36 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not QUITE what I thought, September 12, 2007
This review is from: Bewitched - The Complete Seasons 1-5 (DVD)
I just received this boxed set. I was utterly crushed to realize that I had received the COLORIZED versions of seasons 1 and 2 (note that seasons 3 on were filmed in color... but seasons 1 and 2 were filmed in black and white). I realize they don't say either way in the text above, but somehow, I had assumed they would provide the good version (by which I mean the original black and white). I can only assume that this was a sneaky way of forcing the colorized version down our throats.
Now, if you actually wanted the colorized version for some reason, this is the set for you. But if you want the good version, note that seasons 3, 4, and 5, at today's amazon.com prices, will cost you $[...] - much less than this set.
In fact, for those of you who are math-challenged or too lazy to look for yourselves, today's price to get all five seasons listed here (including the COLORIZED versions, which are cheaper than the black and white versions) is $[...] - which is less than today's price for this set. I only paid $[...] on special, so you should wait for that price to come back around before you buy this set. If you can't wait, buy them individually. There do not appear to be any special extras that don't come with the individual seasons, so you miss nothing.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Watch These Over and Over Again, August 26, 2009
This review is from: Bewitched - The Complete Seasons 1-5 (DVD)
These are the very best seasons of BEWITCHED and all with Dick York as Darren. One would think I would have outgrown this show. I watched it as a kid and here I am watching it at age 61! I think the universal aspect this series captured was the ultimate nightmare of life with the in laws and life with the nosy neighbors and interfering boss. If all the rest of us endured the day to day irks of in-law life, at least none of ours could turn us into a frog, or worse. If our boss was an idiot, at least he wasn't on the verge of discovering we lived with a coven. And if the neighbors gossiped about us, then at least their gossip didn't lead to constant calls to the police that they come out and inspect us because we were witches or aliens. And those are the good days for Darren! Just as often, he may be reduced to a bug on the floor scuttling around there for days. And the witch characters are great too. Uncle Arthur and Endora (the mother) and Aunt Clara were the best.
By a quirk of fate, I also ended up owning the black and white version of season one in addition to this colorized version. I like both versions. I'm an artist and I can't even tell that the one is colorized as opposed to real color.
Watching these shows really relaxes me and let's me drift into a very pleasant place for awhile.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb Coloring! Excellent quality!, April 22, 2009
This review is from: Bewitched - The Complete Seasons 1-5 (DVD)
The colorizing of seasons one and two are the best I have ever seen on any film or TV episode. If I had not known they were filmed in Black and white, I would not have been able to tell this was not natural color... and I am very particular about the tiniest of minute details. They even managed to color inside the mouth which is the one place most colorizing systems have trouble with. The quality is so excellent, it looks like someone painstakingly colored each individual frame. There is no bleeding or overlapping. The colors are natural and appear genuine. I don't see how anyone could complain. I was ecstatic with the colorizing and the quality. Someone went to a lot of trouble and expense and care to make sure these were colored with the highest degree of quality.
It doesn't make any sense to me that anyone would have complaint about the colorizing of the first two seasons. It is a thousand times better, not worse. They didn't film these episodes in black and white for artistic purposes. They were filmed in black and white for reasons of cost and availability of equipment. If they could have filmed the first 2 seasons in color, they would have, but networks did not want to pay that kind of money until the show was a hit in those early days of color TV. You can see how tight their budget was just by the lack of wardrobe they had to choose from.
Before I was an engineer, I was a TV camera operator in my teens. We would have done handstands to be able to have had color TV cameras back then, but they were too expensive except for the highest rated shows and the largest stations and studios. We didn't like black and white; we simply had no choice.
I had to suffer for 19 years with black and white TV back in those early years. I was so happy to finally watch all the reruns in color. If I never saw another black and white show, I would be delighted. But my aversion to black and white also made me wait decades before seeing some excellent old movies because they were not in color. Anyone who says color is not an improvement or who claims the black and white is an artistic statement would be impressed by Homer Simpson's junkyard sculptures.
I know a little about colorizing. I've spent thousands of hours digitally colorizing our family's photos, including those of our ancestors. Color brings them to life. They look so much nicer in color. It takes a great deal of effort and care to do natural colorizing of any black and white media.
The only tiny improvement on this colorizing would have been to tone down Endora's hair a bit and a little more contrast to Tate's hair but other than that it was perfect.
Believing this series is better in black and white makes as much sense as keeping the movie "Jezebel" in black and white. The main plot of Jezebel concerned the wearing of a Red gown to a formal ball. A Red gown in black and white just doesn't cut it for me. I've been waiting, but it is still in black and white.
You can't go wrong with the quality of these episodes. The DVD's are excellent. Each episode is in pristine quality. The soundtrack is excellent. Many of these early season Bewitched episodes were rarely seen in reruns because they were in black and white. So I'm seeing a lot of these for the first time. Now that they are in color, they will probably air the reruns networks had previously avoided.
My compliments to those responsible for this excellent colorizing. It is award winning quality in my book and I thank you for doing this. I was absolutely overjoyed.
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