Saturday, January 03, 2009

Blog DVD Review: 1st and Ten - Complete Collection

It is Saturday, so that must mean it is time for the blog DVD review! Since we are in the college football bowl season and that the NFL Playoffs starts today, it makes sense today to take a look at Tango Entertainment's 1st & Ten: Complete Collection...even though this DVD came out 3 years ago in January 2006. 1st & 10 was a HBO football-themed show from the late 80s that is most probably known as a series with O.J. Simpson. See skees53's blog DVD review of 1st & Ten: Complete Collection:

1st & Ten: Complete Collection (Tango, $26.98) contains all 80 episodes of one of the first premium cable TV series in history. Although the series underwent a great number of changes over the year, the series begins with wealthy housewife Diane Barrow (Delta Burke, of Designing Women fame) coming home to her mansion one day and finding her loving and adoring husband in bed. Except, her loving and adoring husband isn't in bed alone, and is in fact in bed with another person. And did we mention that this other person happens to be a guy? Diane, determined to get revenge on her husband in any way possible, decides to divorce her husband, and to take everything she can get from him, including his professional football team! Now, Diane (who knows nothing about football) is suddenly the owner of a football team and has to call all of the shots.
The series began in 1984 on HBO, which was just getting started at that time, and was one of the first series to truly take advantage of the fact that you can get away with literally anything on cable TV, including very controversial plot lines and even some nudity. It aired until 1991, and underwent many changes through the years, particularly cast changes. In fact, nearly the entire cast has been swapped out by the time the series was over, creating a totally different series where Shannon Tweed played the owner of the team. The series is also well-known for the fact that O.J. Simpson had a role on the series throughout most of the series run, playing (what else?) a former NFL star.
There are a lot of episodes on the set, and I did not watch all of them (mostly because some of them wouldn't even play, and you'll find out why later in this review), but many of the episodes have all of the themes that one would come to expect from a controversial series, such as extramarital affairs ("The Pilot"), near-death experiences ("You Are Who You Eat"), alcoholism ("Rona's Fling"), and other such themes. Sex is a big thing on the series, as is nudity, so don't be surprised to see some nudity (invariably in the form of bare breasts) in some of the episodes. The series isn't exactly full of guest stars, but you will find many "legendary" (in other words, ones that today's generation won't know) NFL players in the episodes. Classic TV fans will notice guest stars such as LaWanda Page (Sanford & Son), Roxie Roker (The Jeffersons), Norman Fell (Three's Company), Morey Amsterdam (Dick Van Dyke Show), and David Leisure (Empty Nest).
The video and audio quality of the episodes leaves quite a bit to be desired. I'm not sure what type of masters they used to create this set, but on some of the episodes, I watch them and think that they possibly used VHS tapes in EP/SLP mode as their masters. In other words, the episodes are all watchable, but the quality is (generally speaking) rather poor. You'll even notice obvious video defects as you are watching the episodes.
Unfortunately, this series didn't exactly receive one of the best DVD releases possible, as a majority of the episodes contained within it are edited episodes. And let me just say upfront, these are HORRIBLY edited episodes. To start off, these edited episodes have approximately five minutes of content cut out from them, but that is only the beginning of the problems. The real problem is that somebody decided to add this really bad (and VERY fake sounding) laugh track to these edited episodes. Obviously, to make the episodes suitable for broadcast television, these syndicated versions have all of the nudity and foul language removed from the episodes. Furthermore, the edited episodes have the original opening and closing credits replaced with a new version that had been created for syndication.
These DVDs aren't for fans that hate compressed episodes either. That is because they really do cram the episodes on the discs in this set. In fact, there are 80 episodes, but only six discs! How do they accomplish this? Basically, they use double-sided discs and put an entire season on one disc (seasons two and three share a disc, since those seasons only had 10 episodes combined). This means that some discs contain up to 16 episodes, with 8 episodes on each side! I certainly like a compact DVD set, but that is overdoing it. Add to all of this that the cheap packaging allows the discs to get scratched very easily (the hubs fail to completely secure the discs like they should), and there is a tendency for scratched double sided discs to go bad quickly... you have the fact that inevitably, some episodes won't even play at all. And there are quite a few that I couldn't get to play. Very frustrating! As for the packaging itself, they simply have three black cases that hold two discs each, and as previously mentioned, the packaging does not secure the discs very well, at all.
The set contains no special features at all, and I'm not really sure what could have been included. The series is really not something that any of the stars would ever put on their resume (for example, even though Delta Burke was the star of the series in the first few seasons, I highly doubt anybody would ever call her 1st & Ten's Delta Burke), and a lot of the actors probably look back at the series as a low-budget series from the dark ages of premium cable. Still, maybe some interviews with the creator of the series would have been nice, just to get some perspective into the series.
So the bottom line is that this DVD set is indeed a DVD collector's nightmare, but it is probably the only way anybody will ever be able to enjoy this show. Hopefully someone else will release this series in a better way. It is a pretty decent show, particularly in the earlier seasons, and I don't understand why it doesn't get more credit than it actually does. It isn't really a show about football, and is instead more of a series about a woman that is trying to make business decisions in a business where she is completely clueless. The set shouldn't set you back too much at an MSRP under $30 (that is very cheap for a complete series), but in reality, that MSRP is higher than what you'll actually pay for this set. If you look around at Amazon.com or even Wal-Mart (of all places), you will find this set for just a little bit more than you'd pay for a candy bar (literally). I purchased this set myself for under $2, a price which I was more than willing to pay even though I knew nothing at all about the series. Despite the many problems that plague the set, I also see it as a series that is worth splurging a few bucks on to get a few hours of entertainment from.

