Leave it to beaver season 3? - Page 28

You and me both!  It's especially tough during sales.  deepdiscount had that 70s show AND Futurama for $89.99 each and the complete series Melinium DVD and Firefly BD at great prices.  It was all I could do to keep my credit card hidden from myself.  too many unopened shows and movies in my house.  :(

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I can certainly identify with unopened dvd sets.  I had a very busy 4th quarter last year and I've had an ultra busy first quarter this year, work wise, and it's put me way behind on my dvd viewing (among other things).  I think I see light at the end of the tunnel after March, but that might be a train staring me down instead.

I locked in the initial pre-order price from Amazon on the first day so no problems for me.  And I imagine the price will drop back down to that 30% off level at least once before the series is released in June.  But even at the current $180 (rounding up) that's a very good deal.  You have to remember that this show averaged 39 episodes per season.  Not 22.  Not 28.  Not 32.  Not even 36.  It averaged 39 episodes per over the course of six seasons.  That's huge.  Talk about bang for your buck!  So when you divide $180 by six seasons you get $30 per season.  Plus the bonus disc on top of that.  Seems like a fantastic price to me when you figure it that way.

Gary "maybe Larry Mondello will have some money in his yard that fell from an airplane" O.

I just received word that the release date of the complete series set has been moved to 6/29/2010.    The third season release date is still set for 6/15/2010.

Some of you may be interested in my Leave it to Beaver-related site, which focuses not so much on the series itself, but on the studio backlot where the series was filmed beginning with the 3rd season...when the Cleavers moved to "211 Pine St." at Universal Studios:

http://www.retroweb.com/universal_leave_it_to_beaver.html

Kipp:  That's flat-out amazing. 

Thanks Mike.  There is more to come, including of the Universal lot seen in the series, as well as interior set photos (of the living room, dining room and kitchen at least...photos of Ward's den and the boys' room remain elusive)

Ah...Ward's den.  I loved that room. 

You can always do screen grabs, though...right?!?  It looks like you've used a number of them in what you've put together so far. 

I loved it so much, I modeled my den on it.  I knew I couldn't be like Ward Cleaver in any other way, so I figured I could at least have his den (which is actually in my basement, not off the front door.)

I think the second Cleaver house is my favorite TV house, and the one I'd most like to live in (not that I'd turn down the Clampett house -- again, their second house, of course. )

I always get a kick out of seeing the Cleaver house turn up in later Universal TV shows of the 1960s -- I point and say, "Hey, look, it's the Cleaver house!" -- but it's always sad to see people other than the Cleavers living in it.

Kipp,

That "Universal backlot" site of yours is simply fabulous. Tons and tons of great pictures in there. Just fantastic. Thank you.

http://www.retroweb.com/universal_leave_it_to_beaver.html



Edited by David Von Pein - 3/4/10 at 1:26am

I like the look of this packaging very much. Very cool:

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc151/David_Von_Pein/POTPOURRI%20ALBUM/LeaveItToBeaverCompleteSeriesDVD.jpg?t=1267693784

I noted that the individual seasons are being put into regular-sized Amaray type cases (per the 3D photo of the Season-Three case that can be seen at TVSoDVD.com), which will either mean that some of the 6 discs in each set will "overlap" (which a lot of people hate, although I don't have much of a problem with it myself)....or it means that Shout! will be using the same "leaf" pages in the center of the case that CBS has been recently using for its "Fugitive" sets -- with 2 swinging leaf thingies in the center of the case (holding 4 discs total), with discs 1 and 6 being housed in the front and back covers of the case. This type design would mean no overlapping discs, which I think would be the nicest design.

I, myself, have never seen a SIX-disc set crammed inside a single "standard"-size Amaray case before. Do you guys have any 6-disc sets packaged like that?

It would seem that as time marches on, the DVD cases are getting thinner and thinner for multi-disc sets. Makes sense though. It's bound to be cheaper that way, plus it's certainly a space-saver.


Edited by David Von Pein - 3/4/10 at 1:51am

To Kipp,

You might want to correct the one mistake I noticed at the top of your "backlot" website, where you say the LITB series wrapped up with the 1963-64 season. That should say 1962-63.

David, Thanks for the heads-up on this!  It's fixed.

I have a few that actually have 6 discs (e.g., Mannix). I have no real issues with them and as you stated they really save space. I generally find that they use the clear plastic which tends to be more forgiving when trying to extract a disk. The biggest thing is the hinge mechanism and how sturdy it is and how freely it allows the inserts to move independently. The hinges in some of the older cases I have that tried using insert pages didn't always work well (too loose, tight, or rigid and broke). The more recent designs (like Mannix) I think work really well.

The only negatives I have come across:

- Episodes lists typically come in two designs with the list printed on the back of the covers to be shown through the clear case, which is now onstructed by a disk; or as a separate insert page that covers disk 1 (sometimes making it so you don't even know there is a disk one without removing it to check).

- The hubs have to be slim to fit (similar to some two disk slim cases) and can be a bit tight or loose depending on the design

- For some it may not be as easy to get there fingers into position to extract the disks due to the thin insert pages, edging around the disks to protect them, and the offsetting of the disks (top/bottom) arrangement of the disks.

None of these small issues have been a big enough concern to me to want to give up the space saving nature of the design.

Brad:

Excellent post.  Well thought out. 

I've been an advocate of slimmer packaging for a looooong time.  But it does need to hold the discs safely.  I also am an advocate of insert materials detailing episode information, etc. and believe it should be included at all costs.  If it can't be printed on the inside of the cover art because of discs and hubs blocking the material, just include it loose inside the case. 

