SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

NBC Celebrates Carol Burnett's 90th Birthday in April; Fox Renews The Simpsons, Family Guy and Bob's Burgers for 2 Seasons Each; Remembering Yoshio Yoda of McHale's Navy and Carole Cook of The Lucy Show

Paying tribute to a beloved national icon for her birthday, NBC will celebrate Carol Burnett's illustrious career with Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love. The two-hour special will air Wednesday, April 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and will also stream next day on Peacock. The special will be filmed at Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles. The star-studded event will feature an A-list lineup of musical performances and special guests who will come together to share their love for one of the most cherished comediennes in television history.

The evening will include musical performances from Bernadette Peters, Billy Porter, Jane Lynch, Katy Perry, Kristin Chenoweth and more. The musical tributes will pay homage to Carol's renowned career performances, including: "Old Friends," dedicated to Carol's 60-year friendship with Julie Andrews; "Only an Octave Apart," which Carol sang alongside Beverly Sills in the 1976 television special "Sills and Burnett at the Met"; Carol's memorable songs from the hit film "Annie"; and a tribute to her classic theme song, "I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together" from The Carol Burnett Show. Special guests attending this once-in-a-lifetime party include Aileen Quinn, Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Bob Mackie, Cher, Ellen DeGeneres, Julie Andrews, Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Lily Tomlin, Marisa Tomei, Sofia Vergara, Steve Carell, Susan Lucci, Tracee Ellis Ross, Vicki Lawrence, and many more. The special will share some of the funniest and most memorable moments of Burnett's legendary career. From her Broadway debut in Once Upon a Mattress, her early appearances on The Garry Moore Show, her hit films The Four Seasons, A Wedding, Pete 'n' Tillie, her iconic role as Miss Hannigan in Annie, to her acclaimed sketch comedy series The Carol Burnett Show, which ran for 11 seasons on CBS and played an instrumental role in the evolution of comedy. Burnett's variety show co-star Vicki Lawrence will be in attendance, along with costume designer Bob Mackie. The Carol Burnett Show continues to make people laugh more than 40 years later with its incredibly funny sketches, including, most notably, the hysterical Gone with the Wind satire.

Fox Entertainment has ordered early renewals for hit 20th Television Animation series The Simpsons, Family Guy and Bob's Burgers. The three FOX Animation Domination fan-favorite series -- all produced by Disney Television Studios' 20th Television Animation -- have each received two additional seasons, continuing their long-time runs on Fox through the 2024-25 broadcast cycle. The renewals guarantee Seasons 14 and 15 for Bob's Burgers, the 22nd and 23rd Seasons of Family Guy and the record-setting 35th and 36th Seasons for The Simpsons, extending its standing as the longest-running scripted series in television history.

Japanese-born American actor and businessman Yoshio Yoda, who starred as Fuji Kobiaji on McHale's Navy, has died. He died in Fullerton, California, on January 13. Mr. Yoda was 88.

Yoda starred as Fuji Kobiaji on the 1962-1966 ABC sitcom McHale's Navy. Seaman 3rd Class Fujiwara "Fuji" Takeo Kobiaji is the lovable, boyish, Japanese prisoner of war and deserter from the Imperial Japanese Navy whom the PT-73 crew takes on as a de facto comrade and keeps hidden from Capt. Wallace (Wally) B. Binghamton (Joe Flynn) and almost everyone outside of McHale's gang.

The cast included Ernest Borgnine, Joe Flynn, Tim Conway, Bob Hastings, Carl Ballantine, Gary Vinson, Billy Sands, Edson Stroll, Jane Dulo (1962-1964), Gavin MacLeod (1962-1964), John Wright (1964-1966), Henry Beckman (1965-1966), Simon Scott (1965-1966), Dick Wilson (1965-1966), Jay Novello (1965-1966) and Peggy Mondo (1965-1966).

He starred as Sgt. Roy Tada in the 1962 film The Horizontal Liutenant. He played Fuji Kobiaji in the 1964 film McHale's Navy. He starred as Takeo "Fuji" Fugiwara in the 1965 film McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force.

His final acting credit was as Mr. Tenaka in the 1969 segment of Love, American Style titled "Love and the Letter." He was an associate producer for the 1970 film The Walking Major, which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1971.

He was the assistant vice president of inventory and senior division manager for Toyota in Hawaii. From 2012 until his death, he lived in Fullerton, California.

Mr. Yoda was a fine comic performer on McHale's Navy. We thank him for the laughs and entertainment that he brought us on the series. He will be greatly missed.

Share your memories on our McHale's Navy message board. View photos in our galleries.

Actress Carole Cook, who guest starred on The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy, has died. She died from heart failure in Beverly Hills, California, on January 11. Ms. Cook was 98.

Cook guest starred as Thelma Green in five episodes of The Lucy Show from 1963 to 1964. She played various characters in 13 other episodes from 1963 to 1968.

