Info:
DVD Release Date: September 28, 2004 (Questar Entertainment)
b/w, approx. 780 minutes
MSRP: $34.99
Number of Discs: 6
Number of Episodes: 35 (including the two ‘bonus’
episodes)
Language and Subtitles: English
Special Features: “Danny’s Proposal” episode from
season 4, “Danny Meets Andy Griffith” episode from
season 7, Performance Footage of Thomas on a Dean
Martin & Jerry Lewis Telethon, Danny Thomas’ Answered
Prayer: The Story of St. Jude
Introduction:
If you are interested in some of the most classic
sitcoms of all time, then you need to make room in
your DVD collection for The Complete Fifth Season of
Make Room for Daddy, available on DVD from Questar!
This six disc set contains all 33 episodes of the
fifth season, as well as many excellent special
features which are great additions to the set.
Make Room for Daddy (well technically it was called
The Danny Thomas Show in the fifth season, although
that is not reflected on this set), although it is in
my opinion one of the greatest of the very early
sitcoms, is likely not very well known among some of
today's younger classic television fans. The sitcom
ran from 1953 until 1965, starting out on ABC and
ending up on CBS. The fifth season was the season that
the show moved from ABC to CBS, and one of the big
changes in this season was Danny’s new wife, Kathy
(played by Marjorie Lord). Danny Thomas (who was, of
course, the star of the show) played Danny Williams on
the show, and Danny was the father and husband of the
hectic household, not to mention his show business
career.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
Unlike many shows from this era, the show was not
driven by guest stars or anything like that. There
were, of course, some guest stars on the show worth
mentioning, such as Morey Amsterdam, Jack Benny, Dinah
Shore, and Bob Hope, but most of the episodes are
driven by good script writing and plots. There
certainly aren’t any “memorable episodes” that most
people would be able to recognize, but there are some
episodes in the set that I enjoyed. There was one good
episode where Rusty (Danny’s son) got a job, one where
Danny tries to teach Rusty how honesty is the best
policy, as well as the ‘bonus’ episodes which are
definitely worth watching.
Packaging:
The packaging of this set, while somewhat simple, is
actually very convenient. The cases discs are arranged
like a book, and it is very easy to flip through and
get out just the disc that you want to get. There is
one thing that I didn’t like about the set though,
there is nothing included with the packaging that
explains which episodes are on which disc! You have to
assume that all of the episodes are in order (which
they are) and that there are six on each disc, but
there is no reference sheet which tells you where to
go for a given episode or what the episodes are about.
It is a somewhat standard practice for TV on DVD
products to include such lists, and it seems rather
odd that Questar chose not to include one. At least
Disc Six does clearly indicate that the Special
Features are located on that particular disc, so you
don’t have to go through every single disc to figure
out where the special features are located.
Menu Design and Navigation:
From the menu screen, you can select which episode you
want to watch. There are six episodes on each disc,
except for Disc Six, which contains five episodes as
well as the special features. Also from the menu,
there is a “Play All” option. On the menu screen, the
theme music plays in the background, and there are
video clips from the episodes contained on that
particular disc. The design of the menus honestly
looked a bit low budget, but still, they were very
clean, neat, and simple to navigate.
There is one thing that I noticed almost immediately,
and it is something that will very likely irk many
fans of classic television, is that the opening
credits to each episode are missing! I believe,
however, that Questar has attempted to make up for
this by the fact that as soon as you insert the DVD
into the DVD player, the opening credits play,
followed by some a few clips from the show. After this
is finished playing (and you can, of course, skip past
it), an episode selection menu pops up. Still though,
it would have been nice to have opening credits on
each individual episode, it just seems so awkward that
they are not there as soon as the episode is selected.
The closing credits, on the other hand, seem to be
fully intact with no problems whatsoever.
Video and Audio Quality:
This set also makes it clear that it is an
“authorized” set, which means that the release was
authorized by the family of Danny Thomas (which owns
the program). That often makes a huge difference in
terms of quality. The video quality of this set is
fairly decent and appears to have been cleaned up
somewhat. I have seen public domain copies of the
program that are very rough and almost un-watch able,
but such problems are not found on this set. It is
likely that the set could have been cleaned up a
little bit more (when comparing it to reruns of
programs such as I Love Lucy), but the video quality
is good enough as it is. There are no major audio
issues either with this set. Of course, with the
program being from the 1950s, the audio is obviously
mono, but it is very clear and sounds about how I
would expect for audio to sound on a program that is
nearly fifty years old. There is bad news; however,
for those that depend upon closed captioning, closed
captioning is NOT included on this set.
Although I can not say for certain, some episodes on
this set seem like they may be “edited” versions. I
say that because many episodes are 21 minutes (which
includes the show itself and the closing credits). Of
course, there are other factors that need to be taken
into consideration, and it may be possible that the
show is not edited, but some episodes did seem as if
they were “missing” something. I hope that my theory
is wrong, but even if it isn’t, I still wouldn’t
recommend passing on this set.
Special Features:
The special features on the set are fairly decent,
although two of the special features are just episodes
of the show that were not actually in the fifth season
(but very good episodes to include anyway). One of the
extra episodes was the fourth season episode where
Danny proposed to Kathy. Although I would technically
consider this a “special feature,” it is actually
(unlike the other special features which are all
included on Disc Six) included at the beginning of
Disc One, which is probably a good idea for continuity
sake.
The other bonus episode that was included was a
seventh season episode titled “Danny Meets Andy
Griffith” where Danny was going through a town called
Mayberry and ran across a sheriff named ‘Andy,’ played
by Andy Griffith. There is no need to say more about
what that episode ended up leading to. There is a 30
second introduction before the episode that talks
about the episode.
There is also a rare performance of Danny Thomas at a
Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Telethon. This is about 11
minutes long, and Danny Thomas gives a stand-up
performance in this. Fans of Danny Thomas (or just
fans in general of classic TV) will likely enjoy
seeing this performance.
Finally, there is a two minute feature titled “Danny
Thomas’ Answered Prayer: The Story of St. Jude.”
You’ve probably seen the numerous St. Jude
infomercials (hosted by Danny’s daughter, Marlo
Thomas), and this feature talks about why St. Jude’s
hospital was created, mainly because Danny liked
children. St. Jude’s hospital is still in existence to
this day, and is one of the leading children’s health
research and care institutes in the United States, if
not the world. This was one of Danny Thomas’ main
contributions in his life time (besides his
entertainment contributions).
Final Comments:
Overall, I think it can be said that this set is a
great set. There are a few issues with the set (as
described above), but that should not prevent you from
buying the set, especially if you are a fan of the
show or just a fan of classic television in general.
I’ll probably get a lot of people to dispute this, but
if you enjoy other shows from the same era in
television (such as I Love Lucy), you will probably
like this show as much, if not more than those shows.
The comedy is something that has to be watched in
order to appreciate. The only question I have is where
are the first four seasons? Hopefully, those (as well
as later seasons) will be released in the future.
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):
Video Quality: 4/5
Audio Quality: 4/5
Special Features: 4.5/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 10/04/04
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