Mill Creek Game Show DVD Wave (All-Star Family Feud + Best Of Match Game (1973), Password & Price Is Right + Game Show Moments Gone Bananas!)

 

Picture: C (C+: Match)     Sound: C     Extras: D (B: Match)    Episodes:

 

All-Star Family Feud with Richard Dawson B

Best Of Match Game with Gene Rayburn B+

Best Of Password with Allen Ludden B-

Best Of Price Is Right with Bob Barker B

Game Show Moments Gone Bananas! B-

 

 

Game Shows continue to be some of the most underrated programming and the would-be talent contests are not the same thing by any means.  Before they folded, BCI Eclipse issued five box sets of classic TV game series and did a nice job on them, four of which we reviewed.  Now, Mill Creek Entertainment has picked them up and they are definitely worth having in print again.  If you missed them, four are great episodes from the following hits:

 

 

All-Star Family Feud with Richard Dawson

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6698/All+Star+Family+Feud+(Richard+Daws

 

Best Of Match Game with Gene Rayburn

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5382/The+Best+Of+Match+Game

 

Best Of Password with Allen Ludden

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7913/The+Best+Of+Password

 

Best Of Price Is Right with Bob Barker

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6895/The+Best+Of+The+Price+Is+Right

 

 

Password sounds more compressed and Price Is Right does not look as good, but otherwise, all remarkably playback as well as the original releases.  Unfortunately, the Password set is two episodes shorter than the original BCI release, which allowed Mill Creek to press one less DVD.  For the record, the case says there are 30 episodes when there are 31, but the BCI Eclipse edition has 32, so the episode missing here is Barbara Bain/Brian Keith and one in which Bain plugs Mission: Impossible.  It is an odd omission, but that is the way it is, though it is a really good episode.

 

The one we actually missed covering in its original release was Game Show Moments Gone Bananas!, a entertaining compilation series that we could technically call a mini-series, but the five episodes are padded with new segments hosted by Ben Stein that pale as compared to the hilarious footage from the greatest games shows ever made.  It is also the only footage of dozens of classics never on DVD otherwise and not on TV enough, including The Game Show Network, which has promos at the beginning of some of these sets.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image in all five cases is pretty good for the age of the footage, though again Price Is Right suffers as noted above a bit.  However, except for some early shows that survive in kinescope and 16mm film form, all this footage is analog professional NTSC video (save some PAL video from overseas shows) and is usually good.  Color is decent throughout the sets and these are no bad transfers, but a few cases have footage that could be better.  The New Ben Stein footage is the best by default, but not that much better.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is monophonic in almost all cases, while the Stein footage is simple stereo.

 

There are no extras on any of the sets and none have the booklets some of them came with their BCI editions.  Match Game retains its on-DVD extras noted in the previous review.  If you like Game Shows, you’ll want to strongly consider these sets.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo