Frasier and Cheers – Sitcom Recommendation! (1 Viewer)

[Scott Kimball]

I got Cheers season 4 yesterday and watched the first episode and my God the image quality is so bad that you cannot even imagine it! It’s quite embarrassing.

To me, it appears very much in line with previous seasons. Not great by any stretch, but hardly embarassing. It's very much like other TV product from the 80's. It shows its age with some dust and scratches, has some grain (which I don't believe is necessarily a fault of the transfer), and is a bit soft from slight over processing.

The original elements are at fault for most of the defects, and I can't blame a studio for not going through the expense of any serious restoration for these old elements. It's just not feasible for most TV shows.

-Scott

 

[John Carr]

Frasier is my favorite sitcom of all time. The dialogue and repartee cannot be beat, in my opinion.

I purchased all 3 Cheers and Frasiers (I intend to get both Season 4 releases tonight, of course!) and while I've watched every episode of Frasier, I've still got a season and a half of Cheers to go... Part of this is that I watched Cheers both as it aired and in syndication.

Still, I chuckle a lot at Cheeers, but rarely laugh outloud, which I do all the time with Frasier. Plus, the chemistry of the characters in Frasier is more intense and they are more interesting, especially Niles.

Cheers also declined after Diane's departure; in fact, if Frasier wasn't part of the cast, I'd probably not even bother getting the remaining seasons...it doesn't hurt that the discounted price has dropped below $30.00 for Cheers.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

To me, it appears very much in line with previous seasons.

I'm only talking about the first episode. The later ones get a lot better. The first episode has a lower video quality than the rest.

 

[Michael Harris]

While I was a big "Cheers" fan during its initial run, there were two episodes of "Fraiser" that still make me laugh just thinking about them:

Lilith's first appearance when, while calling Fraiser's show, she referred to "...advice pellets from your psychiatric Pez dispenser..."; and

When Fraiser invited his (unknown to him) gay station manager for dinner.

Truth be told, my favorite "Cheers" episodes usually involved Fraiser and Lilith.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

but hardly embarassing.

Here I made 2 grabs. The first one is from the first episode and the second one from another episode.





I call that embarassing!

 

[Anthony Hom]

The first season of Frasier basically sets the stage for all the seasons that followed it. If you are curious, the first season is definitely it.

 

[Scott Kimball]

That's odd, Sam. We seem to be seeing different things.

Here's a grab of what appears to be the identical frame as your first capture, captured at my software DVD player's native resolution and lightly recompressed into JPG format for posting here. Even though it is smaller than your capture, it seems to be more detailed. It also seems to have better color balance. Not great... but the set gets better from there...

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

I haven't seen the Cheers S4 set, but the first episode of Taxi season 2, "Louie and the Nice Girl," looks pretty bad as well (for the first act, anyway -- it gets a bit better in the second act). I guess that for some episodes they didn't have access to a good print.

 

[Dave Farley]

Sam Davatchi,

I was looking at the screen grabs you posted. Cheers airs in reruns on TVLand network nightly. I've noticed some episodes(especially the older ones) where one scene will look like the bottom picture you posted and suddenly they cut to another character speaking and it looks like the top shot, only to look good again when they cut to another shot. I've seen this at least 3-4 times but can't remember exactly which episodes they were. I do remember one scene involved Carla speaking to someone that just walked in.

In other words, as Scott mentioned, I think it's the source and not a bad transfer. It just looks like Paramount didn't do much to these.

 

[DeanC]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I just bought the season 4 release of Frasier for $23 Canadian tonight. Cheers season 4 is the same price but for some reason Season 3 and under are all $40. Just waiting for the price of Cheers earlier sets to drop.

I hope I don't have to wait too long. Or is this gonna stick? Are the older sets cost more?

 

[Sam Davatchi]

I'm getting Frasier this thursday. Can't wait.

 

[MattHR]

I'm only talking about the first episode. The later ones get a lot better. The first episode has a lower video quality than the rest.

The first episode definitely has an inferior transfer compared to the rest of the set. I was shocked when the image first hit my screen, since I was so pleased with the transfers of the previous three sets. It's almost as if Paramount didn't bother to re-master the first episode. Maybe they didn't have proper elements to work with, but that would seem unlikely. It seems a disclaimer would have been in order, since there's such an obvious difference in quality between this episode and the ones that follow.

I've watched the first two discs, and the quality of the rest of the episodes is similar to the previous sets. I'd like to know what happened to the first episode of season 4.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

I've watched the first two discs, and the quality of the rest of the episodes is similar to the previous sets. I'd like to know what happened to the first episode of season 4.

And this is not the first time. The last season also had some bad video quality. I remember the scene where Sam goes to stop Diane, the quality dropped!

 

[Matt Stieg]

I don't think I saw anyone else mention it in any reviews, but the first episode of season 2 of Frasier seemed to look rather inferior to the rest of the episodes, IMO.

 

[DeanC]

Just checked my season 2 of Frasier. Yes I noticed that too.

But I still need an answer for my post.

I bought Cheers 1 skipped 2 but want to buy 3 cause Frasier starts in it and season 4 the start of Lilith his wife.

But earlier seasons cost more why? Cheers 4 is only $29 or so, but season 1 to 3 are $40 each about.

 

[Matt Stieg]

The earlier seasons have extras, Seasons 4 of both Cheers and Frasier don't.

 

[MattHR]

But earlier seasons cost more why? Cheers 4 is only $29 or so, but season 1 to 3 are $40 each about.

Both "Cheers" and "Frasier" Seasons 1-3 were originally released at $49.99 each, but Paramount recently lowered them to $39.99. Not all retailers pay attention to price-drops, especially if they have remaining inventory at the old price.

You should be able to find the sets for the lower price if you look around a bit. The $39.99 price will probably be the standard for future sets. I'd still rather pay $10 more for better transfers and a few extras.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

I just got my Frasier Season 4 and watched the first episode. Wow! They are really at the top! No wonder they won the Best Comedy award for 5 consecutive years! It means something!

 

[DeanC]

Thanks for thinking of me people. I have all 5 sets of Frasier, but only still Cheers 1. I will start looking around for Cheers 3 cheaper then I'll purchase 4.

 

[DeanC]

My friend just bought season 4 of Frasier.

He is not happy that season 4 only has 23 episodes. I told him maybe cause 1 of the episodes is an hour long.

He should have call me b4 he buy it cause I would've ask him to buy Cheers 4 instead.