Customer Reviews

Love American Style - Season 1, Vol. 1

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"Love American Style" (1969-1974), best known for its classic theme song and for airing the pilot (Season Three segment "Love and the Happy Days") that ultimately launched the hit series Happy Days, was a comedy anthology series about love and romance (a rarity) featuring a combo of guest stars in comedy vignettes. A product of its time, "Love American Style" looked naughty on the outside, but was actually a humorous yet quaint look at the rituals of dating and mating. Though ABC revived the series [as "New Love American Style"] in 1985, only The Love Boat (1977-1986) was successful in following the format of the original classic series which after decades since its debut finally comes to DVD! Love American Style - Season One, Volume One is a 3-disc (619 min.) set featuring all 37 segments from the show's first 12 [of 24] hour-long Season One episodes; Full Frame (1.33:1) video. Here is a list of the segments contained in this volume, plus original airdates:

1. Love and the Pill (9/29/1969)
2. Love and the Hustler (9/29/1969)
3. Love and a Couple of Couples (9/29/1969)
4. Love and the Joker (10/6/1969)
5. Love and the Letter (10/6/1969)
6. Love and the Living Doll (10/6/1969)
7. Love and the Unlikely Couple (10/6/1969)
8. Love and the Phone Booth (10/13/1969)
9. Love and the Doorknob (10/13/1969)
10. Love and the Militant (10/20/1969)
11. Love and the Legal Agreement (10/20/1969)
12. Love and Who? (10/20/1969)
13. Love and the Single Couple (10/27/1969)
14. Love and the Phonies (10/27/1969)
15. Love and the Modern Wife (10/27/1969)
16. Love and the Busy Husband (11/3/1969)
17. Love and the Watchdog (11/3/1969)
18. Love and the Dating Computer (11/3/1969)
19. Love and Take Me Along (11/10/1969)
20. Love and the Geisha (11/10/1969)
21. Love and the Advice Givers (11/10/1969)
22. Love and the Roommate (11/17/1969)
23. Love and the Burglar (11/17/1969)
24. Love and the Wild Party (11/17/1969)
25. Love and the Big Leap (11/24/1969)
26. Love and the Former Marriage (11/24/1969)
27. Love and the Good Deal (11/24/1969)
28. Love and the Shower (12/1/1969)
29. Love and Mother (12/1/1969)
30. Love and the Athlete (12/1/1969)
31. Love and the Dummies (12/1/1969)
32. Love and the Comedy Team (12/8/1969)
33. Love and the Mountain Cabin (12/8/1969)
34. Love and the Divorce Sale (12/8/1969)
35. Love and the Bachelor (12/22/1969)
36. Love and the Positive Man (12/22/1969)
37. Love and the Other Love (12/22/1969)


First Fantasy Island, and now Love American Style followed by The Love Boat.
Bring on Hotel!

Great series. Bad idea to release the seasons split into two volumes.

The studio will find out the hard way that splitting a season into two volumes will cause them to LOSE money in the end, not make more. Many will not purchase HALF a season unless the price is VERY reasonable, which it isn't in this case. Also, when a title is overpriced, you can expect to see more "used" sets for sale than normal (at lower prices). Every time a title is sold "used", the studio loses more money.

In the end, they will make fans angry for having to pay extra (The total price for a complete two volume season) and also for having to wait (for the release of the second volume). We already have to wait long enough, in most cases, for follow-up SEASONS (sometimes years), and now they are making us wait for the second half of a SINGLE season.

Pathetic marketing technique that will make fans angry and lose money for the studio.

Don't believe any comments about "keeping costs down". It's all about keeping profits UP and consumers dangling at the end of a line.

I say, keep consumers HAPPY, by releasing full seasons at reasonable prices, and you'll make the most profits. No need for silly games.

JM

I really wanted to buy this when i heard it was being released but then i found out that that they are breaking one season into two separate sets. I see that as a way to just charge more money. I know there were 24 hour long episodes but so what? They release other dramas with 24 or more episodes in one set. My favorite stars are also in volume 2 (if that is ever released) such as Bob Denver, Vivian Vance, Joan Van Ark, and Jim Backus. I will wait for season 2. I do remember the show being a lot of fun and i would buy if it was one full set.

