Cars
That Rock with Brian Johnson: Series 2
(2015/Umbrella PAL Import DVD Set)/Chopper
One: The Complete Series
(1974/Sony DVD Set)/The
Graham Kennedy Television Collection
(2017/Umbrella PAL Import 9-DVD Set)
Picture:
C+/C+/C Sound: C+ Extras: C/D/C Main Programs: B-/C+/B+
PLEASE
NOTE:
This Chopper
One
DVD set is now only available online and can be ordered from our
friends at Movie Zyng via the order button atop this review or on top
of our right hand sidebar, while Cars
That Rock
and The
Graham Kennedy Television Collection
Import DVD sets are now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on Blu-ray and DVD players
that can handle the PAL DVD format and can be ordered from the link
below.
Here's
our look at some truly interesting new TV releases...
Cars
That Rock with Brian Johnson: Series 2
(2015) continues the most underrated TV show as Top
Gear
spins out of control and the former trio of hosts of that hit hold it
together in their own new show. I was impressed with Johnson's love
and enthusiasm of automobiles, as we discovered in the debut season
of the show at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13974/Cars+That+Rock:+Series+1+with+Brian+Johnson
This
time, he takes on classic car makes like MG, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo,
McLaren and Land Rover, plus even devotes a show to NASCAR. That may
not fit in the line-up, but it fits because he loves it. Still not
really available in the United States, serious car fans should go out
of their way for this fine DVD set. The only extras once again are
Deleted Scenes and Outtakes and even they are a hoot.
Chopper
One: The Complete Series
(1974) is one of the less-successful series Aaron Spelling and
Leonard Goldberg co-produced before hitting it big and helping make
ABC a #1 Network in the mid-1970s for the first time. At least as
good as later helicopter-based action shows like Airwolf
and the TV version of Blue
Thunder,
Jim McMullan and a pre-Battlestar
Galactica/A-Team
Dirk Benedict fly their police-painted Bell Jet Ranger all over Los
angeles (et al) fighting crime and helping people out. Usually,
McMullan is jumping out of the plane and Benedict is the
super-skilled flyer, a fun schtick aspect of the show.
Originally
shot at the Fox Studios like all the early Spelling/Goldberg
Productions, Columbia Television later bought the company and catalog
(Hart To Hart switched studios during its production as a
result), so Sony has issued this as an online-only burn-to-order DVD
set and you get all 13 episodes on 2 DVDs. How can they fit?
Because this was one of the last primetime action shows to run a
half-hour. In the U.K., action series like The Protectors,
The Adventurer and Jason King had gone that route and
it hurt them in the long run, so as this show ran into the same
problems, the half-hour show became the domain of live-action
Saturday Morning TV shows like Shazam!, Space Academy,
Isis, Jason Of Star Command, Bigfoot & Wildboy
and others.
The
show still has its moments and because time is limited, they have to
get to the point of the action, which does cut away some of the
potential formula. However, I cannot imagine this would have worked
much better longer, so now you can decide for yourself.
There
are unfortunately no extras, though some insight on the show would be
interesting.
The
Graham Kennedy Television Collection
(2017) compiles some great releases we've covered before of the great
Australian TV personality the DVD case rightly calls 'The King Of
Australian Television' having been there early on and giving it a
unique and special identity that makes it as great as its
counterparts around the world. Umbrella's 9-DVD import set includes
the following previously reviewed:
Kennedy's
Coast
To Coast
series + Blankety
Blanks
game show (Australia's Match
Game!)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9004/Graham+Kennedy+Coast+To+Coast+++Graham+Ke
Graham
Kennedy Show
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12220/Burn+Notice:+Season+Six+(2012/Fox+DVDs)/CSI
The
former sets repeat their extras, but besides that, we get documentary
The
Best Of Graham Kennedy: The King Of Television
that will make you want to see more. He was always funny, witty and
a true star. This ultimate set of his work is worth the extra cash
to enjoy as once you start to watch, you might have trouble stopping!
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Cars is an HD shoot
with some older film & video, the 1.33 X 1 on Chopper is
shot on 35mm film and the transfers here look so good, they can
compete with the new HD on Cars, but the 1.33 X 1 on most of
the Graham programs are on old PAL format analog videotape
with some softness and flaws throughout that also include video
noise, video banding, telecine flicker, tape scratching, PAL cross
color, faded color and even tape damage here and there. However, I
do not think these releases could possibly look better than they do
in this format, save if insane money was spent to fix the Graham
materials, some of which are lucky they survived. His Best Of
documentary is also anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 with new footage
in HD, but most of it is still the classic PAL footage, sometimes cut
off to fit the frame.
As
for sound, all releases offer lossy Dolby Digital sound, lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo on Cars which is the only new recording and
has is not bad, but the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on the other
releases are not bad either and are just close enough to compete
sonically. It just makes me wonder why Cars is not in a 5.1
mix.
To
order either of the
Umbrella import DVD sets, go to this link for them and other fine
hard-to-find releases at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo