Classic Movies, the original Golden Age TV (and through the 90s), crafting, crochet, nostalgia, took Mr.Rogers too seriously, boybands take up too much of my brain , your biggest fan, a bit too loud most of the time. Canadian. Disabled, homebound before covid with rare diseases. Always trying. Hopefully not failing at the important things.
With Spring popping it's head through the atmosphere more days than not now, I am in the mood for a different kind of film than what I have been hunkered down with all winter. Several days I made my first post of this series about Bells Are Ringing, you can find that post here.
Today, I wanted to talk about Sabrina starring Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, and Humphrey Bogart. Beautifully directed by Billy Wilder, with absolutely luscious gowns by Hubert Givenchy. Audrey Hepburn plays the titular role of Sabrina, a young woman coming of age as the daughter of the chauffer of a wealthy and old monied family. She and her father live above the garage and Sabrina is dreaming of a different life that seems far out of her reach. It doesn't help that she thinks herself in live with the feckless but dashing playboy son at the main house a good deal older than her who has no time for school girls (a good thing I would say!) and likely not time for chauffer's children either based on the models and socialites he seems to date. After a close call with meeting her maker, fortuitously interrupted and which Sabrina tries to unconvincingly explain away, she is off to Paris to study at Le Cordon Bleu to follow her parents into service and be an excellent chef like her late mother was. Like you would expect several years away in Paris and at that age means she comes home a good deal changed. And no longer a school girl by any measure. The feckless playboy of William Holden is still much the same as he was and their paths soon cross. What follows is not wholly unexpected but their are enough turns in the story for it not to be dull and the whole movie has a beautiful touch that really does give it a lighter feel even when it gets slightly heavier in places. Their are moonlit parties, champagne, and gowns I could only dream of twirling in, let alone playing tennis or dashing across a stone drive in!
The casual clothes are none to shabby either though and both the schoolgirl dress and her 50s modern boating outfit are ones I wish I had in my closet! This is another film that feels poppy and fresh but has a ripple of melancholy that arises in moments throughout, that for me make it easier to not only feel deeply for the characters but also find parts of myself in those moments as well making it very easy to connect with the story despite the differences in time and circumstances that are all the characters lives.
If this is a film you haven't yet seen, or one you might be interested in watching again it is a perfect watch as the days get longer, spring rolls into summer and as that hope and nostalgia of June days and nights of years past starts to creep up on you! Have you watched Sabrina before or do you plan to watch it soon? I think I will be watching again before the spring is gone this year it very much hits the spot!
Perry Mason Mysteries is a series of 30 tv movies that aired on CBS between 1985 and 1995. A continuation of the original series (1957-66), Raymond Burr and Barabara Hale returned in leading roles of Perry Mason and Della Street, with the first of the tv movies setting things up for Perry to leave his job as a judge and get back into practising as a criminal defence lawyer. William Hopper had passed on and the detective role was filled by William Katt (Barbara Hale's real life son), playing the son of Perry's trusted detective Paul Drake. Raymond Burr starred in 26 of the 30 tv movies, passing in 1993. In the final 4 mysteries Paul Sorvino and Hal Holbrook take on the iconic role of Perry Mason.
Packaged in a plastic case with a cardboard slip this set contains 15 discs each with 2 ninety five minute movies on it. Released by Paramount and CBS the discs themselves are a plain mat grey and silver. Episode titles are listed on the interior cover as well as the discs. Films are all in their original 4:3 aspect ratio and English subtitles are available on the episodes. This set is very similarly packaged to the other sets released by CBS/Paramount so far this year. (Matlock, Cheers, The Untouchables)
McMillan and Wife is an American tv movie mystery series that ran for forty episodes between 1971 and 1977 Starring Rock Hudson, Susan Saint James, Nancy Walker, and John Schuck. It was part of the NBC Movie Mystery wheel series which also included Columbo and McCloud. The episodes are movie length and often split into 2 parts when the show is aired in syndication.
