Norman Lear Collection, The (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

"One Day at a Time" (1975) had another catchy theme song and it struck a chord with audiences as divorce was becoming more widespread and more widely accepted. As I wrote in my Season 1 review, it's easy to tell that "One Day at a Time" was the brainchild of Norman Lear, because it bears all of Lear's trademarks: the staged theatricality, the long pauses and lingering reaction shots following a joke, the formula for family dysfunction that includes insults and shouting, and the blending of standard sitcom gags with a melodramatic treatment of social issues. It starred Bonnie Franklin as Ms. Ann Romano, a newly divorced woman trying to raise two daughters on her own: Julie (Mackenzie Phillips) and Barbara (Valerie Bertinelli). Intruding (and eventually helping) is the building super, Schneider (Pat Harrington, Jr.), who thinks he's God's gift to women. This is a women's issues show, with women's lib at the forefront and gender issues forming the core of most plots--whether it's unequal pay for women, clichés about hot-to-trot divorcees, an ex-husband's new young girlfriend, or dating double standards. Richard Masur plays Ann's divorce lawyer and romantic interest. For the most part, the show still holds up. Rating: 7 out of 10.

"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" (1976)
If you like soap operas, then you'll enjoy this subtle satire. But if you're looking for "Soap"-sized laughs, they're just not here. Lear plays this so tongue-in-cheek that there are times when it feels serious. Though the show drew quite a cult following, as I wrote in my Season 1 review, the plots aren't nearly as complex as the typical soaper, and the pacing is dreadfully slow. Soap opera plot conventions include bedhopping, evil twins, amnesia, incest, back-stabbing, auto accidents, romantic triangles, and such, and it's easy to imagine an outrageous parody. You just don't get it here, from Lear. It's not outrageous enough to be true parody, and it's too tongue-in-cheek to be a straight soap opera. It stars Louise Lasser as the title character, the ultimate naïve who's a housewife cliché, more worried about "waxy yellow buildup" on her kitchen floor than a local murderer at large or her disintegrating marriage to Tom (Greg Mullavey). Look for country legend Conway Twitty and a bus full of nuns to add to the ups and downs of this show. Rating: 5 out of 10.

I'm personally not a fan of box sets, because they're designed for people who are buying gifts for collectors rather than the collectors themselves. Which is to say, they're designed so that they look and feel substantial. But at least the cumbersome box (7 3/4 x 12 x 2 1/2 ") that opens like a pair of French doors houses eight regular-sized cardboard DVD cases that can be taken out of the big box and stored on shelves (while the keepsake container is put on a closet or attic shelf). That's the good news. The bad news is that this eco-friendly packaging is all cardboard, and that means the discs just slide into cardboard sleeves. I personally don't trust this system, because repeat play just means more chances to scratch the surface of the discs. The set is priced at $159.95, and if you bought them all individually you could get them at amazon.com for around $19.45 cheaper. So what's the incentive to buy this set, aside from the admittedly attractive box, which opens to a full-color picture of Lear?

The bonus features . . . which are phenomenal. The 19 DVD set features more than six hours of bonus features plus some rare pilots. And right now, this set is the only way that diehard "All in the Family" fans can see the first two ABC pilots, "And Justice for All" and "Those Were the Days." Even without other bonus features, that would be enough to tempt real fans. But there are also eleven all-new featurettes in the 20-28 minute range, and they're all very well done.

Video:
The video quality varies considerably, with some shows grainier than others and some showing more fading of colors. All the shows are presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio, and details on each can be found in the review links provided above.

Audio:
The audio is Dolby Digital Mono throughout, and as with the video, it varies considerably, depending on the show. Overall, the audio is decent, but there's some distortion on some shows that haven't weathered as well as others.

Extras:
The best of the bunch are the two "All in the Family" pilots, but "Those Were the Days: The Birth of 'All in the Family'" is typical of the bonus features in this set insomuch as they are well produced, they incorporate both new and older interviews, and there are clips that don't just pad the content, they illustrate the content. Lear is present in every bonus feature, along with surviving members of the cast. Another featurette, "The TV Revolution Begins: 'All in the Family' is On the Air," tells the story of how the show came together and what ABC ultimately missed out on.

"Sanford and Son" has Lear talking about the show and how he cast Fox and Wilson. Unfortunately, Lear is the only survivor.

There are two features on "Maude," each including Bea Arthur. "And then there's Maude: Television's First Feminist" has Arthur, Barbeau, and Rue McClanahan reflecting on the series. Barbeau, for example, says that at the time she didn't realize the significance of the show. In "Everything but Hemorrhoids: Maude Speaks to America," Arthur and Lear recall working together and the range of topics they covered.

Jimmie Walker makes an appearance with Lear on "Ain't We Lucky We Got 'Em: Good Times," which is similar to the other featurettes in the scope and substance, with the discussion centering on the impact the show had on black audiences.

Lear turns up alone again on a featurette recalling the birth and adolescence of "The Jeffersons," and he's joined by Bonnie Franklin and Mackenzie Phillips for "This Is It: The Story of 'One Day at a Time.'"

Completing the bonus features are two whole episodes of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" ("The Breakdown," Pts. 1 &2) and two featurettes. Lear is joined by Louise Lasser and Mary Kay Place on "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: Inside the Funhouse Mirror," which covers the usual ground for a making-of extra. And in "The Breakdown," Lear talks about how "the best single performance by an individual in the history of television in my mind" is Lasser's performance in "The Breakdown."

Bottom Line:
This is a handsome set. Plus, it contains two never-released ABC pilots for "All in the Family." When you see all the first seasons of these shows packaged in a single bundle and with six-plus hours of bonus features, you get the full impact of the ways in which Lear almost single-handedly changed television comedy in the Seventies.

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---