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"Leave It To Beaver: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review

post #1 of 81
6/29/10 at 8:25pm
Thread Starter 

 

Shout! Factory's Leave It To Beaver: The Complete Series is right up there with all five seasons of The Dick Van Dyke Show. The quality is superb, magnificent, terrific, eyepopping, outstanding, exemplary, stupendous, and just plain swell (and neat). :)

 

Let's have a closer look:

 

http://Leave-It-To-Beaver-On-DVD.blogspot.com


Edited by David Von Pein - 6/29/10 at 8:35pm
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Leave It To Beaver: The Complete Series
post #2 of 81
6/29/10 at 9:27pm

I'm wondering if the first two seasons have a grainy look on the indoor scenes, while the last four seasons don't, because the first two seasons were filmed at Republic Studios and the last four at Universal.  Maybe they used better film at Universal, or something?

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post #3 of 81
6/30/10 at 6:05am

Yeah I'll Pick up the Beav when I can get it for around the same price I just paid for Dick Van Dyke $72 bucks.

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post #4 of 81
6/30/10 at 6:30am

Nice job, David. 

 

Thorough as always...although you could have mentioned Burt Mustin's integral Gus the Fireman character somewhere! 

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post #5 of 81
6/30/10 at 7:29am

     Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon View Post

Nice job, David. 

 

Thorough as always...although you could have mentioned Burt Mustin's integral Gus the Fireman character somewhere! 


 

True, but at least he gave Cheryl Holdridge a little extra space.  That made it an A+++ review in my books. 

 

Loved the email exchanges between David and Stu Shostak.  Really great info in those!  And I had to laugh at your comment to Stu, David, when you said some people were about ready to start chain-smoking or climbing the walls.  That's about how I felt yesterday.  LOL

 

 

Gary "it really was a great job, David - my hat's off to you" O.


Edited by Gary OS - 6/30/10 at 7:51am
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post #6 of 81
6/30/10 at 4:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary OS View Post

     Quote:


 

True, but at least he gave Cheryl Holdridge a little extra space.  That made it an A+++ review in my books. 

 

Loved the email exchanges between David and Stu Shostak.  Really great info in those!  And I had to laugh at your comment to Stu, David, when you said some people were about ready to start chain-smoking or climbing the walls.  That's about how I felt yesterday.  LOL

 

 

Gary "it really was a great job, David - my hat's off to you" O.


Copy that....outstanding review, as always, VP!   
 

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post #7 of 81
6/30/10 at 5:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Scarpa View Post

Yeah I'll Pick up the Beav when I can get it for around the same price I just paid for Dick Van Dyke $72 bucks.



I haven't ordered, but I thought lots of people around here had preordered it for $84 as I recall? That's a pretty similar pricepoint.

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post #8 of 81
6/30/10 at 6:01pm
Thread Starter 

 

I'm glad nobody seems overly upset (as yet) about the missing teaser preview on "The Black Eye", and the rearranging of the first-season credits & teasers (except for "Music Lesson", which is the only episode I noticed (so far) that has the teaser/preview coming as it's supposed to--at the very beginning, before the main title).

 

I'll quote from my mile-long review (in case some of the Beaver fans missed these details):

 

---------------

 

      "There is at least one small section of one episode that is missing. And I'd be willing to bet that it's missing by pure accident. It's the preview scene (or "teaser") that was originally aired at the very beginning of the episode "The Black Eye". That short preview, narrated by Hugh Beaumont, is nowhere to be found in this Shout! set. It is there, however, in the Universal 2005 DVD set.

       The reason I said it's missing by "accident" is because of the way the order of most of the show openings for Season One have been rearranged. The short preview scenes that were part of the first-year episodes were (I think) originally aired PRIOR to the opening titles. That's the way they are presented in the 2005 Universal DVD set anyway.

