The Dick Van Dyke Show Collection (Passport)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: B-     Main Episodes: C

 

 

Dick Van Dyke is a great performer, especially a comic one, which is his usual persona.  Passport has decided to issue a 5 DVD Dick Van Dyke Show Collection, but they have only six shows on the first 3 DVDs and the theme song has been dropped to avoid royalties!   So what does the rest of the box have?  Besides weak print bonus episodes of Beverly Hillbillies, Andy Griffith Show, Love That Bob, a couple of Petticoat Junctions, an early Ozzie & Harriett and a pretty good Lucy Show with Carol Burnett as the guest star, there are some other extras worth your time and possibly strong enough to convince you in get this set.

 

Most of those shows also have faux theme song replacements, so the bonus interviews with Rose Marie and other cast members on DVD 4 and with Mary Tyler Moore Show cast members on DVD 5 is a nice surprise.  Good installments of Hollywood Remembers on Dyke and Moore respectively on DVDs 4 & 5 also show up.  The biggest surprise are rare featurettes on Dyke’s feature films The Comic and Some Kind Of Nut on DVD 4 that are well done.  A piece on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (reviewed elsewhere on this site) also surfaces.  DVD 5 also has a featurette on Thoroughly Modern Millie and both Hollywood Remembers programs are loaded with great trailer footage.

 

Needless to say, the 1.33 X 1 image throughout is of mixed quality, with the Hollywood Remembers shows offering the only semblance of good color quality, give or take some interview footage in second place.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono throughout is adequate at best and all are average throughout.  In all this, if you think of the bonus features as the main attraction and vice versa, then you are likely to be the kind of viewer who will want to own this set.  Otherwise, skip it.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo