Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

I finished S2 of Parks and Recreation just before noon today. It was pretty good and better than I thought it might be after what seemed to be a bit of a rocky start with the season. It'll be interesting to see where the buget battle goes in S3 - but I'll not get to that for a while as I'm shifting gears.

I picked up a copy of the Uni rerelase of Xena: Warrior Princess S1 to replace my original Anchor Bay set which has a couple of episodes that freeze/stutter/hang. I'd picked up that AB set after it had gone OOP and didn't watch it until *way* past a possible return date so there was no way to get replacement disks other than purchase new. From what I've read the Uni sets improve on those from AB with a better picture (although S1 was filmed on 16mm stock) and added subtitles. I like those as I can turn 'em on and turn the sound down enough so as not to disturb my wife with late night viewings. It's been a couple of years since I've watched any episodes so I'm looking forward to the rewatching. I have the Uni versions of S2-S4 in the wings but doubt I'll watch any of them this time out. But with primary IMDB genre tags of "Action | Adventure | Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Romance" it'll be easy to watch more seasons in upcoming challenges. :)

Off to get in a few eps... ALALALALA! (or YiYiYiYiYi! if you prefer) :D

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

My main goals of the challenge were to finish season 8 of Dexter (I also agree eh), and watch season 4 and get caught up with the current season of The Good Wife all of which I've completed. My next goal was to work on cleaning up my tivo which is a nightmare because I've basically ignored all but my favorite shows since the horror challenge. So don't think I'll get to any of my unwatched dvds unfortunately but I'd like to stop stressing about dvr space.

It's been awhile since I've seen these seasons so I don't remember what I thought of every episode of season 2 except that I liked it as a whole, and we obviously might have different tastes but you should try and watch season 3 sooner rather then later it's one of my favorite seasons of any show, not just Parks and Rec.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

Xena is quite a bit of fun! My grandkids came in while I was watching and sat down for 3 episodes. We'd opened a couple of new Skylanders after watching an episode of Xena and I gave them a choice of playing a level of Swap Force *or* watching a couple more episodes of Xena. They chose Xena! It's always nice when I show them a old favorite and they like it enough to ask for more! :)

I'm also happy to say they no longer complain if I pull out a old B/W program but will watch a few episodes before passing judgement. My grandson is a *huge* fan of I Love Lucy and was excited to see I'd picked up a couple more seasons a week or so back!

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

I did a marathon viewing of S5 of Psych watching the first 7 episodes. Loved the season premiere and it was almost on par with the S4 Bollywood episode which I thought it was one of the show's best. Shawn getting his ass kicked every single time was one of the highlight along with going to their former Asian employee, to get information on the Triads. "Borderline" racist as he called it :lol:


Looking back at the first season, it was very hard to watch. I know they were trying to set up the characters but even Ron was hard to take. S2 was better but I agree that S3 is when they bring the funny with the addition of Rob Lowe and Adam Scott.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

After a couple of discs of Xena I put in The Adventures of Robin Hood S2 where I'd left off months back. I tend to favor half hour programs late at night/early mornings as they're easier to back up and re-watch when I fall asleep on a episode (which happens all too frequently!).

The video quality of S2 is much better than S1. I'm somewhat surprised this one didn't receive more US syndication. I have *very* vague recollections of the main theme song but not much else. This one would have been 100% one of those I'd have connected with as a kid, and *still* tend to connect with. Fun stories, action, adventure, comedy, even pretty good sets. While there *are* a few location shots (mostly establishing type) it's obviously, and mostly, stage bound but every effort is made to have those sets look as realistic and natural as possible. The episodes are only half hour but it's typically a packed half hour. One thing I get a bit of a kick from is their use of the English folk song "Early One Morning" as a lead in for every episode. They write new lyrics for a single verse to describe enough of the story to get things rolling and then start the action. Richard Greene is a very good Robin Hood. I also like the rest of the main cast.

