Customer Reviews

Tales of the City (Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

To begin, I give Tales of the City itself five stars. I would give it ten if I could. I get sentimental every time I catch it on TV, loved it on PBS ten years ago and just as much now.

My problem is with this DVD Collector's edition. It states very clearly on the box that this is the original, unrated, unedited version. Which is why I buy it, take it home and wait for one of my favourite scenes. Finally Brian picks up Connie Bradshaw at the Laundromat and I'm waiting for that wonderful post-coital confrontation. And I realise that the dialogue has been DUBBED OVER. Over the course of the next three hundred minutes I agonise over the several other scenes that have been cleaned up.

This boxed set is beautiful. It has some wonderful extras including rehearsals and commentaries, but the dialogue has been tampered with and yes it does absolutely detract from the story

I've been waiting for "Tales of the City" to come out on DVD for years.
The first intallment of this series is excellent ****** The actors give such fun, humane and real performances. The entire production is a true gem. However, though the DVD box claims it is the unedited version,
all of the "curse" words are over-dubbed with "clean" words. Unfortunately, this really alters the dialogue is certain scenes.
Being such a fan of the series, I sadly returned my copy, and will

continue to watch it on VHS, unless they put out a truly "unedited" DVD.

Ah, if only I had read these reviews BEFORE spending my money. I concur with the complaints here: the quality of the transfer is horrid, and the dialogue has been dubbed. The box states that this is the "Complete 6-episode unedited version." False advertising.

This DVD is promoted as "unedited." However, it is the same version as originally shown on PBS which WAS edited for language. Those replacement dubs of certain 4-letter words remain in this DVD. (When this original series was shown on Showtime a couple years ago, some scenes were shortened, but the actual 4-letter language was intact.) Why couldn't we have had it all?

When this DVD version came out I was very tempted to buy. As a completist/Anal retentive I crave uniformity until I saw a friend's copy which was inferior to the DVD version in Australia. This mob who managed to mount a convincing DVD cover neglected the content! Please don't be deceived! The transfer is very grainy not artistic grainy but just plain poor quality grainy! If you want to see this on a plasma screen, forget it! it is that bad! I was fortunate to get a hold of the Australasian copy which is far far far superior and a whole lot cheaper than this! I guess all I can say is this is not good enough. If you can get a copy other than this one this title is a DEFINITE must have!

After reading the bad reviews about the new dvds collection I went to buy the UK edtion. It seems that everything is there , the quality is excellent. But of course you must have a multi system to see this Eurpoe version.

The "Tales of the City" series has become dear to my heart - probably my favorite movie of all time. The characters are one's that you'll love, from Mona's search for her purpose in life, to Mouse's quest for love, to Mary Ann's innocent take on things. Especially wonderful is Olympia Dukakis as Anna Madrigal. Her devotion to the Tales movies is commendable and her performance is outstanding. All in all, this is a great story about life in San Francisco in the 70s, from gay to straight, hippies to suits, poor to weathly. The plot keeps you craving for more. Also, I have yet to meet anyone who has seen this and not liked it. And to top it, the books are even better. Enjoy!

The quality is truly the worst transfer I've ever seen. I at LEAST expected broadcast quality, but this looks like someone played their VHS copy, pointed a digital camcorder at the TV, and then transferred it to DVD. Awful. Some of the scenes even shake! Also, the dubbed swear words are so insulting to mature viewers. This is DEFINITELY not the original, unedited version. My old VHS copies are better and will continue to be viewed until a truly quality version comes out on DVD. If ever...

This is the most feel good series on DVD, it is the closest thing to comfort food for your mind and heart. After seeing the first VHS tape of this series, I went out and bought all six of the Tales books. They were good reading when I went out to sea onboard USS Kitty Hawk. I even got other sailors to read them. Of course life at sea can be so boring you'd read the label on a bottle of GP cleaner. I finally saw the whole series when we returned from cruise. I got hold of a fourth generation copy of the series on VHS, since it was out of print at the time. I watched them on my duty day onboard the ship. By the last tape we had quite a crowd watching. It will be nice to finally see a quality copy of the series. I already own More and Further Tales on DVD. I would recommend this and the other series to anyone, although I feel the cast in this series was the best.

Don't get me wrong: it's great to finally have this series available on DVD with some great extras thrown. But as a previous reviewer mentioned, the video quality is subpar -- very contrasy and the whites are too bright. Wish they could have done a better transfer than this.

As for the content: if you've seen this series on PBS or Showtime or read the book, you know what a great story and set of characters we have here. I used to live in San Francisco, and Armistead Maupin really captured the City and character types so well. It actually makes me kind of homesick when I watch this series -- it's that good. The cast is outstanding all around, but Laura Linney really anchors this series. It's no suprise that she went on to do bigger projects.