Get ready for Friday Night television. The classic show is coming to DVD. Love, American Style was part of the ABC friday night lineup. This show is a true classic. Everyone in hollywood showed up on this show. The pilots for Happy Days and Wait til Your Father Get's Home began on L.A.S. Remember Friday nights, starting at 8pm on ABC you had The Brady Bunch, then The Partridge Family, Room 222, The Odd Couple, then the hour long Love, American
Style. I'm looking forward to the DVD and you will enjoy it along with the catchy opening theme that we all know.

I just viewed a screener copy of Love American Style..and all i have to say is I WISH THEY WOULD DO TELEVISION LIKE THIS AGAIN

Love is an anthology show with little mini skits between the stories. there are about One to four stories an episode. The worst thing about this three disk DVD collection that I can say is this set is season one part one and there are only 17 episodes...I WANT MORE! and no one knows when CBS video will release season one part two..I just guess I will just have to run all 10 hours again

The casts of these shows reads like a Who's Who with names you are familiar with. Actors and actresses like Bill Bixby, Arte Johnson, Flip Wilson (his first TV appearance), Shari Lewis, Bob Crane, Phyllis Diller and Even Ozzie and Harriet appeared in these well thought out tales of love.

Very few of these pieces are seem aged & dated (and the some of these shows are 38 years old) and could run today on regular network TV, if the Writer's Strike is still on at the beginning of next year.

Get a large dose of laughes and love for your loved ones this holiday season. WAIT A SEC, Heck with the holiday's, order and get it now! Why dont you avoid the xmas rush and enjoy classic TV at its best

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

This is one of my favorite "comfort shows" from the '70s. I have a fond memory of watching the great WLVI-56 in Boston when they ran That Girl and Love, American Style.

If you're curious, the "pilot" of Happy Days and "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home" were at the end of Season 3. Let us hope that they keep churning these sets out.

The episodes that should be included in this collection include:
Love and the Pill Love and the Hustler Love and a Couple of Couples Love and the Joker Love and the Letter Love and the Living Doll Love and the Unlikely Couple Love and the Phone Booth Love and the Doorknob Love and the Militant 10/20/1969 Love and the Legal Agreement Love and Who? Love and the Single Couple Love and the Phonies Love and the Modern Wife Love and the Busy Husband Love and the Watchdog Love and the Dating Computer Love and Take Me Along Love and the Geisha Love and the Advice GiversLove and the Roommate Love and the Burglar Love and the Wild Party Love and the Big Leap Love and the Former Marriage Love and the Good Deal Love and the Shower Love and Mother Love and the Athlete Love and the Dummies Love and the Comedy Team Love and the Mountain Cabin Love and the Divorce Sale Love and the Bachelor Love and the Positive Man Love and the Other Love

the legendary Mantan Moreland is in "Love and the Hustler"!

LOVE AMERICAN STYLE was a truly one of a kind television program, an hour long comedy anthology featuring two to four separate stories about falling in love. It was fairly racy for it's era (the only comedy airing in the final hour of prime time) when virtually all comedies were wholesome or at least suitable for all ages. Boasting a series of guest stars practically pulled from the pages of those "Whatever Happened to" paperbacks, mostly performers from older television series, familiar TV personalities and a nice scattering of well-remembered performers from the golden age of Hollywood movies. And there were occasional appearances from future stars as well (a very young Harrison Ford is on this set). Some of the casting here is quite intriguing (real-life couples Stefanie Powers & Gary Lockwood, as well as Tina Louise & Les Crane; Shari Lewis & Paul Winchell in "Love and the Dummies"; the stars of the 1959 film LIL ABNER, Peter Palmer and Leslie Parrish making rare post-Abner appearances (in separate episodes in this set) etc.)