Hammer tapped Greene for the Robin Hood role in 1960 for Sword of Sherwood Forest, their 2nd attempt to bring Robin Hood to the big screen (the first was The Men Of Sherwood Forest which has not yet seen a R1 release). It was a adaptation of the TV show and had Terence Fisher in the director's chair. He'd directed a few of the TV episodes and was familiar with the property. Hmmm.... I still have that one in my unopened pile. I might have to open and watch it for this challenge since it's a adaption of a TV show...

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

I used to see this series as a child and until I watched an episode on YouTube for this challenge I hadn't seen it in over 50 years. I thought it held up very well, enough for me to order the box set of Season 1 for $4.99 from Amazon this morning. The episode I saw was the one where they introduce Maid Marian, who's quite a hardy and self-sufficient "maid" if ever there was one and a bowman (bowperson?) almost the equal of Robin.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

You would probably do better in the long run to get the full series set. The single seasons will cost $8-$12 each and the full series can frequently be purchased for ~$11-$13 (it's currently $13.74 shipped from a MP vendor or $18.66 from Amazon). More importantly, Michael's Movie Mahem shows all 4 seasons to be OOP (S1/S2/S3/S4) which could mean difficulty filling in gaps later. If it's not too late I'd recommend that you cancel that S1 order and spring for the full series.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

Semi-Sarcastic query... does Once Upon a Time make all Disney films sort-of-eligible for this TV challenge...?! :)

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

Good! :)

I feel for you... fortunately, I never saw the show until a few years ago, so I've actually pointedly still never seen 90% of Season 2. I need to rectify that at some point "because," but...

Lucky! I managed to get a copy of the first Season Press Kit a few years ago, but the rest have proved elusive or expensive... that sounds like a great collection.

That's actually one of the minor problems I have with the show... it's half hardcore military vessel, half-cruise ship.

True, but there's something in the pre-press materials from Roddenberry giving a reason for that, isn't there? Like, the point was to allow families to be on board, so that the five(ish) year mission for the crew would be more bearable.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

Without wishing it away, I'm hoping to finish Veronica Mars soon so I can get back to not-VM! Finding it on Amazon has thoroughly side-tracked me from everything else...

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

I had been doing pretty good with the challenge as of the halfway point with 95 or so episodes watched as of last night. Unfortunately, this afternoon when I was editing my list on my iPad, it dumped out everything from after my first 18 episodes, so I am going to have to try to recreate what I watched after January 3rd. Fortunately, I know what I watched for the most part out of my disc stuff and what I watch as it airs normally, so I will only miss out on what I watched at random. Unfortunately, I also will miss out on the ratings I was keeping track of for each episode I was watching, but that can't really be helped.

Out of my goals, so far I completed watching House of Lies season 2. The highlight for me has probably been continuing watching Millennium Season 1 which has been fantastic. I also got sidetracked from my personal goals by the arrival of The Avengers Emma Peel Megaset which had the first few discs as floaters with some scuffing, so I wanted to make sure they worked. It was a lot of fun watching these episodes again. As far as my remaining four goals, I have been making steady progress so I should be able to finish those.

Now to figure out how to sort out the mess that my list is now. Edit: I think I did pretty good. Only missing 4 or 5 episodes from what my total was last night.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

Still making my way through Orange is the New Black and I'm really not loving it. I know it's only 13 episodes but after 6 I'm ready to walk away. I really hate to not complete my goal though. Did anyone here watch the series? Should I hang in there (i.e. it will get better) or should I cut my losses and maybe try and squeeze two seasons of Veronica Mars in before the challenge ends?

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

Here's a little known recovery...

At the bottom left on *every* post you've edited you'll see the line Last edited by xxx; followed by the date and time. That little line section is a link to *all* the changes you've made to your list. Click on it and you'll see a list of your past edit points. You can go back, recover a past version, and simply change/add what's missing. With this you should be able to fully recover the edit prior to the one where your iPad "dumped out everything".

