Muppet Show DVDs review
Scott McGuire
and here is my review. Some of this will sound familiar to regular
readers of this newsgroup, but I was trying to be complete so please
bear with me. :-) Let me first admit that I haven't watched all 30
episodes yet, but I've watched enough (and spot-checked) more that I
think I can say this review applies to all the discs.
The short review - yes, in my opinion, the DVDs look good and are worth
getting.
As most folks on this newsgroup probably know, each of the 10 DVDs
contains three episodes of "The Muppet Show," which run about 25 minutes
each. The shows aren't in any particular order (shows from early and
later seasons are mixed on the same disc), although a few of the discs
seem to have been made with a "theme" in mind - for instance, #5 has
Alice Cooper, Vincent Price, & Marty Feldman (all vaguely
horror-related), and #1 has Elton John, Julie Andrews, & Gene Kelly (all
singers).
Here are the episodes included on each disc:
DVD 1 - Elton John, Julie Andrews, Gene Kelly
DVD 2 - Star Wars, Paul Simon, Raquel Welch
DVD 3 - Harry Belafonte, Linda Ronstadt, John Denver
DVD 4 - Peter Sellers, John Cleese, Dudley Moore
DVD 5 - Alice Cooper, Vincent Price, Marty Feldman
DVD 6 - Steve Martin, Carol Burnett, Gilda Radner
DVD 7 - George Burns, Dom DeLuise, Bob Hope
DVD 8 - Diana Ross, Brooke Shields, Rudolf Nureyev
DVD 9 - James Coburn, Sylvester Stallone, Debbie Harry
DVD 10 - Roger Moore, Edgar Bergen, Danny Kay
Five more volumes are available on VHS; rumors are that they'll be
released on DVD next year. (The current batch of DVDs are selling well
enough that they've become back-ordered twice so far. I don't know what
the current status is, but the back order wait for me was short - they
arrive about 10 days after I ordered.)
The episodes are mostly complete and uncut, and each includes a little
intro by Brian Henson about the episode - usually nothing too
earth-shattering is revealed in the intros, but some are cute. Each
episode also contains a "previously unreleased" skit that was used when
the shows were broadcast in Britain but not in the US (although when
"The Muppet Show" was on Nickelodeon, they broadcast these skits at the
expense of cutting out another one!).
The exceptions: episodes from the first season do not have the original
opening titles on them, they've been replaced by one from a later
season; and the final scene of the closing titles where Zoot blows his
horn and the Jim Henson copyright is displayed has been edited out so it
can be replaced with a new Jim Henson Home Entertainment logo (but the
original audio still plays over this). Oddly, the Vincent Price episode
still has the original horn-blowing ending.
The video quality is quite good, all things considered - I was pleased.
The prints are clean (I rarely saw scratches or dust specks), the colors
are bright without being overdone, and the contrast and black levels
seem good. The picture is clear most of the time. It isn't razor sharp
like some modern DVDs, but it looks natural - if edge enhancement was
applied to the picture, I couldn't tell. There were a rare instances of
extra softness in the episodes I watched.
The most noticeable problem is that in most episodes there are slight
horizontal bands where the picture is darker/a slightly different color
(I'm not sure what the technical term for this is); they're not
noticeable all the time - usually I just see it against the red curtain
that's a frequent backdrop. But these are minor points, and overall I'd
say the picture is very satisfactory.
The audio is adequate - this wasn't a high fidelity show to begin with.
The volume can be variable on some episodes (in particular there were
parts of the Mark Hamill show that were hard to understand), I'm not
sure if it was like this to begin with or if this is a mastering issue.
The menus are attractive, but the DVDs have the most bizarre navigation
I've encountered on a DVD. While there is a scene selections menu, each
scene listed on it is encoded as a separate title, instead of a chapter
in a single title - which means when you choose a scene from the scene
menu, you can just watch that scene and that's it, it's back to the
menu. You cannot watch the show starting from the scene you've selected
to the end of it. So if you chose the intro from the scene menu
expecting to see the whole show, you may be puzzled! (I was, until I
figured out what was going on.) Also, not nearly all scenes are listed
on the scene selection menu, although it does call out the "bonus" scene
of footage from the British version. Fortunately, when you chose to
play the whole episode from the beginning (a separate menu selection),
there are chapter stops in that title and you can jump around that way,
and there appear to be chapter stops for each scene.
I presume there aren't actually two copies of each episode on the DVDs -
just that somehow segments are marked as both titles and chapters of
another title - but it's really weird and I can't think of any benefit
to this scheme. It's almost as if whoever designed the scene selection
hadn't looked at any other DVDs to see how scene selections worked!
The other menu navigation weirdness is that to get to the extras on the
disc, you have to go to an episode's scene selection menu, and then
choose extras from there. Each episode's menu points at the same
extras. Why aren't the extras on the top-level menu? Who knows!
The extras are fairly minimal - each disc has a "Muppetism," a short
segment about the quality a certain Muppet exemplifies; a "Movie Mania"
which is either a movie spoof or a segment where Muppets act out the
title of a movie; and "From the Archives," an original design sketch for
one of the Muppets. The "Muppetisms" and "Movie Mania" segments are
each less than a minute long. Finally, if you select Animal on the main
menu screen, you get a short "Did You Know?" trivia bit relating to one
of the episodes on the disc.