       But in this Shout! set, the preview clips are shown AFTER the opening credits. I'm guessing that this change was made for "chaptering" purposes on the DVDs (and it's a good idea too, IMO). With the teasers/previews being presented after the opening titles, it means that no part of the episode (including the opening teaser) will be missed when the viewer does what I always do with TV DVDs--press the chapter advance button immediately after the episode is loaded up, in order to bypass the repetitive main titles.

       There is at least one exception to this reversal of the credits and teasers on these Shout! discs, and that's in the episode "Music Lesson", which has the teaser coming before the credits. I guess somebody forgot to reverse the order for that one.

       So, my guess would be that when someone was fiddling around with the chronology of these show-opening segments, somehow the preview/teaser clip for the "Black Eye" episode was never re-inserted and was inadvertently cut out completely.

       Here's another oddity that I noticed about the first-season previews -- In the Shout! set, the preview segment for the episode "Brotherly Love" is completely different from the one that can be found on the 2005 DVD. The narration by Hugh Beaumont is identical in both DVD versions, but the video is totally different. Weird, huh? I had no idea that more than one teaser segment existed for any of the episodes in Season 1. (It kind of makes the 2005 Universal DVD set for the first season of LITB seem a tad more valuable now, since there's something unique about a portion of it.)"

 

---------------

 

Stuart Shostak, who played a part in this DVD's release and extras, addresses the above-mentioned things HERE.


Edited by David Von Pein - 6/30/10 at 6:24pm
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post #9 of 81
6/30/10 at 7:35pm

Great, great job, Mr. VP (as always).   Your writing is always very entertaining and informative.

 

I loved reading this as well as your exchanges with Stu.

 

Buried within those e-mails was something very alarming though...the speculation that the original negatives to LITB were lost in the Universal Studios fire.  Would Universal really have been so dumb as to store them there?  Don't these things normally go into underground mines or fireproof vaults?  If these were indeed lost to the fire, what else disappeared that Uni is not fessing up to?

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post #10 of 81
7/1/10 at 3:17am

Not too much to add except thank you for a wonderful review, David! Although my set is due to arrive tomorrow, I will not be able to start watching it for another couple of weeks. I know I will be referencing your detailed episode guide throughout my entire viewing experience. Double thanks for posting your informative exchanges with Stu and Brian. It is a genuine pleasure to support a release like this knowing that the folks responsible for its creation are so strongly dedicated to overall quality and excellence. Well done, indeed!

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post #11 of 81
7/1/10 at 9:15am


Quote:

Originally Posted by David Von Pein View Post

 

I'm glad nobody seems overly upset (as yet) about the missing teaser preview on "The Black Eye", and the rearranging of the first-season credits & teasers (except for "Music Lesson", which is the only episode I noticed (so far) that has the teaser/preview coming as it's supposed to--at the very beginning, before the main title).



It's hard to be upset about a package that's such a dream come true.  And I have the original Season One Box from Universal anyway, so for me, there's nothing to be upset about at all.  I do much prefer having the teaser come before the credits, though, as that's clearly how they were designed and that's how I saw them back in the sixties on daytime reruns.

 

My box was waiting for me when I got home late last night and while I couldn't help spending a few moments going through it,  I hope to devote tonight to exploring all the extras and sampling a few episodes before I start savoring the episodes themselves a little each week for many, many months (and years!) to come.

 

By the way, David, I should add that your thorough review and the various links within are as enjoyable as the box itself.  Wonderful job!


Edited by Rob_Ray - 7/1/10 at 9:26am
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post #12 of 81
7/1/10 at 10:16am
Thread Starter 

Thank you, Rob. (And everyone else who's visited this thread too.)

 

I might add: My review/blog will have many additions in the future (in the Ep. Guide area), because I'm going to be adding more show descriptions and quotes as I revisit each episode in this wonderful DVD collection. And, like Rob Ray, I'll be doing it over a period of many weeks and months.

 

I'll be trying to include the funniest line (or lines) of dialogue in each Beaver show (if I don't already have a quote included for that show in my review, that is). That should be a fun ongoing project, don't you think?