-- Reviewed by skees53
(2/5 stars)

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Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Tuesday, April 1

St. Denis Medical - "Anything to Push Zaluva" (NBC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Ron's teasing makes Joyce question whether her friendship with a pharmaceutical rep is genuine; Alex has trouble letting Serena take on a new task; Matt finds a mentor in Bruce.

Night Court - "Hot to Trot" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Abby's friendship with her ex-boyfriend's mother leads to romantic complications; when Julianne's wealthy aunt passes away, the gang vies for a piece of her inheritance.

Tyler Perry's House of Payne - "Love At First Swipe" (BET, 9:00PM ET/PT)
C.J. and Janine receive marital advice from an unlikely source; Peanut seeks help with his newfound online lover.

Tyler Perry's Assisted Living - "Failure 2 Launch" (BET, 9:30PM ET/PT)
Assisted Living is the new situation comedy by Tyler Perry about three generations who must make a new start in the rural backwoods of Georgia.

Complete TV Listings


Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of March 31)

Tuesday, April 1

  • Adam Scott (Ghosted/Veep/Parks and Recreation/Party Down) - Catch Adam on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
  • Kevin Bacon (I Love Dick) - Kevin is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
  • Amanda Peet (Brockmire/Togetherness/Bent) - Amanda appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
  • Paul Rudd (The Shrink Next Door/Living with Yourself/Wild Oats) - Paul stops by Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
  • Ike Barinholtz (The Studio/The Afterparty/Bless the Harts/The Mindy Project/Eastbound & Down) - Ike appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC. He will also be on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen at 9:30pm on Bravo.
  • Vinny Thomas (Platonic), Paul F. Tompkins (The Great North/BoJack Horseman/DAG) and Aparna Nancherla (The Great North/Lopez vs Lopez/Corporate) - Vinny, Paul and Aparna are guests on After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
  • Chase Sui Wonders (The Studio/Bupkis) and Kathryn Hahn (The Studio/Tiny Beautiful Things/Central Park/Happyish/Transparent/Free Agents) - Chase and Kathryn are guests on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen at 9:30pm on Bravo.
  • Will Ferrell (The Office) and Jennifer Coolidge (2 Broke Girls/Joey) - E! News has interviews with Will and Jennifer at 11pm on E!.
  • Román Zaragoza (Ghosts) - Román talks about Ghosts on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am.
  • Jenny Slate (The Great North/Big Mouth/Married/Bob's Burgers) - Jenny talks about Dying for Sex on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am.
  • Michael Angarano (Laid/I'm Dying Up Here/Will & Grace) and Michael Cera (Life & Beth/Arrested Development/I Was a Sixth Grade Alien) - Michael and Michael talk about Sacramento with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
  • Olivia Munn (Perfect Couples) - Olivia guest co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
  • Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) - Hannah talks about Hacks on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
  • Tasha Smith (Survival of the Thickest/Tyler Perry's For Better or Worse/The Tom Show/Boston Common) and Tone Bell (Survival of the Thickest/Fam/Disjointed/Truth Be Told/Bad Judge/Whitney) - Tasha and Tone talk about the new season of Netflix’s Survival of the Thickest on Sherri, so check your local listings.
  • Kathryn Hahn (The Studio/Tiny Beautiful Things/Central Park/Happyish/Transparent/Free Agents) - Kathryn is dishing on her new comedy series The Studio on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
  • Wilmer Valderrama (That '70s Show) - Wilmer and Freddy Rodriguez chat about their podcast Dos Amigos on a repeat of Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
  • Brenda Song (Running Point/Dollface/Dads/The Suite Life on Deck/The Suite Life of Zack & Cody) - Brenda talks about Netflix's Running Point on a repeat of Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
  • Paul Walter Hauser (The Afterparty) - Paul is a guest on PIX11 Morning News on WPIX in New York at 9:40am.


New on DVD and Blu-ray

I Love Lucy - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Seinfeld - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray) The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series Frasier (2023) - Season Two

11/05 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
11/12 - The King of Queens - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (2024 Release)
11/19 - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Fourteenth Season
11/26 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 4 (Blu-ray)
12/03 - Angel (1960-1961) - The Complete Series, Volume 1
12/17 - Seinfeld - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (4K UHD)
01/28 - Wait Till Your Father Gets Home - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/04 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
02/04 - The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series
03/11 - Frasier (2023) - Season Two
04/01 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Third Season

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