Impulse February Releases: ODD COUPLE COLLECTION (Movies/"Best of" TV Episodes), BAD NEWS BEARS IN BREAKING TRAINING

[AndyDursin]

ODD COUPLE set is interesting and not crazy expensive for the amount of stuff on it.

RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER is light on extras (that Peter Sellers Appreciation Guy's commentaries are NOT worth it) and I'm surprised they didn't just do a box-set on those. Weird how they seem to be locked up still with another label.

[AndyDursin]

ODD COUPLE COLLECTION Extras

Special Features & Technical Specs:
• 1080p high-definition transfers by Paramount Pictures
• Audio commentary by Charlie Matthau and Chris Lemmon on ‘The Odd Couple’
• Audio commentary by __________ on ‘The Odd Couple II”
• Ten episodes from the 1970-75 Television Series released for the first time in high-definition: ‘The Breakup’, ‘They Use Horseradish, Don’t They?’, ‘Sleepwalker’, ‘The Fat Farm’, ‘Security Arms’, ‘Password’, ‘I Gotta Be Me’, ‘Take My Furniture, Please!’, ‘The Odd Decathlon’ and ‘The Bigger They Are’
• Audio commentary by ‘The Odd Couple Television Series’ executive producer Garry Marshall on ‘They Use Horseradish, Don’t They?”
• Audio introductions by Garry Marshall on ‘The Odd Couple Television Series’ episodes ‘The Breakup’ and ‘They Use Horseradish, Don’t They?”
• ‘The Odd Couple’: In the Beginning – featurette
• ‘The Odd Couple’: Matthau & Lemmon / Lemmon & Matthau – featurette
• Memories from the Set of ‘The Odd Couple’ – featurette
• Inside ‘The Odd Couple’ – featurette
• ‘The Odd Couple’: A Classic – featurette
• Promotional interviews with actors Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Jean Smart, writer Neil Simon and director Howard Deutch for ‘The Odd Couple II’
• Jack Lemmon, America’s Everyman – 1996 documentary
• Walter Matthau, Diamond in the Rough – 1997 documentary
• ‘The Odd Couple Television Series’ Gag Reel with audio introduction by producer Garry Marshall
• Isolated score track for ‘The Odd Couple’ film
• Isolated music and effects audio tracks on ‘The Odd Couple II’ and ‘The Odd Couple Television Series’ episodes
• Theatrical Trailers for ‘The Odd Couple’ and ‘The Odd Couple II’
• Series Promos for ‘The Odd Couple Television Series’
• Photo Galleries for the films and Television Series

[Eric Paddon]

Several of those "Odd Couple" TV episodes listed are ones that suffered grievously from music edits in their DVD release in that when a character would burst into song for a gag they would cut the moment. "I Gotta Be Me" has two moments where "Cocktails For Two" are warbled and cutting them meant losing the punchline of the final tag of the episode! I'll be interested if those episodes are uncut.

[mkaroly]

I go back and forth between A SHOT IN THE DARK and RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER as my favorite Panther film. It is too bad these films aren't among Criterion's film releases as I would love to have (hopefully) better commentaries and archival stuff.

[Paul MacLean]

Aw, when I read "Impulse" I was expecting a release of that Shatner bomb!

[AndyDursin]

I'm still hoping we get that. I mean, there's far less entertaining grade Z fare that's showed up on Blu over the years -- including a recent Arrow box-set of that director's work! You would've thought they would include IMPULSE in there.

[AndyDursin]

Several of those "Odd Couple" TV episodes listed are ones that suffered grievously from music edits in their DVD release in that when a character would burst into song for a gag they would cut the moment. "I Gotta Be Me" has two moments where "Cocktails For Two" are warbled and cutting them meant losing the punchline of the final tag of the episode! I'll be interested if those episodes are uncut.

I received my set today. That episode looks to be uncut and has the full ending where he's singing the song. What are some of the other edits I can look for?

It's a nice package, you get 10 episodes plus the movies. Encoding is good on all of these too.

[Eric Paddon]

LOL, I'd forgotten about this. I just got the regular US Blu-Ray release of the movie (albeit for free). There's no PAL speed pitch on the TV episodes?

[AndyDursin]

No, they're real 1080p HD masters licensed from Paramount.

[Eric Paddon]

Good to know! I just placed an order for it since at least I'll have one ruined episode restored. Looking at the other titles, I don't see any others that stand out in terms of major edits that ruined them on DVD. All first and second season episodes in fact had no music replacement. It's with Seasons 3-5 it got disastrous where nearly a third to half were impacted. Another episode that relied heavily on "Cocktails For Two" was the Season 5 "Strike Up The Band Or Else" with Pernell Roberts when Felix's "Sophisticatos" band is roped into performing a country music gig. That one infuriated me the most because so much comedy was lost.

[AndyDursin]

I didn't check all the episodes but they seem to be all 26 minutes plus or minus a couple of seconds. Imprint did a nice job with this release.

On a side note, I don't understand how Paramount could remix the ODD COUPLE's audio for what certainly sounds like true stereo -- the 5.1 track from this release and the old Blu-Ray is terrific -- and yet the Varese CD that was put out a couple of years ago with that and BAREFOOT IN THE PARK sounds like a vastly inferior, scratchy mono element. I can't believe they were extrapolated from the same source.