I saw a promo on TV the other day that said that this Sunday, December 11th, they will be running two colorized episodes of the show, like they did with I Love Lucy last week. The two episodes are That's My Boy?.. and Coast To Coast Big Mouth.
I am not a fan of colorization, but in the case of DVD, I admit I am curious!
The only thing that irritates me is I don't have a dvd and can't record anything.
Sure, it's blasphemous, but if colorization can get it back into primetime (like it has LUCY) then I'll hold my nose and tune in.
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LBJ's mistress on JFK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcXeutDmuRA
I bought the series on Blue Ray earlier this year. They were having a sale and I grabbed it!
shareWatching now.
The only problem I have with it is that they didn't choose "The Alan Brady Show Presents" as one of the episodes to show as it is one of the all-time best TV series Christmas episodes in my opinion. Hopefully if the Dick Van Dyke special goes over well, perhaps we'll see that in the next one.
Criminals:
The stupid ones get arrested,
The smart ones get re-elected.
Given the season, I was hoping for the Christmas episode, too. But Big Mouth was a very popular episode, and Dick Van Dyke has said in several interviews over the years that the laugh at the end of That's My Boy was the longest laugh in the history of the DVD program... so long, in fact, they had to cut it... so I guess I understand the picks they made.
Which brings up my next question: if you could pick 5-10 episodes to be given the colonization treatment, which ones would you pick?
How sad, that you were not born in my time, nor I, in yours.
I got fixated on stupid things when watching tonight. The wood trim beside the front door is brown and nice, but becomes green once it goes over the bedroom doors on the back wall -- yet it's the same trim.
And the bricks were too pale a color, but they did that with LUCY's apartment, too.
LOL!
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I hate the colorization, everything is too mauvey or something. But I agree that seeing it on primetime is a treat.
I told you a million times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes!
Yes, the colorization doesn't quite get things to feel 'normal', but I'm guessing they can only do so much with what they have to work with, and do it with the budget they are given.
But overall, I was impressed with the DVD colorization. It looks far better than poorly done colorized movies from years ago. And it immediately gave it a more contemporary feel.
I thought they did a great job with the colorization. It's not the awful colorization that was done years ago when the process was first invented. It's much more subtle.
But...did anyone notice they cut lines from Coast-to-Coast Bigmouth?! Such a genius episode and wish we had seen it unedited>
What was cut? I didn't notice anything.
How sad, that you were not born in my time, nor I, in yours.
What was cut? I didn't notice anything.
I hope that the cigarette commercials were shown. ("Kent satisfies best.")
Since "Coast to Coast Big Mouth" is my favorite episode, I noticed right away what was edited out.
The opening scene, at the game show, started several minutes in. Laura makes a comment that if Millie were picked, she'd never have the nerve to go onstage (which is exactly what happened). Also, they cut part of Rob's conversation with Richie on the phone.
I love the colorization, and agree with another poster that it gives the show a more contemporary look. I wish CBS would run three unedited episodes by using a two hour block to account for today's increased commercial time.
I caught much of the second episode they aired Sunday. I couldn't resist seeing Laura get Alan to crack up by suggesting he donate his toupees to some "needy bald people." The entire tag scene where Rob brilliantly figures out how Laura and Millie can divide all the prizes Laura won on the game show was omitted.
As for the colorization: Am I the only one who thought the audience scene for the game show had every woman looking like she was colored with the identical crayon? Of course, real people have subtle differences in their basic skin color, whether we're talking about whites, blacks, or others.
My wife and I also wondered about the light blue refrigerator shown in the Petrie house. That doesn't match any fridge I ever remember seeing in real life. I remember the avocado green ones, and copper colored ones, etc., but that light blue didn't seem authentic. Perhaps someone here can help inform me.
I confess I spent most of my time looking at the colors of everything. As this was a new deal, the colorization really was distracting. I suppose most things looked pretty realistic.
I still ask, "Why is this necessary?"
Why don't we just shoot 'em down and be through with it?
I still ask, "Why is this necessary?"
rmontro,
Thanks for your response. I do realize colorizing isn't truly "necessary." I was really trying to succinctly express my feelings about the whole thing. Another way to put it is, "Why bother? Black and white is fine with me."
As to your question: It's been a few years since I saw my DVD of this episode, but I think Laura was supposed to have won 6-8 prizes. She and Millie were in the kitchen arguing over who gets what item. Rob says, "I can solve the problem." Rob asks Millie and Laura some unrelated questions, such as, what is their favorite color, number, holiday, etc. They each give their answers. Then he says, So, Laura gets A, D, E and F, and Millie gets B, C, and G." When they ask, "How did you figure this out from those questions?" Rob wryly replies, "It doesn't matter how I did it. The important thing is I did it."
Obviously, I'm not directly quoting here.
Why don't we just shoot 'em down and be through with it?
I read in an interview with Carl Reiner that they went by a color photo of the kitchen set, and the color was, in fact, blue. If you do a photo search of "'60's kitchen appliances," you'll see a few in blue.
shareIf you do a photo search of "'60's kitchen appliances," you'll see a few in blue.
Yeah. We never had anything like that but I do remember seeing that color in stores. It was a teal sort of business. The only things I've seen recently what are teal, Kitchenaid makes stand mixers of that color.
shareThanks Atlantarama for your response. It's not a bad color for an appliance.
Why don't we just shoot 'em down and be through with it?
It's not a bad color for an appliance
FlushingCaps, thanks for the response to my response. Sounds like Rob was pulling a fast one on them, lol.
Regarding the blue kitchen appliances, that shade of blue was distinctive for the time. I remember there being telephones in that same shade of light blue.
