Customer Reviews

The Mary Tyler Moore Show - TV Starter Set (The Best of Season 1)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The problem with the "Best of Season One" DVD is that the majority--if not most--of the fans of the show have already bought the complete Season One DVD set. They won't need the "Best-Of" disk. So then, when the "Best-Of" disk doesn't do much business, Fox can say, "See, there's not much interest," and use it as an excuse not to release Season Two. A much better test would be a Best of Season TWO disk.

On March 22, 2005, Fox Home Entertainment released this "TV Starter Set" DVD consisting of four of the best episodes from Season #1 of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". This one-disc "Starter" Pack is nice for those people who are not at all familiar with the MTM Show (and would just like to see a "sample" from the series), or for those who are already fans of Mary's show, but don't want to dig too deep into their pocketbooks and purchase the full-season, 24-episode DVD boxed set of the first MTM season, which is a compilation which also earns a perfect "Five-Star" rating from this writer.

Unlike the deluxe 4-Disc "Complete First Season" DVD set of "TMTMS", there aren't any special bonus features on this "Starter" disc -- just the four episodes (listed below). But it's still a very good deal, IMO, at the bargain price offered.

The video quality for these four stellar MTM episodes is simply SUPERB! I doubt these shows could look any better. The colors are perfect and vibrant and there's no annoying video "noise" or artifacts (that I can detect at any rate).

Each episode here gets its own "Chapter" sub-menu on the disc, with 10 chapter stops per show! Video is presented in the original TV ratio of 1.33:1; the audio sounds just fine via the disc's English Dolby Digital soundtrack (of the 2.0 Mono variety). There are even two foreign-language tracks included (in Spanish 2.0 Mono and French 2.0 Mono); plus Subtitles in English and Spanish. Unfortunately, there is not a "Play All" feature included.

There's also a very short "Mary Tyler Moore TV Spot" included on this disc. This is not an original 1970 CBS-TV promo for TMTMS, however. It's a brief 15-second ad pitching the 4-Disc "Complete First Season" set of The MTM Show.

A 12-page insert (DVD advertising booklet) also comes with this Starter Set, featuring many ads for other FOX TV-On-DVD products.

Here's a glance at the four episodes that make up this "MTM Starter Set" (with original CBS-TV Air Dates in parenthesis)............

1.) "Love Is All Around" (09/19/1970)
2.) "Support Your Local Mother" (10/24/1970)
3.) "Toulouse-Lautrec Is One Of My Favorite Artists" (10/31/1970)
4.) "The Snow Must Go On" (11/7/1970)

"Love Is All Around" is the debut episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", and does a great job of introducing the viewing audience to "Mary Richards", "Rhoda Morgenstern", "Phyllis Lyndstrom", "Lou Grant", "Murray Slaughter", and "Ted Baxter".

Everybody in this series was first-rate all the way, with the show picking up more steam as the first season progressed; and it got even better in Season #2.

"The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was one of the most popular and successful TV comedy series ever aired on network television, accumulating an amazing 67 Emmy nominations during its seven-year period on the airwaves (1970 to 1977). The series won 29 total Emmy Awards, including four during its rookie season.

This MTM "Starter" disc is a fine supplementary addition to the DVD collection of anyone who loves flat-out good TV shows.

In a recent effort to get casual fans interested in their TV products on DVD, Fox has released four episode starter sets of several of their shows. Reasonably priced, they tempt the viewer to buy the first season and even provide a coupon for the purchase price of the sampler off the price of the complete first season if offered. The casual fan has little to loose.

And this set offers four of the funniest episodes from the first season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. "Love is All Around" is one of my favorite TV pilots ever, expertly introducing us to the characters we'd grow to love as the series progressed.

"Support Your Local Mother" brings Rhoda's Mom for a visit. With Mary as her host, Mary begins to see why Rhoda has a hard time dealing with her mother.

"Toulouse-Lautrec Is One of My Favorite Artists" finds Mary confronting the realization that she's a height bigot when a charming but shorter man asks her out.

"The Snow Must Go On" places Mary in charge of election night coverage. Vowing they won't go off the air until they get final results, Mary must keep Ted going when they are cut off from any source of news.