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post #13 of 81
7/1/10 at 10:23am
Thread Starter 

BTW, Tom Shales of the Washington Post wrote a nice piece about the LITB Complete Series set on June 29th. Here's a link:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062804478.html

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post #14 of 81
7/1/10 at 10:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Von Pein View Post

I'll be trying to include the funniest line (or lines) of dialogue in each Beaver show (if I don't already have a quote included for that show in my review, that is). That should be a fun ongoing project, don't you think?


Indeed!  So far your favorites lines have been mine for the season one episodes I've been revisiting the past few days in anticipation of receiving this new box.  I especially love the "Who is Cornelia Rayburn and when did she ever see you off your feet?" scene in "Beaver Gets 'Spelled."

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post #15 of 81
7/1/10 at 4:21pm


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve...O View Post

Great, great job, Mr. VP (as always).   Your writing is always very entertaining and informative.

 

I loved reading this as well as your exchanges with Stu.

 

Buried within those e-mails was something very alarming though...the speculation that the original negatives to LITB were lost in the Universal Studios fire.  Would Universal really have been so dumb as to store them there?  Don't these things normally go into underground mines or fireproof vaults?  If these were indeed lost to the fire, what else disappeared that Uni is not fessing up to?


I thought I heard something about this a week ago on Shokus Radio where, I believe Brad Ward commented during the restoration of the show, it looked like there was some damage to the elements as the result of the fire. If this was the more recent fire or the one some years back, I don't know, but I found it interesting.

 

Great review, BTW, David. Passion for a classic show really comes through. Gotta ask though, just for fun: which would you pick as a desert island show: Beaver or Father Knows Best?

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post #16 of 81
7/1/10 at 8:22pm

If I may chime in.

 

I love "Leave It to Beaver" dearly, but I believe "Father Knows Best" was the better show in every way.

 

One of the great things about LITB is that it dealt with the small, everyday "problems" that could happen to anyone -- and I believe it might be unique among all sitcoms in never having a storyline that could make you think, "Oh, that could never happen."

 

But "Father Knows Best" often dealt with bigger issues, or seemed to be "bigger", in the way the show was acted, written and directed.  So I think "Beaver" seems a little trivial compared to it.

 

In her Archive of American Television interview, Elinor Donahue said that Robert Young's production partner, Eugene Rodney, kept very tight control over the quality of the series, literally going over every word of the script.  "Father Knows Best" was one show that never "jumped the shark" -- if anything, it seemed to get better each season.

 

Also, "Father" was more successful in every way (at least, originally).  "Beaver" never cracked the Top 30, and "Father" was #6 in the ratings when Robert Young decided not to do the show any more.  "Father" was nominated for and won several Emmys, and "Beaver" had no nominations after its first year.  Also, "Father" was on the cover of TV Guide many times, and "Beaver" only once.

 

Of course, in the long run, it's possible that "Beaver" is the more successful and better-remembered, due to being a bigger success in syndication.

 

I'd truly hate to make the decision, but if I had to take only one show to a desert island, I'd take "Father" over "Beaver."

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post #17 of 81
7/1/10 at 9:43pm

So Gary, the desert island scenario, which would it be FKB or LITB?

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post #18 of 81
7/1/10 at 10:50pm
Thread Starter 

>>> "Which would you pick as a desert island show: Beaver or Father Knows Best?" <<<

 

Oh my, that's a tough call. I love both of those shows (and they're both on Shout! DVDs too).

 

If I had to choose one though -- I think I'd have to go with Beaver.

 

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post #19 of 81
7/2/10 at 2:43am
Thread Starter 

UPDATE FROM STU SHOSTAK (RE: THE FIRST-SEASON "TEASER" INTROS):

 

Subject: Teasers - Once and For All
Date: 7/2/2010 5:15:45 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Stu Shostak
To: David Von Pein

-----------------------------

Hi Dave...

