"Leave It To Beaver: The Complete Series" -- A Personal Review - Page 3

I have the Universal Set, Check out "Her Idol" where Beaver has a crush on Linda Dennison.  If you pause the DVD where Ward is holding the letter that Mrs. Rayburn sent home, you will see it is filled with gibberish in most of the paragraphs!

But some cool stuff is there!  Like a baseball score in real life that must have occur ed on the day the letter was typed!  The last paragraph says, (As a footnote to Hugh) "Only the last lines of this letter is to be spoken by the actor!"

Jack

So, if you have the Universal Season 1 set and this set, you should have everything uncut

Why season 2? I thought the only issues were in some season 1 episodes with the teasers being placed incorrectly, one alternate teaser compared to the Universal set, and one missing teaser (Seems like I saw someone mention that).

Is there a reason to hang on to Universal's season 2 release?

Sorry about that. I meant Season 1.

Thanks David!

I printed this out and I will just mark them off as I watch them. Very handy indeed.

David:

Very cool.  Since the gift set (purchased many months ago) is due to be under the Christmas tree Saturday morning, this will be e perfect guide as I make my way through the series.

Awesome!

Mike, Im curious will you be watching them in order, or picking your favorite episodes to start ?

Easy for me.  My favorites are the earliest episodes.  I'm one of the few, apparently, who likes the earlier episodes more than the older ones. 

However, since I've already watched most of seasons 1 & 2 on the earlier releases, I might pick it up at Season 3.

But, actually, now that I think about it...when I unwrap the set, the very first episode I will probably watch is Season 4's "In the Soup."  Then I'll go back to watching them in order from the beginning.

Mike,I dont think anyone can resist the temptation of  the "In The Soup episode. That was the first show I watched, when I received my season 4 a few months ago. Now that Ive begun on season 5 , while I still enjoy these shows, my 2 favorite seasons are tied between 3 and 4.

Also Mike, Im curious to hear what you think on the picture quality. You will be pleasantly suprised how good it is.

Nice.  I know I was quite pleased with those first two seasons from Universal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon 

Nice.  I know I was quite pleased with those first two seasons from Universal.

The Shout sets are even better Mike, your jaw will drop.  Think the leap Wizard Of Oz took from DVD to Blu- Ray, its almost that good !

The complete series set is currently the Amazon Deal of the Day.  Link is here    for $83.99

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Willis 

The complete series set is currently the Amazon Deal of the Day.  Link is here    for $83.99

I was thinking about getting this set yesterday. One of the things that convinced me not to get it was viewing 6 or 7 episodes of season one of the show. I found parts of what I had seen boring and the show itself is not really my type of a comedy.  

     Quote:

Originally Posted by Theodore J. Mooney 

I was thinking about getting this set yesterday. One of the things that convinced me not to get it was viewing 6 or 7 episodes of season one of the show. I found parts of what I had seen boring and the show itself is not really my type of a comedy.

Wow.  Well, I guess there's no accounting for taste.  But still...  You found it boring?  I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to it as that.  I'd agree that it might not be your type of "comedy" because Leave it to Beaver is absolutely not a sitcom in the tradition of Here's Lucy or The Lucy Show (two series I know you enjoy a lot, Mike).  LITB's calling card certainly isn't slapstick or silliness like Lucy's stuff was.  It was more akin to something like Father Knows Best where there were not only scenes that brought laughter but also touching family moments and life lessons that still apply here in the 21st century.  Lucille Ball's series rarely rose to that level, choosing rather to play pretty much every scene for nothing but laughs.  Personally, I like both types of "sitcoms" and felt LITB was one of the greatest of all time.

Gary "that Amazon price on the Complete Set was phenomenal" O.

I was a huge fan of "Leave It to Beaver" as a kid and am glad to have the entire series on DVD now.  I think it holds up really well, although Jerry Mathers lost his cuteness as he got older.  But thankfully, the increased emphasis on Wally and his friends helped fill that void in the later years.  There's something eternal about a child's outlook on life which kids will always be able to relate to.

The show that I never warmed up when I it aired in reruns in the 1960s was "Father Knows Best."  I couldn't relate to Betty using the overly formal "Father" when talking to her dad and I thought Jane Wyatt's patrician speech patterns too stuffy.  Rediscovering it now, as a fifty-something adult on DVD, I find it a complete revelation.  The scripts, casting and direction are all uniformly brilliant.  I thought it would be incredibly dated, but I am constantly surprised at how relevant it still is when allowances are made for the passage of time.  It occasionally even makes gingerly steps into what would in later years be called "women's lib" and a fifties-TV version of "date rape" (ie forcing a kiss upon a girl after she says no).  FKB is so compelling that I have yet to fully explore the Leave It to Beaver box.  I only hope Shout! will get around to Season Six of FKB before too much longer.  I'm almost out of episodes to watch.

I think "Father Knows Best" is one of the highest-quality sitcoms of all time.  "Leave It to Beaver" comes close to it, and unlike the Lucille Ball series, almost everything that happened on "Leave It to Beaver" could actually happen in real life.  If that's boring, I'll take it any day over a 55-year-old woman with dark blue eye shadow being drafted or a bunch of unreal nincompoops hunting the gorboona.

Of course, it helps that I grew up with "Leave It to Beaver."  In fact, I was Beaver's exact age, and my older brother was Wally's age.  There all resemblances end.

Thanks Jeff I took advantage of that great deal!!!!! I have not seen a lower price on it so far.