Press Release MPI Press Release: The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet Seasons 1 & 2 (DVD) (6 Viewers)

[The 1960's]

Season Two Continued & Completed

S02E33 New Neighbor (Apr.30.1954)
Stars Ozzie Nelson Harriet Nelson David Nelson Ricky Nelson Don DeFore Frank Cady Carl Greyson​

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S02E39 The Swimming Pool (Jun.11.1954)
Stars Ozzie Nelson Harriet Nelson David Nelson Ricky Nelson Don DeFore Frank Cady Hal Smith Don Beddoe Carl Greyson​

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I’ve held back my first impressions until after I’d completed viewing and posting these ten samplers. The picture quality is very good and very consistent throughout the first and second seasons with possibly a slight bump in the picture quality of the five second season episodes. There are two episodes I noticed which have inserted segments originating from inferior sources. The first is S01E26 Bowling Alley (Mar.27.1953). In fact the entire episode is of a lesser quality than the other nine but particularly from 10:40 through 17:55. The second is S02E18 The Camera (Jan.15.1954) and only from 10:32 through 19:05. I believe most viewers will not even notice the issue with Bowling Alley but The Camera is far more obvious. Again my comments are based only on the sampling of these 10 episodes and neither issue hinders the viewing experience. My single disappointment is MPI’s decision not to release these on BluRay.

The main intent in posting these examples was to garner interest and potential sales of this classic television series so that MPI will have no doubts about giving us the entire fourteen seasons.

Overall I’m delighted with what I've seen and heard. Now I intend to focus on simply enjoying many of these stories for the very first time. Thanks again to Gary for his support and to all the other folks who were instrumental in making this release a reality!

 

[Jeff Flugel]

My Target order now says, 'backordered'. I'll patiently wait rather than cancel and re-order from DD.

Sorry to hear that your sets are backordered, Bob.

Here's a couple of favorable reviews. Warning! Some psychobabble ahead.

'The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet': Nervous Nothingness

'The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet' impresses me not for its alleged blandness but for its ingenious minimalism, its meta-structure, and its nerve-wracking nature of nothingness.

www.popmatters.com

Yes, definitely some psychobabble in that Pop Matters piece (and a real pain-to- read website layout), but a fascinating article nonetheless, with an overall appreciative take on the series. It also includes a link to a very interesting (albeit briefer) piece on the series, written back in 2007 by former Video Watchdog editor, novelist and frequent Blu-Ray commentary track participant, Tim Lucas.

The second article from Hollywood in Hi-Def is far less in-depth but covers the basics of the DVD set pretty well.

Thanks for those links, Bob!

 

[mark-edk]

the little (crucial) audible sound of a small bell’s solitary ‘ding’ that coincided with the light bulb moment look on Oz’s face when he decides to string Thornberry along, was sadly missing...

I think that probably happened because the noise reduction/gating was applied too heavily. One of the things I remember was hearing birds, distant airplanes etc in the background when Ozzie was outside talking to Thorny. Now, on some episodes the birds get semi-swallowed up by the audio processing, and I think I noticed an airplane sound only once but then I wasn't especially listening for them. This isn't really a deal-breaker but it's annoying as a little more care in setting a slider would have avoided this issue.

 

[RobertMG]

I think that probably happened because the noise reduction/gating was applied too heavily. One of the things I remember was hearing birds, distant airplanes etc in the background when Ozzie was outside talking to Thorny. Now, on some episodes the birds get semi-swallowed up by the audio processing, and I think I noticed an airplane sound only once but then I wasn't especially listening for them. This isn't really a deal-breaker but it's annoying as a little more care in setting a slider would have avoided this issue.

I think that probably happened because the noise reduction/gating was applied too heavily. One of the things I remember was hearing birds, distant airplanes etc in the background when Ozzie was outside talking to Thorny. Now, on some episodes the birds get semi-swallowed up by the audio processing, and I think I noticed an airplane sound only once but then I wasn't especially listening for them. This isn't really a deal-breaker but it's annoying as a little more care in setting a slider would have avoided this issue.

But so far every episode has been light years ahead of whats out there? Sad that old OZ did not take better care of his families legacy? What puzzles me is that this show did not play non stop in syndication like Lucy, FKB, Dennis the Menace Donna Reed etc if that would have been the case the show would have been taken care of a bit better == With FKB when Shout did the first season I had a contact there and she told me the cut shows from season one were used because the uncut masters were in rougher shape - I still wish Shout would release a new disc of those 14 uncut shows so we can have the entire series uncut. With my urging they went to Sony and Sony supplied the rest of the series uncut master they were in the vaults.

