Saturday, February 16, 2008
Mini-DVD Review: It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (Feb. 19); Solomon's Weekly Rant: Cavemen; Oprah and Cosby Show; Roger Clemens Coverage
It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown - Remastered Deluxe Edition (Warner, $19.98) brings us the classic 1974 Easter-themed episode on DVD once again, but this time digitally remastered...and it is really worth it! Plus in addition to Easter, we also get the Arbor Day special. Spring is certainly in the air.
If you have never seen this special, it is about Linus who tries to tell everyone that the Easter Beagle will take care of everything during Easter. Will he be right? You'll have to see yourself. We also get the classic 1976 special It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown. In that story we have baseball season starting and Arbor Day upon us. The gang goes eco-friendly and plant trees...but do they over do it?
Let's now move on to the packaging. We have a thin outer box that holds a very thin case, that is movie style. I never understood the reason for the thin box that holds a thin case...what's the point? Also, both the back and front of each is exactly the same, except the box is shinier. The cover is purple in color, and has Charlie Brown, Linus, and Snoopy with easter eggs. The title of the easter special is on the top, with a mention that this is a remastered deluxe edition! The bottom tells is we also get a bonus TV special...Arbor Day. To the back we go, we get a nice synopsis of the Easter special, along with a list of the special features. Easter eggs are flying all over as we see Lucy, Snoopy and the little yellow bird...Woodstock. When we open the case, we get black background all over, very plain, but of course the disc is inside. The disc is in purple and has Sally and Snoopy playing with yes, Easter eggs.
The menu screen has options of Features, Special Features, and Languages. We get a light blue background this time, not the purple we were used to already, with the theme song playing in the background. It is so catchy. Oh yes, before the main menu begins we get auto trailers for Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown and The Wiggles. Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown came out on DVD with a remastered version last month, but unfortunately we didn't get a copy for review. Anyway back to the menu, when we select something, we see an egg as a pointer. For Languages, we can have either English, Espanol, or Portugues. For subtitles we have those three again and also Chinese, Korean, and Thai...wow! The Features section has the two specials listed, we can also select Play All to play both back-to-back. Finally, Special Features lists the extra (more on that below) and Trailers.
The video and audio is tremendous. It has never looked better or sounded better ever. I am very impressed. Warner did a great job on this. Easter special runs 25:02 and has 5 chapter stops, which you an use via your DVD remote. The Arbor Day special runs 25:05 and has 4 chapter stops. Both specials look amazing...especially the Easter one. Kudos once again to Warner. Here is hoping they do more...I kind of wish I had gotten Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown.
As for special features, we get a nice featurette! It is titled "In Full Bloom: Peanuts at Easter" and runs 15:32. We find out lots of behind-the-scenes details and cool facts for the Easter special from members of the Schulz family and more. Interviewed are Lee Mendelson (Producer), Phil Cousineau (Author), Stephen Pastis (Cartoonist), Cathy Guisewhite (Cartoonist), Jean Schulz (Charles Schulz's wife), and Craig Schulz (Charles Schulz's son).
I highly do recommend this set for any Charlie Brown-Peanuts fan and classic animation in general. I have never seen a classic animated program look this good on DVD ever. Warner really needs to remaster every special for this wonderful franchise and put it on DVD. We got 3 specials on the Valentine's DVD and two more here on the Easter DVD. Let's hope Christmas, Thanksgiving is next, but I just wonder if Warner has the rights to all these now or does Paramount have some still? So I know it is still the middle of February, but it is never too early to think of the spring and Easter (but I am a fan of winter)...so I urge you to buy this DVD before little Woodstock beats you to it! And he can't even talk right!
