Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy - Season 2 (1 Viewer)

[Corey3rd]

You also need to factor in sales at Wal-Mart since they are the monster of retail. It's how you do at Wal-Mart that really determines if your next season is coming out.

 

[JeffO]

Corey3rd, I've never been to Wal-Mart for dvds. How is their tv-on-dvd selection relative to Target and Best Buy? I've found Best Buy has pretty much everything and Target is horrible, with no more than 10% of the overall series stocked.

 

[Jay_B!]

a lot of shows aren't even carried by Wally World tho

 

[MatthewA]

Avoid Wal-Mart for TV shows, they have a horrid selection. Go to Best Buy or Circuit City.

 

[bobraleigh]

i saw HD, L&s, M&M, for sale at wally world and thought the packaging looked

awful, just cheap. then i read where "music has been" changed. so i passed.

then saw the untouchables for sale, and altho it's bascially the same

packaging, it doesn't come off as cheap looking. plus no music subbing, so i

bought it blind, and so far like it more than i thought i would

 

[Firebee]

The only thing I don't like about Best Buy is that their prices generally suck. They almost never cut the prices on their TV DVDs, which I'll admit isn't a recent observation. I just got so fed up with their charging retail and offering no discounts even after a season set had been out for a while, which is why I started shopping with Amazon, and having Amazon Prime is great, because I typically get new pre-order sets the next day after they're shipped (even with two-day UPS shipping).

 

[Ric Easton]

Wow. Saw this in the store today and almost picked it up. Fortunately, I decided to go with The Streets of SF instead. Now I see this... Totally inexcusable... espeicially for a season where the show was at the top of its game. I probably would have only picked up the first two seasons of HD anyway, but now I will at least skip season 2. What a way to wreck my fond memories. This has probably turned into the worst TV DVD release of the year.

 

[Jay_B!]

but if you want to buy the I Love Lucy sets, you can get it for half what Best Buy is charging, same with early South Park sets, Sex And The City, Dallas and select other random shows

 

[JeffO]

I completely agree that Best Buy's prices are horrible, so I normally shop through Amazon.com. The only reason I asked about Wal-Mart's selection is that many stores don't have a large selection of tv-on-dvd shows. Target's selection is poor, and even many dvd only realtors have poor selections. While I just browse, there are many shows which I've only ever seen at Best Buy, so if the average buyer only sees a show at Best Buy, that really cuts down on the exposure of the show to buyers.

 

[Robert13]

I picked up Season 2 of "Laverne & Shirley" and I must say I was very surprised after what I've been reading. The set is put together very nicely. Yes, the packaging is bare bones but the discs are very well produced. I have noticed some changes in the music so far. Carmine's singing has been replaced on 2 episodes on disc 1 and I believe Mrs. Babbish's Christmas number has been cut on the Christmas episode. Although I have not viewed that one yet.

As for the picture quality, these episodes look magnificent. I'm very happy with my set so far.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Robert, you're right about L/H and M/M, but the HD set xfrs are poor. We don't know why...strange that the other 2 sets are good Q, but not HD.

 

[Firebee]

Well, as sorry as I am to hear that ``Happy Days'' transfers were bad, I'm glad, no, thrilled, that ``Mork & Mindy'' transfers were good for S2. I've yet to finish S1, tho, so I'm working on that now when I can given my heavy TV on DVD watching schedule.

 

[Jaime_Weinman]

What someone said elsewhere was that the only 35 mm prints of Happy Days are of the 22-minute syndication version. The only prints of complete 25-minute episodes are lower-quality 16 mm prints.

For the first season, Paramount spent time and money to combine the two sets of prints -- for the most part, they took the high quality 35 mm prints and spliced in the missing footage from the 16 mm prints. Then they tried to make the different prints match as best they could, which took more time and money.

For the new set, it looks like they just took whatever material they could get, without the care and budget that went into the first set.

 

[John*P]

I went to my local Wal-Mart last Wednesday to check out these 3 new DVD releases. They were selling Happy Days: S2 and Laverne & Shirley: S2 for $19.99 each(!), and Mork & Mindy: S2 for $29.99. Unfortunately for me, Laverne & Shirley was already sold out, (just 1 day after it's release) but there were 2 copies left of both Happy Days and Mork.

My local Target didn't get any of these sets...

 

[Chuck89]

I just got my S2 set today from Amazon. I scanned through the episodes and unfortunately there is a small edit on "Mork vs The Necrotons". It occurs around at the 44:20 mark,after Racquel Welch says something like "See I told you they were trying to steal my job!",Mork was about to say "Great",but that part(about 1 second long)was edited. You could hear the tail end of the audience laughter and applause. I saw this scene on You Tube and all that was cut was the part where Mork said "great". The rest of the episodes appear to be uncut when comparing them to the various old tapes of the syndicated episodes I have. The opening credits for the first 4 episodes on Disc 1 don't sound like Robin Williams saying "Nanu.Nanu"and a slightly different arrangement of the S2 disco theme,that probably wasn't used in syndication. After that,Robin's Nanu Nanu and the other arrangment of the S2 disco theme are used. Picture quality is pretty good and except for that small edit,I was happy with this set.

 

[DouglasRobert]

Yes, the Mrs. Babbish music # is cut from the Christmas episode. I think when TV Land aired the show that episode had the Babbish song included. So it looks like I'll have to dub that episode to DVD anyways.

What are the epsiodes where the music has been changed or Carmine's singing was replaced?

I agree the video quality is very good on the L&S: S2 set.
I was never much into Happy Days, but I wish Paramount would consider doing a DVD set of all the episodes where L&S appeared on HD. Perhaps call it "Happy Days: The Laverne & Shirley Collection". That's the only HD set I would even buy.

 

[Firebee]

This is good to hear.

 

[MatthewA]

I simply do not understand how this show (as well as The Brady Bunch) can have this problem but not other shows from the same production company. Why would these shows have syndication cuts made directly on their original camera negatives but not other Paramount shows? Wouldn't such an archival policy have affected shows across the board?

Even so, I am taking each and every future BS/Paramount release with a grain of salt. This is part of the reason I never, ever preorder TV show DVDs.

 

[Robert13]

I'm not happy about Mrs. Babbish's music number being cut. It's a funny little song. As for Carmine's numbers, right now, the only ones I am sure they have cut are the ones from "Excuse Me, May I Cut In?" and the song he sings at the end of "Look Before You Leap" has been replaced with an instrumental track but you see Carmine holding the microphone as Laverne gives her father the news. Then, Carmine breaks into "Alleluia".

DouglasRobert, I like your idea for an HD: L&S Collection dvd. That's the only one I would be interested in for HD dvds as well.

 

[OneWayFilms]

I think Laverne and Shirley were only in one or two episodes AT MOST of Happy Days, while the Happy Days cast made several appearances on Laverne & Shirley, to help boost it's ratings and get it off the ground. The Fonz made the most appearances on Laverne & Shirley, while Richie and Potsie only made one.