She played various characters in five episodes of Here's Lucy from 1969 to 1974. Some of her other sitcom guest appearances included The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The New Phil Silvers Show (2 episodes), My World and Welcome to It, That Girl, Maude, Chico and the Man, Laverne & Shirley, The Love Boat, A Family for Joe and Strip Mall.

Some of her other television guest appearances included U.S. Marshal (2 episodes), Kentucky Jones, Daniel Boone, Sarge, McMillan & Wife (4 episodes), Baretta, Ellery Queen, Emergency!, Bronk, Starsky & Hutch, Charlie's Angels (2 episodes), Kojak, Darkroom, Strike Force, Trapper John, M.D. (1982), Knight Rider, Hart to Hart, Quincy, M.E. (2 episodes), The A-Team, Magnum, P.I. (1986), Dynasty (4 episodes), Cagney & Lacey (5 episodes), Murder, She Wrote (2 episodes) and Grey's Anatomy.

She played Grandma Helen in Sixteen Candles (1984). Some of her other film credits included Palm Springs Weekend (1963), The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964), American Gigolo (1980), Summer Lovers (1982) and Grandview, U.S.A. (1984).

Ms. Cook was a talented and funny actress. She was a long-time friend and protégée of Lucille Ball. We thank her for her work on television and in films. She will be deeply missed.

Share your memories on our The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy message boards. View photos in our galleries.

COZI TV January 2021 Schedule; FX Orders Reservation Dogs

SitcomsOnline Digest: Fox Gives Presentation Order to Animated Alaska Comedy; Time-Life Brings Lucille Ball Collection to DVD

• The Great North, an animated sitcom from some of the same people behind Bob's Burgers and featuring voices such as Nick Offerman, Jenny Slate, Meg Mullaly, Will Forte, and others, has been given a presentation order from Fox. (Deadline) 
• The season premiere of Murphy Brown included a surprise cameo by Hillary Clinton, and there is word that another surprise cameo from somebody else is to come as well. (Deadline)
• Last Man Standing did rather well in ratings when it debuted on Fox last night. (TVLine)
• With Bill Cosby now in prison, words that we never imagined we'd be seeing, one journalist has gone back to watch the pilot episode of The Cosby Show and given his thoughts of watching it with this new image of Cosby. (Washington Post)
• With Julie Chen gone from The Talk, the show needs a new co-host. Could Rosie O'Donnell be the one? (TVLine)
• Fox has already ordered an animated comedy for the 2019-2020 season, with Bless the Harts. (SitcomsOnline)

HOME MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

• Time-Life has pulled off a surprise release this week with Lucy: The Ultimate Collection, which features selected episodes (though not a complete series of any of them) of I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, and even Life with Lucy.
• Warner Archive has more Alice on the way, with Alice - The Complete Eighth Season arriving on October 23.

HOME MEDIA RELEASES (OCTOBER 2)

• The Beverly Hillbillies - The Complete Fifth Season (DVD, $29.98): It has been a long and bumpy ride to getting this series out on DVD, but the Clampetts return with the fifth season of the series in this DVD release.

WEEKLY PLANNER (SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 4)

• The season premiere of Saturday Night Live, with Adam Driver and Kanye West (and probably Alec Baldwin and somebody playing Brett Kavanaugh, we're willing to bet), will air tonight.
• Decades is airing My Three Sons all weekend long.
• The Fox Sunday night lineup returns on Sunday, with new episodes of The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, Family Guy, and the second episode of Rel.
• The Neighborhood and Happy Together debut Monday on CBS.
• Thursday night marks the return of NBC's sitcoms, with Superstore, The Good Place, Will & Grace, and I Feel Bad.
• ABC brings back TGIF... sort of... on Friday, with the season premiere of Fresh Off the Boat and Speechless.

Lucy Nanny Marathon on COZI TV; Freeform Adds 3rd Original Film for 25 Days of Christmas

Cozi TV Acquires Baywatch, Simon & Simon; ABC Family Orders 2nd Season of Freshman Drama Stitchers

Here's Lucy Heading to Cozi TV; The CW Drops Comedies Seed, Backpackers

SitcomsOnline Digest: Betas Debuts on Amazon Prime; Hill Street Blues and Here's Lucy Complete Series DVD Releases

