What's new

Review of "Married With Children Season One" Up at dvdreview.com (1 Viewer)

WillG

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Messages
7,563
There is a review up at DVD Review Unfortunately, it is not looking good. Don't know if this has been addressed, but the 13 episodes and the reunion special has apparently been crammed onto only 2 discs causing all sorts of PQ/AQ issues. Of course, I'll still have to get it, but it's too bad
 

Christian Preischl

Screenwriter
Joined
Oct 11, 2001
Messages
1,374
Real Name
Christian Preischl
Unfortunately, I can't say I'm surprised. I own Dawson's Creek Season 1 and Mad about you Seasons 1 & 2, and the picture quality is substandard on all 3 sets, the issues not only being overcompression (Mad about you had 22 episodes on 2 discs!), but also the surprisingly underwhelming quality of the source material.

However, I'm sure the new low will be set with Dawson's Creek Season 2, offering approx. 950 min. of video on 3 discs (unless they go DVD-18, which I doubt)!

Yup, I'm definitely not surprised.:thumbsdown:

Chris
 

streeter

Screenwriter
Joined
May 24, 2001
Messages
1,419
Real Name
Michael
Bummer :frowning:
I don't like it when they put more than three hours on one disc. The same thing happened with the Storyteller collection.
And I also don't understand why disc 1 has 225 minutes and disc 2 has 145.
 

Casey Trowbridg

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2003
Messages
9,209
I'll still be picking this one up. According to the review the first disc contains 9 episodes, and the second disc contains the other 4 plus the reunion special that aired on Fox earlier this year. I was shocked the first time I read that Mad About you S. 1 contained 11 episodes per disc.
 

Sven Lorenz

Supporting Actor
Joined
Sep 30, 2002
Messages
529
Fox managed to put one 50-minute episode and 7 25-minute episodes on the first DVD of the fourth season of MASH - that's 225 minutes - and the quality was great.
Since every modern sitcom is only 22 minutes long it should be possible to get 10 episodes on one DVD.
But apparently the people at Columbia are not as good as the people at Fox.
I don't care about Married with Children - but the King of Queens boxset will only have three discs - for 25 episodes + extras.
:angry:
 

Christian Preischl

Screenwriter
Joined
Oct 11, 2001
Messages
1,374
Real Name
Christian Preischl
Whoops, you're right, my bad. Still, that's 2x6 and 2x5 episodes per disc, so the 6-episodes-DVDs will carry approx. 260 min. of video. A scary thought.

Chris
 

Andrew Radke

Screenwriter
Joined
May 8, 2003
Messages
1,258
Location
Guelph, Ontario - Canada
Real Name
Andrew Radke
Well, that kinda sucks, but I came to expect this from CTS. They've been notirous as of late when it comes to cramming multiple episodes on a single disc. Regardless, I will still get this and display it in my colllection proudly. lol. I just hope we don't have to wait forever and a day for the release of season 2.

Hell, I'm still awaiting news regarding Jeffersons - Season 3........or the lack thereof.
 

Andy_MT

Second Unit
Joined
Jun 23, 2001
Messages
486
some serious quality issues going on with this studio as of late. first faulty audio on many of their new dvds, now this. remember when CT were considered the best ? no, nor can i, it must have been a long time ago. (raises glass) here's to absent friends [quality control].
 

Joe6pack99

Second Unit
Joined
Mar 6, 2000
Messages
435
Real Name
Jarett
I am buyin this no matter what but it is definitely disappointing to see the quality so bad.
 

Chuck West

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jul 21, 2002
Messages
201
I am buyin this no matter what but it is definitely disappointing to see the quality so bad.
Here's 4 reasons why Columbia/Tristar doesn't care about presenting a high quality product. They know the hardcore fans will buy it, no matter what. Hell, they suckered fans into buying 2 "Best Of" sets before releasing it in season format. And the fans will buy, buy, buy.... and Columbia/Tristar knows it.
 