I notice there is still a "teaser controversy" on the Shout! board. Let's not bombard Brian with this - he has a full plate as it is.

For the record, I have about 10 network episodes on 16mm from the first season, and the teasers do indeed come BEFORE the opening titles.

After "...and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver", the video fades out as it does on the syndicated versions, but the music continues into an additional "cartoon" of an animated Beaver character skipping across a fence as an announcer says, "Brought to you by...Remington Rand" and the fence sports the RR logo and pans to a drawing of a typewriter as the announcer finishes the blurb and fades out.

A piece of this opening appears in the 75-minute documentary on the bonus disc. Act one then begins and the first commercial (usually about 2 full minutes) appears at the act break. Then there's a commercial at the end of Act Two (a minute).

After the "tag" and before the end credits, there's a "Leave it to Beaver was brought to you by Remington Rand" bumper; then the end credits, usually rolled over a shot of an RR typewriter, followed by the CBS eye...and there you have it!

Stu


===============================================


Subject: Re: Teasers - Once and For All
Date: 7/2/2010 5:22:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: David Von Pein
To: Stu Shostak

-----------------------------

Hello Stuart,

Thanks for the "teaser" update. I was nearly certain the teasers/previews were originally aired before the main titles. And now you have provided the proof that they did air that way in 1957 and 1958 on CBS-TV. Much obliged for the confirmation.

Regards,
David V.P.


Edited by David Von Pein - 7/2/10 at 6:16am
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post #20 of 81
7/2/10 at 7:20am

     Quote:

Originally Posted by smithb View Post

So Gary, the desert island scenario, which would it be FKB or LITB?


 

Ugh...  I just spent about 45 minutes typing up this long, long response to your question.  I mentioned all the virtues from both shows, going into fine detail and...   it didn't go through and got ate by the internet monster!  Arghhh....

 

If I feel up to it, I'll try again late.  I'm really bummed right now.  But it is a great question.

 

Gary "honestly, at the end of my original post I said I'd have to flip a coin because they are both great" O.

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post #21 of 81
7/2/10 at 9:10am

I'd go with Leave It To Beaver since you'd need all the laughs you can get if you're stranded on an island.

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post #22 of 81
7/2/10 at 9:43am

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by TravisR View Post

I'd go with Leave It To Beaver since you'd need all the laughs you can get if you're stranded on an island.


Good point. While these are both very very high on my list, I would have to go with a write-in candidate, the first 5 seasons of the Andy Griffith show. Of course this could be related to two nights ago catching the biography of Don Knott's on TV bringing back a lot of fond memories.

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post #23 of 81
7/2/10 at 10:05am


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary OS View Post

     Quote:


 

Ugh...  I just spent about 45 minutes typing up this long, long response to your question.  I mentioned all the virtues from both shows, going into fine detail and...   it didn't go through and got ate by the internet monster!  Arghhh....

 

If I feel up to it, I'll try again late.  I'm really bummed right now.  But it is a great question.

 

Gary "honestly, at the end of my original post I said I'd have to flip a coin because they are both great" O.


Ugh is right .... I HATE when that happens.

 

When I'm typing a long response, I copy it and save it on Notepad or something, just in case it gets lost in cyberspace.

 

Gary, I once asked you this same question, and you did say it would be a very tough call.  I agree, but if forced to choose, I'd go with "Father," as I said above.

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post #24 of 81
7/2/10 at 12:32pm

I have to say, this TV side of the forum is so much more like the shows it discusses. Whether it be LITB or FKB there is a calming influence here unlike the BD Movie forum where everyone is in an uproar about current releases and what is good an bad about them. Sure, there's an occasional disagreement here but it never seems to get out-of-hand like over there.

 

So whenever I go over there and get all riled up I always come back here to calm down before logging off. I just need to use a bit of constraint and stay away from that side of the forum.