-- Reviewed by Pavan
(4/5 stars)
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Solomon's Weekly Rant
Saturday, February 16, 2008
"Cavemen Didn't Get Enough Time; Oprah's Audience Get Cosby Show DVDs; Roger Clemens Story On All-Week"
By Solomon Davis
Why is the new sitcom Caveman not returning when the show wasn't really given a fair chance to grab viewers? The show only aired 4 times in October and twice in November and it's GONE? 7 unaired episodes remain. ABC knows that this wasn't a typical TV season with the strike going on and it is mind boggling that they still decide to not bring back the show this season. Lots of people need more than 6 episodes to determine whether or not they like a show and pulling a show after only 6 airings is a joke. The show was just starting to turn around and become interesting before it was pushed to the side for those classic Charlie Brown holiday specials. All I have to say is ABC gave this show the "red-headed step child" treatment and it's really a shame the show could be gone for good.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing at the end of Oprah this week when she had The Cosby Show kids reunion on earlier this week which falls into the "HUH?" category? The crowd was given both seasons 7 and 8 on DVD while everyone else in the country will have to wait until April 8 when it is officially out. She couldn't give the crowd anything else besides that? Now the rest of The Cosby Show fans have 7 more weeks until they we get those DVDs because we weren't apart of Oprah's audience. I mean this really sucks because season 6 on DVD was so unwatchable because of the Olivia focused episodes and knowing those people will be watching season 7 this month before me makes me want to puke. Oprah could have given away the single-disc "best of DVD" that is already out, not the DVD's that I can't see until April. This is what I get for even watching Oprah because if I hadn't, I would have not known about this unfair news.
I know it's real easy to just change the channel when you don't want to hear or watch a certain story on a particular network and that's exactly what I did this week. I made every effort to stay away from the Roger Clemens steroid story on ESPN but that still didn't work because it interrupted regular scheduled programming on ESPNews at 6:30pm. That's when the repeat of Pardon the Interruption comes on and because of this Roger Clemens mess all week I didn't get to see PTI on Wednesday night. I wish this story will just go away because even though it's a major sports story, ESPN acts like there are no other sports to discuss in the sports world and just made the 6pm SportsCenter, "ClemensCenter" all-week long and right now I don't know what hate I more, the story or ESPN.
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Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Thursday, March 28
The Conners - "Keep On Truckin' Six Feet Apart" (The CW, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
The Conners are dealing with the pandemic and life's financial troubles.
The Conners - "Halloween and the Election vs the Pandemic" (The CW, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Halloween has been canceled, so the family works to create an unforgettable experience.
Son of a Critch - "Airing Out" (The CW, 9:00PM ET/PT)
The Critches are doing their annual airing-out-the-house ritual; some family secrets are uncovered.
Son of a Critch - "Cabaret" (The CW, 9:30PM ET/PT)
Mark finally gets the chance to take the stage as a stand-up comedian.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of March 25)
Thursday, March 28
- Joey King (Bent) - Joey talks about We Were the Lucky Ones on ABC's Good Morning America some time between 7-9am.
- Giancarlo Esposito (Bakersfield P.D.) - Giancarlo discusses his starring role in the AMC crime-thriller series Parish on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
- Niecy Nash-Betts (Reno 911!/Getting On/The Soul Man/Do Not Disturb) - Niecy stops by to talk about her upcoming starring turn in Ryan Murphy's horror drama Grotesquerie on Sherri, so check your local listings.
- Lisa Ann Walter (Abbott Elementary/Emeril) - Lisa talks about Abbott Elementary on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Lorraine Toussaint (Where I Live) - Lorraine is a guest on PIX11 Morning News on WPIX in New York at 9:40am.
New on DVD/Blu-ray (November-March)
11/07 - South Park - The Complete Twenty-Sixth Season (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/14 - Leave it to Beaver - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/05 - Father Knows Best - The Complete Series
12/05 - The Odd Couple - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/12 - The Dick Van Dyke Show - The Complete Series
12/12 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
12/12 - That Girl - The Complete Series
12/15 - Letterkenny - Season 11
12/19 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Official Restored Complete Series
12/22 - Three's Company - The Official 40th Anniversary Collection (includes The Ropers and Three's a Crowd)
01/09 - South Park - Seasons 11-15 (Blu-ray)
01/16 - Ghosts (UK) - Season Five
02/13 - Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/27 - The Really Loud House - Season One
03/12 - Ghosts (UK) - The Complete Series
03/12 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 3 (Blu-ray)
03/12 - Rick and Morty - Season 7 (Blu-ray Steelbook) (Blu-ray) (DVD)
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