I initially hesitated buying the Muppet Show DVDs because I don't
approve of the way Time Life is releasing them (only 3 per disc, in no
particular order, with no guarantee that all episodes will initially be
released). But in the end I decided that having even some of the Muppet
Shows on DVD was better than no Muppet Shows on DVD, and I've actually
paid the same amount of money for DVDs with less on them (the current
set of Peanuts TV show DVDs, for instance). The quality of the discs is
actually pretty good, so I'm happy I bought them and I'd recommend them.
The discs can only be purchased from Time Life - see www.timelife.com or
by phone 800-950-7887. You can get them individually for $24.99 each,
or 15% off if you buy 3, 20% off if you buy 6, or 30% off if you buy all
10.
Plus see this discussion on www.dvdtalk.com for coupons to save 20% more:
<http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=c0147e0b7abc1cb7d0cf7b9e59
269582&threadid=134673>
and as that discussion notes, if you join the "SoundSavers" club you can
shave $3 more off the purchase price.
Enjoy!
--Scott McGuire / smcg...@mit.edu
Phil Tate
>Each
>episode also contains a "previously unreleased" skit that was used when
>the shows were broadcast in Britain but not in the US (although when
>"The Muppet Show" was on Nickelodeon, they broadcast these skits at the
>expense of cutting out another one!).
Is there any particular reason why these skits weren't originally shown in
America? And which ones are they? Do they feature a particular character or
anything?
And Nickelodeon went a bit scissor-mad last time they showed the series (in
the UK, anyway). Gun-toting chickens and James Coburn firing a pipe, for
instance, were clearly too shocking for modern audiences.
>The prints are clean (I rarely saw scratches or dust specks),
But the series wasn't shot on film, was it?
--
Phil
Replace "topov" with "hartleyhare" to reply
On the stereo: Bob Dylan - Love and Theft
Scott McGuire
"Phil Tate" <ph...@topov.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> Scott McGuire wrote
> >Each
> >episode also contains a "previously unreleased" skit that was used when
> >the shows were broadcast in Britain but not in the US
>
> Is there any particular reason why these skits weren't originally shown in
> America? And which ones are they? Do they feature a particular character or
> anything?
They were made specificly for Britain to pad out the shows' length,
because they aired with less (or no) commercials in Britain.
In generally the skits aren't classics, and most seem to use random
Muppets instead of familiar characters and look to me to be "cheaper"
than the rest of the skits - simpler backgrounds, less props, less
Muppets. They never tie in with the episodes main "storyline." I think
there's a list of which ones are the extras somewhere on the web, but I
couldn't find it.
> >The prints are clean (I rarely saw scratches or dust specks),
>
> But the series wasn't shot on film, was it?
Well that would explain it. :-)
All the flaws I saw - the slight horizontal banding, occasionaly
softness, and one instance of ghosting - all said "videotape source" to
me. But to be honest, I'm not sure if the show was shot on film or
video, so I didn't want to assert one way or another.
--Scott McGuire / smcg...@mit.edu
Scott McGuire
Scott McGuire <smcg...@mit.edu> wrote:
> In generally the [extra] skits aren't classics...
Oops, forgot to mention that the one notable exception to this is when
Beaker sings "Feelings" in the Diana Ross episode. That's one of my
favorites!
--Scott
Nancy Eilers-Hughes
> >
> > But the series wasn't shot on film, was it?
>
> Well that would explain it. :-)
I seem to remember that TMS episodes were cleaned up before
Odyssey/Hallmark started airing them (a couple years ago).
Digitally remastered maybe?
>
> All the flaws I saw - the slight horizontal banding, occasionaly
> softness, and one instance of ghosting - all said "videotape source" to
> me. But to be honest, I'm not sure if the show was shot on film or
> video, so I didn't want to assert one way or another.
It probably says somewhere in "Of Muppets and Men", but I don't
know where. But I do remember a quote from Jerry Juhl (from
somewhere) mentioning that it was done on tape, which was one
reason why there aren't many outtakes and bloopers from TMS - they
couldn't just pick up a piece from the cutting room floor, hold it
up to the light, see what it was, and go "oh yeah, we should save
this".
Nancy
Eve Cunning
Thanks for the DVD review! I'm going to ask for these for Christmas.
Do you suppose this banding might be an artifact from PAL to NTSC
conversion? I'm assuming, since they taped in Britain, that the
format would've been PAL.
--Eve
:The most noticeable problem is that in most episodes there are slight
:horizontal bands where the picture is darker/a slightly different color
:(I'm not sure what the technical term for this is); they're not
:noticeable all the time - usually I just see it against the red curtain
:that's a frequent backdrop. But these are minor points, and overall I'd
:say the picture is very satisfactory.
============================================================
Eve Cunning (ecun...@mindspring.com)
============================================================
Scott McGuire
ecun...@mindspring.com (Eve Cunning) wrote:
> Thanks for the DVD review! I'm going to ask for these for Christmas.
>
> Do you suppose this banding might be an artifact from PAL to NTSC
> conversion? I'm assuming, since they taped in Britain, that the
> format would've been PAL.
No, I don't think so, I've seen many other PAL conversions that don't
have those bands.
Let me just emphasize that the bands really are minor - you'd have to be
nit-picky like me to notice them, probably. :-)
--Scott