 

[DaveM4964]

They have arrived!

 

[RobertMG]

They have arrived!
View attachment 143238

Some serious tv watching I bet!!!

 

[timk1041]

But so far every episode has been light years ahead of whats out there? Sad that old OZ did not take better care of his families legacy? What puzzles me is that this show did not play non stop in syndication like Lucy, FKB, Dennis the Menace Donna Reed etc if that would have been the case the show would have been taken care of a bit better == With FKB when Shout did the first season I had a contact there and she told me the cut shows from season one were used because the uncut masters were in rougher shape - I still wish Shout would release a new disc of those 14 uncut shows so we can have the entire series uncut. With my urging they went to Sony and Sony supplied the rest of the series uncut master they were in the vaults.

On FKB, are those uncut episodes available on DVD? I have the entire series boxset from Shout and Season 1 has a lot of edited episodes.

 

[RobertMG]

On FKB, are those uncut episodes available on DVD? I have the entire series boxset from Shout and Season 1 has a lot of edited episodes.

The first season set i think has 14 cut episodes the rest uncut my source at the time said the uncut versions were in very rough shape - I am still trying to get Shout to issue a disc of them so we can have the entire series unedited they should have included both versions on the first set such a great show but props to Shout they used uncut as selling features on Dennis The Menace Donna Reed Hazel etc

 

[Geoffrey Nietspe]

Sounds like you need to change the way your player is set up to display. I'd guess it's set for 4:3 output - change it to "native" or WS. It's also possible the AR on your TV is incorrect - but it sounds more like a player issue.

It's possible these are encoded to play in 4:3 even if played on 16:9 defaulted equipment. That's usually what causes that issue and it's only curable by changing settings in your hardware. I'll know for sure about that when my sets arrive.

Actually Lecagr is 100% correct. He shouldn't have to change anything on his DVD player or TV. These were authored incorrectly as 16x9 when they should of been authored as 4x3. Not only does this cause aspect ratio issues but it also destroys the quality. NTSC DVD's are 720x480 so when they encoded them as 16x9, this added black bars and lost 180 lines of resolution. So now you are only getting 540x480. If they were authored correctly this could of been avoided and the full resolution of DVD could of been utilized.

Certain episodes of The Rebel are also authored this way by S**t Factory. It's very surprisingly how these large companies are so careless and unprofessional. DVD has been out now since 1996 and they still can't get this right?

And don't get me started on the awful audio on these...they noise reduced these to the point of no return. Very difficult to understand what they are saying. Also on any music they did some sort of fake stereo. Sounds ridiculous!

 

[The 1960's]

Within two of the episodes previously sampled, rebroadcast flashback episodes, are Ricky Nelson singing performances. Continuing our celebration of this historic release, here they are.​

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[smithbrad]

Actually Lecagr is 100% correct. He shouldn't have to change anything on his DVD player or TV. These were authored incorrectly as 16x9 when they should of been authored as 4x3. Not only does this cause aspect ratio issues but it also destroys the quality. NTSC DVD's are 720x480 so when they encoded them as 16x9, this added black bars and lost 180 lines of resolution. So now you are only getting 540x480. If they were authored correctly this could of been avoided and the full resolution of DVD could of been utilized.

Certain episodes of The Rebel are also authored this way by S**t Factory. It's very surprisingly how these large companies are so careless and unprofessional. DVD has been out now since 1996 and they still can't get this right?

And don't get me started on the awful audio on these...they noise reduced these to the point of no return. Very difficult to understand what they are saying. Also on any music they did some sort of fake stereo. Sounds ridiculous!

I wouldn't say they were authored incorrectly but authored to meet specific goals.

They were authored as anamorphic so that when filling a widescreen TV they actual maintain the original aspect ratio. There are no aspect ratio issues when implemented this way and viewed on a widescreen TV. Aspect ratio issues are more common and evident when authored non-anamorphic and viewers stretch the image horizontally to fill the screen. There will also be issues with bars on all sides when on viewed on 4:3 TV's (Lecagr's issue), but realistically how many viewers still use 4:3 screens.

It is true, being 4:3 content stored as anamorphic it has baked in bars left and right, which does reduce the amount of space available to store the content. However, it should gain some quality back in that there will be less compression of the content that is present due to the black bars on the side.

As Josh mentioned previously, these were likely created from new 16x9 HD masters, so there may have been some cost savings to maintaining the same format for the DVD's. You can call that cutting corners, but at the same time most never thought this would get a release.

