cut back Endora because of her cancer... Some say she looks bad in the last season, but I don't think she does... I would say if season 9 were filmed then we would have seen that... so it may have been a blessing ending with 8.  And Agnes did do several more things before she passed away April 30, 1974. I think her last thing was the voice with Charlottes Web which came out in 1973....  She was a tough cookie from what I read...does anyone know what happened to her adopted son?

I forgot in the last post to tell you guys that they are offering the Dick Sargent Years on www.amazon.com (Seasons 6-8) for $75.97 which is roughly $25 each a good deal!!