The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Fourth Season
by George Tyne, Jay Sandrich, Jerry Belson, Jerry London, John C. Chulay
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Edward Asner, Gavin MacLeod, Mary Tyler Moore, Ted Knight, Valerie HarperDirector: George Tyne, Jay Sandrich, Jerry Belson, Jerry London, John C. Chulay
Brand: Fox
Writer: Allan Burns
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 613 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-20
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Fourth Season
Movie Review: Mary, Walter Cronkite, Sue Ann's Debut, And Some Fast-Disappearing "Veal Prince Orloff"! It's A Downright Superb MTM Year!
Summary: 5 Stars
20th Century Fox really picked up the pace of releasing "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in season-by-season sets on DVD, with Season #4 arriving in a great-looking 3-Disc boxed collection on June 20th, 2006 (only five months after the third-year set came out, which is also a first-rate aggregation of MTM programs).
The fourth season (which was first telecast on CBS-TV in 1973-1974) contains such TMTMS gems as "The Lars Affair", "Lou's First Date", "Best Of Enemies", and "Rhoda's Sister Gets Married", plus two of my all-time faves -- "The Dinner Party" (the famous "Veal Prince Orloff" episode with Henry Winkler putting in a funny cameo -- "Could somebody pass the salt?") and "Ted Baxter Meets Walter Cronkite".
This 4th year of the series is one of my very favorite seasons. In addition to the previously-mentioned episodes, there's also the very funny "Happy Birthday, Lou!", which showcases another of Mary Richards' not-too-successful parties. Mary arranges a surprise birthday party for Lou Grant, but Lou detests such things. And, naturally, some humorous scenes follow in wake of this development. "So what do you say, we bring Rhoda in....you like Rhodaaaaa." ~LOL~
The "Happy Birthday" episode also features the absolutely-hilarious scene which has weatherman Gordy (John Amos) walking in unexpectedly while Lou and his wife are doing a little flirting ("kitchy-kitchy-koo!"). ~Huge LOL!~
There's also "I Was A Single For WJM", another stellar Season-Four effort. The scene from the not-so-swinging singles bar is a howl, as Mary, Lou, and Murray are forced to face the camera and tell of their "singles" experiences at the bar. Their flustered "live" on-the-air reactions are always worth a replay.
And I simply can't forget about another top-drawer episode from this fourth season -- "Better Late...That's A Pun...Than Never" -- which is the "funny obituary" episode with Mary getting suspended from her job at WJM. A classic TMTMS moment arrives when Ted reads one of Mary's "funny" obits on the air. .... "Wee Willie Williams is dead at 110. There were other citizens of Minneapolis who were older, however they happen to be dead." .... "What's Wee Willie's mom gonna say?!" :)
The video and audio quality for "The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The Complete Fourth Season" is just about on par with the three earlier DVD releases -- which means it's pretty doggone good (IMO). The video is a little "soft" in some scenes, and could probably be honed-in to more razor-sharp clarity at times. But, overall, I like what I see here (both Mary and the video quality). ~grin~
The opening titles for TMTMS were changed again for Season 4. The terrific Sonny Curtis theme song is still intact, but the visuals are different from the previous seasons. For a behind-the-scenes look at how this season's main title sequence was put together and filmed, pick up the Season-Two DVD boxed set of MTM. In that set there's a 21-minute-long bonus documentary called "Moore On Sunday", which takes the viewer behind the cameras as Mary, Valerie Harper, and the MTM Show crew go about the task of filming the fourth-season opening titles on the streets of Minneapolis in May 1973.
That "Moore On Sunday" bonus would have been more appropriately placed in this Season-Four DVD set, but it was put on Season 2 instead. Unfortunately, there are no bonus interviews, documentaries, or commentary tracks to be found within this fourth-year set. But a very nice batch of DVD bonus supplements can be located on each of the first two MTM sets issued by Fox Home Entertainment.
There's a "musical edit" or two sprinkled here and there within this Season-4 set, just like with earlier seasons of MTM on DVD, including a line that was spoken (not sung) by Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod) which has been removed from the episode "The Co-Producers" on the DVD, due to it being a copyrighted line from a song in "The Sound Of Music".