You might say the casting director raided HOLLYWOOD SQUARES (heck you CAN say it given Peter Marshall himself is in an episode here!) but anyone who loves pre-1970 show business can't help but be fascinated with some of the players to be found on episodes in this particular DVD set: Ann Sothern, Brandon De Wilde, Yvonne Craig, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Mantan Moreland, Robert Cummings, Margaret O'Brien, Aldo Ray, Ozzie & Harriet, Carolyn Jones, John Beck, Robert Reed, Judy Carne, Hans Conreid, Jessica Walter, Joe Flynn, Tommy Smothers, Shelley Fabares, Lesley Ann Warren, Regis Philbin (!!), Andy Devine, Ann Rutherford, Sandra Gould, Rosemary DeCamp, Gail Fisher, Flip Wilson, Robert Cummings, Jane Wyatt, Alice Ghostley, Larry Storch, Estelle Winwood, Pamela Austin, Kathleen Freeman, Stuart Margolin, Bill Bixby, Sid Caesar, Connie Stevens, Bob Crane, Richard Deacon, Phyllis Diller, Broderick Crawford, Michael Callan, and Patsy Kelly are just some of the actors who appeared in the first twelve episodes of the series so they all should be on this set.

Don't expect Masterpiece Theatre - or even I Dream of Jeannie - but this program is downright Warholesque in it's basking in pop culture. The whole nostalgia/pop/camp movement of the era could hardly been represented more vividly. Truly a time capsule.

I grew up watching this show and it does hold some fond memories. The best memory of this show was the episode that introduced 'Happy Days' to America and the rest is history. This half season set is a bit over priced and should have had some extra material included. The good thing about this release is that the episodes are uncut and they look reasonably good considering their age. I did find one thing confusing on the menu, they state the air date of each episode, but after the first four episodes the order seems to be scattered?

For those of you not familiar with the program the show consisted of three or four short vignettes about....what else LOVE 60's and 70's style! In between the short subjects were small comedic interludes about romance and the pursuit of love. The show is a little dated, but fans of the series won't mind. It's a nice trip donw memory lane and I hope they continue to release more of the series on DVD at least until they get to the 'Happy Days' pilot. 'Love American Style' also launched the animated series 'Wait till your Father gets Home'.

Like many of the reviewers, I enjoy rehearing the deathlessly catchy theme song of this show -- it takes me back to seeing the credits as a tot. It's also fun to see old faves in guest shots -- Imogene Coca, Vivian Vance, Broderick Crawford, Paul Lynde, and so on, not to mention unheralded early appearances by people like Harrison Ford. Much of the value in watching this season (both DVD sets) is finding out which blasts from the past will be guesting in "This week's episode."

However, what actually happens in "This week's episode" is almost never for the ages. LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE is writers minted on the likes of I DREAM OF JEANNIE winking at the sexual revolution, but only that. Much of the goings on -- "How will we explain that something spilled on my pants and that's why I don't have them on???" (that one is with Tony Randall and Julie Newmar) -- could easily have happened on I LOVE LUCY. The problem is that its being in color and with the characters dropping references to divorce and "free love" makes such hijinks seem hopelessly fake. The writing is also generally flabby and paceless, as if everyone thought that the "risque" atmosphere would compensate for craft.

And then, dropped references is largely it. This show was tightly hemmed in by old-fashioned standards codes. Divorced couples always reunite. The young couple cohabitating (gasp!) turn out to have been secretly married all the time. Premarital sex is restricted to subsidiary characters just like in an old movie -- unmarried protagonists are chaste and often romantically frustrated (Wally Cox, Barry Gordon, etc.). Overall, the show is all about people saying "Let's go!" and then just sitting still.

So the season is two dozen 45-minute long episodes of broad pre-Norman Lear/MTM hokum. The superficial texture of it is fun if you recall the era -- the clothes, the furniture, the Bacharach-esque soundtrack music. And it's nice to get a look at Ann Sothern, Mel Torme, Dorothy Lamour and so on. But the problem is that these people don't have anything to do that's really worth the viewing time in our era.

I would Netflix a few episodes of this one but hold back on buying the whole season. Unless you watched this as an adult, if you are up for a whole season of this one you are likely a hard-core nostalgia buff.

you are correct...splitting a season in half is just a way for the studios to make more money. I am a huge fan of love american style but now I will wait for used dvds of the series to come out because what the studio is doing is just wrong and trying to make money and rip us off...I can wait 2 more years to purchase the dvds I am sure they will still be around and they will only cost no more than 5.00 dollars. To the people of the studios that did this stupid thing you will loose money when people like me will purchase used dvds, so rock on with your stupidity!!!!!!