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
