Rating: 
Summary: Oh Goodie!
Review: I'm so glad this is coming out on DVD! I have all the episodes taped off of Nickelodeon but they are not in order and they have commercials. I also started buying them on tape from Columbia House but after six tapes, they didn't have any more! Even though I've memorized every episode and know exactly what's coming next, I still laugh my head off at these great classics. I guess I'm a true "Dick" fanatic!
Rating:
Summary: NO subtitle - a big disappointment
Review: I've been waiting since the advent of the DVD format for these sets to be released on DVD in the season-by-season format. The news that they're finally here made me excited just for a short while. Knowing these sets are coming from Image Entertainment, I checked the specs right away and as I expected, all the sets are coming without the use of subtitle.Come on, Image Entertainment, eight years after the introduction of the DVD format, it's still NOT utilizing and offering consumers one of the MOST basic features of this versatile format. This is a half-done job with the understanding that all the episodes have been digitally remastered. I consider something is missing when subtitle is not utilized. I was sold on the DVD format from day one just because of all these features: multiple audio selection, multiple subtitle selection, skipping chapter to chapter without forwarding and rewinding as in a VHS tape, etc. Image Entertainment has done the same thing years ago to the Twilight Zone series - not in season-by-season format and WITHOUT subtitle. Just look around the TV series that are available now from ALL the other studios - they ALL have subtitles. This is inexcusable for not including subtitle as one of the features. I'm still disappointed in your offerings - Image Entertainment. My final thought on these sets (and for all future sets from the same series): Quality of the Dick Van Dyke Show: * * * * * (5 stars)
Quality of the DVD Sets: * 1/2 (1 and half stars - in terms of features)
Rating:
Summary: Top Quality Television
Review: If you like The Dick Van Dyke Show, you simply must get this set. First, the show itself is very funny, well-produced and brilliantly written. All the cast memebers are just perfect for their respective roles, and it's easy to see why this has become one of the all-time classics of television. Now about the DVDs: First of all, the video quality of this set is excellent. The film masters have obviously been extremely well preserved over the years, and the final results are unbelieveably sharp, with glorious black-and-white tonal range. So sharp you can actually see film grain and the textures of fabrics in clothing and furniture. These transfers are at a whole different level than the blurry, unsteady transfers seen on TV over the years. These unedited shows run over 25 minutes instead of the 22-minute versions seen in reruns. It's also nice to not have any annoying annoucer voice-overs or the even-more-annoying split screen credits often seen on TV. There are insightful interviews with cast and creators of the show, as well as some really nice and varied bonuses like Emmy Award footage, original promo spots, and other nice little surprises, some of which have never been seen before, or haven't been seen since 1961. The menus are stylish and retro, and the whole package is well designed and well executed. In short, if you love quality TV, do not hesitate to buy this DVD set. I've already ordered season 2 and am looking forward to more seasons coming out. I hope that this series will succed on DVD and we'll see more worthwhile TV classics of this caliber released, like the remaining seasons of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, as well as others like The Odd Couple and the Bob Newhart Show.
Rating:
Summary: A New Pinnacle In TV Boxed Sets!
