Customer Reviews

Davey & Goliath - The Lost Episodes

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A great chance to get some little seen episodes of this beloved family classic. As the rules for "political correctness" changed after the early 60's, many otherwise innocuous shows became more controversial by modern standards. This DVD features episodes that have been out of distribution for many years. Starlight Video has announced the episodes as "Ten Little Indians" (removed from distribution for the racist inference of "Indians"), "The Gang" (removed for violence), "The Watchdogs" (removed for violence), and "Down on the Farm" (removed- believe it or not- for nudity! In one scene, Davey goes skinny dipping! Shocking). These episodes were pulled from the TV airwaves many years ago and have been locked up in the vaults all this time! All true hard core fans are looking forward to this release.

I am extremely disappointed in this DVD. As a collector of Classic TV shows I am a completist and want complete episodes. I would still recommend this DVD but BUY IT USED when prices go below 10 dollars unless you are desperate to see a couple episodes.

These episodes were given the "King WOrld Little Rascals treatment". What I mean was when Little Rascals was syndicated after about 15 years the syndicated TV prints were sliced and diced of scenes deemed to be racial or just in bad taste and a few episodes were removed altogether. At least in the Rascals case all the episodes were completely unedited on home video. Here with Davey 10 episodes are unavailable on TV now and on home video some of these are edited aby as much as a minute and a half.

Now the details. "Cousin Barney" was aired on television until about 3 years ago. It was even available on VHS since the mid 80's and on DVD in the early 2000's. But the ECLA determined the episode was in bad taste and abruptly took it out of Televison availability. The VHS tapes and DVD's went out of print. It was released on this DVD and is sliced by a minute and a half. The scene where the children played "Cowboys and Indians" was deleted. Fortunately I have a decent VHS copy of the complete episode dubbed to DVD so this is not tragic to me. By why edit this out on home video?

"Polka Dot Tie" seemed to be completely intact. This was taken off television back in the mid 1980's. Stations that had the episode continued running it until they discontinued the series but new stations picking up the series did not get this episode. The ECLA deemed the episode in bad taste. This episode ran just under 15 minutes so it seemed to be complete.

"Pilgrim Boy" ran on television until about 2004. It was probably edited but still run. It was also on home video through VHS tapes from the 80's until the late 90's. It was even on DVD in 2000 but also went out of print. I also have a VHS copy of this episode dubbed to DVD. Sadly, this episode was edited by about a minute. Every fearful reference to indians during the colonial times scene was edited out. Again, WHY??? Deemed in bad taste by the Lutheran Church. The current leadership I guess is more sensitive than the leadership from the 80's even. This is another disappointment.

"Tin Pan Alley" was edited by about a minute as well. It was originally known as "10 Little Indians". I recalled this episode only vaguely as a kid. It was simply not a favorite I guess. They even changed the title. From what I have been told, the pins in the bowling alley were referred to as indians. Also when the pins were knocked down, an indian boy would come and put them back up. These brief scenes were also edited out. Again, WHY??? I was desperate to get this episode so I still dont regret buying this disc. The moderately edited episode is better than none at all. The audio quality of this episode was barely satisfactory and poorer than the other episodes.

"Down On The Farm" was only edited by a couple seconds. Those seconds were when Davey and the other boy had no clothes on and jumped into the lake. The scene was so brief that unless one remembers them having no clothes on (which was very subtle anyway and would take a split second to miss) many probabably did not notice. Still a naked clay puppet is not that noticable. This episode remained on television until the early 2000's. WHy even remove it at all. I have a VHS copy of this episode as well that has since fallen out of print.

"The Jickets" seemed to be edited only slightly if at all. The title was originally "The Gang". This was pulled from TV back in the 1980's. It seemed intact and I enjoyed seeing it after over 25 years. This was the first time it was ever offered on home video in any form.

"Help", "Louder Please", and "Watchdogs" seemed to be fully intact. These was not pulled from television airing until about 2004. The length was 14 minutes but these 70's episodes were shorter originally than the 60's episodes. I was glad to see this on DVD. I do not see why these were pulled only recently. Still I was glad to see these once again.

"What's His Name", also from the 70's was also pulled from syndication in the early 2000's. This episode was only 13 minutes long and was edited by nearly a minute. The scene where Davey mentioned putting the boy who got him in trouble under a ladder and pouring molasses and feathers was edited out. This seemed no worse than the rest of the episode.

My theory of why these four episodes were pulled recently was because of the September 11 situation. Because of events happening at that point, the ECLA probably felt these episodes were no longer appropriate because of the trheats Davey was making against a kid on one episode, a violent crime scene on another, and the being trapped on top of a building on another.

All in all, while these apisodes may be inappropriate for a Christian TV station, I feel they are fine for a DVD release for secular classic TV collectors. Maybe they should release an edition for kids and one for collectors.

I therefore recommend this DVD with reservations.

This Lost Episodes DVD was meant to be released several times in the past couple years. Now we have a new release date from a new company and with new box art. This classic show with great morals that still apply today along with humor that continues to be funny through the years is now available on a new DVD containing the following ten episodes:

Cousin Barney
Polka Dot Tie
The Pilgrim Boy
Ten-Pin Alley (formerly Ten Little Indians, guess it was offensive)
Down On The Farm
The Jickets (formerly The Gang, guess gang now sends the wrong message)
Help
Louder Please
What's His Name
The Watchdogs

This series is rather old now so don't expect perfect sound or picture quality, but apart from the pilot released on the Volume One DVD, which itself was in good shape considering, I have found sound and picture haven't been an issue for me on others since.

