Info:
DVD Release Date: May 15, 2007 (Buena Vista Home Entertainment)
Color/1996-1997
MSRP: $24.99
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 25
Running Time: 561 minutes
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English,
English subtitles; Closed-Captioned.
Special Features: Blooper Reel
Introduction:
Does everybody know what time it is? Time for another
season of "Home Improvement" on DVD! The Complete
Sixth Season contains all 25 episodes from the 90s
sitcom about the Tim "The Toolman" Taylor and his
family in a three disc set.
In the sixth season, we finally see the boys getting
older--but it doesn’t make the show better or worse,
it just changes it (the way I see it, this is one of
the few shows where the kids getting older doesn’t
make the show worse). There really aren’t any major
developments or changes in the plot this season; we
just have another season of pretty good episodes here.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
Tim is going on an aircraft carrier and Jill finds
Brad in his bedroom--WITH his girlfriend—in "At Sea."
The Taylors get a glimpse into the future--the distant
future--in "Future Shocked." Jill gets an expensive
new car that Tim wants in "Whose Car is it Anyway?"
and it is off-limits to Tim--will he stand for that?
It is time for another Taylor Halloween in "I Was a
Teenage Taylor."
Tim and Jill have to deliver Heidi's baby in "The Tool
Man Delivers." The late Tom Poston guest stars. Benny
has nowhere to go for Thanksgiving, and Jill is going
to make sure it isn’t going to be the Taylor house
either in "The Wood, the Bad, and the Hungry." Jill
might have come up with the perfect way to get a job
in "The Flirting Game." The Beach Boys guest star and
Mark protects his older brother Randy in "The Karate
Kid Returns." Wilson tries to get in touch with the
real world in "Wilson’s World," but is he really cut
out for that?
Brad is getting his license and Jill is worried about
his first night driving in "My Son, the Driver." Jill
wants some quality family time, but is a hardware
exposition what she had in mind? Find out in "Family
Un-Ties." Brad has a new girlfriend, but she is doing
all of his chores for him and Jill doesn’t like that
in "Taps"” The season ends with "The Kiss and The
Kiss-Off," where Pamela Anderson returns in her role
as Lisa and Tim gives her back her old job as the Tool
Girl--how will Heidi handle that?
Packaging:
Buena Vista has made a change in packaging style for
this set. While the previous seasons used a digipak,
this set uses an plastic Amaray-style case similar to
those used on many recent CBS DVD releases (think of
Family Ties, Happy Days, etc.). The set still includes
an outer box, however, to hold the case inside. The
artwork (on both the outer box and the case inside) is
simply a picture of a doorframe (with the house around
it having been destroyed) with the Taylor family
standing in the doorway. Inside the case, Disc 1 can
be found on the left side of the case and Discs 2 and
3 overlap on the right side of the case.
Unfortunately, they decided to list the episodes
behind the discs, and even worse, they did it on the
right side of the case, so you have to remove Discs 2
and 3 from the case to see which disc contains which
episode. Why couldn’t they have simply put this on the
BACK of the case?
The discs themselves have simple artwork, with Tim and
Jill on Disc 1, the kids on Disc 2, and Al on Disc 3.
Disc 1 contains episodes 1-8, Disc 2 contains episodes
9-17, and Disc 3 contains episodes 18-25, as well as
the bloopers.
Menu Design and Navigation:
Like the last few sets, nothing has changed on this
set. Basically, the main menu has the blueprint
background with the theme music playing, and choices
of Play All, Episode Selection, Setup, Bonus Features
(Disc 3 only), and Sneak Peeks (Disc 1 only). Each is
pretty much self explanatory. When you select Episode
Selection, you get a menu where you, well, select your
episode (three episodes are shown per screen on the
menu). There is no scene selection menu, but chapters
can be found in all of the appropriate places in all
of the episodes.
