Little House on the Prairie: building the best possible collection (3 Viewers)

[deepscan]

It is kinda odd I myself have not brought myself to getting the blu rays....I have always been used to seeing Imavision's previous DVDs, with a majority of the eps transferred from PAL masters ( hence the time compression speed up), and taken from the Worldvision syndication masters of the late '80s. Seeing the season 8 eps in this form (especially "Days of Sunshine Days of Shadow Part 2" and "A Promise To Keep") has a nice sound and ring to it, even if it is sped up and some scenes cut for syndication. On the other hand, it is nice to see uncut versions of the early season 1 eps too.

 

[L.O.M.]

I purchased the complete DVD set at Walmart. The first disc froze during the 2nd episode. I played it on 2 other DVD players with the same results. Once the disc froze I could not get the DVD player to perform any other function. I had to unplug the DVD player and then plug it in again to eject the disc.

I tried to exchange the series at Walmart. Thankfully they were out of stock. I decided to try the 2nd disc and ran into the same problem. My gut told me the problem was bigger than my set so I did some online research. I read reviews on multiple sites and discovered the same complaints on each site. One person wrote that during the 2nd episode of the 1st disc, the disc froze. A second person wrote that they had exchanged the series twice and there were problems with every disk in all 3 sets. Another person wrote that they had problems with the 1st 2 disks and were afraid of what would follow. Another wrote that they had problems with the first 5 and were afraid to continue because the problems were growing in number and severity.

This seems to be a consistent problem with the complete series. I only read the first page in this thread so I'm not sure if this has been addressed. The reviews I read were for the regular shaped box set and the wagon shaped box set. I have yet to find reviews for the log cabin shaped set.

Has anyone else had problems with these sets? Has anyone purchased a set that does not have these problems?

 

[Brent Reid]

Katherine "Scottie" MacGregor aka Harriet Oleson dies at the age of 93: Mail | Today

As much as we loved to hate her, she was pivotal to the show's greatness in providing much of the internal tension and dynamic that made it work so well. She understood that fully and her caricaturish onscreen persona was largely her own invention. Rest in peace, lovely, funny lady.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Thanks for posting that info, Brent.

She most certainly WAS an important part of the success of LHotP.

 

[chrislong2]

Has anyone else had problems with these sets? Has anyone purchased a set that does not have these problems?

I can't vouch for the newer DVD's (I've also heard of problems with some of them - tho it seems to be hit or miss), but the newer Blu-ray's are fine as far as not freezing etc. The Blu-ray's, which aren't in a complete set but only individual, are higher quality than the DVD's and can be gotten relatively inexpensively (tho not as cheap as the DVDs). S1-6 can be gotten for about $17 a piece and sometimes you can find great deals (deepdiscount recently did a buy-one-get-one free for S1-6 tho I think that ended now) and S7-9 can now be gotten for $8/each at hamiltonbook. The Blu-ray's are definitely the way to go with this show, which utilized extensive location shooting, IMO. They overall look gorgeous!

 

[chrislong2]

I was just watching an episode the other day and I thought "Man that Mrs. Oleson actress was PERFECT for that role". She added so much to the show. Actually one major strength about the show in general is that each of the characters were so strong and well-defined and each were the epitome of quality. A very character-driven show!

 

[Malcolm R]

Thanks for posting that info, Brent.

She most certainly WAS an important part of the success of LHotP.

Yeah, thanks Brent.

https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...erine-macgregor-mrs-oleson-has-passed.359738/

 

[Mike Frezon]

Well...I was already subscribed to THIS thread...

 

[MattPeriolat]

Know I’m late to the party, but let’s embrace I’ve shown up at all.

Looking to pick the show up on DVD/blu-ray and based on what I’m reading, the best path to get the majority of the show would be as follows:

S1-6 are fine on blu-Ray. There are edits, but not of dramatic length, the core of the shows are intact. Only omit is Little House Years and that SHOULD be on the ‘net. For now.
S7-9 should be gotten on the original DVDs if you can find them, especially with whole chunks of episodes missing.
The final three movies are my problem. Obviously the DVD release is the only way to fly with the Onward Christian Soldiers problem in the last movie, but that’s becoming increasingly difficult to find. Fingers crossed I can run it down.

Sound about right? Open to comments and thoughts as I work on the collection.

 

[dawnshadow]

Unless I’m wrong, Season 7 only has one confirmed cut, none for Season 8 and the only cut episode on Season 9 is Home Again.

I think the DVDs for those seasons have worse issues.

 

[MattPeriolat]

Would be so much easier if Lionsgate had better quality control or a desire to fix the problems.

OK, I’ll do some more digging on the cuts, but four whole minutes off an episode? That’s hard to write off.

 

[Bryan^H]

Watched "Little Women" from season 3. Very poor episode. Plays too sweet, and sad for viewers to even care what is going on. A widow, and her young daughter are alone on a farm. A nice god fearing individual comes to call on the widow who treats him like dirt...over, and over again. Who would want someone like that? She is mean. Give up my man, and move on. Also, the biggest problem with the entire series in my opinion is that it relies way too heavily on meanies, being Mrs. Olson, and Nellie. That is why episodes without them are such a breath of fresh air.

 

[moviebuff75]

Looks like they left in the black leader slugs on some episodes, such as Little Women. No footage is missing, but the sound repeats. I wonder if it aired this way, because they would otherwise have had to redo the reel audio pullups for the entire reel, or it would have been out of sync.