Saturday, January 31, 2009
Blog DVD Reviews: You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown; Dancing with the Stars Season 8 Casting Announcement On Feb. 8?
You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown - Remastered Deluxe Edition (Warner, $19.98) brings us the classic 1975 sports-themed episode (15th primetime special) on DVD digitally remastered...and it is really worth it! Plus in addition to the Good Sport special, we also get You're the Greatest, Charlie Brown, a 1979 CBS special that is also about sports.
The Good Sport special starts off with Snoopy playing tennis but the main focus of the special is a Motocross race. So start your engines! Can Snoopy compete against Peppermint Patty and Charlie Brown? It's going to be fast and furious fun right up to the finish line! Whoever wins will win two tickets to the NFL Pro Bowl! In the Greatest special, hard work and team spirit are what Charlie Brown needs for a decathlon victory in the Junior Olympics but this junior Olympian had better keep his eye on the track to win!
Let's now move on to the packaging. Like all the previous sets, 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 are exactly the same, except the box is shinier. The cover art is lime in color, and has #13 Charlie Brown, #7 Peppermint Patty, and #1 Snoopy on their bikes racing in the Motocross race, with little Woodstock watching. The title of the special is on the top, with a mention that this is a remastered deluxe edition on top of that! The bottom tells us we also get a bonus TV special (You're the Greatest, Charlie Brown). To the back we go, we get a nice synopsis of the Good Sport special, along with a list of the special features below that. It is again lime in color with artwork of Snoopy and Woodstock playing tennis. When we open the case, we get black background all over, very plain, but of course the disc is inside. The disc is in lime and has that blackboard and has artwork of Snoopy and Woodstock on the tennis court.
The menu screen has options of Features, Special Features, and Languages. We get that lime background again, with the theme song playing in the background. We also have the same artwork as the cover art with the trio on their bikes. Anyway back to the menu, for Languages, we can have either English, Japanese, or Portugues. For subtitles we have those three again and also Chinese, French, and Thai...wow! But no Espanol for either? 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 once again. These specials are all so good. They have never looked better or sounded better ever. I am very impressed yet again; what more can I say?. Warner continues to do a great job on this remastering of all these classic specials. Good Sport special runs 25:07 and has 6 chapter stops, which you an use via your DVD remote. The Greatest special runs 24:24 and has 5 chapter stops.
As for special features, we get a nice featurette! It is titled "Dust Yourself Off and Pick Yourself Up, Charlie Brown" and runs 11:34. We find out lots of behind-the-scenes details and cool facts for the Good Sport special from members of the Schulz family and more. Charles Schulz's son Craig was the inspiration of this special because he loved dirt biking. Interviewed are Craig Schulz, Nat Gertler (Peanuts Historian), Jerry Beck (Animation Historian), and Shari Young Kuchenbecker, Ph.D (Author). We also get Trailers from other Warner animation titles.
I once again highly do recommend this set for any Charlie Brown-Peanuts fan and classic animation in general. Warner continues to do a wonderful job with the remastering and the behind the scenes extras of each special. Let's hope they continue to release more Charlie Brown specials and eventually we get them all remastered in our personal libraries! So on your marks, get set, and go and to get this special on DVD!
-- Reviewed by Pavan
(4/5 stars)
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Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
Charlie Brown Official Page
Charlie Brown Specials
We have some special Saturday news for you. I have gotten word that ABC will announce the new cast of Dancing with the Stars on Sunday, Feb. 8 in primetime! Not sure how this will work, though, but maybe during commercial breaks they will announce little by little the 12 or 13 celebs? We will find out a bit tomorrow (Sunday, Feb. 1) during the Wipeout Bowl on ABC because there will be promos for this starting tomorrow. So the promos will tell us starting tomorrow how ABC plans to announce the Dancing with the Stars season 8 cast! Usually we get the announcements for each season on Good Morning America, but last February we got the announcement on the finale of the spin-off Dance War. Tune in for the promos tomorrow during the Wipeout Bowl (during halftime of the Super Bowl switch to ABC and switch to ABC immediately after the game for a one-hour special)! Goodnight and big balls!
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Tuesday, April 23
Lopez vs Lopez - "Lopez vs Dreams" (NBC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
When George's vivid dreams reveal he has feelings for Rosie, he avoids sleeping and gets distracted at work; when Chance tests at a genius-level IQ, Mayan and Quinten fear that they're a couple of dum-dums.
Lopez vs Lopez - "Lopez vs Lisa" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Mayan worries when George gets into a hairy situation dating a hot hairdresser; Josué gets locked into a competition with the other man in Rosie's life: her grandson, Chance.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of April 22)
Tuesday, April 23
- Wanda Sykes (The Upshaws/The New Adventures of Old Christine/Wanda at Large) - Catch Wanda on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Gabriel Iglesias (Mr. Iglesias/Cristela) - Gabriel appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family/The Class) - Jesse is a guest on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Esther Povitsky (Dollface/Alone Together) - Esther appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Hannah Waddingham (Krapopolis/Ted Lasso) - Hannah is a guest on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Maya Rudolph (Loot/Bless the Harts/Forever/Up All Night) - Maya appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Drew Carey (The Drew Carey Show/The Good Life) and Thomas Lennon (The Odd Couple/Sean Saves the World/Reno 911!) - Drew and Thomas are guests on After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Bebe Neuwirth (Cheers/Frasier) - Bebe will be on CBS Mornings some time between 7-9am.
- John Leguizamo (The Brothers Garcia) - NBC's Today catches up with John in the 9am hour.
- Zendaya (K.C. Undercover/Shake It Up) - Zendaya will be on ABC's Good Morning America some time between 7-9am.
- Patton Oswalt (A.P. Bio/The Goldbergs/The King of Queens) - Patton chats with the ladies of The View on a repeat on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Gina Rodriguez (Not Dead Yet) - Gina talks about ABC's Dead to Me on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Jennifer Tilly (Out of Practice) - Jennifer talks about the new season of Chucky on USA & SYFY Networks on Sherri, so check your local listings.
New on DVD/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)
04/03 - Too Close for Comfort - The Complete Series (VEI)
04/08 - Check It Out! - The Complete Series (VEI)
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