Review: Image Entertainment's DVD-Video release of "The Dick Van Dyke Show Season One" is a superior example of TV-on-DVD. Just about as close to "perfect" as you could get, in my opinion. The Dick Van Dyke Show, which ran for 5 seasons on CBS-TV from 1961-1966, seems as fresh, funny, and (above all) REAL today as it did all those years ago, when it barely was able to survive its rocky, low-rated first season. This glorious 5-disc set contains each of the 30 first-season programs. We also get the exceptionally-nice bonus of the series' original pilot, "Head Of The Family", created by resident series genius Carl Reiner, which starred Reiner himself as Rob Petrie, along with a completely different group of actors portraying the show's other characters. The CBS pilot aired on July 19, 1960, its one and only network airing. Every facet of this DVD set is a treasure of gold. Everything! Starting with the ultra-classy packaging, with the outer slipcase representing a facsimile of an old-fashioned B&W TV (right down to the vent holes on the back!). The image on the "TV" on the front of the slipcase shows Rob Petrie falling over the living-room ottoman, taken from the opening credits of the show. This picture (which is actually a removable insert card which can be slid in and out of the mock "TV screen") will yield a "motion picture" effect when tilted from side to side, or up and down. If you move the picture just right, you'll see this nice 3-D-like effect, with Rob starting out in a standing position, and then proceeding to fall over the ottoman. Very cool! The five discs are housed in separate "ThinPak" DVD cases, which each has a different picture on the front. These cover art images are excellent, and can be looked upon to represent a mini Photo Gallery in and of themselves. There are also some additional still photos on the back and on the inside of each ThinPak case, along with complete episode information for that particular disc, including episode numbers, film dates, original air dates, and a short synopsis of each program. Chapter stops are also included. A small 4-page printed insert also comes in this package. This mini-booklet provides some informative general information and "Did You Know?" fun facts concerning The Dick Van Dyke Show and its cast. Apart from the programs themselves, the large amount of effort utilized in creating just this first-rate packaging is readily apparent. Each single-sided disc has 6 or 7 full-length, unedited episodes. Each program has a running time of just a tad more than 25 minutes, including the ending credits. So we know they're the full programs, without any scenes cut out. Very nice! For marathon lovers, there is a "Play All Episodes" feature, for uninterrupted back-to-back viewing of that disc's programs. Video Quality .... Picture quality is, in a word, Perfection! Or, at least "Near Perfection", let's put it that way. Considering the decades-old age of these programs, I think it's safe to say, due to the intense and very lengthy restoration and re-mastering process that was undertaken here, that these episodes have never looked any better. The black-and-white photography is very sharp and clear, bringing out some details you probably never knew were even there while watching these episodes originally in the 1960s on the smaller 19-inch monitors of the era. Sound .... There's a very adequate Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtrack employed for each episode. This original mono sound does very nicely. All dialogue is easily heard and understood. Extras .... An amazing wealth of bonus material has been assembled for this boxed set (as well as its Season Two sister set, which actually contains even MORE than this volume!). Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner provide commentary tracks for two episodes. There's also retrospective interviews and featurettes with the cast & crew, Emmy Awards clips (which are great fun to see, transporting us back to the 1960s with the click of a remote button), Photo Galleries, network promos, and some original commercial spots. A fabulous amount of added-value content for a TV program from the early 1960s! Menus .... The menu structure is simple and easy to navigate. Each episode has its own separate sub-menu, where you get the chapter selections for that episode. Highlighting the icon marked "Extras" takes you to all the special features that are specific to that episode. A "Special Features" option can also be accessed from the disc's Main Menu as well. In addition, there's a feature on selected discs called "Ottoman Tripper", which, when selected, reveals a single trivia question about the Dick Van Dyke Show, with 4 possible answers. Selecting the correct answer will reveal a snippet of the opening credits of the show in which Rob Petrie sidesteps the ottoman upon entering the living room. If an incorrect choice is selected, you get a clip of Rob tripping over the ottoman, with added "crashing" sound effects. A cute little bonus, again emphasizing the devotion and care the creators of these DVDs have taken in producing this product. Rounding out the extras, there's a "Meet The Cast" feature (text only), with some brief info on the show's cast. Long live The Dick Van Dyke Show! .... It now WILL live on and prosper thanks to Image Entertainment's beautifully-done season-by-season DVD compilations.
Rating:
Summary: A New Pinnacle In TV Boxed Sets!