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post #25 of 81
7/2/10 at 12:41pm

^ SAY THE PREDATOR BLU-RAY IS TERRIBLE OR BE BANISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

In all fairness to the BD forum, the Predator disc is the only current example of people getting really mad over a release. I think the people who are complaining about the disc are correct but I don't see the need to try to force that opinion on others who don't share it.

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post #26 of 81
7/2/10 at 1:11pm

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by TravisR View Post

^ SAY THE PREDATOR BLU-RAY IS TERRIBLE OR BE BANISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

In all fairness to the BD forum, the Predator disc is the only current example of people getting really mad over a release. I think the people who are complaining about the disc are correct but I don't see the need to try to force that opinion on others who don't share it.


And Spartacus just last month. Then I guess Patton and Longest Day and whatever else before that. As you say the complaints are valid it is just the manner in which the bombs are being tossed back and forth. It's like people can't just agree to disagree and move on anymore over there.

 

egads...the last think I want to do is bring that mess over here. Forget I even mentioned it.

 

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post #27 of 81
7/2/10 at 6:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by smithb View Post

 

egads...the last think I want to do is bring that mess over here. Forget I even mentioned it.

 


Too late! 

 

Among Beaver's friends:  Larry, Whitey, Gilbert, and Richard...I always thought that Gilbert kid was a real PITA.  Pretty controversial, eh?!? 

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post #28 of 81
7/2/10 at 8:31pm

In real life, Gilbert (Stephen Talbot) is a real PITA.  He always bad-mouthed "Beaver," along the lines of there being no black people living in Mayfield.

 

His Wiki article (proving almost anyone can have a Wiki article) seems to indicate he might be more mellow about "Beaver" these days.

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post #29 of 81
7/5/10 at 9:48am
Thread Starter 

 

LITB REVIEW EXCERPT......

 

193. "Long Distance Call" (June 16, 1962) -- Don Drysdale of the Los Angeles Dodgers makes a guest appearance. Beaver and two of his friends decide to call Drysdale in Los Angeles. But the call ends up costing a bit more than the boys were anticipating -- $9.35 (plus tax) to be exact. .... GILBERT: "Maybe we shouldn't have waited for him to get out of the shower."

 

For baseball fans out there, I can offer up this unique bit of Los Angeles Dodgers trivia (as it relates--sort of--to this Leave It To Beaver installment): On the same day this LITB episode aired (Saturday, June 16, 1962), the Dodgers lost a game to the Houston Colt .45s at Dodger Stadium, 4-1, in front of a huge crowd of 51,530.

 

Drysdale didn't pitch the June 16th game (Johnny Podres did), but Drysdale did start the previous game, on June 15, and lost to the Colt .45s, 2-0, even though Drysdale pitched a great game, allowing only 2 runs and 6 hits in 8 innings, with no walks and 6 strikeouts. It was just Drysdale's 4th loss of the 1962 season, compared with 10 wins.

 

The Dodgers' record after their 4-1 loss to Houston on June 16, which was L.A.'s third straight defeat, was still an excellent 44-23 (.657) for the '62 season.

 

Another piece of Drysdale trivia can be found in the booklet for Season 5 that's included in this DVD package. The description that Shout! Factory's Brian Ward wrote for this episode says the following (which is kind of a strange description, since this is the only thing mentioned in this episode's descriptive blurb): "Unfortunately, despite the 420-foot game-winning homer mentioned in the Cleavers' newspaper, Don Drysdale actually didn't hit a single home run for the Dodgers in 1962."

 

That description is 100% correct too, as this stats page confirms.

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post #30 of 81
7/6/10 at 10:49pm
Thread Starter 

 

Episode #212 -- "The Parking Attendants" (January 17, 1963) -- I noticed a small mistake in this episode regarding the cars owned by Ward Cleaver and Fred Rutherford -- the two cars are exactly the same, right down to the identical license plate number (WJG 865). Obviously, the producers were thinking, Who's going to notice the fact we've given Fred and Ward the exact same car and license plate?

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Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › TV on DVD and Blu-ray › "Leave It To Beaver: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review