Search - Make Room for Daddy on DVD

Great material, mediocre DVD production

walap | MN | 02/09/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First, the good news. This DVD contains ten episodes from the rarely seen first four seasons of the show (two from Season One, three from Season Two, three from Season Three, and two from Season Four). Better yet, most of the episodes are complete and uncut, including the original opening and closing credits, and all original commercials and promos. For fans of the show, this alone makes this a DVD worth owning.

The actual episodes contained are:

Episode 8: "The Sea Captain" 11/17/1953
Episode 49: "The Children's Governess" 2/1/1955
Episode 7: "The Visiting Englishman" 11/10/1953
Episode 82: "Who Can Figure Kids?" 2/21/1956
Episode 99: "The Talented Kid" 11/26/1956
Episode 67: "Danny's Palladium Offer" 10/25/1955
Episode 41: "Margaret Feels Neglected" 12/7/1954
Episode 106: "Danny's Date" 1/14/1957
Episode 86: "Don't Yell At Your Children" 3/20/1956
Episode 52: "Rusty's Haircut" 2/22/1955

Extra: Radio excerpt from "The Bickersons" featuring Danny Thomas.

All the episodes are complete, except for Episode 82, which is a shortened (23 minute) syndicated version (with syndication opening and closing credits), and Episode 8, which is missing the closing credits only.

These episodes include some rare gems, such as a rare glimpse of the Williams' seldom seen dog Laddie (Episode 8), Danny's date with a pre-"Leave It to Beaver" Barbara Billingsley (Episode 106), and early 1950's cigarette and automobile commercials.

Now, for the bad news. With regard to the discrepancy between the label and the contents pointed out by other reviewers, the only difference is that the "Sea Captain" episode is mistakenly identified as the "Danny's Birthday" episode (which would be Episode 90). Both episodes have a birthday theme, but the one on the DVD is actually Episode 8.

The larger discrepancy is due to the picture on the Amazon.com page, which differs from the actual label, showing titles for four episodes not on this DVD at all. (Perhaps we can hope that this artwork was for another 10 episode DVD that St. Clair has yet to release!) So the list in this review is correct; the picture is not.

Other problems with the St. Clair release are:
1. Incorrect artwork. The pictures on the case and DVD label are of Danny's "second family" (with Marjorie Lord and Angela Cartwright), while all the episodes are from the Jean Hagen years (seasons 1-3) or Danny's one year as a widower (season 4).
2. Totally unrelated music in the "episode" menus. I don't know where they got this music, but I don't think it has anything to do with the show.
3. Notation errors. The mislabeling of the "Sea Captain" episode; a description on the package mentioning Hans Conried as Uncle Tonoose (who doesn't appear in any of these episodes); misspelling of "Palladium" on the episode menu; the apparently random order of the episodes; etc.
4. Compression quality. The source material looks clean, but putting 10 episodes on one DVD means they are significantly compressed - still quite acceptable, but starting to show some noticeable mpeg artifacts.

While I find these issues annoying, it is much more important to me that St. Clair apparently put some effort into using, wherever available, complete and uncut source material, rather than the truncated "syndicated" versions (which is all you get in Questar's awful "Season Five" set). So taking off one star for the "packaging" issues mentioned above, I still give this release a four star rating just for making these rarely seen episodes available in their original form at such a reasonable price.
"

Wrong Episodes

Robert L. Bradley | Richmond, VA | 10/24/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I ordered the Make Room for Daddy DVD since the picture of the case showed that it contained some of my favorite episodes, which I haven't seen in over forty years. One of them is Terry Takes Charge. Upon receiving the DVD, I anxiously opened it, and even though the case looked just like the one in the picture, it had totally different episodes, all of which I already have. So I returned it to Amazon with an explanation that they sent me the wrong DVD. So they sent me a replacement copy, which also had the same wrong episodes. I returned it again and was told that they were unable to replace it again. They sent me a refund instead. Why does the picture in Amazon's listing show the episodes I want, but the one that is sent out contains different ones? Otherwise, the case has the exact same picture as the one in Amazon's listing. I was really disappointed."

Outstanding Deal/Great Quality

Daniel A. Falatico Jr. | Rome, New York United States | 01/19/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I totally disagree with the one review that existed of this product. All of the titles on the dvd case were correct, except for one. All of these shows are complete, with original commercials, and are excellent quality. I don't know what anyone could want or expect for $4.98, but to me, to get 10 complete episodes in this condition is a tremendous bargain. I have thousands of classic TV shows on DVD and videotape, and am very pleased to add this set to my collection. It's a great deal!"