The Dick Van Dyke Show - Are all episodes uncut?

IIRC, this episode was not shot in the traditional 3 camera stage play way that the other episodes were. I think that this episode, because of all the costume changes and everything, was shot without an audience and edited together. So, that may explain the reason why it looks different.

But I've never heard anything about any edits on the Dick Van Dyke DVDs.

Also, a couple episodes from the one you're at, episode 78 (Happy Birthday and Too Many More is the title, I think) was also shot without an audience because of the JFK Assassination. So, if that one also looks different, remember that it was shot in a different manner than all the rest of the regular episodes.

Some episodes have been cut of The dick van dyke show. "the secret life of buddy and sally"  When Rob and Laura discover Buddy and sally working at Herbie's Hayawatha's lodge they join in the act but their introduction as Lester and Esther Bushman the swinging suburbanites has been cut.. there is a rough jump at the place it used to be. The line was still intact as of the 1990's when tv land showed it and was cut sometime after that.. to make up for the shortage they put back the original soap commercial with dick van dyke..
In the episodes"the truth about women when laura opens robs mail and finds a life raft.. Lines are cut from the writers room where buddy and sally go into detail about how alan's tv wife says she will break the kids arm if he doesn't tell where the package is.... later when laura ,Jerry and Millie are watching the show there was the voice over of a small boy yelling and saying something like "no mommy" etc etc.. These lines too were intact in the 90's.. I suspect these lines once not taken seriously were cut in the over PC 1990's.. As to the other episode mentioned I suspect someone with the names lester and esther bushman complained about their names being used as "swinging suburbanites. I have tried contacting the dvd makers and Paramount and they flat out say it aint so...but I know different..
FYI this is not the only show to face cuts... One episodes for sure of the Brady bunch  Hawaii episodes a line is cut.. When the oldman apologizes to mr brady for telling the boys about the cave. the line cut was "I hope I didn't do nothin wrong mista brady.. I'm confused as to why this was cut. unless they thought it was overly anti-ethinic??
Sony is also guilty of this.. Their animated 1960's mr magoo has had the voice of Charlie his chinese butler changed to a bland non ethinic voice in any episode where he has more than one line.. the voice doesn't even makes sense because magoo's replys are sometimes based on charlie's original mispronoucing of words.
Paramount's Wild Wild West too has problems..they could not explain how
or why season one's run time listed on the box was 22hrs 27min for 28 episodes and season 2's runtime for 28 episodes is 24hrs 13min..it looks like we are missing about 2hrs of season one.. the only thing I can figure is since season 1 was in b/w they made more cuts there.. even as I watched it the shows just doesn't flow.
Only one dvd maker admitted  to not giving what we paid for.. Genius products stated that they were sorry that their 1959 felix the cat golden anniversary set was edited but they could only use what they were given by the series owner.
The bottom line for me is..ya might as well buy bootlegs if they are not going to give us what we paid for.. I paid $150.hard earned dollars for dick van dyke show

Well, on my discs neither "The Alan Brady Show Presents" nor "The Secret Life of Buddy and Sally" has the cuts mentioned above,   It's funny, I just watched both of those eps over the weekend.

In "Presents" it cuts to a shot of Rob and Laura ringing their bells, setting the scene for their dance number.  It's true that they didn't use the quick cut too often on the series, but they did do it from time to time.  Nothing unprofessional about it.  Just an alternative to a fade to black or cross-fade, both of which are also used in the same ep.

And in "Secret Life" the introduction of Lester and Esther Bushbaster (not Bushman) is indeed there on the dvd. 

I'll watch "The Curious Thing about Women" tonight when I get home and see if the lines are there or not on my discs.
Edited by JohnMor - 8/24/09 at 9:55pm

I've noticed no cuts on my Image discs of Van Dyke - they're still considered "gold standard" discs in my opinion.

This is one of the few sets out there that can be purchased without fear of disappointment of any kind.  The only thing that could have improved the final product would be English subtitles.  However given that Image went all out for first rate transfers and a plethora of extras I can overlook that.

I can tell you that the episodes are uncut and original and remastered. I started a similar topic and convinced myself to order all five season sets from Amazon for $20 each. I'm happy. Now, onto Season 3 of this wonderful series. 

Maybe without realizing it he ended up with a bootleg copy somehow. That would explain the descrepancy between his post and everyone elses.

Yeah, It's been over 5 years since these sets were released, and any cuts or edits would have been reported, discussed, dissected, re-discussed, and bitched about many times over by now.

I can't believe that it would have taken this long for someone to come up with problems with the DVDS sets. The internet is notorious for reporting problems for people to complain about before these box sets are released most of the time.

Well, I just watched "The Curious Thing About Women" and can report there are NO edits in the ep.  The entire scene in the office detailing the writing of the sketch is intact, as is Laura's description of the sketch wife twisting her son's arm.  (There was never any dialogue with the child on the TV show about his arm; only Laura describing it to a caller.)

I'm about halfway thru S3 and also have noticed no cuts.  I have the complete series set and as Steve said, it's one of the gems in TV/DVD sets out there.  I rate mine as in my top 3 sets in the collection.

I checked my "The Alan Brady Show Presents" last night and that certainly in a "hard" cut. I also think it is atypical of the program's standard editing style. That said, I don't think this is an edited version. If I had to guess, I wouldn't be surprised if something happened moments after the cut in the Buddy and Sally scene that would have rendered anything more as unusable. Since the cast almost always performed their musical numbers "live" to the camera, I wonder if they were so happy with that particular song take, they just decided they would use it and somehow make it work in editing. That hard curt is certainly jarring. I think a quick (20-30 frame) dissolve may have worked better since it would have subliminally suggested time passing. But I think cuts were preferred in siitcoms like this back then, because they implied a more brisk pace (with the exception of the fade-in and fade-out to designate a commercial break.) I could be way off base here, but I am just trying to come up with a rational explanation for that odd transition...