I guess over time certain political correctness found them opting for name changes on episodes but the show is still the same old Davey and Goliath. I was excited to watch the four volumes already released on DVD and think fans will enjoy this one too, it's too bad they haven't released larger box set formats or more DVD volumes, I'd love to have all these episodes on DVD.

I think it's great in alot of ways that TV is always evolving and I know children's shows need to adapt to the times in certain ways but I wish we still had more simplistic series like this with right and wrong and a sense of morality and religious undertones. If only they could create a new show like this to at least balance the other things children are exposed to on TV, if not in place of them.

Great DVD for fans, Goliath is so lovable even for children today and is what still sells the show. Hopefully they put out more Davey and Goliath on DVD, this is a series I would love to own. 5 Stars for anyone who is a fan or who wants wholesome entertainment with great moral lessons for children.

They don't make bigger fans of Davey & Goliath than me, which is why I'm disappointed they decided to edit these episodes. Have we gotten so sensitive as a society that we can't even tolerate a childrens' show (dripping with family values), as it aired in the 1960s and 70s? They released the original Sesame Street in tact (albeit with a warning)-- Why couldn't they have shown the same respect for Davey? I'm not going to go into the details about what they cut, I just think it's unfortunate, since it was one of the most innocent shows around. I still adore the show, I just don't adore the people who think they are judges of what others should see. It's censorship of the original series, plain and simple.

Oh, and the episode menu selection doesn't work correctly (Select "Whatshisname" and you'll be directed to "Down on the Farm".) Maybe they should stop censoring episodes and proof the DVD before releasing it.

3/5. Davey and Goliath is always fun to watch and I was looking forward to this uncut DVD. I have the 'Down on the Farm' episode on tape (if you are a D&G fan you know what's in this episode) but it was CUT! The most outrageous scene of D&G was tragically removed! AGHH!!!

So the good news: This is kid freindly!

The bad news: I guess we'll never see the uncut episodes on DVD.

If you really are expecting uncut epsiodes...DON'T buy this! Just buy it if you really want more D&G on DVD.

You know...they ought to just release D&G by season or just release 'The Complete Series' on DVD. (uncut please!)

This dvd was supposed to have been released twice already. It has been moved from May to September. I wish they (whoever) would come out and tell us why this dvd keeps being pushed back. This is getting pretty old.

After nearly a three year wait, we finally get this release of the long awaited missing "unpolitically correct" D&G episodes..I have the entire D&G collection except about 5, so I did get a few "new" episodes I didn't have.......BUT.....TWO lost episodes are still missing, which are "ON THE LINE" & "HEAD OF THE HOUSE" and they are both not on this DVD and have been removed from television since approx. the mid 1980's! I aquired my near complete collection in 1984 and already had most of the recently removed episodes. My version of "Down On The Farm" does contain Davey's infamous "diving nude scene" with his private parts shown (yikes)which has been edited out of the newly released DVD. It just seems if you are going to promote a rare lost episodes DVD, they should all be there and not be edited! Davey's diving scene in "Down On The Farm" is so harmless and should not have been edited from this new DVD!

Originally, Starlight Home Entertainment (now defunct) planned to release this in 2007 but suffered setbacks with delays and delays until lo and behold, Celebrity Video Distribution, came to the rescue and picked up where Starlight left off. I, for one, thought this would NEVER see the light of day so all I can say is, IT'S ABOUT TIME!

These lost episodes were pulled from the airwaves and never aired again due to what they considered was politically incorrect. However, in this age of reality shows, I really don't see what the problem is with these episodes. My favorites in the set are The Gang (now known as The Jickets), Polka Dot Tie, Whatshisname, Help!, The Watchdogs and Louder Please.

While I did enjoy watching these rarities, I did have some issues with edits in episodes like Cousin Barney, Ten Pin Alley (if there were any since I have never seen this one), Down on the Farm (Davey's skinny dipping dive) and What's His Name (tar and feather dream sequence).

Overall, I enjoyed the DVD after such a LONG wait. But seriously, why give us episodes that are cut?

Overall, these are very good children's stories with Christian and family values. I watched these as a child on TV, my children watched the reruns, and I was happy to find the DVD's are now available for purchase for my grandchildren.

The seller was prompt in shipping; however, I, too had a problem with WHATSHISNAME. The first time we watched it, it cut off when Davey announced to Sally that he is not going to Sunday School - not a good place to end a story, much less the entire DVD (this is the last story in the series). Since another purchaser mentioned the same problem, I believe there is something wrong with the way these were put together. And yes, the order of the programs on the DVD does not match the order listed on the cover. While the quality of the stories would rate a 5-star, the quality of the DVD is only a 3-star.

Further, it appears that the same DVD is being sold with two different covers. This is misleading, because it looks like you may be interested in purchasing the other one, when in fact you already own it. Unable to determine for sure because all the titles are not listed. The only clue is that both contain "WHATSHISNAME", which is determined by reading the reviews.

I recommend the purchase as long as you are careful to make sure your child(ren) see the end of WHATSHISNAME, because otherwise the story ends on a mean and hateful note. You must follow through to the end to get the lesson of forgiveness.

I was happy to find these lost stories of Davey & Goliath. It includes the "Pilgrim Boy" on it, which shows some pilgrim history, in a light hearted way.