Press Release MPI Press Release: The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet Seasons 1 & 2 (DVD) (3 Viewers)

[Ron Lee Green]

From the pictures I saw on Amazon's Complete Series listing, it seems that the box would be storing the individual DVD cases as they were on the original releases, so no SLIM cases, no CARDBOARD SLIDE cases and most importantly - NO 2 BIG BOX cases with all the discs on top of each other.

I'd been stalling on this wonderful show for a while due to having to pick up some other shows I had on my list, so if that is indeed the case, I'll definitely be buying the complete set. I've avoided the Bonanza and Gunsmoke complete sets for that reason alone - hate those gigantic boxes with all the discs stacked on each other like toast salami.

It looks to me like the all-in-one cases are slimmer than the season releases, but it's hard to tell. The all-in-one cases are black, and the regular cases are clear. Incidentally, amazon has it currently for $140.00 so that averages out to $10 a season for 14 seasons!!

 

[justarandomstan]

It looks to me like the all-in-one cases are slimmer than the season releases, but it's hard to tell. The all-in-one cases are black, and the regular cases are clear.

Those are just placeholder cases. If you go to each listing for the individual seasons on Amazon, or the 70th Anniversary set for that matter, you'd see that the cases are also black, but the actual cases in which each season shipped were, as you stated, clear.

Maybe I'm wrong, but we will soon find out. Reviews of the complete series set should start popping up fairly soon.

 

[BobO'Link]

Based on how large the box looks, I'd say it's nothing but a collection of the individual season releases, in the same size/style cases, with an extra case containing the bonus material. Part of me wishes I'd have waited as the price for this set is excellent - but then I'd not have been enjoying the seasons all this time. PLUS - whenever I try to play that game the individual season releases start to go OOP and a complete set never arrives... I wasn't about to let that happen with this, very long awaited, series.

 

[Ron Lee Green]

Based on how large the box looks, I'd say it's nothing but a collection of the individual season releases, in the same size/style cases, with an extra case containing the bonus material. Part of me wishes I'd have waited as the price for this set is excellent - but then I'd not have been enjoying the seasons all this time. PLUS - whenever I try to play that game the individual season releases start to go OOP and a complete set never arrives... I wasn't about to let that happen with this, very long awaited, series.

I think you're right. I checked the specifications under the product details, and it says:

Product details​

• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.75 x 6 x 7.75 inches; 4.4 Pounds

I lined up 14 dvd cases on my shelf and measured them, and the length was 8.50" inches, so it does sound like it will be the same style cases.
Regardless, I think you made the right decision buying the season sets because I know how long you've waited for this series to be released. You would've been in agony waiting for the complete series while everyone else were enjoying the season sets.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

If everyone had waited to purchase until the complete series came out, MPI could have seen some seriously depressed numbers on the early volumes and concluded that even though they had contributed to the costs of releasing series already, that it just wouldn’t have made financial sense to incur the costs of releasing all the seasons, and it could easily have become another stalled show.

 

[Jeff*H]

Well, around Thanksgiving or thereabouts, the pre-order price on the Complete Series dropped down to around $138, which hit close to the sweet spot I was looking for. I pressed ahead with the double-dip (actually a triple-dip, since I bought the digital HD versions too), and I’m thrilled I did, because my Complete Series set arrived today, ahead of the 12/19 Tuesday release date.

I’ll post about it more once I’ve been able to spend some time with it. In the meantime, I can confirm they used the individual season release cases side-by-side inside the box, as surmised in the posts above. There’s also a small booklet filled with vintage photos and notes about the series history, along with credits for everyone involved with the DVD releases. Finally, the bonus discs are in a bi-fold cardboard sleeve, so you have to be careful getting them out. The box itself is very high quality, with a die-cut house on the front, and some great vintage color photos all around the box. Very high-quality release in terms of the design, for the most part. MPI and the Nelson heirs should be very proud of this release, along with the individual season releases, and all of the 10+ years of hard work that went into this project!

More to come later this week…

 

[Jeff*H]

Here are some pics of the set…

 

[justarandomstan]

It's beautiful! Thank you for the pictures, @Jeff*H ♥

 

[bmasters9]

It's beautiful! Thank you for the pictures, @Jeff*H ♥

Indeed-- looks like MPI went above-and-beyond the call of duty with this all-in-one (the bonus discs folder and episode guide having plenty of neat pictures of the time, including a vintage ad for Coca-Cola in the bonus folder).

 

[Susan Nunes_329977]

I am on the last season of the show, the color season. I am going to hate to be finished with it. It is a bit jarring to go from the black and white of the first 13 seasons to the rich color of the last. Contrary to some opinion, I found this show was just as good as it ever was in its later seasons, after the boys got married and the wives made appearances. The writing was still pretty solid. Of course, I like the early seasons best with Thorny next door, but this show was so good from the beginning. It is one of those shows, like The Real McCoys, The Andy Griffith Show, and a few others, that is better now than when it first aired.

 

[bmasters9]

And two other things you gotta give it to MPI for here:

--One, that the discs (outside of the bonus discs) came in the same style packs the original seasonals came in, even if the cases are black here (some, like Family Ties from CBS, and the original M*A*S*H from Fox, had that unwieldy book-style packaging that made it next-to-impossible to get the discs out without scratching them);

--and two, that they counted the bonus discs as part of the total number of discs (48 on the seasons, and two bonus discs, makes the total of 50 that are in here).