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

I recall that too. I'd see if it's in any of the print stuff but it's pretty buried at the moment. It would probably be on the 3/4" video tape in the S1 press kit and I don't have the capability to play those. I stupidly didn't make a VHS copy at any point! :(

I've heard (read?) that they didn't make use of the saucer separation like Roddenberry had planned because it proved to be a expensive proposition (remember... this series still used practical FX so it required lots of camera/miniature work). AFAIK there were only 3 regular season episodes where saucer separation was performed: "Encounter at Farpoint" (S1/E1), "The Arsenal of Freedom" (S1/E21), and "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II" (S4/E1). The first 2 were to protect the civilian population and the 3rd was for tactical reasons. It was also done in the feature film Generations where it was used as a lifeboat.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

Thanks a lot! That worked like a charm.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

I'm doing pretty good still. 130+. I am counting 1=1, though. I also lost a few days here this last week as I was on a mini vacation. A friend from Alaska was visiting and my niece's birthday was this weekend, and since they were in the same town, I killed two birds with one stone. Saw a couple movies, but no tv really.

As for my goals, well, my main one was to finish off my "Red Dwarf" box set, but while I got through a couple series worth, I still have half left. I will try to get another one in, but I'm finding I'm getting a little od'd on it. It's still a funny series for me, but not one I can gorge on, I guess. I have been jumping around and just watching normal TV for the most part.

I kind of want to watch season 4 of "Beetlejuice" still, but we'll see.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

I spent today working on the checklist, and I'm checks away from completion! Started a couple of shows I've had sitting around unwatched for awhile: The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr. and Twin Peaks. Both had great pilot episodes. Cannot wait to delve into each a little more.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

Incidentally, I ran into a Mill Creek display at Walmart. There were several Season One and Complete Series sets, all $5. The Adventures of Robin Hood complete series was among them, as was The Tick (complete live action series). I can't recall offhand what else was in the mix.

I just finished The 4400 The Third Season, Disc Two. The two-part "Gone" might be the best story in the series to that point. In it, five 4400 kids - including Maia - are abducted. It's very well constructed and probably Jacqueline McKenzie's finest, er, hour-and-a-half on the show in a very affecting performance. What's really fascinating about the four episodes on Disc Two is that one of the subplots involves the erasure of some people from history - a common enough sci-fi story device - but interesting, addressing and resolving that tampering with time has no bearing on other concurrent plot threads. I've never seen that before. Typically, the idea is that if you tamper with time, it's an all-or-nothing thing. Here, though, the Time Erasure Plot is independent of Other Plot.

If I have one real complaint about the show, it's that too many key plot threads are built around a small cluster of very connected people. For dramatic purposes, sure, we need to be invested in and care about the characters big things happen to, but the scale of the series feels really small at times. They did a nice job developing a recurring, supporting cast of characters (something these writers perfected on Deep Space Nine), but because we're seeing what amounts to two cops at the center of it all, it doesn't feel grand enough for the themes and ideas being discussed.

I never watched The X-Files; just the first movie when it played in theaters, and then a few years ago, I finally watched the pilot. I understand the overall nature of the show, though, and I'd be interested to hear from anyone who watched both that show and The 4400 about their thoughts on the latter's sense of scale.

I'm meeting some friends for dinner at 5. I had considered catching a matinee showing of a movie beforehand, but now I'm kinda thinking about just staying in and moving onto Disc Three!

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

After a afternoon with The Adventures of Robin Hood I shifted gears again. This time I went for a old, old, favorite I've not seen since its original airings - The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. I'd picked up the "Best of Season 2" a few months back and have been looking for a excuse to move it up in the queue - this was it!

I've been laughing myself silly! It's just as funny as it was way back in '67! I get more of the jokes now (I was 12 that year and didn't follow current events much) and really don't quite understand why my dad would let me watch as our house was pretty conservative and that's one subversive program for 1967! We'd come home from church and I'd turn the TV on to catch the last 30-45 minutes or so. I loved the Pat Paulsen commentaries (even though much of them went over my head) and once sent off for the transcript. Dad said I'd never get it but about 4 weeks later the "self addressed, stamped envelope" arrived with one inside. I still have it and need to dig it out to see if it's one of those that's on this set. That would be *really* cool!

