NEW!!!!  Click here to visit Warner's Official DVD Website
complete with clips and more fun stuff!!

December 30, 2008

We're not sure how this slipped by us, but thanks to Cousin Kate on the Forums we're now aware that there has been a release of the Seasons 1 and 2 DVD in Region 4 (Australia).  This is wonderful news, as there are a number of Aussie fans who love the series!  Cousin Kate was quite surprised to come across the region 4 DVDs just recently, and it surprised us as well because we had no idea any other region releases had been made!  A bit of searching online indicates that the release was sometime in September.  And not only that, but Amazon.co.uk lists a region 2 version as well out of the Netherlands!  So Cousins, if you know of any other releases in your countries, be sure to let us know so we can pass the word on to our international readers!

March 4, 2008

And the reviews just keep on comin'!

Here's another nice review for the DVD:

Digitally Obsessed review

And one found by smadavid from our Forums:

PopMatters review of the DVD

And another great review found by Cousin John:

Review of the DVD on Mark Leslie's Blog

And let's not forget John's own review on Amazon!

February 26, 2008

And the reviews are in!

Many thanks to Cousin John in the Forums for alerting us to some interesting DVD reviews!  The last one, in particular, is a must read!  Go on with you!

The Cinema Laser DVD review

DVD Talk review by Francis

DVD Talk review by Ian

DVD Verdict review

Edge New England DVD review

Real Movie News DVD review

February 12, 2008

Perfect Strangers DVD ringing up strong sales after one week!

Checking the Bestsellers in Movies & TV list on Amazon.com February 10, 2008, the new Perfect Strangers DVD is listed as #21 on the overall list!  Under TV Series, it's at #18.  Under Television: General it is listed at # 15!  And as for 80's Television, we're #1!!  For some odd reason the DVD isn't showing up in the listings for best selling comedy series or classic TV, but maybe it hasn't been properly categorized to show up in these areas yet (Perfect Strangers isn't even listed in the TV Shows under these categories).  Hopefully sales will continue to be strong in coming weeks and send a message to Warners Home Video that fans want the entire series released on DVD!

February 5, 2008

OUR DVD REVIEW!!!
Was it worth the wait?  Well, course it was, etc.!

Fans have been waiting a long time for Perfect Strangers to be released to the home video market in ANY format!  Amazingly, the show has never been official released by Warners Home Video on videotape or DVD . . . until now.  For the first time, fans can go to their video store (online or off) and buy the first two seasons of the series.  And this is especially important because the show has never really received the recent syndication run it deserves, so it's been a vast desert for PS fans for far too long.

Now with the release of the first and second season on DVD, fans can finally quench their thirst!  For this review we are going to keep firmly in mind that ANY release at this point is nothing short of fantastic.  Considering that many fans have not had an opportunity to even see the show (especially uncut!) since it's original run on ABC, we are grateful to Warners Home Video for finally listening to the wishes of Balki's and Larry's fans and making the first two seasons available to us.

The good news is, this set delivers in that respect big time!  A quick look through all the episodes indicates that they are absolutely uncut and unaltered from the way they were seen during their original broadcasts.  Amazingly enough, none of the songs seem to have been tampered with or removed, which means we can enjoy the Cousins belting out songs as they were meant to be seen!  (On more detailed viewing we will let you know if there have, in fact, been any changes to the episodes, but it doesn't appear so.)

The quality of the episodes is very good, much better than has been seen anywhere in recent years.  While it doesn't seem the film masters were used to make the transfers, the quality is actually pretty close to the original broadcasts (there are some episodes which for some reason just seem more unfocused than others, particular scenes in Hunks Like Us and in A Christmas Story where the original footage was zoomed in at on for dramatic effect at certain moments).  But these versions are certainly clearer than what fans have had to watch for years.  (Already, just zooming through the episodes, we've been able to make some additions to our episode outlines now that the details are so much clearer to us!)

As for the set itself, it's nicely packaged.  The outer sleeve is the same as we've seen since the set was announced.  The back cover (above) is nicely laid out as well.  The only concern we have is the sheep on the spine with the number 1 on it is missing.  We hope this doesn't mean Warners has already made their decision about any subsequent releases!  (Oh, po po!)

