Rating: 
Summary: Goodbye Old Friend
Review: Dear Art - Thanks for that glorious Honeymooners season of 1955-56, the greatest in TV-comedy history. Your talent combined with the miracle of DVD technology will bring joy to millions of people for decades (centuries!) to come. Your life truly made a difference. Sincerely,
Steve from Boston
(A Honeymooners fan of 30 years)
Rating: 
Summary: Now it comes out. Bumf Bumf! Had to fill in rate???
Review: For the past like 7-8 months from the Columbia house club,
every month I've been receiving the classic Honeymoonters episodes from Columbia house club at $25 each. Thinking that it will never come out on DVD, I decided to take the plunge and whatever it costs, it's worth it to have these classic episodes.
When CBS had the Honeymooners 50th Anniversary special on tv, the clips that they took from the classic 39 episodes were all digitally-remastered. I have a friend who works there and he told me. But I remember you can definitely see the difference.
Why in the world didn't they digitally restore it. I don't get it. So charge a little bit more. jeez. I also have the vhs boxed special which I only watched some episodes and is in excellent condition if anybody is interested. But the DVD's that I have from Columbia House could swear are in excellent condition.
My 2 cents worth. Rejoice Honeymooners fans!!!
Rating:
Summary: Right Price for an amazing collection
Review: While it's annoying that the audio on the pilot episode is sub-par, the rest of the series sounds great. Consider that they are charging three times as much for the first season of I Love Lucy (that was only 36 episodes instead of the 39 for the Honeymooners), I have no qualms with the quality on this boxset. Long as you can see Alice's eyes, hear Ralph's promises, and watch the strange motions of Norton, that's enough remastering and quality control that I need. What really sinks in rewatching these episodes is how there was a class warfare between Ralph and Norton. Ralph and Alice lived in poverty while Norton and Trixie had a middle class life a floor above them.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for the show,2.5 stars for the set
Review: The Honeymooners is as great as ever but Paramount is starting to look like a moxe. It have been obvious to them when they did the authoring that the compression to get 8 of these shows on a dual layer DVD was too much. Many DVD sets have 8-25 minute shows per dual layer disc and sometimes it works (if the show mainly consists of scenes of people talking with little to no camera movement, like M*A*S*H). With, "The Honeymooners" you have Jackie Gleason constantly gesticulating and the camera is usually following him around. Nothing settles down for long in those classic 39 episodes. Add to that that this is a black and white show. In black and white shows, your eyes are drawn to texture and detail that color sometimes hide. What it all adds up to is that because the overall memory of the DVD is spread too thin to deal with all the movement. So, what happens is that there are frequent "compression artifacts". This shows up on TV as little glitches like wall texture that doesn't quite keep pace with the rest of the picture. Clothing textures that shift and/or disapear when a character moves. It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens enough to be distracting and to cut into the quality of the presentation. These are, in fact, new digital transfers, recently done. When there is little movement in the scene, you can see the crispness and the sharpness ones expects from a modern transfer. But when there is movement going on, the picture frequently loses detail due to lower than needed bit rate. These problems are especially visable on higher end set ups. My system is far from "state of the art" but does utilize a better than average TV with a high end componant connection which gives better detail. On my other 2 older TV's with older style composite (RCA) connection that I use in other areas the DVD's look much better (due to the setup showing less of the DVD's detail). But even if you have the type of setup that will not expose these flaws, someday you probabaly will and Paramount should've been a little more mindful about preserving these shows on this format for posterity. The answer, of course, was to make spread the 39 episodes out on six or seven discs instead of five but that would bump up production and final retail cost (but I would've paid it). The recent release of the first 2 seasons of The Dick Van Dyke show usually have 6 (occasionally 7) episodes per dual layer disc. For the most part, the shows look steller. If only the same consideration was given "The Honeymooners". This set is reccomended because of the sheer quality of the shows and the talent of Gleason and Carney (may they both rest in peace, Art died yesterday) but if you have a high end set up to watch these on, you will be disapointed in the quality because of too much compression.
Rating: 
Summary: Needs to be cleaned and restored ditigally..
Review: They have already restored the episodes for viewing on TV, now they must do the same for the shows for release on DVD. The Honeymooners is a show that must be on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: It's way better than I expected.
Review: My expectations were not very high when I ordered this package.
Considering the age of the shows, black and white etc., I didn't think that the DVDs would reproduce the quality. This package is way better than I expected. You have to remember that these were performed like a "play", in front of an audience. You can even hear audience members talking and coughing in the background ... some even shouting out things to the cast members. Watch these episodes with the frame of mind that you are back in the 50's and watching on an old black and white TV. These are classic shows and still hilarious to this day.
Rating:
Summary: Still GREAT after all these years...
Review: I'm sure that anyone spending the time reading reviews of this Honeymooners Box Set, doesn't need any reassurance as to the show itself. What more needs to be said about Ralph and the gang? The great 39 episodes never fail to deliver. The Honeymooners remain the prime example of television comedy at it's zenith. The show, while serving as a wonderful time capsule of it's era, is astoundingly fresh, having aged beautifully. *********About the Box Set************As I read other reviews here I realize that there is some confusion regarding this set. It almost makes me believe that there is another box set floating around. Anyway, the one I am referring to was just released November 2003...(not sure why even Amazon has it listed as 2000). I see that others are complaining that the shows are not chronologically placed on the discs, but grouped thematically. While that would be a little annoying to me as well, such is NOT the case with the set I purchased...all are in the order that they were originally aired with the airdates given. Another complaint that I've seen posted is in regards to the quality of the transfers themselves. Once again, I can't imagine that these reviewers are seeing the same Box Set as I am. I am a rather picky viewer and try to stay informed...I've never seen the show look or sound better. Glorious Black and White. (I will attest to the fact that the episode "TV or Not TV" does not look or sound as good as the rest, probably inherant in the source material...not a biggie though). As far as extras...not much here. The Anniversary special included here is a shortened version and isn't all that informative or even necessary for that matter. Yes, it would have been nice to have more extras...interviews, commentary, bio's, etc..., but for the price of this set, you are getting the gold, which is the show itself. I think CBS/Paramount realized that people are becoming wary of large, expensive box sets, and aren't purchasing them. Case in point...Fox went all out in their release of Mary Tyler Moore Season One. Great packaging, loaded with extras, great transfers. Now they are claiming that it didn't sell enough to warrant their releasing of any further seasons. So fans are left hanging with a great Box Set of Season One...with no more to come. Ridiculous! ( Fans of that show have started a petition...if interested go to mtmshow.com) ******All in all, since the Honeymooners only had one season filmed, it could have been released with more extras, but with a show of this caliber it certainly stands on it's own merit. For under $40, to have the complete Honeymooners crisp on clear on DVD...how can you complain?
Rating:
Summary: dr91368 go back to your crypt.
Review: quote from dr91368: "I like this show, but it steals too many ideas from sitcoms like "The Flintstones" and "The King of Queens". Also, its in black and white! Why didn't they colorize it, remaster it in Dolby 5.1 surround sound, and have some comedy expert comment on each episode?" You are kidding right? This show came out way before the Flintstones and King of Queens. Yes TV used to be black and white and not everyone in America had one. To colorize would take away from what the show was. Color has nothing to do with the cleverness of the character development and script writing. This show was a #1 hit for it's time. Which comedy expert would you like have comment on it? Krusty the Clown? Have you ever remastered a mono track to dolby 5.1. Go have a nostalgic talk with your grandparents about living in the 50's before you watch the show and maybe the light bulb will come on. Better get out of your crypt and go back to school :)
Rating:
Summary: The audience is ANNOYING!
Review: Wow, there sure are a lot of sick people in the studio audience, what with people coughing every seven seconds, literally. It's very irritating and distracting. Otherwise, I'm glad this show is finally out on DVD. I have no complaints about the quality of the picture, it looks fine to me. I'm just happy I have it.
Rating:
Summary: Hey Ralphie Boy!!!!
Review: A great collection of one of the best television shows ever.
If you are a honeymooners fan you will want this unedited vintage collection without any commercial breaks.
The only problem that bothers me a little bit is that the sound is kind of low and not crisp so you have to raise the volume of your tv. Other than that Ralph and the gang are great!!!
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