• Last week, we told you about the debut of the new Amazon Prime comedy Alpha House (a new episode is available this week, by the way), and this week, another comedy debuted on Amazon Prime with Betas (for the record, there won't be a comedy with the word Gamma in the title coming next week), a series about making it big in the mobile app development world. The first three episodes are available to everybody for free right now, and new episodes will be released each week for Amazon Prime members. (PC Magazine)
• Carol Burnett is in the spotlight this weekend on PBS. In October, the actress won the Mark Twain Prize for Humor, and the award ceremony featuring celebrities including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Martin Short, and Vicki Lawrence will be broadcast by PBS on Sunday night. Most stations will air it at 8 PM ET/PT, but check local listings due to variations in PBS scheduling. (NPR).
• If you were a fan of the classic final episode of Newhart, then you'll love the "alternate ending" from the special features of Breaking Bad - The Final Season that has leaked onto the internet. We'll give you a hint: somebody wakes up in a bed next to his wife... but it isn't who you'd expect. (Mediaite)
• If you think NCIS airs a lot in the United States, think again. In Japan, Fox Japan is prepared to go all out with NCIS (and in the meantime, shatter a world record) by airing an 11 day marathon featuring every episode from the first ten seasons of the series back-to-back. (TV Guide)
• The networks of ENCORE have been airing a few classic TV series for years, particularly westerns, but now as they prepare to rebrand two of their networks, they'll be adding sitcom favorites, including Diff'rent Strokes, Murphy Brown, Night Court, Amen, and more. (SitcomsOnline)
• We can't count how many times we've heard the Simpson family say "The Simpsons are going to..." on the series The Simpsons, which usually ends in something like Africa or New York, but now we can finally (after two long decades) say "The Simpsons are going to cable," as FXX becomes the first cable home for the long-running animated series. (SitcomsOnline)

FOLLOW ME

Digital Digest: Lucy Calls the President DVD Review; A Look at International DVDs

Welcome to the very first edition of Sitcoms Online Digital Digest, our new weekly feature where we will discuss all thing related to our sitcoms in the digital world! This will be a feature of our website every Saturday from now on. Our main focus will be on home media releases (that includes both DVD and Blu-ray) of sitcoms, including news of recently announced home media releases and a reminder of home media releases for the upcoming week. Digital, though, implies much more than just home media formats. We will also talk about things on the internet that are sitcom relevant, particularly relating to watching sitcoms on the internet as well as some discussion of internet video features relating to sitcoms. But that's not all! Each week, we will conclude with one or two "feature stories," where we will go in-depth on a DVD topic. But if you are a fan of blog reviews, there is no need to worry--they aren't going anywhere! Most weeks, at least one of our "feature stories" will be a blog review. This week, we are going to review The Lucille Ball Specials -- Lucy Calls the President. We are also going to take a look at some of our favorite American sitcoms on DVD, but with a twist. We are going to look at foreign releases of American sitcoms, which sometimes can be different from the versions released in the United States. We are simply trying to make the blog a much more interesting destination for your Saturday routine, just like your routine on Sunday of reading the Sunday newspaper with a cup of coffee in your hand! So enough of the introduction... time to get down to business with the inaugural edition of Sitcoms Online Digital Digest!


DIGITAL NEWS

Rhoda Morgenstern (and Shout! Factory) gives New York a third "last chance" in Rhoda -- Season Three, set for release on July 6. It comes at a $29.98 MSRP and is expected to include all unedited episodes. But Shout! Factory has yet another release of another classic sitcom set for a release on April 20. The Bill Cosby Show -- Season Two contains the second (and final) season of Bill Cosby's early 1970s sitcom on a four disc set. It is available for $39.99, but it is being sold exclusively through Shout! Factory's direct-to-consumer program.

Two of Sunday night's animated sitcoms will have new releases on June 15. Family Guy - Volume 8 will include 15 episodes from seasons seven and eight of the series, and will include deleted scenes and a Family Guy Karaoke featurette. No commentaries have been announced yet, but it is expected that the set will have them, probably on every episode. It comes at a $49.98 MSRP. American Dad -- Volume 5 contains 14 episodes, with commentaries for most episodes, deleted scenes, and a "Power Hour Drinking Game" featurette (we aren't quite sure what that is yet). It comes at a $39.98 MSRP. Both sets are being released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

MPI Home Video has been on a roll lately with their recent announcements of The Honeymooners -- Second Honeymoon and The Honeymooners -- Valentine Special, both being specials from the 1970s and set for a May 4 release. Coming up in just a little over a week, on April 6 (and we will even have a review of it today), is The Lucille Ball Specials -- Lucy Calls the President, a 1970s Lucille Ball special featuring both Gale Gordon and Vivian Vance. But there is even bigger news for Lucille Ball fans with the announcement of Here's Lucy -- Season Three, set for release on June 15. It will include a plethora of special features, including introductions on every episode (from Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr.), home movies, syndication promos, photos, and even a crossover episode from Danny Thomas' series, Make Room for Granddaddy. And the best part? It comes at a low $29.98 MSRP.

MGM has announced some new titles that will be available exclusively through CreateSpace, a DVD-R format where DVDs are created on-demand for customers at Amazon.com. While there are no sitcoms in this batch (which is already available for preorder), Flipper -- Season Two, The New Adventures of Flipper -- Season One, and Highway Patrol -- Season One are among the TV series being included. MGM has very few sitcoms in their library, and much of what they do have aside from The Addams Family (which has been released in its entirety) has been licensed out to Shout! Factory. Hopefully the abandoned series Green Acres could be a potential future release through CreateSpace, but considering that MGM will likely be under new ownership in the near future, it is entirely possible that DVD releases from MGM could go in an entirely different direction.