The sleeve holds two DVD shells, each containing two discs (seen above).  The title of the episodes, writers and original air dates are listed on the *outsides* (which makes them MUCH easier to read than the DVD sets which include the information *behind* the DVD holders).  The synopses of the episodes are simple enough to be able to find one's favorite episodes.  One big question we anticipate from fans is why some of the episodes are in a different order than listed on this site (and with different air dates?)  Warners Home Video used the original Warner Bros. list which showed the dates which the episodes were originally supposed to air on ABC.  The dates on this website are the actual dates and order which the episodes eventually aired.  (Cousin Pavan of SitcomsOnline.com did some amazing research to back up our information).  We did alert Warners to this before the DVDs were made available but it's likely they didn't have a chance to change anything.  We respect their decision to go with the list they had, but we will keep the dates as they are on our site and maintain they are correct.

Inside both covers the artwork is the same for both, with a lovely photo of Larry and Balki plus the cast list for both seasons.  We were disappointed to see Belita Moreno omitted from the cast list (after all, she is an important part of PS history!).

The discs themselves are really nice, featuring not only Larry and Balki (and how nice to see Larry on disc one!) but Jennifer and Mary Anne on discs three and four!  The choice of green and purple still seems an odd choice for this series, but the artwork overall is fun and light-hearted which makes it actually work very well.

The discs themselves, when played, offer no animated menus or anything fancy.  In a way this is nice . . . animated menus can be fun but sitting through them over and over can get very frustrating upon repeated viewing.  This gets straight to your choices, no muss and no fuss.  And the photo used on the menu is nice.  There also don't seem to be any previews of other Warners products on the discs.  Subtitles are available in English and French and the English subtitles are done very well.  It's nice to see that the theme song is complete on episode one (as originally shown) and that even the different title sequence shown before Hello, Baby is also the same as originally aired.

Overall this is a wonderful set and fans will be very happy, especially those who have not been able to watch the show for many years (if ever before!).  It's so important this series be made available for people to rediscover and appreciate in its truest form.

As for the die-hard fans . . . this really is a bare-bones release.  There is really no information on the cover, sleeves or discs that explains anything about the history of the show or offers any insight into the making of it whatsoever.  It's just the episodes, nothing more.  The lone promised special feature, the Dance of Joy montage, is a total disappointment.  It's essentially just a bunch of clips put together in a hodge-podge manner and with no clear connection.  Many of the clips have *nothing* to do with the Dance of Joy, and nothing is altered, edited or done creatively.  It's pretty much as if someone just put together seven minutes of their favorite jokes with nothing to connect one to the other (adding a little unrelated music to the Dance of Joy for effect).  Long-time fans who were looking forward to something new will not find it here.  With so much material out there to have only this montage is a real shame.

Despite that, rest assured that this set is absolutely worth picking up!  And it whets our appetite for even more releases, which means you should not only get one for yourself but one for all of your friends, family, casual acquaintances, sheep, etc.!  If it's any incentive, we know for a fact that Warners Home Video has a copy of the unaired pilot episode with Louie Anderson!  If we want *any* chance of seeing it, this set has to sell well so there will be a chance of future releases!  The third season includes some of the best episodes of the series and deserves to be released as well!  So go on with you and get buying . . . you won't be disappointed!!

Cousin Pavan's DVD review for SitcomsOnline.com is now up as well!  Check it out!

February 5, 2008

This is the week we've been waiting for!  The release of the first two seasons of Perfect Strangers happens today!  Because we were not able to obtain a preview copy of the set, we will be watching and discovering all it has to offer at the same time you are!  But check back, because sometime this week we will put up our review of the set!  Get out of the city!

Previous News

Hold on to your cats!  Warner Home Video has announced that they will be releasing the first and second seasons of Perfect Strangers on DVD with the release date of February 5, 2008 (moved up one week from the previously announced date of February 12th!)

Fans have been waiting forever for the series to finally get an official release (to date the series has never been released on VHS or DVD and is listed as the eighth most requested unreleased program at TVShowsonDVD.com!)  A previous "best of" disc idea was scrapped by the company a while back, but this release is exactly what fans were yearning for . . . the start of what will hopefully be a season by season release of the entire series.

Combining the first and second seasons makes sense, as the first season was a six-episode replacement series that began airing in March 1986.  According to the WHV press release, this DVD will retail at $29.98 (suggested retail price) and will be comprised of four discs with 20 episodes total and some promised bonus material (including a Dance of Joy montage).

We have learned the disc by disc breakdown of the episodes on this release (as always, this specific lineup is subject to change):

We will be bringing you more information about this exciting release as we receive more information about it.  In the meantime, you can pre-order the set from Amazon.com using the link at the top of this page!  We strongly suggest pre-ordering so we can send a clear message to Warner Home Video that we appreciate their putting the show out for us at last!!  Word has it that pre-sales are already going amazingly well already, so keep up the great work and don't forget to spread the word!!

You can also read the complete press release at TVShowsonDVD.com!