WillG

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Messages
7,563
Hell, they suckered fans into buying 2 "Best Of" sets before releasing it in season format
Well, I did not go in for that, but the whole first season is going to hard to pass up. One question to anyone who has not seen this yet. Are these episodes complete? I heard a rumor that on the "Best of" sets, they just pulled the episoded from the editied syndication tapes.
 

Casey Trowbridg

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2003
Messages
9,209
This is not so simple for me. Lets say we MWC fans don't buy this release because of the poor transfer. Then sales are poor, and Columbia decides to can all future season releases of MWC. So now, not only do I not have the first season of MWC I just helped to ensure that I won't have any future season of MWC either, so I lost big time.

I will buy this set in spite of the bad transfer. Why? Because for me, video quality is at the bottom of my list of reasons whether or not to buy something. It doesn't matter how good the transfer is, it will still just be a color blurr to me. I actually am less likely to buy a disc if the menus are hard to navigate than I am if the transfer is faulty.

TV on DVD is a different animal when compared to movies on DVD, because a film that just hit theaters is almost for certain going to see the light of day on DVD even if its box office take isn't that great. But, with TV on DVD, your not just looking at 1 season of a show your looking at that show as a series. Mary Tyler Moore had lower than expected sales, and now it is doubtful that season 2 will ever see the light of day on DVD, which is a bummer for those of us that would like to have all seven seasons in our collection.
 

Andrew Radke

Screenwriter
Joined
May 8, 2003
Messages
1,258
Location
Guelph, Ontario - Canada
Real Name
Andrew Radke
I too am a die hard fan of this show, but I didn't give in when the "best ofs" were released. I had a hunch that if I held out long enough, they'd see the light of day and release season sets. Sure enough, patience pays off! Despite the lacklustre transfer, I'm still going to get this. This is one of the first shows I ever wanted to own on DVD, and I won't let something such as mediocre picture quality stand in my way of that. If I'm not mistaken, the first season of the show was a bit more dark and dismal than the seasons which followed. Was this taken into consideration when this review was written?
 

Eric F

Screenwriter
Joined
Sep 5, 1999
Messages
1,810
Add Forever Knight to the Columbia/TriStar crap-list. Maybe this topic needs to have its own thread?

If I was aware of this I would never have purchased FK to begin with. I definately won't purchase another of their products blind, even if I'm a big fan.
 

Bill>Moore

Second Unit
Joined
Mar 28, 2003
Messages
366
I'm going to pick it up. As mentioned, TV is a different animal than movies and I can be a little more forgiving with the transfer or video quality with those.

Also, Casey is correct - If we decide to teach CTS a lesson by not buying the sets at all (we're not talking about best ofs here, we're talking the season sets we wanted), the joke will be on us when they just decide to bag the whole thing and no more sets ever come out of any quality. That's what would happen. The execs won't be gathering around saying, "Gee - sales weren't that good. Maybe we should redo it over again and try that."

It will just stop putting anything out at all. With a movie, you might be able to hold out hope they'd revisit it someday, but with tv, more often than not they would likely just bail on the whole series.
 

Casey Trowbridg

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2003
Messages
9,209
I'm going to add one other thing to consider. None of us buying this set, are just accepting crap, we all want the best, but we have the approach that this is better than the large pile of nothing we'd have if we chose not to buy this set. I'm happy that MWC is out on DVD at all, seeing as how so much attention is paid to the here and now big ticket movies and TV shows. A show that hit the air 16 years ago probably isn't the highest priority on Columbia's list, which is all the more reason that they need to see a demand for the product.
 

WillG

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2003
Messages
7,563
Remember, this is just one review. I have seen many conflicting reviews of PQ/AQ of many titles on many websites. Some DVDs that I have seen bad reviews of looked fine to me, so who's to say. Nobody who likes this show should pass it up because the PQ/AQ is not pristine. While I don't agree with the cramming onto only 2 discs. It may look perfectly acceptable.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,815
Messages
5,123,808
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top