A&E Home Video has two releases coming up for sitcoms airing on A&E's sister network, Lifetime. Sherri -- The Complete Season One contains all 14 episodes of the first season, along with some special features on a two disc set at a $19.95 MSRP. Rita Rocks -- The Complete First Season contains 20 episodes and special features on a three disc set. Both sets will be released on April 27.

Mill Creek Entertainment has announced several re-releases of action dramas previously released by Anchor Bay, including Hunter -- The Complete Second Season, 21 Jump Street -- The Complete Second Season, The Greatest American Hero -- The Complete First Season, and The Greatest American Hero -- The Complete Series. All are scheduled to be released on May 18, with the season sets having a $14.98 MSRP and The Greatest American Hero -- The Complete Series having a $29.98 MSRP. But if you just can't wait, you may already be able to find some of these releases at some stores at a nice discount! Target has been selling multi-season packs of all of the series mentioned for $15.00 since January (stock seems to be dwindling down now, though), and Best Buy has recently started selling (within the past week or so) The Greatest American Hero -- The Complete Series at the very low price of $19.99. These appear to be available only in stores, and not online.

Finally, CBS DVD is preparing My Three Sons -- The Second Season, Volume Two for a June 15 release. The set will contain the final 18 episodes of the sophomore season of the series.


UPCOMING WEEK PREVIEW

Next week (March 30) brings us a couple of DVD releases of interest to sitcom fans. The Abbott and Costello Show -- The Complete Series Collector's Edition from E1 Entertainment contains every episode of a series that often ranks as one of the greatest series of all-time. Shout! Factory has two sitcom releases, including Sports Night -- Season One (which has actually already been released as part of their previous Complete Series compilation) and Rhoda -- Season Two. The best part about the Rhoda set is that every episode is unedited and presented in much higher quality than the release of Rhoda -- Season One. You can read our review of Rhoda -- Season Two by clicking here. At the time of this edition of Digital Digest, we had not yet received review copies of the other two releases, but you can read our review of Sports Night -- The Complete Series by clicking here. Check back on our DVD Reviews page for reviews of these two sets coming shortly.


BLOG FEATURE REVIEW:

This week, we are going to take a look at another DVD of The Lucille Ball Specials. After Here's Lucy left the air in 1974, Lucille Ball began a series of specials for CBS where she played characters similar to her roles in her previous series. In July, we took a look at the first release by MPI Home Video, The Lucille Ball Specials -- Lucy Gets Lucky/Three for Two. Now, we are going to take a look at Lucy Calls the President, a special from 1977 co-starring Vivian Vance, Gale Gordon, and Ed McMahon.

DVD Review: The Lucille Ball Specials -- Lucy Calls the President
by skees53

The Lucille Ball Specials -- Lucy Calls the President (MPI, $14.98) is one of Lucille Ball's specials from CBS that aired following the conclusion of Here's Lucy. Airing in 1977, Ball plays Lucy Whittaker, a housewife from a small town named Bundy in Indiana, who calls President Jimmy Carter, and before she knows it, she finds herself planning for him to have dinner at the Whittaker house.

This special is one of the best of the series of specials, featuring a cast that reunites several of her former co-stars from previous series, as well as Ed McMahon and Steve Allen. Ed McMahon plays Floyd Whittaker, Lucy's husband, while Gale Gordon plays his father, Omar Whittaker, a staunch Republican who is less than pleased with the idea of a Democrat coming to dinner at the Whittaker house. Vivian Vance plays Lucy's best friend and neighbor Viv, who insists upon coming to dinner. Rounding out the cast is Mary Wickes as Lucy's Aunt Millie, and James Broadhead and Mary Jane Croft as the mayor and his wife. Steve Allen appears as himself, taping an interview with Lucy as she prepares for the visit from President Carter. Unlike the previous release of The Lucille Ball Specials, this one is more like a standard sitcom, being shot with multiple cameras and containing a live studio audience. It was also shot on videotape as opposed to film, and has the distinction of being the only thing that Lucille Ball ever starred in on tape.

The special begins with Lucy making a call to the White House to speak to the president, none other than Jimmy Carter. During the phone call, however, one thing leads to another, and before she knows it, President Carter decides that he will personally come to Bundy and have dinner at the Whittaker house. Of course, in the typical style of any Lucille Ball comedy, chaos and hilarity ensues as Bundy prepares for Mr. Carter's visit. Word spreads in Bundy like wildfire, and Viv insists upon coming over, using her friendship with Lucy as a reason to be invited. When Lucy's Aunt Millie wants to come, Viv tries to tell her that she isn't invited, which backfires when Millie threatens to have Viv's home foreclosed upon (and thus Millie is invited). The mayor insists upon being invited as well, and before Lucy knows it, everybody has invited every single person in town to dinner.

