"You Bet Your Life" boxes...quality? (1 Viewer)

Greetings. What's the consensus on the two "You Bet Your Life" boxed sets? I'm encouraged to find decent prices online, after holding off due to the high prices. But still...I don't want to spend money for inferior stuff. Your input, or links to online reviews would be appreciated.

I have "The Lost Episodes", and "The Best Episodes" is on its way as we speak.

Shout Factory did a tremendous job with "The Lost Episodes," going above and beyond the call of duty for what is admittedly a very narrow-appeal show. Think about it--any other quiz shows on DVD?

The episodes themselves are in what I would call fair to middling picture quality. Because of the disposable nature of a game show, I don't think these were stored with the same eye toward preservation as your "I Love Lucy" or "Honeymooners" were--although some "You Bet Your Life" eps were indeed syndicated under the title
"Best Of Groucho". (I would wager that anyone under 30 buying these sets saw the reruns on the late night lineup of the CBN cable network, which was sort of like a bargain basement Nick at Nite).

Where this set really excels is in the extras--deleted footage, sponsor reels, commercials, etc.....again, an incredible achievement considering that the show has had virtually no on-air exposure in over ten years.

Doc

Another great thing about these boxed sets is that the episodes are featured with their original framing. All syndication prints were zoomed in, to eliminate the sponsors name (which typically hung on a background wall). As a result, the syndication prints featured a geat deal of framing with half of a persons face cut off. None of those problems occur on these sets because the original prints are used.

Check out this thread as well.

I just cracked up my set last night. Great job, love the extras and the fact that they used original network prints with the original openings. One of the best sets in my collection.

I'll second the fact that these look very nice, especially compared to how the episodes used to be seen in syndication in the 70s and 80s. Those prints often looked awkward via cropping, and zooming-in led to heavy grain at times (apparently all done to excise the sponsors' names on the set). However, the prints on the dvds are unaltered originals, and make a world of difference.

I loved the "Lost Episodes" set. Some of the old commercials were priceless (especially one with Groucho driving down the street in a new DeSoto, and stopping to make wolf eyes at a blonde). Just picked up the new "Best Episodes" volume this past Sunday, and it looks equally promising.

I loved the lost episodes so much I bought a single disc off Ebay ....horrible
I am going to look for the "Best of" Tonight

Guys,

Thanks for all your responses. Based on the first couple, I went ahead and ordered "The Best Episodes", due to a fine price offering from "a major online retailer". Just finished watching disc one, and agree completely with all the glowing remarks that everyone made regarding my original post. Thanks again for your feedback. I look forward to ordering "The Lost Episodes".

Found 1 copy of the "Best" at Tower Records but they wanted over $40 for it; guess I will get it online for about half that.