The Andy Griffith Show: Season One [Blu-Ray]
The Honeymooners: Classic 39 Episodes [Blu-Ray]
I Love Lucy: Ultimate Season One [Blu-Ray]
Cast: Various
Release Dates: All 3 Now Available on Blu-Ray
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Disc Ratings: 10/10
That’s right folks, three timeless television classic’s are coming home for the first time ever in stunning High Definition with impressive Blu-Ray collections that fans will definitely not want to miss out on. The three releases include ‘I Love Lucy: Ultimate Season One’ ‘The Honeymooners: Classic 39 Episodes’ and ‘The Andy Griffith Show: Season One’ all in impressive Blu-Ray sets that bring these shows home looking eons better that you’ve ever seen them before. Considering these are three shows that certainly need no introduction or summary, I’m going to concentrate instead mostly on covering the material and quality of these wonderful Blu-Ray releases. I can definitely say that fans of these shows that also appreciate and prefer the Blu-Ray format will absolutely not want to miss out on these phenomenal releases and will want to make sure to pick up copies for your collection as soon as possible.
‘I Love Lucy: Ultimate Season One’ has to be the stand out release of the three, although don’t get me wrong, the other two are absolutely fantastic releases themselves. The Ultimate Season One Blu-Ray release of ‘I Love Lucy’ brings home the first season of this unforgettable series in its entirety. Plus, if that wasn’t enough in itself, it also provides you the option to watch every episode with the standard curtain opening, or as originally broadcast with the stick figures climbing the cigarette pack, as well as including all of the original sponsor spots. It really was a treat to see the episodes in this form and incredibly odd to see a sitcom with cigarette advertisements throughout as well as being sponsored by a cigarette brand. It’s a pretty huge difference from what we see today and a lot of fun to see firsthand just how much things have changed over the decades. The set also includes a number of the episodes in rerun form containing alternate and added elements as well as different sponsor spots in addition to a ridiculous amount of additional bonus content which you can find more information on below in the technical specification coverage section of the review.
‘The Andy Griffith Show: Season One’ includes the entire first season of the series as well as some other great bonus features (once again, see specifics below) and ‘The Honeymooners: Classic 39 Episodes’ brings home all 39 full length episodes of the well known and loved classic series as well as a nice chunk of special features itself. Unlike the ‘I Love Lucy’ release, the Blu-Ray sets for ‘The Honeymooners’ and ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ don’t contain the original broadcast versions with the original sponsor spots on all of the episodes, though both releases do include them on a number of select episodes.
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I Love Lucy: Ultimate Season One
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘I Love Lucy: Ultimate Season One’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation on all of the first season episodes utilizing the original 4×3 Full Frame Aspect Ratio in which the series was originally broadcast. The video presentation looks absolutely glorious on Blu-Ray and certainly far better than this show has ever been seen before. Some of the film imperfections such as pops and grain have been left in place, while the overbearing glitches have been cleaned out. There’s a special feature showing examples of before and after in side by side comparison form that I would highly recommend checking out because it perfectly displays the incredible job and detail that went into cleaning these up for the Blu-Ray release. Fans of the series should be absolutely thrilled with the high definition video presentations on these episodes.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release includes a lossless Linear PCM mono soundtrack on all of the first season’s episodes that sounds quite nice and discrete. Considering the age of the series, it’s of course nothing excessively amazing, but certainly the best you’ve ever heard this show sound nonetheless.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘I Love Lucy: Ultimate Season One’ contains an astounding collection of bonus content. Included on the release are both the standard and original broadcast versions (which include all of the original commercials) of every episode in the first season, in addition to a number of ‘rerun’ episodes that feature alternate or added sequences. Also included is the original ‘I Love Lucy’ pilot remastered from 35mm negative, ‘I Love Lucy: The Very First Show Special’ ‘Audio Commentary on select episodes, On-set color Home Movies, Flubs, Guest Cast Bios, Photo Galleries, and more! There is certainly more than enough bonus content included on this one to keep fans busy long after they watch all of the first season’s episodes.
Disc Rating: 10/10
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The Andy Griffith Show: Season One
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘The Andy Griffith Show: Season One’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation on all of the first season episodes utilizing the original 4×3 Full Frame Aspect Ratio in which the series was originally broadcast. Once again the video presentation looks pretty stunning and seeing a show of this age look so fantastic on Blu-Ray is a real treat while still leaving the grain and film imperfections in place. Fans of the series should be extremely impressed with these high definition video presentations.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release includes a lossless Linear PCM mono soundtrack on all of the first season’s episodes. These PCM mono tracks are impressively clear, smooth and discrete and as with Lucy should definitely be the best you’ve ever heard these episodes sound.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘The Andy Griffith Show: Season One’ contains a pretty nice collection of bonus content also. Included on the release is ‘Danny Meets Andy Griffith’ (from ‘The Danny Thomas Show’ Season 7), ‘The Howards’ On-set home movies’ (which are in color and clock in at approximately 8 minutes for those interested), ‘Person to Person’ interview with Andy Griffith, Original Sponsor spots on a number of select episodes and the Television movie ‘Return To Mayberry.’
Disc Rating: 10/10
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The Honeymooners: ‘Classic 39 Episodes’
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘The Honeymooners: Classic 39 Episodes’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation on all of the ‘Classic 39’ episodes utilizing the original 4×3 Full Frame Aspect Ratio in which the series was originally broadcast. ‘The Honeymooners’ is right up there with the other two titles as far as video quality and the high definition presentation on these episodes looks fantastic and should have fans truly delighted to have the opportunity to view these classic episodes again and again in this quality.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release includes a lossless Linear PCM mono soundtrack on all of the ‘Classic 39’ episodes. Again, just as with the other two releases, ‘The Honeymooners’ sounds great on this release and I believe fans will be quite satisfied with the audio quality presented on this Blu-Ray collection of all of the ‘Classic 39 Episodes’ which is once again definitely the best this series has sounded.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘The Honeymooners: Classic 39 Episodes’ definitely contains a pretty nice collection of bonus content itself. Included on this release are two promos, ‘Best Buick Yet’ Dealer Presentation’ ’60 Minutes Jackie Gleason Profile’ ’60 Minutes Jackie Gleason Outtakes’ ‘American Scene Magazine: The Adoption’ ‘Person to Person’ segment featuring Jackie Gleason, as well as original sponsor spots on a number of select episodes and both the 35th and 50th Anniversary Specials.
Disc Rating: 10/10
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray’s and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on these Blu-Ray releases are the property of their respective owners.
‘I Love Lucy: Ultimate Season One’ ‘The Andy Griffith Show: Season One’ & ‘The Honeymooners: Classic 39 Episodes’ are each sold separately and now available to own on Blu-Ray from CBS Blu-Ray & Paramount.