Review: Image Entertainment's DVD-Video release of "The Dick Van Dyke Show Season One" is a superior example of TV-on-DVD. Just about as close to "perfect" as you could get, in my opinion. The Dick Van Dyke Show, which ran for 5 seasons on CBS-TV from 1961-1966, seems as fresh, funny, and (above all) REAL today as it did all those years ago, when it barely was able to survive its rocky, low-rated first season. This glorious 5-disc set contains each of the 30 first-season programs. We also get the exceptionally-nice bonus of the series' original pilot, "Head Of The Family", created by resident series genius Carl Reiner, which starred Reiner himself as Rob Petrie, along with a completely different group of actors portraying the show's other characters. The CBS pilot aired on July 19, 1960, its one and only network airing. Every facet of this DVD set is a treasure of gold. Everything! Starting with the ultra-classy packaging, with the outer slipcase representing a facsimile of an old-fashioned B&W TV (right down to the vent holes on the back!). The image on the "TV" on the front of the slipcase shows Rob Petrie falling over the living-room ottoman, taken from the opening credits of the show. This picture (which is actually a removable insert card which can be slid in and out of the mock "TV screen") will yield a "motion picture" effect when tilted from side to side, or up and down. If you move the picture just right, you'll see this nice 3-D-like effect, with Rob starting out in a standing position, and then proceeding to fall over the ottoman. Very cool! The five discs are housed in separate "ThinPak" DVD cases, which each has a different picture on the front. These cover art images are excellent, and can be looked upon to represent a mini Photo Gallery in and of themselves. There are also some additional still photos on the back and on the inside of each ThinPak case, along with complete episode information for that particular disc, including episode numbers, film dates, original air dates, and a short synopsis of each program. Chapter stops are also included. A small 4-page printed insert also comes in this package. This mini-booklet provides some informative general information and "Did You Know?" fun facts concerning The Dick Van Dyke Show and its cast. Apart from the programs themselves, the large amount of effort utilized in creating just this first-rate packaging is readily apparent. Each single-sided disc has 6 or 7 full-length, unedited episodes. Each program has a running time of just a tad more than 25 minutes, including the ending credits. So we know they're the full programs, without any scenes cut out. Very nice! For marathon lovers, there is a "Play All Episodes" feature, for uninterrupted back-to-back viewing of that disc's programs. Video Quality .... Picture quality is, in a word, Perfection! Or, at least "Near Perfection", let's put it that way. Considering the decades-old age of these programs, I think it's safe to say, due to the intense and very lengthy restoration and re-mastering process that was undertaken here, that these episodes have never looked any better. The black-and-white photography is very sharp and clear, bringing out some details you probably never knew were even there while watching these episodes originally in the 1960s on the smaller 19-inch monitors of the era. Sound .... There's a very adequate Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtrack employed for each episode. This original mono sound does very nicely. All dialogue is easily heard and understood. Extras .... An amazing wealth of bonus material has been assembled for this boxed set (as well as its Season Two sister set, which actually contains even MORE than this volume!). Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner provide commentary tracks for two episodes. There's also retrospective interviews and featurettes with the cast & crew, Emmy Awards clips (which are great fun to see, transporting us back to the 1960s with the click of a remote button), Photo Galleries, network promos, and some original commercial spots. A fabulous amount of added-value content for a TV program from the early 1960s! Menus .... The menu structure is simple and easy to navigate. Each episode has its own separate sub-menu, where you get the chapter selections for that episode. Highlighting the icon marked "Extras" takes you to all the special features that are specific to that episode. A "Special Features" option can also be accessed from the disc's Main Menu as well. In addition, there's a feature on selected discs called "Ottoman Tripper", which, when selected, reveals a single trivia question about the Dick Van Dyke Show, with 4 possible answers. Selecting the correct answer will reveal a snippet of the opening credits of the show in which Rob Petrie sidesteps the ottoman upon entering the living room. If an incorrect choice is selected, you get a clip of Rob tripping over the ottoman, with added "crashing" sound effects. A cute little bonus, again emphasizing the devotion and care the creators of these DVDs have taken in producing this product. Rounding out the extras, there's a "Meet The Cast" feature (text only), with some brief info on the show's cast. Long live The Dick Van Dyke Show! .... It now WILL live on and prosper thanks to Image Entertainment's beautifully-done season-by-season DVD compilations.
Rating:
Summary: It's About Time!