Incorrect...a mistake...I don't think so. It was likely done to ensure the correct aspect ratio is maintained when viewed at the cost of some detail. It surprising how many times I see widescreen TV's incorrectly stretching 4:3 content because the players are not configured correctly. At least this approach corrects that issue. Unfortunately, for Lecagr this authoring approach doesn't support 4:3 TV's.

 

[Lecagr]

The first season set i think has 14 cut episodes the rest uncut my source at the time said the uncut versions were in very rough shape - I am still trying to get Shout to issue a disc of them so we can have the entire series unedited they should have included both versions on the first set such a great show but props to Shout they used uncut as selling features on Dennis The Menace Donna Reed Hazel etc

The 1st season DVD of Mister Ed from Shout Factory originally had some edited episodes but later this was corrected and season 1 now has all complete episodes. It's unfortunate that season 1 of Father Knows Best hasn't been corrected to have all complete episodes but at least seasons 2-6 have the complete episodes. I was hoping that Window On Main Street would be released as a complete series but it seems Shout Factory was only interested in putting a few episodes on the Father Knows Best sets as bonus features.

 

[smithbrad]

The 1st season DVD of Mister Ed from Shout Factory originally had some edited episodes but later this was corrected and season 1 now has all complete episodes.

My memory might be faulty on this, but weren't you required to buy the complete series set originally to get the corrected season 1 episodes?

It's unfortunate that season 1 of Father Knows Best hasn't been corrected to have all complete episodes but at least seasons 2-6 have the complete episodes. I was hoping that Window On Main Street would be released as a complete series but it seems Shout Factory was only interested in putting a few episodes on the Father Knows Best sets as bonus features.

Yes, both situations were unfortunate. I can only assume when Sony provided complete episodes of FKB to Shout! that they would have included season 1 as well, if desired. I assume what is currently available on Amazon Prime through FreeVee were licensed through Shout!, which is why season 1 still shows up with cut versions. However, I suppose it is possible Sony didn't have complete episodes for season one readily available. It is odd though that they would fix the issue with one show and not the other. Maybe FKB didn't sell as well as Mister Ed, so they didn't think going with a complete series set with a fixed season 1 would entice enough to repurchase. I recall later seasons of FKB stalling a bit and even showing up on Shouts! short lived limited copies approach.

 

[Lecagr]

My memory might be faulty on this, but weren't you required to buy the complete series set originally to get the corrected season 1 episodes?

Yes, both situations were unfortunate. I can only assume when Sony provided complete episodes of FKB to Shout! that they would have included season 1 as well, if desired. I assume what is currently available on Amazon Prime through FreeVee were licensed through Shout!, which is why season 1 still shows up with cut versions. However, I suppose it is possible Sony didn't have complete episodes for season one readily available. It is odd though that they would fix the issue with one show and not the other. Maybe FKB didn't sell as well as Mister Ed, so they didn't think going with a complete series set with a fixed season 1 would entice enough to repurchase. I recall later seasons of FKB stalling a bit and even showing up on Shouts! short lived limited copies approach.

The season 1 DVD of Mister Ed with all uncut episodes was indeed originally part of the complete series release. The complete series set had a hype sticker on the packaging to advertise the improved/upgraded season 1.

I believe it was the season 5 and 6 DVD of Father Knows Best that ended up on Shout Factory's "Shout Select" program.

 

[RobertMG]

Actually Lecagr is 100% correct. He shouldn't have to change anything on his DVD player or TV. These were authored incorrectly as 16x9 when they should of been authored as 4x3. Not only does this cause aspect ratio issues but it also destroys the quality. NTSC DVD's are 720x480 so when they encoded them as 16x9, this added black bars and lost 180 lines of resolution. So now you are only getting 540x480. If they were authored correctly this could of been avoided and the full resolution of DVD could of been utilized.

Certain episodes of The Rebel are also authored this way by S**t Factory. It's very surprisingly how these large companies are so careless and unprofessional. DVD has been out now since 1996 and they still can't get this right?

And don't get me started on the awful audio on these...they noise reduced these to the point of no return. Very difficult to understand what they are saying. Also on any music they did some sort of fake stereo. Sounds ridiculous!

My memory might be faulty on this, but weren't you required to buy the complete series set originally to get the corrected season 1 episodes?

