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74 of 76 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great transfers...a must buy, in spite of some misgivings, November 1, 2004
This review is from: My Favorite Martian - The Complete First Season (DVD)
Okay, first, I have to admit that I haven't made it through all 37 shows in this set, so all I can say about the transfers is....so far, they are excellent. Other non-studio companies packaging television programs would learn a lot to follow the lead of Rhino. They include all intro and outro sequences, and are the full program, as originally broadcast.
The one thing that distracts from this being a 5 star set is the packaging. This is the worst packaging job I have seen yet of a season set. The single DVD plastic keep-case, with a hinged 2-DVD insert is just plain cheap. Not only that, it promotes the damage of the discs...including the fact that one of the dual-sided discs rests on the mount for the third disk (which is stored on the back flap of the case).
The insert is a simple cardboard one....no booklet detailing the different episodes, or giving any additional information. Just a list of the shows.
Also, a menu of the episode selections would have been greatly appreciated. The only choices on the main menu are "Play All" and "Scene Selections". In order to choose an episode, you must page through the "Scene Selections" and choose the beginning scene of the desired episode.
Another note....when an episode concludes, the viewer is not sent back to the menu, but instead, the next episode starts playing.
Rhino really gets an "A" for releasing this show, and for it's video transfers (not only the quality, but that they are in their entirety).
Unfortunately, they are prevented from getting 5 stars by their poor menu programming, and the packaging which doesn't protect the disks.
Still, if you are a fan of classic TV, this set is still well recommended.
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55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
TV's Favorite Martian - Season 1 DVD!, August 9, 2004
This review is from: My Favorite Martian - The Complete First Season (DVD)
Before Mork (Orkan) and ALF (Melmacian) came to Earth and moved in with their humans, L.A. Sun reporter Tim O'Hara (Bill Bixby) took in a Martian (Ray Walston) as his "Uncle Martin". The series ranks up there with Mr. Ed on the laugh-o-meter. Viewers who only know Bill Bixby from his more dramatic role as Dr. David Banner from TV's The Incredible Hulk will be floored by Bixby's incredible sense of comedic timing. The show also received solid support from Pamela Britton as Tim's befuddled landlady Mrs. Lorelei Brown and Alan Hewitt as L.A. cop Bill Brennan. Unlike previous Rhino "Martian" DVDs, this Rhino Home Video release of My Favorite Martian: Season 1, features all 37 original, uncut episodes on 3 discs. Rhino was even able to track down the uncut pilot for the set. Here's a list of the season 1 episodes:
My Favorite Martin
The Matchmakers
There Is No Cure for the Common Martin
Russians "R" in Season
Man or Amoeba
The Man on the Couch
A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine and Peaches
The Awful Truth
Rocket to Mars
Raffles No. 2
The Atom Misers
That Little Old Matchmaker, Martin
How to Be a Hero Without Really Trying
Blood is Thicker than the Martian
Poor Little Rich Cat
Rx for Martian
Going, Going, Gone
Who Am I?
Now You See It, Now You Don't
My Nephew the Artist
Hitchhike to Mars
Uncle Martin's Broadcast
An Old, Old Friend of the Family
Super-Duper Snooper
The Sinkable Mrs. Brown
Martin and the Eternal Triangle
Danger! High Voltage!
If You Can't Lick Them
Unidentified Flying Uncle Martin
How Are You Gonna Keep Them Down on the Pharmacy?
Miss Jekyll and Hyde
Who's Got the Power?
Oh, My Aching Antenna
The Disastro-nauts
Shake Well and Don't Use
A Nose for News
Uncle Martin's Wisdom Tooth
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rhino gets it and let's hope it's catching, May 11, 2005
This review is from: My Favorite Martian - The Complete First Season (DVD)
Rhino did a great job with this black and white 1963 show. (The third season was in color). It's on two two-sided discs and one one- sided disc in a single width DVD package. Given deluxe packaging like Futurama and The Simpsons, it could have been five one-sided discs in a slipcase. But no one thinks retro TV will sell, so it's packaged less expensively to appeal to a lower market niche. That's why shows like Burns and Allen, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Petticoat Junction are hard to find except in budget, no-frills versions, often without the original themes (since the DVD manufacturer didn't license them).
Enter Rhino, one of the few companies with any sense of how to make good DVDs and with any interest in black and white TV. Rhino gets what TV execs don't: we really aren't watching their highly- rated new shows. We really don't care about the Nielsen ratings. Many of us don't have cable, and we really are buying these retro DVDs. And we do want deluxe packaging and well-done transfers. Thanks to Rhino for preserving TV history. They even have the pilot, which got this show off to a good start. However, it immediately sinks to same old sitcom fare, only slowly beginning to develop the show from the characters, and only later hit its stride. But this was arguably the first fantasy sitcom (Unless you count Topper), preceding Jeanie and Bewitched. Like so much of the memorable TV of the time, it was filmed at Desilu Studios, produced by Sheldon Leonard and bankrolled by Danny Thomas and Andy Griffith.
Sitcoms then were not the anything for a laugh shows they later became, and the shows writers ponder profound questions and dabble in drama. Tim and his alien uncle wrestle with the problems of the day, offer the occasional insight, and rebound with unsinkable optimism. Pamela Britton is outstanding as supporting actress, with far better chemistry than the "crackpot neighbor" foils for Bewitched. Early on Bill Bixby and Ray Walston are both stiff and awkward, and we are very much aware that they are acting, but as they settle into their roles, an easy camaraderie develops. Everywhere abounding with joy and good humor, this buoyant show echoes the underlying theme of early '60s sitcoms, in the title of an earlier show by Fulton Sheen, that "life is worth living."
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