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Mini-DVD Review: All-Star Family Feud (Jan. 8); Solomon's Weekly Rant: The Jeffersons Snubbed, Annoying ION, 32 Bowl Games?

It is Saturday, so that must mean it is time for mini-DVD reviews and Solomon's Weekly Rant! First up, are the mini-DVD reviews. Today week we take a look at BCI Eclipse's All-Star Family Feud. Family Feud of course is the popular game show that is still going strong today! Basically the game show puts two families (5 members each) together and they battle each other via questions and try to get the most correct answers from a survey. On this DVD, we get the All-Star specials from the '70s and '80s hosted by Richard Dawson, which featured TV series going up against each other for charity. See my mini-DVD review of All-Star Family Feud:

All-Star Family Feud (BCI, $29.98) brings us the all-star specials from the '70s and '80s that featured TV series of that time, classic TV stars, and more to DVD for the first time!
It's time to play the feud as your favorite stars battle for charity. These all-star specials started in 1978 on ABC in primetime. They were very popular. The show back then aired on ABC daytime and also in first-run syndication. There were specials that were created for daytime and syndication as well, such as classic TV weeks. I think everyone has seen at least one episode of Family Feud before...whether it was with Richard Dawson, Ray Combs, Louie Anderson, Richard Karn or the current host John O'Hurley, everyone has seen one episode, so no need for a description on the show.
Let's start with the packaging. We have a nice cover art for the box. We have the All-Star Family Feud logo in the famous yellow, blue, and red circles with white dots. We also have a photo of Richard Dawson! The cover art also lists some of the series that will be playing on this set, such as Eight is Enough and Love Boat. The back of the box has some info on the set (I notice some grammar problems though, such as "during it's run..." come on, no apostrophe s there!) and more details on what shows you will see. We have three screen shots as well, such as Richard kissing Florence Henderson. In the background we see Richard with the survey board in the background. Inside the box we get a digipak case and also a little insert booklet that has a nice history of the show...it is pretty cool and has nice photos inside, such as a screen shot of Richard with two of the stars of Soap. Anyway, to the case we go. The front of the case says, "Featuring such stars as," then it names some stars like Heather Locklear, Norman Fell and more. They missed some big stars they could have named here, like John Ritter, Betty White, Meredith Baxter, Susan Lucci, but not a big deal. Some more screen shots are on the bottom, such as one with Maureen McCormick. The back of the case we have the logo in red and a nice yellow background. Opening the digipak case, we get to the discs. It seems there are only two panels (disc one on the left, disc two on the right), but if you snap open the little part in the middle on each side, you open the panel and will see disc three on the left and disc four on the right. Very neat, but some people might get confused and think there are only two discs. The left side has a nice blue/white scheme and the right side has a nice yellow/white scheme. Each disc has the logo in red with a yellow background, and underneath that we have artwork in a blue shade. Disc one has a shot of Richard in a tux. Disc two has Richard with Lou Ferrigno and Bernie Kopell. Disc three has Richard with the cast of the first All-Star Family Feud special from 1978, like Diana Canova and Richard Kline. Disc four has a nice head shot of Richard.
The menu screen has Play All and Episodes. Disc four also has a Photo Gallery option. The main menu starts with the famous music of the show...then it zooms to the set in 3-D. It looks so cool. We have the survey board, the two sides where the families stand, and the face-off stand. When you select an option we get the famous red X in a box with the sound effect. But we were not wrong when we selected it! Cool anyway. When we choose Episodes, we get the episodes on the survey board, with the sound effects!
The video depends on the episode really. Remember this ranges from 1978 to 1984. I noticed some of the episodes look much better than others. The same goes for the audio. We also get bumpers saying we will return in a moment or back to the show. We also have production codes on some episodes in the beginning...very cool. Glad they kept that in there. The All-Star specials are around 45-50 minutes, but they are separated into three segments on the menu...for example the 6th All-Star special had Love Boat, WKRP, Soap and Real People. They are broken up into three parts: Love Boat vs. WKRP, Soap vs. Real People and Real People vs. WKRP in the finals. I wish they would have just listed them all into one and placed three chapter stops instead. It kind of ruins who goes to the finals. The daytime and first-run syndicated episodes run about 21-22 minutes each, as they were week-long events.
I will list all the episodes on this set, so you know what is on it. I have labeled it better than they do on the menu. On the menu all they list are the shows. The episodes are in no order at all, which is weird. Here is the rundown:

Disc 1 -
1. Adventure Stars Special: Adventure Heroines vs. Adventure Heroes (This was a week-long stunt in ABC daytime or syndication and only the first 2 of the 5 episodes from this week are on this set for some reason...the first one runs 24:17 and the second one runs 22:22)
2. TV's All-Time Favorites: Petticoat Junction, The Brady Bunch, Your Hit Parade and Leave it to Beaver (This was a week-long stunt in ABC daytime, and we get all 5 days here, runtimes are 22:22, 21:42, 22:23, 22:22, and 22:22...just a note the second day says it is an "encore" presentation)
3. 6th All-Star Special: Love Boat, WKRP in Cincinnati, Soap, Real People (This was a primetime special on ABC and is separated into three parts: 20:34, 18:02, and 10:57)