Now planning a dinner for 42 people (as opposed to the ten that she had initially planned to have), Lucy has her hands full preparing for the visit. Steve Allen drops by for an interview where everything goes wrong (including the sprinkler system going off in the lawn while taping the interview). The Secret Service makes a visit to the Whittaker house to make sure that everything is fine at the Whittaker house while Lucy and Floyd are at the grocery, which creates a serious problem when they return home and see the "prowler" roaming their living room. More shenanigans ensue, leading up to the big moment, which actually turns out to be a major disappointment at first, at least until Lucy gets a very special phone call from President Carter's mother, playing herself. The special appears to be completely unedited, running at 51 minutes and 3 seconds.

The DVD is packaged in a standard DVD case, as would be expected for a single special such as this one. The cover art has a photograph of Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, Gale Gordon, and Ed McMahon from the special. The back of the case has two photos, one showing Lucy on the telephone and the other showing a photo of Lucy and Viv. The disc artwork has the same photo as shown on the front cover of the DVD.

The menus are pretty straightforward, with the main menu having the theme music from the special and options of Play with Introduction, Play without Introduction, Special Features, and Subtitles On/Off. These are all pretty straightforward. Special Features takes you to another menu that simply lists the special features. Chapters are placed all throughout the special at all of the usual places.

The video and audio quality of this DVD is excellent, with no real problems to report. There aren't any defects in the video other than some slight aging, and the audio, presented in mono, is loud and clear. English subtitles are available on the main feature.

The DVD includes special features, and plenty of them at that. James Broadhead, who played the mayor, gives a brief introduction (1:42) that can optionally be played right before the beginning of the special. "From Rehearsal to Broadcast" (37:05) is a very lengthy featurette that contains a ton of lost footage from rehearsal of the special. It compares the rehearsal scenes to what we actually see in the special, and is very fun to watch. We even get to see shots from the different cameras used in the multiple camera setup here. "Working with Lucy" (18:39) is an all-new interview with James Broadhead, where he talks about his experiences of working with Lucille Ball. This featurette appears to be something that was intended to be included on one of the Here's Lucy DVD sets, but it is probably more appropriate for this set anyway. He talks a lot about his experiences of working with Lucy, with a lot of attention to her personality on the set. It was very interesting to watch. Perhaps the best feature, though, is "Lucy on The Tonight Show" (12:12), where we get to see a clip of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson from the late 1960s where Carson interviews Lucy. It even includes some rehearsal footage from a Here's Lucy episode that Carson and Ed McMahon guest starred on. This is presented in black and white. "Let's Talk to Lucy" (18:22) is another edition of Lucille Ball's radio show, in a 1965 interview where she interviews Steve Allen. She seems to be very honored to have the opportunity to interview him, which is very much a change from how others would be honored to interview Lucy.

This is an excellent DVD that is a must-own for any Lucille Ball fan. This is the best special that I have seen from this so far, and many fans agree with that, particularly as it includes a final reunion of most of the cast of The Lucy Show. Specials like this wouldn't air on TV these days, but Lucille Ball was clearly such a powerful television star that she was able to get these on the air. It is too bad that more of the specials couldn't be as great as this one. Still, I look forward to seeing the other releases, and hope that MPI continues to do as good of a job on them as they did on this one.

(4.5/5 stars)

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BLOG FEATURE STORY:

American Sitcoms on DVD Around the World
by skees53

Take any DVD that you have out of your collection and look at the packaging. Chances are, if it is a release from any prominent studio, you'll see a little globe somewhere on the package that has the number "1" inside of it. If you are DVD savvy, then you already know what that means. But if not, I'll briefly explain it. It means that the DVD is manufactured such that it can only be viewed on DVD players manufactured to be used in Region 1, which includes the United States and Canada. A detailed explanation of regional coding can be found on Wikipedia.

We all know, however, that many of our favorite American series are popular in other countries besides our own, particularly in Europe. So one might suspect that the DVDs are encoded slightly different and that number "1" on the globe is replaced with another number. That is the case sometimes, but sometimes, the releases are much different than the United States releases, containing different edits of episodes, different special features, different audio tracks, and sometimes even different studios.

One Region 2 (that includes much of western Europe) DVD set that is drastically different from it's Region 1 counterpart is the first season of ALF. In the United States, Lionsgate Home Entertainment released ALF -- Season One in a highly disappointing set that included severely butchered episodes, some even running under 20 minutes. But in Region 2, Warner Home Video Germany released ALF -- Die Komplette Erste Staffel, containing episodes that are all unedited with the exception of one minor edit made for music copyright reasons. Lionsgate claimed that there were video quality issues with the first season episodes of ALF, but in watching the German release from Warner, there didn't appear to be any areas of concern at all.