I can remember watching season 5 on Wednesday nights, along with The Beverly Hillbillies.  The sponsor was Kent cigarettes and the commercials were James Thurberish cartoons of active people smoking Kents against a jingle sung to the tune of the song "That's What Happiness Is."

"So a golfer, it's a hole in one.
To a smoker, it's Kent!

Happiness is...
The taste of Kent....
Happiness is....
The taste of Kent...
Happiness is...
The taste of Kent...
Great taste!  Fine tobacco!
That's what happiness is!"

The things you remember when you're at an impressionable age.

As far as the "hard cut" goes, they also used it in Season One's "The Sleeping Brother" to cut from the office to the Petrie living room DURING a song by Sally.  They also used it in Season Two's "A Bird in the Head Hurts" to cut from the office to the house.  It was rare, but they did once in a while.  Especially in a case like "Presents" where they had to use ALL types of transitions as it was basically a series of unrelated sketches.  I mean, how many cross-fades do you want to use back-to-back in 25 minutes?

RE: the sponsors, yes back then the sponsor had commercials every week.  Not every one used the cast though but many did.  I also wish more of them had been put on the dvd's, but I love the ones that were.  They also did promos for charities and such featuring the cast.  You can see some of them at the Museum of TV and Radio if you're in the New York or L.A. areas.

Did you find the easter eggs on the season 2 discs?

Pop those suckers back in, go episode by episode, and when you get to the scene selection screen press the left or right buttons (instead of up or down) on every scene within an episode. When Dick Van Dyke's head lights up, you have a commercial for Kent Cigarettes or Joy or Blue Cheer. I can't remember if the season 1 discs have the same feature or not. from season 3 onward, when you find the easter egg, it's usually a Nick At Nite commercial featuring Dick Van Dyke as the Chairman of TV.

Does anyone else find Jackko's post odd with it's missleading information. Brand new member with their first post and after all the complaints of cut episodes ends up recommending the buying of bootleg copies instead of legitimate products.

Maybe Jackko was just confused or maybe this is the new approach by bootleg sellers. Usually, their attempts are very obvious and the Mods get involved quickly. However, this might just be a new more subtle approach in trying to get their message across. However, there is no mention of DVD-R's, questionable quality, or the illegal aspects of selling them. Anyway, after reading the post a second time it got me thinking.

Yes, I  also thought it was a strange post.  I probably shouldn't have even responded to it.

I also thought of another rarely used "hard cut" which is probably the most dramatic example: Season Three's "Who and Where is Antonio Stradivarius," when it jumps from Laura worrying about Rob possibly being in an accident to him dancing it up at the wild party in Red Hook, NJ.

And yes, Shane, the Season One discs also have that easter egg feature with commercials.  Love, Love, LOVE these discs.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Image Entertainment's Dick Van Dyke and Twilight Zone box sets establish the bar to which all other TV on DVD releases must compare.

+1 .  Ain't it the truth.  The TZ Definitive Version sets are awesome.  Fantastic transfer Q and the book that came with the S1 set.

Image gets Kudos+ for those DVD releases.  I only wish that they had used the original prints for the Combat! series sets.  Not sure but I think that's all they were given access for that show's release and had to go with those "Worldvision" tape versions.

I also think that Jakko is referring to the bootleg copies. There are so many websites out there who sell TV Shows as a Complete Series and any competent person would realize that these are bootleg copies since most of these shows are basically TV Rips. If the website you bought your DVD's from are not a nationally recognized retailer then it's your own fault that you got edited versions of the TV Show. 

For me, I only buy from Amazon, Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, Overstock. All recognized website retailers.

I'm not saying whether or not Jakko got a bootleg version but if he's complaining he got bootleg copies of some episodes then he doesn't own the legal version of the DVD's of this show.

I would suggest that Jakko check out the official releases for the show:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dick+van+dyke+show&x=0&y=0

Wasn't there an episode on one of these sets that had a line cut off in mid-sentence because of a problem with the master? Image said that if technology permitted in the future, it may be possible to restore that section of damaged film? 

Other clues are ridiculously low prices and "Region 0" discs.  Pictures of packaging can also be helpful, especially if they clearly show variant artwork, weird language errors or other problems.  (There is a "Complete Series" Babylon 5 set that clearly says, "The Complete Second Season" on the cover of the big box - evidently a careless copy-and-paste job from a single season set.)

Regards,

Joe

 

 

I think the reunion episode was released too late to be included in the box sets... and that's assuming Image had an opportunity or the interest to get the rights to release the reunion special.

Going by Wiki and IMDB, the reunion special was first aired in mid-May 2004. The fifth season box set was released in late June 2004.

Now, why there hasn't been a single disc release of it at some point since 2004 is anybody's guess, but the special was probably filmed and aired too late for inclusion on the box sets.

As for Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman...

It was just a normal song and dance Variety special. It was done at a time that MTM's career wasn't so hot, but the special supposedly revitalized interest in her, and the renewed interest in MTM from this special supposedly led to the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

I've been hoping the reunion special would get a release as well.  Could still happen, but every year that goes by it seems the chances get slimmer.  And if memory serves, it first aired on CBS, just like the original series.

When Van Dyke guested on "The Mary Tyler Moore Hour" (03/25/79) they did a skit with an older Rob & Laura dealing with the death of Alan Brady.