Saturday, July 11, 2009
Blog DVD Review: Peanuts 1960's Collection
Peanuts - 1960's Collection (Warner, $29.98) brings us all six 1960's TV specials on DVD digitally remastered...and it is really worth it! These are the first six TV specials that have ever aired, too. We get A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown's All-Stars, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, You're in Love Charlie Brown, He's Your Dog Charlie Brown, and It Was a Short Summer Charlie Brown. I believe the latter two have never been released on DVD, so we get those here for the first time. Charlie Brown All-Stars wasn't released digitally remastered previously, so it looks much better here.
Among the stories on these six specials are: Charlie Brown has the holiday blues; new baseball team uniforms and memberships; being invited to a Halloween party; being smitten with the little red-haired girl; mischief Snoopy tries everyone's patience; and summer camp rivalries between boys and girls.
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...again what's the point? It doesn't need protection really. Also, both the back and front of each are exactly the same, except the box is shinier. The cover art is white in color, and has a shot of Snoopy sleeping on top of his red dog house. The title of the special is on the roof of his dog house in yellow, with a mention that this is a remastered deluxe edition on the top with a Snoopy Peanuts logo! It also says we get all six remastered TV Specials. To the back we go, we get a nice shot of nearly the entire gang on top with the wording "It's a Cool Collection Charlie Brown." The back also has a disc-by-disc breakdown on what specials to expect. When we open the case, we get nice artwork and details on each special on each side. The first disc is in a plastic holder, that we can flip back and forth like a page on a book. Disc two is actually on the right panel. Disc art has a white background, with artwork of Charlie Brown and Snoopy on disc one and Linus and Sally on disc two.
The menu screen has options of Features, Trailers, Special Features, and Languages. We get that white background again, with the theme song playing in the background. We also have the same artwork as the cover art with Snoopy lying down on the roof of his dog house. Anyway back to the menu, Trailers is just on disc one and we get some for the Woodstock movie and The Jetsons DVD. We also get auto-trailers on each disc before the main menu for items like Scooby Doo Cartoon Network movie, Saturday Morning 60s/70s DVD, Tiny Toons/Freakazoid DVD, and Snoopy's Reunion DVD. For Languages, we can have either have English, Espanol, Portuguese or Japanese. For subtitles we have those four again and also French and Thai! The Features section has the specials listed, we can also select Play All to play them consecutively. Finally, Special Features is on disc two only and lists the featurette.
The video and audio is tremendous once again. These specials are all so good ever since they stated the Remastered Collection sets. They have never looked better or sounded better ever. I am very impressed yet again; what more can I continue to say about these digitally remastered sets?. Warner continues to do a great job on this remastering of all these classic specials. Each special has 5 chapter stops and runtimes are all between 25:05-25:25. So, yes of course it is unedited!
As for special features, we get a nice featurette! It is titled "Vince Guaraldi: The Maestro of Menlo Park" and runs 36:54. We find more about the composer behind the classic music on this show. We get insight from colleagues and more. Interviewed are Lee Mendelson (executive producer), Seward McCain (former bassist), David Guaraldi (son of Vince), David Benoit (composer/pianist), Vince Lateano (former drummer), George Winston (solo pianist), Dean Reilly (former bassist), Eddie Duran (former guitarist), Kitty Margolis (jazz-vocalist), Colin Bailey (former drummer), Jim Zimmerman (former drummer), Peter Woodform (Doc's Band on The Tonight Show), and Mark Rosengarden (former drummer).
I once again highly do recommend this set for any Charlie Brown-Peanuts fan and classic animation in general. Continue your collection, because we get two specials we never had on DVD before. This is worth it! It is now safe to say we have the first 6 specials all remastered! Warner continues to do a wonderful job with the remastering and the behind the scenes extras for each set. Let's hope they continue to release more Peanuts specials and eventually we get them all remastered in our personal libraries! So head back to the '60s and relive the first six classic specials all over again! Charlie Brown says "good grief" but there is no grief in watching these specials!
-- Reviewed by Pavan
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Thursday, May 15
Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage - "Guilt Boots" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Georgie panics when he learns that Jim is considering selling the tire store to his rival, and Mandy’s forced to confront a long-running lie, on part one of the first season finale.
Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage - "Big Decisions" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Tensions rise when Georgie finds out the truth about Mandy’s boss, and Georgie does all he can to buy the tire store before Jim sells it, on part two of the first season finale.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of May 12)
Thursday, May 15
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep/The New Adventures of Old Christine/Watching Ellie/Seinfeld/Day by Day) - Catch Julia on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Mo Amer (Mo/Ramy) - Mo is a guest on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Glenn Howerton (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia/A.P. Bio/The Mindy Project/That '80s Show) - Glenn appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Keyla Monterroso Mejia (Abbott Elementary/Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Brandon Kyle Goodman (Human Resources) - Keyla and Brandon are guests on After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Stanley Tucci (Central Park) - E! News has an interview with Stanley at 11pm on E!.
- Method Man (Method & Red) - Method Man is a guest on Comedy Central's The Daily Show at 11pm.
- Anthony Anderson (black-ish/Guys with Kids/All About the Andersons) and Cedric the Entertainer (The Neighborhood/The Last O.G./The Soul Man/The Steve Harvey Show) - CBS Mornings has CBS Deals with Anthony and Cedric sometime between 7-9am.
- Mario Lopez (Saved by the Bell/Saved by the Bell: The College Years) - Mario and Kit Hoover talk about Access Daily on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am and in the 9am hour.
- Nick Jonas (Jonas) - Nick chats about his Broadway show The Last Five Years on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
- Bernadette Peters (High Desert/Mozart in the Jungle/All's Fair) - Bernadette talks about Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
- Brooke Shields (Suddenly Susan) - Brooke, author of Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman, is revealing to Drew her cover photo on AARP magazine in celebration of her 50th birthday on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
- Valerie Bertinelli (Hot in Cleveland/One Day at a Time) - Valerie and Drew are sharing some gadgets to help with menopause symptoms on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
- Terry Crews (Everybody Still Hates Chris/Brooklyn Nine-Nine/Are We There Yet?/Everybody Hates Chris) - Terry talks about NBC's America's Got Talent on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Dulé Hill (The Wonder Years) - Dulé Hill is a guest on PIX11 Morning News on WPIX in New York at 9:40am.
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04/01 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Third Season
05/13 - The Drew Carey Show - The Complete Series* (missing 4 episodes and some music has been replaced or altered)
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