Fans were disappointed with the releases of Roseanne -- The Complete First Season and The Cosby Show -- Season One in the United States, as they included all edited episodes. First Look Studios somewhat rectified the situation with The Cosby Show by releasing the first season unedited on The Cosby Show -- 25th Anniversary Commemorative Edition Edition, but that set is now out-of-print, leaving only the edited first season available for purchase. In the United Kingdom, however, Universal Pictures UK has the rights to release both series, and has been steadily releasing both series on DVD with unedited episodes. Other companies have the rights to the series in other countries, and it appears that only the first season of the Region 1 versions have suffered from edits.

Still, it doesn't take a whole other company to produce a better quality DVD set for another country. While Paramount's release of Happy Days -- The Complete First Season was a very nice set, subsequent releases from CBS DVD (Paramount's successor) have been a complete disappointment with music replacements all over the place. However, if you take a look at the later seasons as they were released in Region 2, you'll find the episodes unedited as they were intended to be. The Region 1 release of Married... With Children -- The Complete Fourth Season was a disaster, with more than 1/3 of the episodes being edited episodes. However, in Germany, the series was released by Sony without any edits. There is even a special DVD release for the series in the United Kingdom that includes every episode and a special bonus features disc not available in the United States. There are also Complete Series sets available for Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie in the United Kingdom and Japan.

We have even reviewed a few Canadian titles from the studio VEI, which has released Kate & Allie, Gimme a Break!, Hardcastle and McCormick, and Riptide. The best part about the VEI titles is that their titles are encoded for Region 1, as Canada and the United States are in Region 1. All of these titles were abandoned (or, in the case of Hardcastle and McCormick, never even started) in the United States. The Canadian releases give viewers a chance to see their favorite series on DVD. My Favorite Martian -- The Complete Third Season was even released in Australia (with Region 1 encoding for fans in the United States) after Rhino abandoned the TV-on-DVD business, although MPI is now planning a new Region 1 release for the third season.

All of these series include multiple audio tracks, with English being included on virtually every single international DVD release of an American sitcom that I have researched. The menus are typically in English, but in some cases, the packaging and episode information may be in a foreign language. Still, most viewers can usually figure things out with a little research. In general, it seems that there are fewer special features available on the international DVDs, likely a result of the original series cast and crew being based in the United States and having no deep interest in the international releases. Still, there are many cases where the international releases are better than the Region 1 release.

Due to the regional encoding, you can't just put one of these DVDs in your player and expect it to play. But it is relatively easy to modify your DVD player to make foreign DVDs work on your DVD player. VideoHelp.com has an excellent resource that can be found here that will help you modify your DVD player to play these DVDs (although you have to do this at your own risk, as any errors or mistakes could potentially render your DVD player useless). There are countless other resources available around the internet that can help you modify your DVD player to play DVDs from other regions. You can even look on Amazon.com or eBay to find DVD players that are already modified to be region-free, although you will likely pay quite a bit of money to get something that you can do yourself. There is also a secret that some DVD manufacturers won't advertise on some generic brand DVD players that just cost a few bucks. Many of these are region-free out of the box. They do not advertise this due to legal constraints (it is not illegal to own a modified DVD player or DVDs from another region, but it is illegal to ADVERTISE a DVD player as being modified), so you would have to do your own research to find out which ones are indeed region free.

You can find some of these DVDs for sale on various websites around the internet, but the best places to look are the various websites owned by Amazon.com, particularly Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, and Amazon.de. Note that Amazon.de is completely in German, so you might need to use a translation site such as Yahoo! Babel Fish to translate for you. Before you finalize your order, the total amount of the order will be converted into US dollars, so that you know exactly how much you are spending.


LOOKING AHEAD

We'll be back next Saturday for Sitcoms Online Digital Digest, where we will have more news for you (as we will each and every week!), a review of Battlestar Galactica -- The Complete Series, and a very special review of the international release of ALF -- Die Komplette Erste Staffel (that is The Complete First Season for those who don't know German). You won't want to miss it! In the meantime, we would like to hear your thoughts about this new blog feature. Let us know what you think by posting comments on our message board or Tweet/Facebook us. We are definitely interest in hearing what you think!

Blog DVD Review Special: The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky/Three For Two

Our summer weekly report will not be posted today due to the holiday weekend. Instead we bring you a special Blog DVD Review on a special day with The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky/Three For Two.

Today we take a look at MPI's The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky/Three For Two. These were two hour-long CBS specials that aired in the '70s. See skees53's Blog DVD Review of The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky/Three For Two:

The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky/Three For Two (MPI, $19.98) features two hour long specials from CBS starring Lucille Ball. After nearly a quarter century of starring in three different top-rated CBS sitcoms, Lucille Ball was ready to leave the weekly grind of producing and starring in new episodes, so after the 1973-1974 season, her third series, Here's Lucy, left the CBS lineup. But she wasn't quite ready to leave CBS, which brings us the Lucille Ball specials. These specials were much like a movie-of-the-week featuring Lucille Ball, and she was given a creative license to do pretty much whatever she desired on them. They began in 1974 with Happy Anniversary and Goodbye, which is not featured on this disc, but will be on the next disc. On this disc, we have the second and third special, Lucy Gets Lucky featuring Dean Martin and Three for Two featuring Jackie Gleason. There were ultimately eight specials total, ending with the 1980 special, Lucy Moves to NBC, which will also be featured on a future release from MPI.