First off, thanks to Kipp for that excellent site!  Great pictures that bring back a lot of memories.

Secondly, I'm with Brad and Mike on the casing.  I prefer inserts to putting the episode titles/descriptions on the back of the cover where both dvds and hubs can get in the way of reading them.  Just put a nice little booklet in each season set case.  Doesn't have to be anything huge, just a simple one sheet booklet folded in half that gives a simple synopsis of each episode.

Gary "summer can't get here quick enough for me" O.

I think every TV-DVD set should be like Andy Griffith Seasons 3-8 -- i.e., print the episode titles on the BACK COVER of the case.

That way, you don't even have to open the case to see what episodes are contained therein--you can just look at the back cover.

Plus, IMO that type of "on the back cover" ep. lists could very well be a good selling point in the stores too. People can see, before buying, exactly what episodes are inside the set.

I wonder if any deleted scenes of this show even exist?  

 

Now that I think of it, other than some original pilots (Gilligan's Island and LITB come to mind) I don't recall any other "lost" footage on TV Show DVD sets from the 60's or earlier.  

Are there true deleted scenes, rehearsal or unseen footage on any other 50's or 60's sets?

I could not agree more with you on this...    There is nothing worse than having this information printed inside the case in a manner that forces you to remove the first or last disc in a set to see it.   Okay, there's one thing worse, and that's when they don't include an episode list at all!

...

...

Like MTM Season 5. Not an episode title to be seen anywhere on that package. :(

That's a lot of visits from slimy Eddie Haskel! 

I always forget that.  When I really took a look at Gomer Pyle S1 I was so happy to discover this fact.  I paid about $20 for all those episodes and the first couple of DVDs are worth that alone. 

That web site is like a super neato extra in the series DVD set.  Thanks Kipp!

Leave It To Beaver didn't AVERAGE 39 episodes per season, there WERE 39 episodes in each of the six seasons for a total of 234. Interesting thing about it is out of all those episodes there was not one single Christmas themed episode during the series run. Strange for a family show from this era.

I noticed on the season 2 DVD from Universal, there are a couple episodes that run under 25 minutes. Hard to tell if anything was cut out, it's possible the episodes are complete and just ended up a little shorter than normal. In any case, will be interesting to see what the episode run times are on the discs from Shout Factory. 

I don't like those Amaray style cases. I prefer slim cases which house two discs, one on each side. But companies are usually going to go with the cheapest cost packaging available, and those ugly Amaray cases seem to be the choice lately much of the time. Two thumbs down from me for that.

Gary is still correct.  Even if each season did have EXACTLY 39 episodes, the average for the six seasons is STILL 39 episodes per season.  Maybe not the best way of stating it, but still factually correct.

What Gary should have said was "You have to remember that this show HAD 39 episodes per season." Using the word "averaged" in this case is really not correct since the six seasons have exactly the same number of episodes. An average is not in the equation.

Sorry, but I believe Gary's statement is correct from a mathematical sense. Saying that there are exactly 39 episodes per season is a more precise statement but both are equally correct in their usage.

I guess it's mathematically correct, but it's misleading and it doesn't emphasize the fact that LITB consistently having 39 episodes a year (which series in its day were supposed to have, but rarely achieved for various reasons) was an accomplishment worth mentioning explicitly.

I don't think if you wanted to make the comment that everyone in your family amazingly had five children each you'd say, "They have an average of five children."  That wouldn't make the point you were trying to make at all, and clearly implies one family had six, another four, etc.

You all are reading way to much into this.

You are assuming that when Gary made that statement that he knew there were exactly 39 episodes per season. How do you know that for a fact? Maybe he just knew there were 234 episodes total and deduced that it would average to 39 episodes per season based on the number of seasons made. Or maybe he knew approximately how many episodes were made and came to the same basic conclusion as a non-fractional average. Just because someone clarified it later to say it was exactly 39 does not mean Gary had that knowledge (or felt comfortable being that precise) at the time of making his statement.

We all use various forms of percision in our statements every day with the goal of being accurate based on what we know so that we don't mislead. I'm sure everyone here has made statement similar to:

- having around XX number of TV seasons in your collection, or
- that you average spending XX number of $'s on a DVD, or
- that such and such cost between XX and YY $'s
- that I have exactly ZZZ movies in my collection

Everyone of these statements can be equally factual, but they are caveated with additional language to express how precise the answer is based on the comfort level of the one giving it.

My read on why Gary may have used the term Average in his statement is because that is how comfortable he felt in the answer, which was perfectly acceptable. I think far too many people are guilty of implying more precision then they actually know at times then the other way around, which is what I would call misleading.

And as to your statement about the family and children, I would say five if I meant exactly five. Otherwise, if I said an average of 5 then yes I would knowingly be implying that some had more and some had less. Now if I was talking about extended family with all my cousins (of which I do not speak to regularly) then I may use an average to imply uncertainty so as to not mislead.

Let's ask Miss Canfield and be done with it...

OK, smithb, then we're in total agreement.

I grew up in the 1950s, so I was taking it for granted that TV fans knew series had 39 new episodes a year in those days (or were supposed to).  I know Gary was born in 1965, so the number 39 isn't as significant to him as it is to me.  He probably just divided 234 by 6 to get 39.

Once it was on ABC (the final five seasons), I don't think LITB was ever pre-empted or had a rerun outside of the 13 summer weeks.  That's why it had the full 39 episodes a year.  I haven't yet found another filmed series that equals this record, but there probably are a few.