Of course, the problem with this disc is that any fan of the show has had two and a half years to get the complete first season by now. But if you are a casual fan, this disc will give you four top notch episodes from the first season of this classic sit-com.

I personally had liked the selected episodes, but must add my voice to the chorus of people who also see marketing flaws for what they really are.

Because FOX had not promoted MTM: Season One and was asking lots of money, the DVD sales were slower than expected in 2002. Rumors now circulate that Season 2 will eventually be released, but I have to question the genius of including a coupon for the Season 1 release inside this specific package.

If people who are happy to have this starter set then already have all the Mary Tyler Moore which they want and series fans will buy the complete season releases anyways, the 'starter set' concept will not serve as a 'bridge' to increasing overall MTM DVD interest. Casual fans are not going to buy additional DVDs for something which they found only mildly interesting.

Barring the VERY unusual and isolated case, people are not going to first buy this release and then the traditional DVD set. Since those people do not make up a market majority, I am curious how FOX believed this approach would power overall series sales.

I could see the starter set in the mid 1990's or only selected episodes being released in lieu of entire seasons. I must question the relevancy of that strategy in 2005 and also in addition to full season releases of a series.

I think that most of the reviewers for this are completely missing the entire point of this release. It's not for people who already like Mary Tyler Moore. Those people will buy the complete seasons. It's for people like me who have never seen an episode of it but would like to check it out. The DVD has a few episodes of the classic show that will hopefully get the viewer "hooked" so that he or she will buy the whole season. With a $10 coupon for the first season included in the package, this 'Best of' is essentially a pretty smart marketing technique to get you to see the show (because you're only down ten bucks if you don't like it) and then (since they're convinced you will like it) buy the whole season. It is in no way, shape, or form meant to replace or even really supplement the first season. It is meant to get the curious consumer to buy the first season. So I give it five stars. Because that's a pretty ingenious idea.

I am rating this 5 stars just because the MTM show deserves 5 stars. Notice that the sales rank of this start up disk is much lower than the complete box set. Good. I want Fox to release seasons 2+ in their entirety. And hopefully this will help. Just a note to the Fox team who is putting out the MTM dvds..... Include the entire cast on the box. The pictures they use now is making it look like the 'Independent Seventies Woman striking it out on her own' type show which was new at the time but today it's dated. If they include Ted, Lou, Murray, etc. it will appeal to a much wider audience who know and love these characters.

Mary Tyler Moore has been part of two of the best situation comedies of all time. We need all of this series.

I hadn't seen the Mary Tyler Moore show in years so I bought this starter set with it's expired coupon at Walmart, watched the 4 shows (liked it) then bought the first 2 seasons here on Amazon. When seasons 3 & 4 came out I also bought those from Amazon. Sadly due to low customer demand for this series the rest of the seasons have not been released as of this writing. If they wrere I would have bought them.

The starter sets are a great idea if you don't remember a series that well & want to see if you like it before buying any seasons.

Sure, it's only four of the episodes from Season One, but the price is right and I was more than glad to add it to my DVD TV collection. The first episode is always stunning to watch as Mary moves to Minnesota to start her life over after leaving her boyfriend (who was a doctor that wouldn't commit to marriage). The interaction between Rhoda and Mary is fun and Rhoda comes off as a real angry person (fascinating how much/how fast her character changed) as Mary gets the apartment leaving Rhoda to stay in the attic apartment. The episodes are funny and it's great to watch Mary interact with the cast in that first episode.

Get the boxed DVD sets, but if you are wanting to add this inexpensive DVD of four great episodes of Season One you won't regret it.

This season-starter set of MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW episodes is a good sampling of 4 of the best Season 1 eps.

"Love is All Around" - The pilot episode. Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) arrives in Minneapolis fresh from a broken engagement and takes her job as associate producer in the newsroom of WJM.

"Support Your Local Mother" - Mary gets an unexpected houseguest when Rhoda's mother Ida (guest star Nancy Walker) drops by.

"Toulouse-Lautrec is One of My Favourite Artists" - Mary dates a man who is somewhat lacking in the height department.

"The Snow Must Go On" - Mary is put in charge of coordinating the election coverage, though a snowstorm and blackout conspire to knock out all the communication devices.

4 fun episodes to savour.