The banter between Tom and Dick is still funny and I find myself wishing they'd sing more of the folk songs after they joke around - much like I did during those original airings. The guest line up for what I've seen so far is amazing for TV with Bette Davis, Mickey Rooney, Janet Leigh, James Mason, and more! Most of the skits are well done and funny. The episodes have opening and closing segments added when the series (all? part?) ran on "E!" some time back. They are interesting as Tom and Dick talk about the episode and some of what happened backstage. The only issue there is that many (all?) of the episodes are edited for those airings because of those segments. I tend to think most edits were minor but I'd still like to see the programs intact with those intro/outro segments put on as special features.

One of the episodes I watched last night was the "infamous" appearance of "The Who" where the drum kit was overloaded for the demolition finale and the explosion supposedly damaged Pete Townshend’s hearing. The Who were lip syncing the song until right up to the end when they did a segue into live sound for the destruction sequence.

That's the main gripe I have so far - most of the rock acts are lip syncing their hit song(s). My other gripe with musical appearances is the rather cliche' Chroma-Key segments on the rock acts with "trippy" backgrounds. Of course both were in heavy use in those years and not so cliche' at the time but I still didn't care for either back then. Heck... if you were going to come on and just lip sync I could put on the record (a large reason I never watched American Band Stand much). Many of the acts didn't even bother to try to play the instruments in sync with the drums being the typical worst offenders. I'd watch those segments in programs back then and wonder what the studio audience was actually hearing. Did they have the record turned up so loud the drums couldn't be heard? Did anyone do anything other than mime? The light-show Chroma-Keyed backgrounds seemed to be there to show the world how "cool" you (or the production team) were. Oh well... It's *still* cool to see all those old acts.

Watching these has me somewhat regretting I never purchased the "Best of" sets for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, another somewhat subversive program I watched as often as possible. I never picked those up because they were way too short for the price (although the Smothers Brothers ones are not much better).

I'd *love* to see this series receive a *full* and unedited release. Based on my recollections of the series and what I've seen so far I know I'd purchase it!

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

Rumor has it the display includes many of the MC re-releases of Sony products including seasons of Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Wings, and more.

I need to run by WM today... If they have that display out and there are full series sets of The Adventures of Robin Hood here I'll probably get one just for a "protection" copy.

*EDIT*

None here yet... at least at the "big" WM. All they had was the same dump of assorted MC and PD titles that showed up before Christmas.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

...I thought that was totally OOP. Did you get it new or second hand, please..? :)

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

It got a re-release from Lions Gate in October 2013. It's currently "under review" from Amazon but still available from MP sellers. Based on the few "reviews" I read it's probably due to many complaints about floaters and the damage caused by poor packaging.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

Here's some quotes:

1701-D is "designed to be a home (home in a very literal sense to something over 1,000 pesons)... much more fully "a home away form home" than any of the earlier Enterprises. As humanity probes deeper and deeper into space with missions 20 years or longer becoming the norm, Starfleet has begun encouraging crewmembers to share the space exploration adventure together as a family group and space community members. Most 24th Century humans believe that "Life should be lived, not postponed." "

"The Galaxy-Class Enterprise boasts a complement of about 1012 people, including crew members and their families. The ship is capable of independent operation for about three years without refueling... The mission of the Enterprise is primarily research and diplomacy, and it is superbly equipped for both. For those occasions when a show of military force is unavoidable, the ship is also equipped with an impressive array of defensive and offensive weapons."

"The mission of the Enterprise is exploration, science, and diplomacy. It is not a warship, nor is Starfleet a military organization in the 20th Century sense."

Yes, I remember something like that. Too expensive, too difficult... and maybe also worried about it becoming repetitive or redundant.

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

Great! Thanks. :)

Anyone know if the Cathy Gale Megaset I remember reading about a) ever existed or b) is likely to be on the R1 cards..?

Re: TV on DVD* Challenge - Season Four Discussion Thread
 

I've been enjoying working through my nature shows and Ancient Aliens sets. Finished Planet Earth, one set of Wild Kingdom, and almost done with Life. I also finished Season 1 of Ancient Aliens. I still have 2 more episodes of Life, Blue Planet, and 2 Wild Kingdom sets to choose from, as well as seasons 2-4 of Ancient Aliens. Luckily season sets of Ancient Aliens are short, averaging 10-12 episodes per set.