Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I picked up this set with great anticipation. I loved these shows as a kid, stayed up for the marathon in the 80's to video tape them off MTV, and eventually got both seasons from Columbia House Home Video. With all the recent technical advances these should have blown me away, like the Beatles Anthology set did. However, it appears Rhino didn't do any restoration at all to these shows, and used the exact tapes they did with the Columbia House videos. While DVD technology does make the pictures clearer, they still have many spots and flaws throughout like copies of films shown on old movie projectors. Even the ending credits on the first episode skip several seconds, like a bad 45. Couldn't they find better copies out there somewhere? Yes, the special features are interesting. But why is the 16mm pilot black and purple? Same thing can be said about the commercials. I've seen better copies of these at the Monkees conventions BEFORE DVD's even existed. Restoration can be done - check out "Strawberry Fields" (or any other video clip) from the Beatles Anthology. That stuff is as old, or older than these shows. Hardly any flaws are on the Beatles Anthology. The sound doesn't blow me away either, especially how the volume fluctuates in "Last Train to Clarksville" in "The Monkees at the Movies". The soundtrack still sounds better to me on the Columbia House videos. They did put the set in an interesting box - probably spent their budget on it, rather than improving the video quality. While visually cute, it's a bad design. It doesn't fit in the shelf with all the rest of your DVD' collection, and, even though the box is large, there's no protection for the DVD's. They slide out and stay in the cardboard holder when you pull out the 'record' cover, or you end up putting fingerprints on them trying to get them out if they do stay inside. The box itself will self-destruct if you aren't careful because the upper lid is larger than the lower. You can't open and close it very often before a corner will split (mine actually came damaged from delivery in the mail). To say I'm very disappointed is an understatement. I hope they get their act together for Season Two (and re-do this one, too). I'm giving it 4 stars since I really do love the shows. If I graded it on quality, it would get 2 stars.