Were pleased to say the Complete Collection is gathering some great reviews on Amazon but as ever there is the odd naysayer. One chap has given it 2 stars because his copy according to him has synch problems on New Recruits, Empty Store and The Horse. He has emailed me to say he may have a faulty disc and is returning the set to Amazon for a replacement. Which begs the question why leave such a damaging review before the issue has been resolved? Im watching these episodes now and they play just fine. If anyone has any issues please contact Mick or myself before leaving any comments on Amazon. We thank you! :) And to redress the balance heres a great, balanced 5 star review and yes we would all love a 4k Blu Ray release too! If youve any interest in comedy you need this set. Bilko is the granddaddy of American television comedy and set the template which has been followed ever since. Youve heard the superlatives before - theyre all true. The series itself is 5 stars and then some. Get this. Thats the show itself out of the way. Now to look at the set itself as a product. All four seasons are included in seperate cases, five discs per case. An episode list with guest stars and brief synopses is included on the reverse of each sleeve. The text is obscured by the discs so the sleeves need to be removed for this info to be read which is a little annoying. A nicely illustrated booklet is included in the season one case with a history of the show and biographies of Silvers and Nat Hiken. Id have liked the episode list to be included in this booklet as well to solve the problem with the sleeves. The menus are nicely designed, simply laid out by episode. Extras are thoughfully also directly accessible from the main menu. An option for subtitles is also included. Unfortunately the planned play all feature was vetoed by CBS; its not really an issue as this isnt a show to be left running, half-watched while doing something else. I wont detail the extras as others have done so; most of the major items from previous releases seem to be included, plus some new material (the BBC documentary Bilko on Parade is of note). Now to look at the already contentious issue of the quality of the episodes themselves. Disagreements are already evident in other reviews and their comments about whether these are better or worse than the episodes previously released on DVD (the anniversary set and the standalone season one). Ive been running a side-by-side comparison of the S1 episode The Horse for reference, although Ive watched about a dozen from different seasons so far. What immediately struck me with this new set is that the episodes are conversions from NTSC film transfers and not transfered from film to PAL. As the episodes were supplied by CBS to Mediumrare this isnt really surprising. However, those of us used to having watched Bilko on the BBC may find this disappointing (they transmitted directly from film until the late eighties, then from VT transfers of those film prints; as a result the quality was generally very good indeed). The NTSC transfer here results in the rather soft and unstable image which is a signature of the NTSC standard, lacking the finer detail evident on the Season One release. It can be most easily seen in the title sequence, where the flat grey of the background shifts constantly in tone. On the other hand...the actual quality of the originating prints is much better (or at least the transfers have been cleaned up at some point). The 2010 Season One release prints are very dirty and quite scratchy, clearly not well looked after. Theres also heavy grain which some have complained about (a matter of taste I think, but it does seem to be heavier than one would expect). So picture-wise this is a swings-and-roundabouts situation; nice clean prints unfortunately mastered in an inferior broadcast standard. In an ideal world this series would have received the same love and attention from CBS that The Twilight Zone did; beautifully restored prints transferred in high definition and released on blu-ray; they almost look like they were made yesterday. Unfortunately CBS have never valued this wonderful series; the mere fact that they could have released a set like this themselves at any time since DVD arrived (about 14 years ago) and declined to do so speaks volumes. I was tempted to give four stars to take the quality issue into account but in my heart I couldnt give this wonderful series anything less than the full five. Whatever your view of the picture quality (and despite my criticisms many wont notice a problem) this is the complete Bilko and for that we must be immensely grateful to the British Phil Silvers Appreciation Society for lobbying for this for so long. Time to start the campaign for a 4k blu-ray release.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 13:28:28 +0000
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