DENNIS THE MENACE - SEASON ONE coming soon from Shout! Factory. (1 Viewer)

[Neil Brock]

Shout has screwed up so many first releases (Rhoda, Mr. Ed, Father Knows Best, 7th season All in the Family) that there is no way I pre-order anything from them any more. I wait for the reviews and hope they are done by people with knowledge of the show.

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I agree, Neil (or Danny), but Brian Ward over on the Shout! forums has been very positive that "Dennis the Menace - Season 1" will be done right.


I feel 99% certain that it'll be ok, but as you said, I won't get it until I'm 100% certain by reading reviews of it here on this forum.

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

Originally Posted by Joe Lugoff

I agree, Neil (or Danny), but Brian Ward over on the Shout! forums has been very positive that "Dennis the Menace - Season 1" will be done right.


I feel 99% certain that it'll be ok, but as you said, I won't get it until I'm 100% certain by reading reviews of it here on this forum.

These are 100% uncut. They have checked the episodes, they average anywhere from 25.40 minutes - 25.55 minutes. This was posted on shouts board a while back. What more proof does one need, Im convinced they are uncut. Also found on tcm shop.com that the donna reed episode is included here.

 

[Neil Brock]

Originally Posted by Joe Lugoff

I agree, Neil (or Danny), but Brian Ward over on the Shout! forums has been very positive that "Dennis the Menace - Season 1" will be done right.


I feel 99% certain that it'll be ok, but as you said, I won't get it until I'm 100% certain by reading reviews of it here on this forum.

Brian Ward has also been posting for the longest time about how Fox is to blame for there not being any further Peyton Place releases but now one of the Shout big shots has come out on record as saying that it sold poorly and that's why they abandoned the show. He was also the guy who said there was nothing wrong with the All in the Family set until enough people complained about it that he had to admit it was encoded improperly. So while its nice that he communicates with his customers, I don't necessarily take everything he says verbatim.

 

[vnisanian2001]

I wish people would stop ragging on Brian Ward. Hell, there was even someone on SitcomsOnline who had the nerve to claim that he contradicts himself over and over again. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Leave him alone, he is the man! I really loathe people who call him a liar.


You know what Neil, you should have listened to what a certain regular user on SF's boards said cause he's right: You do come across as the type of person that most self respecting people would not want to work for anyway. And who could blame them? It's no wonder you were banned multiple times from these boards.

 

[LeoA]

I don't see what was so terrible with his post.


Despite that though, I disagree with a few things. For example with the issue with season 7 of All In The Family, skimming through that thread just now and reading his responses, I thought Brian Ward handled himself quite well.


http://www.shoutfactory.com/community/3575/thread.aspx


And his wording about the Peyton Place issue is the following:


"Sorry, guys. Unfortunately, the first two volumes didn't sell well enough for us to justify paying MORE for licensing additional episodes and they don't seem to be interested in giving us additional episodes for the same price or less. We may be at a bit of a stand off."


He's saying they didn't sell well enough to justfy the increased price FOX was requiring to license additional episodes out. He's not contradicting himself at all from his previous post. Clearly, they must've been pleased with how the initial sets performed or they wouldn't of been trying to license additional episodes. Too bad FOX decided they wanted more.


There are a few things I've disagreed with him in the past that I've read at the Shout boards, but more often than not, I think he does a great job, handles himself well when interacting with us, and I'm very pleased he chooses to continue frequenting their message boards (The only Shout employee I've ever seen there that did). Still, I agree that anything coming from a Shout employee needs to be taken with a grain of salt since they do have somewhat of a spotty record. But I think Brian Ward is probably as passionate about this stuff as we are and isn't the problem when it comes to the occasional substandard Shout release.


Shout deserves a good bit of criticism for such things as the botched season 1 sets of several classic shows, but I don't think the blame should be placed on Brian Ward's shoulders just because he's the most visible person at Shout Factory. Often I've seen him state how he wasn't even responsible for a specific project getting a lot of flak from us. The problem seems to be the employees there that are choosing not to utilize things like their own message board to interact with their customers, not the people like Brian Ward. If he says season 1 is complete and looks good, that's good enough for me.

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

Here is something odd I just noticed, about the preorder for this dvd. On Amazon Canada, it says Vivendi is releasing it. On Amazon USA, its Shout Factory. Im assuming its just a mistake on Amazon Canadas part, and that Shout is the 1 releasing it there as well?

 

[TV_Fan]

Vivendi is the retail distributor for Shout Factory's products. Some sites like amazon.ca and walmart.com list Shout's release under the studio of Vivendi, while others list Shout themselves. So yes, this is a Shout! Factory release, its just listed differently on different sites.

Originally Posted by Xenia Stathakopoulou

Here is something odd I just noticed, about the preorder for this dvd. On Amazon Canada, it says Vivendi is releasing it. On Amazon USA, its Shout Factory. Im assuming its just a mistake on Amazon Canadas part, and that Shout is the 1 releasing it there as well?

 

[Xenia Stathakopoulou]

Thanks for explaining, I was worried if it was a diffrent company, the one on amazon canada, wouldnt have the same bonus features.

 

[mrmike898]

So, good news: Every episode on the set clocks in at over 25:30 and ends with the original Screen Gems logo. Disc 1 contains trailers for: Leave It To Beaver: The Complete Series, Father Knows Best: Seasons 1, 2, 3 & 4, The Patty Duke Show: Seasons 1-3 and "THE DONNA REED SHOW Season Four - The Lost Episodes Deluxe DVD Set From MPI Home Video". My guess is that last trailer is some sort of trade off between Shout! Factory and The Heirs of Donna Reed/MPI for allowing the use of the episode Donna Decorates* from The Donna Reed Show appear as a bonus feature on this set. The other bonus features are: A Conversation With Gloria Henry and Jeannie Russell (2010, runs just over 39 minutes), Audio Interview With Gloria Henry and Jeannie Russell (2007, plays over 4 consecutive episodes, beginning with "The Party Line"), Original Promo (circa 1960) and Commercials With Original Opening and Closing Credits (1959, runs just over 6 minutes). The picture quality on the very first episode is slightly a bit more rough than the other 31 episodes. Though certainly not terrible by any means, I'd compare this one episode visually to the majority of episodes from The Donna Reed Show season sets. But then, starting with episode 2, the picture quality is greatly improved and generally quite nice.


Same style packaging as the Leave It To Beaver sets from Shout!, with booklet detailing the titles, air dates and a brief summary of each episode.


Interestingly enough, Sony's name does not appear anywhere on this set. It lists the copyright as 2011 Hank Ketcham Enterprises, Inc and Marketed by Shout! Factory, LLC. It appears that even if they're getting the prints used for the DVDs from Sony, credit is only given to the current owner of the series, like on the Father Knows Best sets.


Overall, excellent effort from Shout! Factory. It's right up there with the Leave It To Beaver and Patty Duke Show sets. With the low retail price ($29.93) and even lower pre-order price from Amazon (as of this writing, $20.99), you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not getting it. I can't recommend this set highly enough!! Definitely a 9/10!!!


*The print for this episode appears to be the exact same one found on The Donna Reed Show: Season 3 set, which cuts off the Screen Gems logo on the end credits.

 

[Neil Brock]

Thanks for the info on the running times. That was my big concern with Shout Factory's dubious history on first season releases.

 

[MatthewA]

Sony seems to have relinquished the rights to a lot of 1950s shows: Father Knows Best, Donna Reed, Naked City, and now this.


I'm just glad they did use uncut episodes for season 1. The lessons from past mistakes seem to have finally sunk in.

 

[LeoA]

Even the pilot includes the Screen Gems closing? They mentioned on their forum that the transfer from Sony was lacking the Screen Gems closing (Just had the modern 80's Columbia closing) for the pilot and were debating if it would be appropriate for them to edit the transfer to include it.


Myself and perhaps one other person responded to it and urged them to include it since it's appropriate and belongs in there. Would be disappointing, even just for a single episode, not to see the classic Screen Gems closing at the end.


Glad to see they agreed and took the tiny bit of effort to digitally alter the transfer for that one episode.

 

[mrmike898]

Yep, even the pilot has it. It appears that they added it on pretty seamlessly. I wouldn't have been able to tell unless you had mentioned it. The transition from credits to logo, visually, is almost identical to the other episodes. However, on just the pilot, the Screen Gems music starts a couple seconds later then it does on the other episodes. That's the only difference.


Re-watching these, I will add that the picture quality, aside from the pilot, really is quite impressive. I wouldn't say Leave It To Beaver good, but that's a hard one to match. I'd say, think Leave It To Beaver clarity, but with occasional film lines and specks. I honestly never thought I'd see this series look this good.

 

[Jack Cleveland]

I picked this up today for 18.99 at my local BJ's Wholesale store... I had forgotten how good this show is! I've laughed out loud, and enjoyed it immensly!

 

[Marsh]

Hello all,


I was watching the bonus material on Disc 5 of the Dennis the Menace set tonight. I noticed on my copy that the time counter on my DVD player stays at zero during the the Gloria Henry and Jeannie Russell video interview. That wasn't the case on the other bonus features.


Is this the same on anyone else's Disc 5 of the set, or do I have a defective disc? Please let me know.


Thanks,

Marshall

 

[vnisanian2001]

Neil, you should learn how to appreciate Brian Ward, and be thankful he has a job at Shout! Factory. He doesn't contradict himself over and over again like you claim he does.

 

[Jack P]

I am no water carrier for Neil, but let's not try to minimize those times when Shout has not acquitted itself well on certain things, and in part when there has been resentment generated against Shout from some like myself, much of it stems from the fact that I didn't exactly feel I was getting straight info from their message board. The "Ironside" situation that dragged on for a couple years before it finally got unstuck in the Select program was a sore spot. And the AITF S7 situation in which I saw people try to adopt a have-it-both-ways attitude for the sake of defending Shout ("it's the best looking video ever but we're going to fix the encoding process next time") and their company spin line also is a reminder to me that while Shout has done things that should be praised it seems that there are people who are anxious to excuse them for the kind of goofs and blunders that if done by a "major" studio would not be viewed so charitably.

 

[vnisanian2001]

Well, if there's one thing that Neil is certainly dead wrong about, it's what he said regarding Peyton Place. In actuality, they spent a great deal of time trying to acquire more episodes of it. This was before Cliff Macmilan (not sure if Neil's heard of him before) began working for them. Fox was interested in licensing them for less than they'ed acquire before and those didn't sell nearly well enough to warrant that price tag. That's the REAL story behind it. And yes, this came straight from Brian's mouth.