The first of the two features on this DVD is Lucy Gets Lucky, an hour-long special from 1975 featuring Dean Martin. In this special, we have Lucy taking a trip to the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas to see Dean Martin perform, a show that everybody in "sin city" wants to see, but is forced to make reservations for eight since they won't take her reservation for one. When she shows up to claim her reservations, however, she finds that her scheme to get just one seat has failed, and she loses all eight of her seats. Determined to do anything to see Dean Martin, she discovers that employees of the hotel will have an opportunity to see him perform in a special employee show, and decides to turn her little vacation into a career as a blackjack dealer! Will she make it big in this job, or will typical Lucy antics cause her to fail? Jackie Coogan is also featured in this special, and Gary Morton (Lucille Ball's husband) plays a minor role.

The second feature is Three for Two, another hour-long special from 1975, where Lucille Ball stars with comedic legend Jackie Gleason. Here, we see what we get when two comedic legends come together: a comedy-drama (which leans heavily on the drama side) reminiscent of the TV series Love, American Style. There are three stories presented here about three different couples (all played by Ball and Gleason), beginning with "Herb & Sally." In this story, the couple is on a vacation in Rome to escape their problems at home, but Herb isn't prepared to escape them. This causes more marital unhappiness with the couple. "Fred & Rita" presents a story that resembles a plot that would be found on a soap opera. Fred is married, and so is Rita, and they are in love with each other. But they aren't married to each other, and must go to great lengths to cheat on their respective spouses. In the third installment, "Mike & Pauline," Ball and Gleason play parents of adult children that want to spend New Years' Eve out celebrating, instead of the usual family tradition of spending it. Mike has a man-to-man talk with his son about his relationship, and Pauline has a woman-to-woman talk with her daughter about her relationship.

Lucy Gets Lucky is enjoyable and has some great moments that will remind Lucille Ball fans of the slapstick routines that made her the biggest name on television in the '50s and '60s. Three For Two, in all honesty, proves that Lucille Ball and Jackie Gleason weren't quite made for the TV drama genre. There are many great moments in these, and the stories aren't bad, but one would tend to expect something hilarious with these two comic geniuses on one set. Instead, we have a sappy romantic drama that is reminiscent of an episode of Love, American Style, and a bad one at that. Still, die-hard fans of Lucille Ball will enjoy Three For Two, and it is also a rare opportunity to see these comedic legends on the same set.

The video and audio quality of the specials is not exactly spectacular, but that can somewhat be expected, as these have remained largely unseen since their original airings. Lucy Gets Lucky looks decent, but Three For Two does not look quite so good, with some significant grain and very dull colors. The audio is rather low on both specials (presented in mono, of course). There are English subtitles for both specials. Each special is unedited, running around 52 minutes each. In fact, Lucy Gets Lucky even has the original sponsor tags from Timex.

As we all know by now, of course, nothing related to Lucy can be released on DVD without a plethora of special features, and of course, we have that on this set! First, we have a short clip (10:51) from Art Linkletter's House Party dated February 24, 1965. On this, we get to see Lucy doing some special sound effects for a fake radio program. Next, we have two segments of a talk radio program that Lucy did in the mid-60s called Let's Talk to Lucy, both featuring Dean Martin as her guest. Basically, these were 10 minute shows where she would interview famous celebrities without playing any character actress herself, but instead simply being Lucille Ball. It is said that she wanted to do this as a change of pace from the ordinary and routine. In "Working With Lucy" (14:40), Gino Conforti (a frequent guest star on Lucille Ball's programs, particularly Here's Lucy) talks about his experiences of working with Lucille Ball. He talks about Here's Lucy, the specials on this set, and even talks about Bungle Abbey, a sitcom pilot about monks living in a monastery, which was directed by Lucille Ball. A series that never materialized from the pilot, of course, but perhaps this will be included as a bonus feature on one of the future Lucille Ball Specials DVDs. Finally, we see that nobody is perfect, as there are bloopers from Lucy Gets Lucky (5:43) featuring Dean Martin. Unfortunately, there are no bloopers featured from Three for Two.

This was a very interesting DVD to watch, and even though one of the specials was not as great as I expected, I still enjoyed watching it. It is interesting to see how much television evolved over a quarter century from the first episode of I Love Lucy on CBS (where Lucy and Ricky slept in separate beds) to where Lucy plays a woman that is cheating on her own husband. Lucy Gets Lucky is very reminiscent of classic Lucy in a more modern era, and I really enjoyed that one. According to an insert that I found on CBS DVD's The Official First Season of The Lucy Show (a full review of that set is coming very soon, Lucy fans!) MPI will be releasing a total of six specials on four releases, with the first two containing two specials each and the last two containing one special each. The most loyal fans of Lucille Ball, of course, are going to love everything on this DVD, but other fans will enjoy this DVD as well.