Video and Audio Quality:
The video and audio quality on these sets have always
been pretty good, but in all honesty, I have to say
that I’m not QUITE as impressed with this set (but it
is still pretty good). The video and audio quality are
about the same as they have been in the previous sets,
which is good in a way, but for a season this late in
the series, I almost expected it to look and sound
just a LITTLE bit better. Plus, even more problematic
is that several (maybe half of them even) episodes
seemed to have some compression issues, which is
something I haven’t seen on any of these sets so far,
and they aren’t even isolated to a single disc. The
audio is presented in Dolby Digital Surround Sound.
The episodes mostly seem to be unedited, running
roughly around 22:30 or so, but I do question whether
or not one of the episodes is actually uneited. “The
Feminine Mistake” shorter than many of the rest
(though there is one shorter than it), at 22:07, which
normally wouldn’t cause much alarm, but it is worth
noting that this episode originally aired on ABC with
some 3D components, where you had to get 3D glasses
from Wendy’s to see some parts of the episode in 3D.
These 3D elements, as far as I can tell, are missing
from the version of the episode on this set, which
implies it definitely isn’t the original ABC version,
but since it is also shorter, does that necessarily
mean it is the syndication version? I really don’t
know the answer; I actually have a copy of the
original ABC version in my tape collection somewhere
that I could compare, but there isn’t nearly enough
time to find a tape in my collection of 100s of
unlabeled tapes in time to complete a single review.
Still, IF anything is edited (and that is a big if),
it couldn’t be too severe.
Disc 1:
1. At Sea (22:20)
2. Future Shocked (22:03)
3. Workshop ‘Til You Drop (22:22)
4. Burnin’ Love (22:39)
5. Al’s Video (22:24)
6. Whose Car Is It Anyway? (22:24)
7. I Was a Teenage Taylor (22:24)
8. Jill and Her Sisters (22:39)
Disc 2:
9. The Tool Man Delivers (22:17)
10. The Wood, the Bad, and the Hungry (22:30)
11. Workin’ Man Blues (22:31)
12. No Place Like Home (22:25)
13. The Flirting Game (22:24)
14. The Karate Kid Returns (22:34)
15. Totally Tool Time (22:23)
16. A Funny Valentine (22:35)
17. Wilson’s World (22:38)
Disc 3:
18. Something Old, Something Blue (22:40)
19. Communication Breakdown (22:22)
20. My Son, the Driver (22:38)
21. Insult to Injury (22:27)
22. Family Un-Ties (22:41)
23. The Feminine Mistake (22:07)
24. Taps (22:32)
25. The Kiss & The Kiss-Off (22:39)
Special Features:
The special features on these sets haven’t been too
impressive, but at least the one bonus feature they
often tend to include has been pretty good. Basically,
all we have is a Blooper Reel (6:37) that shows us all
of the best outtakes of season 6. They’re pretty good,
and I honestly don’t know what more there is to say
about them--they’re just bloopers. It would really be
nice to see other bonus features though, such as
interviews and commentaries. Why can’t any of the cast
members get involved on these DVDs?
There is one BIG opportunity though that the DVD
producers DID miss out on. The episode “The Feminine
Mistake” was aired during a week where ABC was airing
many of their sitcoms in 3D. The DVD producers really
should have included the version of this episode that
aired during the 3D week and thrown in a free pair of
3D glasses with each set!
Final Comments:
The special features are lacking once again, but
honestly, I think that the DVD producers have done
pretty well with this set. It is even nicer to see the
much lower retail price on this set. The MSRP alone
makes the set a bargain, and I’m sure it will be found
even cheaper than that from many retailers. What is
important about these sets are the episodes, and
they’re all there, all appear to be uncut, and look
good on DVD. Another great thing is that the show (in
my opinion anyway) never really got worse as the
seasons went on (even in the last season as the kids
began to disappear from the show), and there are
plenty of good episodes to be found in every season,
including this one. Let’s just hope Buena Vista will
use “more power” to get the remaining seasons released
as soon as possible! Season 7 comes out in August!
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 4/5
Audio Quality: 5/5
Special Features: 1.5/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 4.5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 05/11/07
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