Info:
DVD Release Date: February 6, 2007 (Visual Entertainment Inc.)
Color / 1985-1986
MSRP: $34.95 CDN (~$30 USD)
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 23
Running time: Approx. 552 minutes
Running time of Special Features: N/A
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: None
Special Features: None
Introduction:
Early last year, around the time when Universal
released a few shows, fans of Kate & Allie were
pleased to see a preview for Kate & Allie: Seasons 1
and 2 on the DVD set. But a few months later, we
learned that we would only be getting the first season
(6 episodes) at about the same price as what the first
two seasons would have been. The news only got worse
when I reviewed the first season to discover that 6
episodes were edited. But fans were pleased when they
learned that the Canadian company VEI would also be
releasing a set containing the first two seasons of
Kate & Allie, but only to be let down once again when
seven episodes were, again, syndicated versions.
Now, a little over half a year later, VEI is back with
more Kate & Allie, with the third season. And this
time, they have gotten it correct! Kate & Allie: The
Complete Third Season contains all 23 episodes from
the 1985-1986 of the sitcom that, while not exactly
remembered as a hit sitcom these days, really should
be. Normally I'd wait until later on to talk about
edits, but since this show has had such a troubled
history on DVD, I'll mention it now. First and
foremost, this set does NOT contain any syndicated
versions of any of the episodes, and 22 of the 23
episodes appear to be totally unedited. However, there
is one episode on the set that runs noticeably shorter
than all of the rest, and is also missing the closing
tag (which every episode of the show, to my knowledge,
originally had).
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
Disc 1 begins with the “The Reunion,” where Kate and
Allie go to their high school reunion and learn that
some people never change. Patricia Richardson guest
stars. Kate buys a mink coat—for a dollar—from a woman
at a restaurant in “Make Mine Mink,” but when Kate
discovers that people that wear minks get treated
differently, will she ever be able to live without a
mink again? In “Whatever Happened to Romance?,” Allie
wants part-time work and places an ad for that—except
it ends up in the personals column (they did this on
The Golden Girls too!). Allie and Jennie get a free
trip to Paris in “Evening in Paris,” but how much fun
is it going to be when Allie comes down with the flu
on the airplane? Geoff Pierson guest stars in “The
Maltese Chotchke.” Kate and Allie are having a
Thanksgiving dinner where everything goes wrong for
Allie, from accidentally cooking the turkey in
cleanser to having to be alone with her ex-husband's
new woman in “Thanksgiving.”
In “Dress to Kill,” Allie comes up with the perfect
dress for Kate to wear, except it costs more than they
can afford, so they decide that Kate will just wear
the dress once and then they'll return it—is that
really such a good idea? In “Dark Victory,” Kate gets
a date during a blackout in the dentist office, but
the blackout isn't the only thing that is black—so is
her date. A very young Ben Stiller guest stars in “Too
Late the Rebel.” Jennie experiences sexual harassment
in “The Croissant Jungle.”
Kate has been spending time at a married man's
apartment, but why? Allie is determined to find out in
“Privacy.” Dick Cavett guest stars as himself in “High
Anxiety,” where Kate and Allie are guests on his show,
but Allie is scared to death so she decides to see a
hypnotist to get over her fear—which would be fine if
Allie didn't accidentally overhear a telephone
conversation where the hypnotist was telling his
daughter how to be the best possible school mascot—a
chicken. Kate and Allie are attracted to the same man
in “Thank You, Shirley,” but which one does he want?
Chip has a new friend living in the basement in
“Chip's New Friend,” but he has special needs that
Kate and Allie can't handle themselves. Lindsay Wagner
guest stars in “Late Bloomer.”
Packaging:
The packaging has different artwork than the previous
set released by VEI, but the packaging design and
style are basically the same. The cover art has a shot
of the entire family on it, and the back of the outer
box talks about the show in general and some of the
guest stars in the third season.
The set uses two slim cases to hold the discs (artwork
is still the same as the outer box, and the back of
each slim case contains a listing of the episodes and
original air dates), but there are only three discs
this time instead of four. The first slim case holds
the first disc, while the second slim case holds the
other two discs. The disc artwork is exactly the same
as it was for the first and second seasons, with a New
York City skyline on each disc, except it is yellow
this time. Disc 1 contains episodes 1-8, Disc 2
contains episodes 9-16, and Disc 3 contains episodes
17-23.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menus are exactly the same as they were in seasons
one and two, with the main menu having the same
picture as shown on the cover art and options of Play
All and Episodes. Both of these are pretty much
self-explanatory. On the episodes menu, you have
pictures from the episodes, hanging on a wall, where
you can select the episode that you want to watch. The
set does not contain any scene selection menus or
chapters. I do feel it is important to make one
comment about the menus here, though, and that is that
the menus on this set are much better than the menus
on VEI's Gimme a Break DVD set. I hate to put down VEI
(I'm glad they exist, because they are doing a better
job with handling Gimme a Break and Kate & Allie than
the US company, Universal, and they also really seemed
to be concerned when it was brought to their attention
that the previous Kate & Allie set had edited
episodes), but navigating the menus on the Gimme a
Break set was like a maze to me, and plus, I didn't
like how the next episode would start playing once the
current one you were watching finished, even if you
didn't use Play All. No need to worry with Kate &
Allie, neither of those issues exist here.
Video and Audio Quality:
This is an older show, so I didn't go into this DVD
set expecting perfection, and honestly, I got what I
was expecting. The episodes look fine, and even better
than they did on the previous release that VEI put
out. The video suffers from a few little glitches here
and there, and audio levels (though somewhat low) seem
to be consistent throughout the set this time. I've
seen shows from this era look better (like first
seasons of Growing Pains, 227, and The Golden Girls,
all three of which were aired during the same year as
this season), but I still think the quality is more
than just acceptable on this set.
As far as editing is concerned, I'm pretty confident
that 22 of the episodes are totally unedited, but I'm
almost sure that the final episode of the season is
missing a small part of the episode. As fans of the
show are aware, each episode ends with a closing tag
where Kate and Allie (sometimes it is somebody else,
but usually Kate and Allie) discuss what they just did
in the episode, like where they are just sitting on
the couch in the evening just discussing their day.
The episode “Late Bloomer” does not have such a scene.
In fact, not only that, the episode runs about 30-40
seconds shorter than any other episode on the set.
While I suppose it is POSSIBLE that the episode just
didn't have such a closing tag originally, I seriously
doubt that is the case. Regardless of this, the
episode still runs at 23:40, so clearly, this is NOT a
syndicated print.
I can say, however, that this one missing scene (in my
opinion) is not a big deal at all compared to the
previous release, and unless you are fanatical about
perfection on DVD sets (see the Home Theater Forum
website if you want to know what I'm talking about,
this reviewer can honestly say that when I write a
review and declare one edit, no matter how minor, as
being acceptable, I wouldn't want to run in to some of
the members from that website in a dark alley simply
because I'd be afraid they might break my legs), this
shouldn't bother you TOO much. VEI deserves a lot of
credit for the way they've handled this situation. For
those that remember, Universal released season one,
didn't care that they released edited episodes, and
basically cut and ran. VEI released seasons one and
two with edited episodes, but promised to look in to
the situation once it was brought to their attention
that the episodes were edited, and I honestly believe
that they did a lot of work to make sure most of the
episodes were indeed unedited this time. One thing
that indicates to me that they did some work is the
fact that many of the episodes on this set should have
originally contained the ALP logo on the end of the
episodes (though it should be noted that ALP became
REG about midway through this season), though when the
show went into syndication, the original ALP logo was
replaced with the REG logo one every episode. In the
previous set, there were episodes that contained the
REG logo, all of which were syndicated versions, but
this time, even though some episodes in the earlier
part of the season contain the REG logo, all appear to
be unedited. I have no clue what VEI did (I'm
thinking, perhaps, although I could be entirely
incorrect and it would have been a lot of work to do
so, maybe they were able to access some unedited
versions of the episodes that weren't in such good
shape, and replace the missing footage in the
syndicated versions with the parts from unedited
episodes—just a theory, it could be way off).
The disc breakdown and episode runtimes are as
follows:
Disc 1:
1. The Reunion (24:28)
2. Make Mine Mink (24:22)
3. Whatever Happened to Romance? (24:24)
4. Evening in Paris (24:23)
5. Picture of an Affair (24:24)
6. The Maltese Chotchke (24:28)
7. Allie's Affair (24:22)
8. Thanksgiving (24:28)
Disc 2:
9. Max's New Girlfriend (24:22)
10. Kate's Friend (24:24)
11. Dress to Kill (24:23)
12. Dark Victory (24:19)
13. Grand Central Station (24:22)
14. Chip's Divorce (24:25)
15. Too Late the Rebel (24:25)
16. The Croissant Jungle (24:24)
Disc 3:
17. Privacy (24:26)
18. High Anxiety (24:17)
19. Thank You, Shirley (24:26)
20. Ted's Back (24:26)
21. Chip's New Friend (24:26)
22. Winning (24:17)
23. Late Bloomer (23:51)
Special Features:
There are no special features this time, and honestly
I wouldn't expect any either (since any kind of
special features that would be available for the show
would be US oriented while this set is really being
marketed to Canadians). It isn't too big of a deal,
but maybe they could have found some kind of archive
footage to put on the set, or hey, even an episode
from Gimme a Break season 3 would be nice since they
put an episode from this set on the Gimme a Break
season 2 set.
Final Comments:
I didn't think we'd see season 3 of this show from
Universal OR VEI after the disaster from the past, but
yet here it is, and they did a great job this time.
That missing closing tag is a minor annoyance
(assuming it is missing, but I'm about 99% sure that
there should be one there), but that pales in
comparison to the previous releases of this show. I
can honestly see no reason to hesitate in buying this
season if you are a fan of the show. Fans of the show
from the United States shouldn't hesitate to purchase
this set either, because I don't feel like Universal
will be releasing any more seasons of this series
anytime soon. Hopefully the remaining seasons will be
released in a timely manner and will include all
unedited episodes!
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 4/5
Audio Quality: 4/5
Special Features: 0/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 4.5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 02/04/07
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