Yes, both situations were unfortunate. I can only assume when Sony provided complete episodes of FKB to Shout! that they would have included season 1 as well, if desired. I assume what is currently available on Amazon Prime through FreeVee were licensed through Shout!, which is why season 1 still shows up with cut versions. However, I suppose it is possible Sony didn't have complete episodes for season one readily available. It is odd though that they would fix the issue with one show and not the other. Maybe FKB didn't sell as well as Mister Ed, so they didn't think going with a complete series set with a fixed season 1 would entice enough to repurchase. I recall later seasons of FKB stalling a bit and even showing up on Shouts! short lived limited copies approach.

The cut season episodes were used because the uncut on those were really rough but they should issue them so we can own them all Shout does not seem to care about customer service any longer FKB is now owned by Young's family -- Rodney's might have a piece not sure Billy Gray did not take part in the interviews feeling they should have been pd -- cannot blame him

 

[greenscreened]

...I jumped ahead to ‘The Fish Story’, which is one of my favorite episodes, and I noticed that at the beginning, when Ozzie was trying to convince Thorny that he really didn’t catch the fish at Mud Basin, the little (crucial) audible sound of a small bell’s solitary ‘ding’ that coincided with the light bulb moment look on Oz’s face when he decides to string Thornberry along, was sadly missing...

I think that probably happened because the noise reduction/gating was applied too heavily...

Compare the volume of the ‘Ding’ to that of the dialogue, on this syndicated version @ 7:51...



Not for anything, but that must have been some pretty heavy noise reduction/gating, because there is absolutely no trace of it at all on this restored collection, even through headphones, compared to the syndicated version(s) circulating since at least as early as the mid 1980s, if not earlier.

Maybe those versions were from Oz’s secret-sweetening-‘Director’s Cut’ project he was working on, but those print(s) didn’t hold up as well, so we got the pre-sweetening version (I'm joking of course)!

I'm tending to lean more to the possibility that it was an innocent, albeit deliberate omission.

 

[DaveM4964]

Some serious tv watching I bet!!!

My wife and i are right in the middle of season one, disc one. So far everything looks good. Not perfect but miles ahead of any other dvd's out there. The only thing i've noticed is some audio noise in some quiet scenes. It's a real treat to see these episodes. There are many i've never seen. I will be preordering seasons 3 and 4!

 

[mark-edk]

Not for anything, but that must have been some pretty heavy noise reduction/gating, because there is absolutely no trace of it at all on this restored collection, even through headphones, compared to the syndicated version(s) circulating since at least as early as the mid 1980s, if not earlier.

That's too loud a 'ding' for even heavy noise reduction to eliminate, so my original theory goes out the window. IMHO I think it's possible the 'ding' was never there in the first place. One of the things Ozzie did with early episodes when cutting them down for syndication was to replace the original music score with the familiar library tracks that dominated in later seasons. That means the audio would have to be remixed. I could see Ozzie adding the 'ding' there as an improvement on the original scene. Easily done since he was creating a whole new audio track anyhow. I compared them both and I can't hear any trace of the 'ding' on the remastered version and don't believe it was ever there. I also found the audio on the remastered version inferior to the syndicated episode on youtube.
(I'll stop complaining now about audio on these releases; don't want to wear out my welcome!)

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'll stop complaining now about audio on these releases; don't want to wear out my welcome!

I do get what you’re saying about the audio - that’s my complaint too. My educated guess is that with 435 episodes to work on, with finite resources and limited sales potential, is that a lot of the work may have had to have been done primarily with automatic tools rather than having a sound engineer manually work on every single second by hand, and that the tendency of the audio tracks to venture into the over-processed territory came from that. It’s not a deal-breaker for me but I recognize that with more time, money and resources there was probably some room for improvement in that specific area.

 

[greenscreened]

That's too loud a 'ding' for even heavy noise reduction to eliminate, so my original theory goes out the window. IMHO I think it's possible the 'ding' was never there in the first place. One of the things Ozzie did with early episodes when cutting them down for syndication was to replace the original music score with the familiar library tracks that dominated in later seasons. That means the audio would have to be remixed. I could see Ozzie adding the 'ding' there as an improvement on the original scene. Easily done since he was creating a whole new audio track anyhow. I compared them both and I can't hear any trace of the 'ding' on the remastered version and don't believe it was ever there...

I hope there’s enough room to throw my defense lawyer mindset explanation of the missing ding out that same window, as I’ll bet the farm on your explanation.

Interesting about replacing some of the original scores with library tracks, were they changed for copyright reasons, or as an enhancement afterthought?
Watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the present day, I recall hearing four or so catchy little ditties that were also used in Leave It To Beaver, or vice versa.