The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet: Best of Ricky & Dave (Shout! Factory DVD Set)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Episodes: B-

 

 

Though it was never as well-written or as real (by comparison) as the likes of Father Knows Best, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet is still a 1950s TV classic, though it looks more than ever like Ozzie was cleverly showing off his family to best commercial effect down to the Kodak Film sponsorship.  A continuation of the couples hit radio show (when Harriet used her maiden name!) that had its share of sponsors; the series is surprisingly uneven any way you cut it.  This new Best of Ricky & Dave DVD set from Shout! Factory proves that.

 

The 24 half-hours here over four DVDs follow a format of the shows, performances by Ricky Nelson cut out as if they were Music Videos and one half-hour of the original radio show.  You can tell that by the time the show was a hit, it was coasting on the boys, especially Ricky who is often presented as a conformist Elvis and always haunted by his sad, premature death.  Still, the shows are lightly amusing, part of an ideal past that was more imagined than real and one whose reputation exceeds the quality of the shows.

 

Unfortunately, the 1.33 X 1 images throughout each episode print are fair at best, poor and soft throughout, identified as 1995 analog transfers via copyright and is more than the last hurrah for these video masters.  Owned by the family estate, they need to go back ASAP and get the film elements cleaned up, then ready for Blu-ray and HDTV because these are not as great as they could look, especially if it was Kodak supplying the black and white film stocks.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono can be compressed and have background noise, but in some places, there is new music and some of the Ricky Nelson moments are dubbed.

 

Extras besides the Music Videos-like clips and single radio shows per disc include a trivia quiz on the fourth and final DVD, which promises a fifth radio show if you answer all the questions correctly, plus a booklet inside the DVD case.  Fans will be happy with the content, but the playback is going to get VHS comparisons.  Hope they do better there next time.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo