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Donna Reed Show -- review?? (1 Viewer)

Elena S

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Is there a review out yet for this Season One set? I'm anxious to find out if there are edited prints or substituted music.
 

Xenia Stathakopoulou

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Elena, Im anxious for a review as well .Perhaps next week reviews should appear.Substituted music wouldnt suprise me, but I at least hope they are not edited prints.
 

Elena S

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Substituted music would bother me more, because it would change the mood of the show.
 

Xenia Stathakopoulou

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Elena, I havent seen an episode of this since 1988. So im actually depending on the dvd reviews to know about music substitutions.But I do understand, if youre more familiar with the show why it would bother you.
 

MARC1

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I really do not remember too much about the music of this show.
But I really enjoyed discovering this show on nick and tv land I actually started out watching this show because I was such a fan of Donns Reed in the movie Its A wonderful Life. Once I started watching the episodes I really bacame a fan of the tv show as well.
I will be picking up not only season 1 but season 2 in 09.
 

Mark-P

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I don't think there's too much to worry about regarding music substitution. Other than minor substitutions that all the studios sometimes have to make for songs they can't get the rights to, it is only CBS/Paramount that is needlessly throwing out entire scores and hiring someone to rescore using synthesized bastardizations. The Donna Reed Show is being put out by Arts Alliance America. I doubt that they have the budget to rescore a series. I'd be more worried about the picture quality on these.
 

Gary OS

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Amen, Mark-P. I couldn't agree more. I'd be shocked if AAA rescores the background music ala THE FUGITIVE and M3S. As you said, CBS/Paramount has been the only studio to employ this method, and I really don't think we need to worry about that. And yes, the picture quality would be the thing I think is more likely to be an issue. Having said that, I'm hopeful that we will get decent prints. Probably asking to much for pristine quality, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for decent prints (let's say something better than the ROUTE 66 Season 1 V. 1, which was not acceptable to me). Can't lie though that the disc count concerns me. Four dvds seems like at least one too few for 37 episodes, plus extras.

Gary "good comments, Mark" O.
 

Mark-P

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Ooh, you know you're right! I never even thought of that. I hope at least one of those discs is a flipper. Otherwise it's going to be 9-9-9-10 and that's no good. 8 should be the max. Some of the Bewitched seasons managed to squeeze in 9 per disc and got away with it through careful authoring, but it's really tough to do.
 

Elena S

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Do you think that means time compression or edited episodes?

I'll be honest -- there's very little that would stop me from picking up this set. This one is MY Holy Grail of shows on DVD. I loved all the actors in it.
 

Bob_S.

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If I had to deal with edited shows, then so be it but music substitution or time compression and I'll be skipping this. It would be a shame because I REALLY want to have this.
 

Gary OS

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Elena, I have no inside info on this release so anything I say is totally my own opinions. Having said that, I'd be concerned with compression on these discs more than I would about edited episodes. Don't know why, but I do believe we are more likely to get uncut prints as opposed to syndicated prints. Now, the prints might not look as pristine as some other sets, but I'm hoping they come in at something better than the ROUTE 66 S1, V1 set - something that was beyond the pale bad in my book. But I think these will look better than those.

I also just don't think we will see major music subs, and I'd be really surprised to see any wholesale changes like we did with the CBS/P shows like THE FUGE or M3S. I just don't see that happening with this set.

But please remember, this is only my opinion and it's not based on any inside info.


Gary "hope it works out well for you - no one should have to deal with subpar releases when we are talking about their Holy Grail series" O.
 

Mark Talmadge

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Why post now about a review? If you're in a hurry, then check out Amazon.com. Don't expect any reviews until a few days before it's released. :lol:
 

Elena S

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There are always reviews from critics who receive advance copies. Although not for this release, apparently.
 

Garysb

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Here is a review. It doesn't say if it is edited or if there are music subs.
The shows running time is 960 minutes. There were 37 Season 1 episodes. If the 960 minutes is correct, that would mean the shows average slightly under 26 minutes each which would suggest that they are uncut.
The reviewer gave picture and sound a 9 out of 10 rating, so he liked it.

EI > DVD > Donna Reed Show, The: Season 1 (1958)

Arts Alliance America posted a clip of the Season One Christmas Show with Buster Keaton and Donna on Youtube.



and a short clip that I remember Nick at Night used to promote the show
 

Mark-P

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Well, other than raving about the picture quality, that review doesn't really give any useful information.
Mine just shipped from DeepDiscount yesterday, but I rarely receive anything in less than two weeks from when DD says they ship it, so it is unlikely I'll have it before the street date.

Netflix now has information about what is on the individual discs. It appears to be 10 episodes on each of the first three and 7 on the last. I hold out a teeny tiny hope that maybe those first three discs are DVD-14s with 7 episodes on one side and 3 on the flip side, but I really doubt it. I'm prepared to accept that they have managed to squeeze 10 episodes (4 hours and 15 minutes) onto each dual-layered disc. Oh well, hope the compression is not too bad!
 

Xenia Stathakopoulou

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Judging by how that reviewer is ranting and raving in the review,about the picture quality, there probably isnt any compression issues.This dvd set is definitely on my xmas list!!!
 

Xenia Stathakopoulou

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Ive also noticed something strange about that review, it mentions there are no bonus features !!!!!! Ive read on tv shows on dvd.com that this dvd was going to have many of them????
 

Xenia Stathakopoulou

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Garysb, on that very same page you are linking to, if you click on all news for this show, then click on the news item dated 7/31/2008, you will indeed see that bonus features were announced.Now, if they got scrapped, thats a diffrent story.But they were indeed announced.
 

pitchman

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There's a fresh review up over at DVD Talk Forum. Paul Mavis gives the release a rating of "Highly Recommended" and overall, I have to say, it looks promising... especially after the recent My Three Sons fiasco.
 

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