Review: In discussions about the classic comedy series of TV's black & white era, this wonderful show often stands in the shadow of "I Love Lucy". While "Lucy" is certainly deserving of many of the accolades bestowed upon it, "The Dick van Dyke Show" was, in my opinion, superior. Relying less on the slapstick humor of "Lucy" (though not above the occasional physical gags reminiscent of Ms. Ball), this show benefited from top notch comedy writing and the terrific talents and chemistry of Mr. van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Morey Amsterdam, and Rose Marie. Thank you to whoever is responsible for bringing this landmark series to us on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: WORTH EVERY PENNY!!
Review: In todays market there are so many dvd's that are put out of great shows, and when you get them home...they're edited badly, poor quality, worthless to the fan. BUT!...{I hate starting a sentance with "BUT"} BUT these two DVD sets of this classic TV show are of super quality. They are unedited, with some great extras, even the packaging is super. So I say to anyone that is scared to spend money on DVDs, don't be scared with this collection. It is worth every penny. I grew up watching these shows in the sixties, and they are perfect. I can't wait for the other seasons.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally!!
Review: It's about time! After so many years of mediocre shows coming to DVD, a real classic is released. The first season of The Dick Van Dyke Show contains many favorite episodes. Lets hope this is the start of all the seasons being released!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Kudos to Image for thier great work on The Dick Van Dyke show season one. From the cute packaging with an old TV holding a removable lenticular motion card from the show to the wonderful transfers, it's terrific (not perfect, but terrific). The most important thing is, of course, the shows themselves. The shows sport new transfers and are fantastic. There is an episode here and there that has a bit of print damage and there is also an episode here and there that has some "flutter" (I don't know how else to explain it). That means that in small segments of a couple episodes, the picture is alternataly sharper and less sharp. But these are minor transient details that don't take away from the overall beautiful look of these shows on DVD. Just compare an episode on these DVD's to a broadcast of the show on TVLand and the difference is night and day. Compared to the DVD, it seems you are looking at the show on TVLand through Vaseline coated glasses. On DVD you can see so much clothing texture, you can read the names on the board on the outside of the Alan Brady show writer's office. It's a pleasure looking at the show looking this good. Since Image opted to keep the shows on a dual layered DVD to 6 or 7 (most studios would do 8) there are no distracting compression problems I can find. That's great because compression shows up much more on Black and White material (where your eyes are drawn to texture and details that color hides more). Yes, the shows are unedited. I was surprised to find though that on TVLand, there editing of the shows is not too much. They achieve the shorter running time by "time compression" and in the end they cut about 2 minutes instead of the usual 3 or 4. The extras on this set are not all that much but still interesting. Most of the interview materials comes from a 1994 TV special. I was hoping for more recent interviews with the surviving stars but this stuff was still good. There are also vintage promos and cast commercials (sometimes put in with an episode) and clips of the show winning emmy awards. All in all, a highly reccomended set for fans of this great show.
Rating:
Summary: IMO, the distortion is media related
Review: Okay, if the distortion were related to the transfer process, then it would be distorted exactly the same way every time, on every DVD player. The distortion that has really annoyed me is entirely digital and related to the DVD itself. On Disk #4 (Season 5), starting with "A Long Night's Journey Into Day," I could barely even view the episode for all the digital distortion. Also, the picture would freeze in a broken up mosaic -- sometimes the audio continued, sometimes not. Eventually the picture just blanked out altogether. I tried playing the DVD on another machine and had a little better success -- the distortions cleared up a bit. This is how I know it's related to the DVD and not the transfer process.
So, I let the DVD player cool off. I cleaned the lens and the DVD carefully, and tried again. This time a little better. In fact, I got through "Journey" and the following episode with only a few glitches. But I still could not view "A Day in the Life of Alan Brady" at all.
Every other DVD has been very good. A few artifacts that are clearly transfer related, but I can deal with those. But Disk #4 is very bad. I have asked Image Entertainment for a replacement but have heard nothing so far.
Otherwise, they have done an outstanding and terrific job of restoring these episodes and I can't thank them enough.
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