-- Reviewed by skees53
(4.5/5 stars)

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Blog DVD Review: Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie

It is Saturday, so that must mean it is time for the weekly Blog DVD Review! Today we take a look at MPI Home Video's Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie. Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie . See skees53's Blog DVD Review of Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie:

Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie (MPI, $19.98) gives fans of one of the most well-known couples in all of TV history a view of what things were like off-camera. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, the stars of the classic TV series I Love Lucy, were married in 1940 and in their twenty years of marriage, they managed to build a TV legacy in a way that few (if any) others could successfully do.
Although the phrase "a home movie" appears in the title, it is a bit misleading. There are many clips from home movies from the private collection of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, although a lot of the documentary is interviews with family, friends, producers, and others that knew the couple most of all. There are also a few interspersed clips of interviews with Lucy and Desi from The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. The documentary starts nearly a century ago, with the childhood of Lucy and Desi. We find out here that both of them came from families that had certain difficulties. We hear quite a bit about Lucy's childhood, but not quite so much about Desi's.
The documentary quickly segues into the married life of Lucy and Desi, where we find out a lot about the movie careers that Lucy and Desi had in the 1940s, basically all of which were through the film studio RKO. And then, we get to the divorce--the first one in 1944, which never actually happened. Lucy decided that she wanted to divorce Desi because he was allegedly cheating on her (although Lucie Arnaz says that he always told her that he wasn't fooling around with other women in the way that other people though). The divorce never came to be, which opened the door to the big thing that was coming in a few years, a little TV series called I Love Lucy.
The year was 1951. Lucy and Desi had their first child, a daughter named Lucie Arnaz (one of the producers of this very documentary) and just a few months later, production of the series I Love Lucy began. But production costs for the series were a little expensive, and neither CBS nor Philip Morris were able to fully fund the series, so Desi Arnaz had an enterprising idea--he and Lucy would help to fund the series provided that he could have the film rights to the series. And so began the well-know TV studio of the 1950s and 1960s, Desilu. Not all went will for them in the 1950s, however. It was discovered that Lucy's hair was not the only red thing about her, and that she was also registered as a Communist in New York. It had the potential to destroy her entire career (as it had done to many other celebrities at the time), but luckily she came away mostly unscathed. As the 50s progress, we see the marriage of Lucy and Desi beginning to go into a slow decline, mostly due to Desi's use of drugs and alcohol, and the documentary takes us all the way to the 1960s, where Lucy takes control of Desilu away from Desi and the divorce proceedings begin. The documentary ends with a brief look into their lives after the divorce, and ends with a home movie from the 80s with Lucy and Desi in a swimming pool with their grandchild, with Desi singing (what else?) Babalu.
The DVD has very basic packaging (as it is only one disc) and very basic menus. They are simple, but functional for what it is worth. There is an option on the menus to turn on English subtitles for those that require them. The video and audio quality of the DVD and the special features is generally pretty impressive, except perhaps for the quality of the game show episodes from the 1950s. Of course, considering that these were never intended to be preserved in the first place, there isn't much to truly complain about with this.
The DVD is not without bonus features, either. We also have more interviews (31:07) on the disc from Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr. (in addition to the interviews featured in the documentary) that reflect upon the lives of their parents in a more candid perspective. There are even outtakes (20:32) from the interviews featured in the documentary! One of my favorite special features happens to be the original commercials (12:50) that are included that came from episodes of The Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz Show (better known these days as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour). Basically, these are extended commercials for Westinghouse that feature the characters from the series in their roles. I love how these older series integrated the characters into the commercials! These are very fun to watch.
The next two special features are sure to please game show fans. The first is a segment from the game show What's My Line? (9:15) where the celebrity panelists are blindfolded and have to guess the mystery celebrity on stage--which happens to be Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz! Additionally, we have an entire episode of the game show I've Got a Secret (23:48) with a special celebrity panelist for the episode, Lucille Ball. Finally, we have a Photo Gallery which features many photos from the private collection of Lucy and Desi, and we have a promo from MPI (2:03) for an upcoming DVD release (in season form) which many fans may have already heard of: the TV series Here's Lucy!
All in all, it isn't a bad documentary, although it does seem to be drag on a bit too slowly at times. I personally would have found it to be more interesting if it had a greater focus on the TV careers of Lucy and Desi. It seems to focus more upon their film careers and family life. Of course, the most dedicated fans of Lucille Ball are certain to love this, but to the casual fan, a lot of it may seem to be extraneous information. I kind of expected to find more information about the more negative aspects of their lives in the documentary, but it seemed that they skimped on some of the details of these events. That isn't to say that they completely ignore them, though. Fans of the work of Lucy, as well as anybody that is interested in television's golden era will definitely appreciate this DVD.
Reviewed by skees53
(4.5/5 stars)

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