Such trimming and/or changing of music-related material within the MTM shows indicates, quite obviously, that 20th Century Fox either couldn't obtain the rights to the musical material involved, or that the Fox DVD people just flat-out refused to fork over the greenbacks to secure the copyrights for the music. The latter explanation is much more likely to be the case, IMO, given the number of times this has happened within just four individual seasons of TMTMS on DVD, starting with the "White Christmas" edit in Season One.
It's fairly obvious to me that a huge studio like Fox COULD obtain the song rights, if they wanted to....they simply don't/didn't want to do so. So, I guess I'll just have to live with that decision. And I shall.
But, to be perfectly fair regarding this music issue, I've been hearing of late that licensing fees for almost all musical material for home-video products have gone through the roof. Evidently it can cost a studio tens of thousands of dollars to garner all the legal rights to just a single piece of music. So, if this is the case, I guess I can't blame the Fox people too much for not wanting to pay ridiculously-inflated sums of cash for just a few seconds of material. (Are people in the music industry TRULY as greedy as this would seem to indicate? If so, it's kind of a sad thing, IMO.)
However, I'm not about to let those very few minor edits/alterations to this great TV series completely dictate my purchasing decision re. these MTM sets. I'd much rather have the full, unaltered versions of every single episode (natch), but the occasional musical edits and dubs that must be endured are not nearly enough of a detriment to make me want to boycott these DVDs.
The Season-Four DVD packaging is, IMO, the best yet in the Fox series of MTM sets. The very flattering photo of Mary used on the front cover is just perfect.
The physical structure of this 3-Disc set is identical to the Season-Two and Season-Three MTM releases, with three slim plastic cases resting inside a reasonably-thick outer cardboard carton. Each slim case holds one single-sided disc, with exactly eight episodes presented on each DVD.
Program information is located on the back of each of the plastic cases. This info includes episode titles, brief show descriptions, writing and directing credits, and original airdates. Episode running times average about 25.5 minutes per show.
The back of the outer slipcase contains three photos, including a great-looking group shot of the WJM-TV gang (plus Georgette too), although Rhoda has been left out of this cast grouping, which is too bad.
The slipcase also contains the usual specifications grid and general notations about the series. But they've made an error in the specs grid with respect to the years Season 4 was first aired -- the box says "1972-73". That's incorrect. It should read 1973-74.
The slim cases are black in color, instead of the transparent clear type. I, myself, have replaced the black ones with clear cases. I prefer the clear ones. Black just seems a little too depressing for a show all about perky MTM. :)
Other Assorted DVD Particulars:
The audio sounds fine by way of the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtracks employed here (in English only). Video for these 24 color episodes is presented in its intended Full-Screen TV shape (1.33:1). Subtitles are available in both English and Spanish. And a "Play All" is accessible from the Main Menu on each disc.
The DVD Menus for Season Four are quiet, non-animated, and user-friendly. But the cartoon-like photos used on a few of the Menu screens take a bit of getting used to. They're okay I guess, but a little strange-looking (featuring a combination of real-life photographs mixed with drawn-in animation).
The Main Menu on each disc serves as the Episode Selection Menu as well. And, like all the earlier MTM seasons, each episode gets its own Sub-Menu, from where the viewer can select "Play Episode", "Scene Selection", or "Language Selection". The episodes are broken into a very generous total of 10 chapters each (which are divided up into three separate screens within the Scene Index Sub-Menu).
To Sum It Up:
Season #4 of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is without doubt a great year for this Emmy-winning TV program. The number of truly "Five Star" episodes located within this boxed set is quite impressive, in my own opinion.
The cast, the writing, the style, the warmth, the friendships, Ted Baxter's hilarious ego, and Mary's great one-room apartment all play a part in making each episode of TMTMS what it was in the 1970s, and what it still is today (thanks to DVD collections like this one) -- 25 minutes of fun and laughter, spent with people who deserve to be cared about. And, by me, they are. :)
Summary of The Mary Tyler Moore Show - The Complete Fourth Season
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