Info:
DVD Release Date: June 7, 2005 (Rhino Home Video)
Color/1981-82
MSRP: $39.95
Number of Discs: 3
Number of Episodes: 22
Running Time: 545 Minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: 7 minutes
(approximately 100 including commentary)
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English; no
subtitles or closed-captioning
Special Features: Commentary by Lydia Cornell and
Deborah Van Valkenburgh on "Who's Sara Now" and "A
Policeman's Wife is Not a Happy One;" commentary by Jm
J. Bullock and Nancy Dussault on "The Remaking of
Monroe" and "My Favorite Martin;" cast interview with
Lydia Cornell, Jm J. Bullock, and Deborah Van
Valkenburgh.
Introduction:
Too Close for Comfort makes a return appearance to DVD
with The Complete Second Season--a set that is a great
improvement over the debut set that was introduced in
November 2004. The 1980s ABC (and later first-run
syndicated) sitcom follows cartoonist Henry Rush (Ted
Knight) and Muriel Rush (Nancy Dussault) through their
everyday lives, where they are surrounded by their
grown daughters Sara and Jackie
(Lydia Cornell and Deborah Van Valkenburgh) that
aren't quite ready to be completely out on their own,
but are definitely ready to have their own apartment.
While Henry and Muriel may think that they are already
"too close for comfort," they become even closer in
the second season as Henry's niece April (Deena
Freeman) moves in with Henry and Muriel,
Muriel's mother Iris (Audrey Meadows) becomes a semi
regular cast member that loves to torment Henry, and
Monroe (Jm J. Bullock) become a more frequent visitor
to the Rush apartment. But just when it seems as if it
is really getting "too close for comfort," Muriel
discovers she is pregnant, just when she is having a
midlife crisis at age 42.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
The second season opens with "Guess Who's Coming to
Burp?," in which Muriel discovers that she is pregnant
and struggles with whether or not she should go
through with the pregnancy. Deena Freeman makes her
debut as Henry's song-writing niece April in "Your
Guest Is As Good As Mine." Bill Dana makes his first
(of two) appearances in the second season as Wendell,
a wealthy man that pretends to be a hobo for
companionship, in "Rafkin's Bum." Monroe learns to
become more assertive--and even more annoying than the
usual nonassertive Monroe--in "The Remaking of
Monroe." April falls in love with a man much older
than her in "April and September." Robert Mandan makes
an appearance as Henry's brother and April's father in
"Brotherly Hate."
Audrey Meadows makes her first appearance in "My
Unfavorite Martin," where she tells Henry a big family
secret that she has kept from Muriel for several
years. Henry believes that a European couple that
temporarily moves in to Jackie and Sara's apartment
may be terrorists in "Foreign Exchange." Finally, the
second season ends with April getting a piano, and
Monroe helping her get it stuck in the stairwell--at
the same time that Muriel believes that she is going
into labor.
Packaging:
The packaging is very similar to the packaging that
was used for The Complete First Season--three slim
cases in the box. The main difference is that this set
uses a yellow color scheme. Each of the slim cases has
a list of the episodes contained on the disc on the
back, complete with vivid descriptions of the
episodes. Disc One has a picture of Ted Knight on it,
Disc Two has a picture of Jm J. Bullock, and Disc
Three has a picture of Nancy Dussault. Disc One
contains episodes 1-8, Disc Two contains episodes
9-16, and Disc Thee contains episodes 17-22 in
addition to the cast reunion interview.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menus are basically the same as the menus that
were included in The Complete First Season. When you
first insert the disc, the Main
Menu comes up, with the theme song playing in the
background. The options there include Play All,
Episode Selection, and Extra Features.
The Play All feature plays every episode on the disc.
Episode
Selection takes you to a menu where you can select the
episode that you want to play. Once the episode is
selected, a scene selection menu comes up for that
episode. Extra Features simply takes you to a menu
where you can choose from the Extra Features available
on that disc.
The interview is available on Disc Three, and the
commentaries are available on the disc that its
respective episode is contained on.
Chapters are properly placed through each episode in
positions where commercial breaks would be if this
show were airing on television.
Video and Audio Quality:
First and foremost, Rhino has provided UNEDITED
episodes for this release of the show. Fans were very
frustrated with the syndicated copies that were
provided in The Complete First Season. Every single
episode in this set runs approximately 24 minutes and
30 seconds. It would be nice to see Rhino follow up
with a re-release of The Complete First Season with
unedited episodes. In general, the audio and video
quality on the set is adequate. The video quality is
slightly fuzzy, but it is nothing of serious concern.
The audio is in mono, but of course, that is the
natural mode for the audio. The audio volume is a bit
low, but not extremely low as some DVD sets can be.
Like many other releases from Rhino, this set is not
closed-captioned, and it does not contain English
subtitles either, so the hearing impaired will likely
have trouble with this set.
Special Features:
When The Complete First Season was released, Rhino
released a set that had absolutely no special features
at all. The Complete Second Season, on the other hand,
has a few special features, all in the form of
interviews and commentaries. Commentaries are provided
on "Who's Sara Now" and "A Policeman's Wife Is Not a
Happy One" by Lydia Cornell and Deborah Van
Valkenburgh, who played Sara and Jackie. There are
also commentaries on "The Remaking of Monroe" and "My
Unfavorite Martin" by Nancy Dussault and Jm J.
Bullock, who played Muriel and Monroe. In addition to
these commentaries, there is a 7 minute unscripted
interview with Lydia Cornell, Deborah Van Valkenburgh,
and Jm J. Bullock that was taped during the reunion
that was held for the release of The Complete First
Season. The commentaries are somewhat interesting,
although they really talk more about the show in
general rather than the specific episodes. All of the
cast members share interesting stories and memories
about the show as well as the late Ted Knight in the
commentaries, and also talk about what they are doing
today (Lydia Cornell and Deborah Van Valkenburgh are
still working with each other on various projects).
The interview carries the same type of material. There
are a lot of jokes about Jm J. Bullock's homosexuality
in here too, but he doesn't seem to mind. It would
have been better to see more of the interview (many
parts were obviously cut out) and commentaries on more
episodes, but it was at least nice to see all of the
remaining stars participate in the special features.
Final Comments:
Many fans were upset and disappointed at the set that
Rhino put out for The Complete First Season, but this
set is definitely worth looking in to. The main
problem that most people had with The Complete
First Season was the fact that Rhino produced a set
with syndicated episodes, which were missing
approximately two and a half minutes per episode, but
this set offers the full unedited episodes, as they
appeared originally in 1981 and 1982 on ABC. The
special features on the set, while the set is lacking
primarily in the quantity of special features
available, is still a great improvement from the
complete lack of special features on The Complete
First Season. Hopefully, future releases will be
similar to The Complete Second Season (with more
special features, of course), and it would also be
nice if Rhino could re-release The Complete First
Season in a set that is more like The Complete Second
Season.
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars - How our point system works)
Video Quality: 4.5/5
Audio Quality: 3.5/5
Special Features: 2/5
Menu Navigation/Design: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by skees53 on 06/1/2005.
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