 

[justarandomstan]

And two other things you gotta give it to MPI for here:

--One, that the discs (outside of the bonus discs) came in the same style packs the original seasonals came in, even if the cases are black here (some, like Family Ties from CBS, and the original M*A*S*H from Fox, had that unwieldy book-style packaging that made it next-to-impossible to get the discs out without scratching them);

The cases are not black, they're clear, see through cases, what are you talking about? @Jeff*H 's photos clearly (pun very much intended) show that.

And of course they're gonna count the bonus discs towards the disc total, they're a part of the set...

 

[bmasters9]

The cases are not black, they're clear, see through cases, what are you talking about? @Jeff*H 's photos clearly (pun very much intended) show that.

Was referring in that instance to MPI's original imagery of this all-in-one (which can be seen on this page of this thread), which (IINM) showed black-colored cases.

 

[seanrt]

I am wrapping up season 11 this evening as I write this. What a treat to end the season on episode 26 “The June Music Festival”. I Know I have never seen this episode before. Visiting this series has turned out to be a lot more fun than I anticipated. As I have mentioned before, my first viewing was the Disney Channel airings in the 80’s, so I am watching the series now with a different perspective. Watching the world Ozzie has been building over the seasons has been quite the ride. The Thorny episodes feel so long ago it was like a different time.



The rhythm with these later seasons feel like they could be packaged as three separate shows. Which is brilliant. Tune in one week you get an Archie comics style adventure with Ricky’s fraternity/sorority hijinks. One week you could get a workplace/homeplace sitcom with the Dave & June episodes. Still another week with the madness of Ozzie, Harriet, Joe & Clara.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the show use the different supporting cast members in rotating or one off rolls until they found the role for them to land. Funny though, long after Constance Harper was introduced as Connie Edwards I would still see her show up in the craziest spots, like dancing at the frat house.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Funny though, long after Constance Harper was introduced as Connie Edwards I would still see her show up in the craziest spots, like dancing at the frat house.

...Or as a diner waitress (in S10's "The Barking Dog.")

Great post, Sean! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the series. I'm guessing several members here will echo your sentiments - especially regarding how much fun it's been working through the series in complete form.

 

[Flashgear]

Watching the world Ozzie has been building over the seasons has been quite the ride. The Thorny episodes feel so long ago it was like a different time.

The rhythm with these later seasons feel like they could be packaged as three separate shows. Which is brilliant. Tune in one week you get an Archie comics style adventure with Ricky’s fraternity/sorority hijinks. One week you could get a workplace/homeplace sitcom with the Dave & June episodes. Still another week with the madness of Ozzie, Harriet, Joe & Clara.

Sean, I'd like to echo Jeff's praise for your incisive Ozzie and Harriet series' fan appreciation, much to agree with, insightful and well done!

I'm old enough to have watched it in reruns for the oldest episodes, and first run for the later seasons in the early to mid '1960s. As a family, we of course loved it and never missed it!

Like yourself and others here, the quality MPI DVD releases of the whole series finally allowed me to see many previously unknown episodes that I didn't have in my previously acquired public domain film and video dupe sources.

Maybe I'm a bad guy and shouldn't find it funny now (very funny, and intended and received as funny back in the day!), but I love the bossy relationship between Charlene Salerno (Ginger) and Skip Young as Wally, Ginger's terrorized (ha, ha!) and hen-pecked boyfriend...often startling Wally by appearing out of thin air, calling him 'fatso' (sometimes with affection, but often in wrath), and punching him in the stomach, badgering him into being a more attentive boyfriend...so sue me, I'm an old bastard and love decidedly un-PC humor on this show and many others.

God love MPI, UCLA, Sam Nelson and the entire Nelson family estate for remastering this great show in as sparkling and complete a state as we could have ever dreamed of!

 

[timk1041]

I am wrapping up season 11 this evening as I write this. What a treat to end the season on episode 26 “The June Music Festival”. I Know I have never seen this episode before. Visiting this series has turned out to be a lot more fun than I anticipated. As I have mentioned before, my first viewing was the Disney Channel airings in the 80’s, so I am watching the series now with a different perspective. Watching the world Ozzie has been building over the seasons has been quite the ride. The Thorny episodes feel so long ago it was like a different time.



The rhythm with these later seasons feel like they could be packaged as three separate shows. Which is brilliant. Tune in one week you get an Archie comics style adventure with Ricky’s fraternity/sorority hijinks. One week you could get a workplace/homeplace sitcom with the Dave & June episodes. Still another week with the madness of Ozzie, Harriet, Joe & Clara.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the show use the different supporting cast members in rotating or one off rolls until they found the role for them to land. Funny though, long after Constance Harper was introduced as Connie Edwards I would still see her show up in the craziest spots, like dancing at the frat house.

Anyone notice in one of the Season 13 episodes, Sally Hughes didn't play Mrs. Darby. It was some other actress I'm not familiar with. But then in a later Season 13 episode Sally Hughes played someone named Mrs. Foster. I do know that Sally Hughes played some other parts in the show other than Mrs. Darby during various seasons. I thought of that when it was mentioned about Constance Harper playing other characters besides Miss Edwards.