Disc 2 -
4. Hollywood Walk of Fame Special: The Men vs. The Ladies (This was a week-long stunt in ABC daytime or syndication and only 2 of the 5 episodes from this week are on this set for some reason...the first one runs 21:01 and the second one is actually the fourth one from the week and runs 20:55)
5. 3rd All-Star Special: Love Boat, Eight is Enough, Family, What's Happening!! (This was a primetime special on ABC and is separated into three parts: 21:18, 18:20, and 9:54)
6. Heroes vs. Villains All-Star Special: Two sets of Heroes vs. Villains teams face-off (This was a primetime special on ABC and is separated into three parts: 21:11, 20:33, and 7:39)
7. 5th All-Star Special: One Day at a Time, Benson, Dallas, Eight is Enough (This was a primetime special on ABC and is separated into three parts: 18:30, 21:30, and 9:24)

Disc 3 -
8. Nighttime vs. Daytime All-Star Special: Soap, All My Children, Eight is Enough, General Hospital (This was a primetime special on ABC and is separated into three parts: 18:24, 21:34, and 9:56)
9. City vs. Country All-Star Special: Dallas, It's a Living, The Jeffersons, The Dukes of Hazzard (This was a primetime special on ABC and is separated into three parts: 18:08, 20:19, and 10:43)
10. 7th All-Star Special: The Ropers, Angie, The Dukes of Hazard, The Waltons (This was a primetime special on ABC and is separated into three parts: 22:15, 16:22, and 10:38)
11. 1st All-Star Special: Love Boat, Eight is Enough, Soap, Three's Company (This was a primetime special on ABC and is separated into three parts: 21:44, 17:26, and 10:01...this entire special is a repeat telecast it says, so it isn't from the original airing, but probably nothing is edited out.)

Disc 4 -
12. 2nd All-Star Special: Barney Miller, Eight is Enough, Welcome Back Kotter, Soap (This was a primetime special on ABC and is separated into three parts: 20:57, 17:00, and 11:33)
13. All-Star Championship Special: Eight is Enough, Family, Welcome Back Kotter, The Love Boat (This was a primetime special on ABC and is separated into three parts: 19:20, 21:04, and 8:55)
14. TV's All-Time Favorites: Batman, Lost in Space, Hawaiian Eye, Gilligan's Island (This was a week-long stunt in ABC daytime, and we get only 1 of the 5 days here, and that is day 2 with Hawaiian Eye vs. Gilligan's Island, runtime is 21:45 and it says it is an "encore" presentation.)
15. Battle of the Perfect 10's All-Star Special: Wilt's Wows, Debbie's Dudes, Richard's Rosebuds, and Phyllis' Fighters (This was a primetime special on ABC and is separated into three parts: 20:40, 19:09, and 9:22)

As for special features, we have a Photo Gallery. Basically we have 40 pictures to go through in a slideshow form. You select the next option on your remote and it will go to the next picture. These images consist of TV Guide ads and promotional images. Very cool, wish I had some!
I highly do recommend this set for any game show fan and any fan of '70s and '80s TV. Maybe one of your favorite shows are featured on an episode playing for charity? There are some mishaps here, such as they mentioned Batman on the front cover, but yet that episode is not on this set. In fact, they have 4 of the daytime weeks here, where we had the stars on for 5 days, and only one of those weeks has all five episodes. I don't understand why we didn't get the full weeks of those. Maybe licensing was a problem, since Batman and Lost in Space was missing from one of the TV's All-Time Favorites weeks. It makes no sense to just have 2 episodes of the 5 of Adventure Stars Special: Adventure Heroines vs. Adventure Heroes and Hollywood Walk of Fame Special: The Men vs. The Ladies since they were the same teams all week long. All the primetime one-hour specials are good to go at least. I hope we get another set with more all-star specials and themed weeks with celebrities. I wish they had these in more of an order, like by airdate. Anyway, click on the link below and order this set because some of these are now rare to find and you'll love your favorite TV stars battling for charity. Let's Play the Feud!
-- Reviewed by Pavan
(4/5 stars)

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Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
Family Feud TV.com Page


Solomon's Weekly Rant
Saturday, January 5, 2008
"The Jeffersons Snubbed; Annoying ION; 32 Bowl Games?"
By Solomon Davis

Once again TV Land is pushing The Jeffersons to the side so that other shows can have a mini-thon during the week. Like always the two shows Good Times and Sanford & Son defintely was given a mini-thon on Wednesdays and Thursdays nights while The Jeffersons gets NOTHING. And to make things worst, Designing Women will have a mini-thon on Mondays which starts next week and still NOTHING for The Jeffersons. It's bad enough the show is already airing at 2:30am AFTER Designing Women and now this happens? Makes more sense to just get rid of the show and then maybe Good Times and Sanford & Son can get more marathons.

I guess ION thinks all their viewers have amnesia because they constantly remind you during the airing of Alice that Mama's Family and The Drew Carey Show are coming up later which we already know. Especially since those two shows are on four days of the week you would think it would be impossible to forget. But ION wants to make the closing credits of Alice SMALLER so we can be reminded about those shows over and over. I mean how many reminders do we need each week when we have things like on-screen guides and TV Guides??? The Incredibly Odd Network strikes again.

Just exactly how many more bowl games are there going to be in college football? It seems like every 2 or 3 years new bowl games are created so that more teams can have a chance to feel about something when their season is over. There are 32 bowl games now. There was not this many games 15 years ago it seems and the titles of the bowl games got more ridiculous. Like tomorrow night there will be the GMAC Bowl followed by the National Championship on Monday. And we had a bowl game called the Papa John's Bowl?? They better have had handed out free pizza to the crowd. So just how many more Bowl games will be created in the next 15 years? That's the main reason why they spill over to the networks they have no business on like the NFL Network!!

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