I would be willing to bet that there were about four minutes missing from each episode.
In the early 1960s, a sitcom like this ran about 26 minutes on the average. A half-hour broadcast slot had only about four minutes of commercial time plus station identification.
Currently sitcoms seem to average around 22 minutes in length because of the added commercials and the networks' repetitive promos for upcoming programs. This is why the classic Christmas specials like Rudolph have been cut up to the point where viewing these beloved gems is no longer enjoyable.
The only way to properly watch these classic sitcoms and holiday specials is on DVD.
Some are even less. The Zbigniew Zhang Theory runs 18.5 minutes in prime time.
shareYes! They cut a short scene in the beginning when Laura and Millie are in the studio before getting picked as contestants. Millie says something about not getting her hopes up because they always pick a sexy contestant and then they DO call a sexy woman out of the audience but she doesn't speak English, so they have to pick someone else and that's where they started the show.
Also, when Ritchie calls Rob at the office to tell him that Laura is on TV, their conversation is longer; he tells Rob a joke, something like: "What's yellow and rings? An unlisted banana."
I told you a million times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes!
I watched it tonight but I'm not much of a fan of colorization either. It's like a hand colored photograph - a black and white photo - with translucent color "colored" over it. It's just not the same or even very close to color film. That said, it's interesting and a novelty. I noticed their living room floor didn't appear to have ANY color added to it - like it was just gray which maybe that's what it was. I wonder how much research they do or even can do to duplicate the actual colors in the sets. Something different — which is OK but in my mind's eye I think of the show in black and white - it's unavoidable.
shareAt least a part of the sets (the house) was actually packed away in 1965-66, saved and used on a show ca 2004 called The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited.
The entire program (rather than isolated clips) is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGg3x7oxTds
Right, the carpet in the living room was not tinted, left in the original B/W which looks weird. . They did that to a few other elements, too. Not a fan, at all. Why didn't they just ask DVD, MTM Carl Reiner or Rose Marie for their input? And I think there are actually some color stills/personal home movie in existence.
I told you a million times not to talk to me when I'm doing my lashes!
I enjoyed it! They did a great Job with the color, it was very crisp and clear, although I think the I love Lucy colorization is a a little more vivid and realistic. I hope they do more in color!
shareI've never been a big fan of colorization either. However, I must admit
watching "The Dick Van Dyke Show" in color last evening was quite a treat.
The "colorizers" did the best job "colorizing" that I have ever seen thus far.
Back when Ted Turner started "colorizing" old films, the results were mediocre
at best, and I never liked them.
I remember years ago actress Rose Marie (Sally) said that she wished that "The Dick Van Dyke Show" could have gone on for a couple more years, one reason
being that she wanted to do an episode in color.
Being a child of the 1960's (age 61), I remember a salesman trying to sell my
father on buying a new color television set. He said "you see more in a color
picture than a black-and-white picture." Of course, he was trying to sell us
a color set, somewhat expensive at the time, but I must agree, you DO see more
in a color picture.
Last night, I saw things in the Petrie House Set that I had never noticed
before, and, Laura's clothes were so pretty.
AND, Mary looked even prettier in color!
I also got distracted by seemingly mundane things watching these episodes: The color of the walls, the color of the telephone, and I thought the blue lamp behind Mel was stunning looking.
Normally I would side with the anti-colorization side of the old debate, but I have to admit this was a lot of fun. And it's not like we don't have the old original black and white episodes - they're still there. I say if this introduces people to the classic that is The Dick Van Dyke Show, I'm all in favor of it. It's my favorite sitcom of all time.
I always wonder just how accurate some of the colors are. Are the choices completely arbitrary? Are there ways of looking at black and white pictures and somehow determining what the real color was? Do they go back and look at color pictures of the set and try to go by that? Do they go by people's recollections? Or do they just make up their own colors?
I believe Carl Reiner had some input in the colorization. In an interview, he said that there were a few color pictures of the sets that were used for guides, so they tried to match the original color as much as they could.
shareI thought they did a good job with the colorization. It looked very realistic.
shareI too was wondering how they would get around the commerical times, because the DVD episodes are about 26 minutes and they only allowed an hour for two episodes. Thanks for pointing out what was omitted. I didn't time it, but I figured they cut some stuff out, because there were still too many commercials. Plus, those stupid promos that come on the screen during the shows. That is actually kind of new, they didn't do much of that 20 years ago.
shareThere were pros and cons to the episode.
Con:
Editing. The episodes were cut to within an inch of their lives. That more than anything annoys me about watching classic shows on t.v. Be it Star Trek or The Green Hornet, the show's continuity suffers when lines/scenes are cut. Especially when one is talking about a half hour show.
Pro:
COLOR! Oh the color!
Nothing less than gorgeous! I have not yet gotten around to getting The Dick Van Dyke Show on DVD (still a bit pricey), but I may have to hold off even longer. According to one of the newspaper articles I read concerning the colorized episodes, the company that did the colorization has hopes of being able to apply the process to all of the episodes, presumably to come out with a new DVD set.
And finally, if Laura Petrie was every guys idea of the perfect wife in black and white, that's only increased with seeing her in 'living color'. Va, va, va, voom!
A new DVD set was actually just released. They're individual seasons containing episodes only but are decently priced, to say the least, for what you get.
If you want a slightly older version, Remastered and released in late 2015, this too could be yours for a relatively reasonable "All In One Bite" price. See https://www.amazon.com/Dick-Van-Dyke-Show-Complete/dp/B0007WFY4S for details.
(The extras listed are the very same as those included in the earlier sets released several years ago.)
The only thing that irritates me is I don't have a dvd and can't record anything.