Adventures
Of Ozzie and Harriet: The Complete Season Nine + Ten
(1960 - 1962/MPI Sets)/Magnum
P.I.: Season Four
(2021/revival*)/New
Amsterdam: Season Four
(2021*)/The
Virginian: Seasons 4 - 6
(1965 - 1968/*all ViaVision PAL Region Free Imports/all DVDs)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: B-/C+/C+/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
All DVD sets, save the Ozzie
and Harriet
sets, are now only available from our friends at ViaVision
Entertainment in Australia, can play on all DVD, 4K and Blu-ray
players that can handle the PAL DVD format and can be ordered from
the links below
Now
for a mix of classic TV and some newer shows...
The
restoration releases continue as we now have The
Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet: The Complete Season Nine and Ten
(1960 - 1962) with the couple's sons definitely much older in a show
that continued to be a big hit and had the boys grow up before our
eyes like few in TV history before or since. For more on the show
itself, you can read about it starting at this link of the first two
season on DVD from the same series of remastered and restored
DVDs...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16149/Adventures+Of+Ozzie+&+Harriett:+The+Complete
Since
it has been eons that I have seen most of these shows, rerun heavily
when I was very little, I was shocked I had seen most of them and
started remembering when rewatching them, holding up better and being
more consistent than I would have guessed. The family had more
chemistry than they are often given credit for (not all families have
chemistry) and Ozzie himself knew from instinct what would work best
for the show. At 33 and 25 half-hour shows respectively, it had not
grown as thin as many fo its sitcom counterparts of the time and I
have never seen these look so good. Nice the original camera
materials, et al, were taken care of as much as they were.
If
you are interested in the show, I would still start from the early
seasons and try to watch chronologically, but the show was designed
to be watched in no particular order because of the expected reruns
and syndication far more common back then. Needless to say it was a
huge hit there too. Some of these 1950s sitcoms get a bad rap for
being fake or ignoring social issues, but the show has some heart and
a real moral center that cannot be ignored and it is refreshing to
see them again, especially because they do not come across as phony
as some of its competitors (I
Married Joan,
for instance) that seemed to try too hard. Definitely, its worth a
look and you have likely not seen older TV look this good, so that's
a treat and plus for these sets.
Magnum
P.I.: Season Four
(2021) is only the second time I have seen the revival of the hit Tom
Selleck series, which we reviewed on DVD at these links:
Season
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3302/Magnum,+P.I
Seasons
Four to Eight/The Final Season
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6674/Magnum,+P.I
The
original show has since been issued in a Complete Series Blu-ray box
set that is supposed to look and sound really good, so get that set
over any DVDs if you can.
As
for this new version, it was always weird to me that they revived the
show while former lead star Selleck was still alive, around, popular
(including in telefilms) and in a hit police drama on the same U.S.
network (CBS, who made this show) so go figure, though it survived
cancellation by moving to rival NBC.
Jay
Hernandez is the new Magnum and he is not bad, but the show is too
slap-dash and predictable throughout, even not always ringing true
when it is trying to be 'for real' and at least is shot on location.
The only plus is the supporting cast is a plus and has some energy
here, so I can see why it was a moderate hit. It just pales in
comparison to the original show, especially its early seasons. In
the end, it is only for the most curious.
When
it comes to medical dramas, many are repetitive going back to the
1950s, with some having the doctor-as-good and doctor-as-god thing
going for it, even when featuring good actors (Robert Young) and in
that, I tend to like St.
Elsewhere
more than E.R.,
Quincy,
M.E.
more than Dr.
Quinn,
Grey's
Anatomy
early more than later seasons. New
Amsterdam: Season Four
(2021) is a hit show that falls somewhere in the middle, with a
mostly unknown cast (until now we gather) with Ryan Eggold as Dr. Max
Goodwin for starters.
The
show is more laid back and goes out of its way for naturalism,
character development and getting as far away form the traditional
medical drama as possible and these 22 hours are not bad, well
produced, written, directed and by people who seem to be taking their
time to make it work. That is why it is a hit and has struck a chord
with the audience it has. The title is even an in joke (as the old
Four Lads song ''Istanbul''
reminded us, ''Even old New York, was once New Amsterdam'') and that
gives you an idea of the subtle intelligence the show has.
Unfortunately,
it just did not stick with me and also felt a little generic by
trying too hard to be easy-going and subtle. Now you can see for
yourself.
Finally,
we have a hit western that lasted nine seasons and was always in
color. The
Virginian: Seasons 4 - 6
(1965 - 1968) holds up better than most such series of the period and
looks decent considering its budget limits. A long while ago, we
reviewed the Season
One
U.S. set and I had this to say about the show at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9937/The+Virginian
The
show held up better than most of the longer running westerns (at
least as good as Gunsmoke
and Bonanza,
which I only liked so much, but not as good as Have
Gun Will Travel)
and as was the case back then, each story was self-contained in a
single show. I.Q. Jones, Clu Gulager, Randy Boone, James Drury,
Charles Bickford, John McIntyre and Jeanette Nolan joined the regular
cast in these seasons and sometimes replaced other regulars in new
roles with the same occupation or even the same role.
The
guest casts continued to be a who's who of the industry including
Charles Bronson, Strother Martin, John Cassavetes, Leslie Nielsen in
his pre-comedy days, Ed Begley, John Mitchum, Warren Oates, Angie
Dickinson, Myrna Loy, Dan Duryea, Andy Devine, Pernell Roberts, Susan
Strasberg, Mel Torme, James Whitmore, Susan Oliver, Robert Lansing
and of course, the great Darren McGavin. That's as strong as any
western guest cast list as you'll find, so you can see why people
still talk about the show, respect it and its time with shows like
Yellowstone doing so well for The Virginian to be rediscovered. A
high quality set like this can only help.
Now
for playback performance. The 1.33 X 1 black & white transfers
on Ozzie
can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a
transfer to all previous releases of the show and you can see how the
show was using higher speed light sensitivity black and white film at
this point versus the first seasons.
The
1.33 X 1 color transfers on Virginian
can also show the age of the materials used, but the shows look good
for their age and are likely the same solid transfers that we
encountered in its debut season years ago on U.S. NTSC DVD.
That
leaves the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Amsterdam
and the new Magnum
series looking just fine for new HD shoots, though (like the new
Hawaii
Five-O)
the slicker, more quickly edited Magnum
just does not do as good a job of capturing the locales in Hawaii as
well as its 35mm predecessor. We'll see if a future Blu-ray version
changes that, but that means these sets are on par with each other
visually.
As
for sound, Ozzie
and Virginian
are in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, while Amsterdam
and Magnum
are presented in lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and Amsterdam
adds a second, lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. Magnum seems to
have had room for a stereo track, but it is not here, though the
mastering suggests otherwise. Though the newer shows can sound
clearer ans a little more detailed, they do not have the warmth, bass
at times and even clarity of the older shows with their simpler
soundtracks. Of course, none of this is lossless, but they sound on
par with each other and are fine for what we get here.
There
are no extras on any of these sets, sadly.
To
order any of the
ViaVision import TV on DVD sets, go to these links for them and much
more:
Magnum
P.I.: Season Four
(revival)
https://viavision.com.au/shop/magnum-p-i-season-four/
New
Amsterdam: Season
Four
https://viavision.com.au/shop/new-amsterdam-season-four/
The
Virginian: Seasons 4, 5 & 6
https://viavision.com.au/shop/the-virginian-collection-2-seasons-4-6/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
