Mister Ed – Season One (1961/Shout! Factory DVD)
Picture: C+
Sound: C Extras: C Episodes: C+
It seemed that after MGM issued Mister Ed in two Best Of volumes, that would be it and
no more episodes would be seen on DVD.
Then those volumes went out of print and that might have been it for
fans. Here is our coverage of the second
volume when it first came out:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1907/The+Best+Of+Mister+Ed+-+Volume+T
Still not a big fan of the show, we have seen far worse
and to my surprise, they have finally decided to issue the individual season on
DVD, even if it means licensing them to Shout! Factory who have added extras in
an on-camera interview with co-stars Alan Young and Connie Hines, an audio
commentary on the first episode with the same stars, a booklet with notes,
stills & an episode guide and a Studebaker tie-in ad (in poor shape) that
has been floating around on some TV commercial compilations (some of which we
have already covered) that is amusing.
Producing company Filmways was founded in 1958, tried
their first TV show with the brief-lived detective series 21 Beacon Street the following year, then landed up with a hit in
this show. Running six seasons, the
first was a mid-season replacement and only ran 26 half-hours. However, the show made fun of the then young
TV sitcom and adding the niche of talking animals, put Filmation on the
map. The next time out, they hit it
really big with The Beverly Hillbillies
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) and the rest is history. Two stars of that show, Donna Douglas and
Nancy Culp, even show up in separate episodes here.
Other guest stars include Jack Albertson, Richard Deacon,
William Bendix, Frank Wilcox, Les Tremayne, John Qualen, James Flavin and Olan
Soule, who voiced Batman for Hanna-Barbera for many years. I also thought I saw an uncredited Bea
Benedaret in the Donna Douglas show, Busy
Wife. Fans will like this, but a little
does go a long way.
The 1.33 X 1 image was shot on film and looks still decent
for its age, but there are some aliasing errors throughout, but it is on par
with the previous MGM sets for the most part. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is at a lower
volume than the MGM set we covered, as if the transfer was an issue, though the
audio is about as clean as it is going to get.
Could be a Blu-ray candidate, but we’ll see how this does. Hope the future volumes have extras too.
- Nicholas Sheffo