Rock Hudson stars as the likeable Stuart 'Mac' McMillan, police commissionaire of San Francisco. (Somewhat) newly married to Sally, whom has a great role up until the final series where she was written out (the show just went by McMillan that year). Much like Columbo (or many other tv mysteries from the time) it is set up as a procedural and Mac tends to solve the case by the end of the episode. Although their are tense moments (some episodes more than others) overall the show is pretty lighthearted especially by today's standards. Which isn't in any way said to take away from the show which is well written and thoroughly enjoyable. Susan Saint James' character of Sally is better fleshed out than many of the wives/girlfriends on tv. Her 'personality' and behaviour was consistent episode to episode and didn't seem to change based solely on what the writers needed that week. The show was the better for her being in it and it's a shame they decided to do the last season without her. Their were some great episodes in that final season, and even if they had done it without her it seemed unnecessary and odd to have written her and the baby out the way that they did as it failed to drive the story forward in any significant way and felt more like a hindrance to the stories at hand.
John Schuck plays Mac's right hand man and is the perfect costar and character for Rock to play off both in drama and the comedic moments. The contrast in the energy they bring to the screen makes for always enjoyable scenes that have a lovely frisson to them.
Nancy Walker plays the McMillan's housekeeper. You will recognize her as a wonderful character actress and she had starred with Rock Hudson in numerous movies before this project. They also appeared on several variety shows together over the years. They were real life friends and that chemistry carried over nicely to the screen. The absurdity of the height difference (she was less than 5 foot and he was well over 6) as well as the contrast between the characters they tended to play and it always elevated the comedy, and the drama. As the wayward maid, Mildred is just an absolute delight. Her relationship and conversations with Mrs.McMillan are a delight and she really is the something that elevates the show to something special.
The packaging for the series is nothing too special but is by no means inferior. Housed in a decently thick cardboard box that holds the three cases inside (each holding 2 seasons of the show). One small thing I noticed as soon as I opened the box was that of these three cases the 2 thicker ones were black and the slimmer one is clear plastic- it's a small thing, but if that type of thing will bother you be aware that it might be the case.
The reverse side of the cover has the episode information on it. On the clear case this is easy to read by simply moving a disc, for the black cases you can flip the cover if you want to be able to see the episode info.
The discs are easy to access and take out and as an added bonus they are multi-coloured and easy to read which means it's never to much of a phaff to find the one you want to play. Closed captioning is available on them as well.
If you have this set let me know what you think of it! And if you are a Nancy Walker fan please tell me so I know you are an awesome person with excellent taste! :)
I hope you're having a great week,
All the best,
Annie
Over the first series we see the kids open up and really start to bloom and come to life as Fran manages to walk the line between honouring their mother and helping them move on with their life. As a result of the unconventional ways she goes about this we sometimes see conflict arise with Mr.Sheffield who seems to have never encountered someone with such chutzpah before (slightly unbelievable as he does work in theatre but we go with it). The push and pull relationship between them develops early on and a will they/won’t they element becomes a key element of the show. The chemistry between the two is undeniable but the plot and circumstances surrounding the two makes it something you know isn’t going to happen quickly as there are some excellent roadblocks set up around the two of them.
Mr. Sheffield’s role as a Broadway producer provides excellent chance for gueststars over the course of the series, sweeps week/month was always extra special, and some of whom weren’t often doing tv spots at the time.
The show is easily watched by children (I was young when I first watched) but upon rewatching as a adult there are a lot of jokes and innuendo packed into the episodes that went way over my head at the time (& I couldn’t quite believe when I watched more recently). Definitely layered comedy and something that you can enjoy as a adult while the kids are watching tv. (And I would say enjoy, even if you don’t have kids or just want to watch it on your own). The writing is strong and ahead of it’s time in how it dealt with lgbtq+ portrayals and issues (remember the aids epidemic was ranging when this show started airing), race, religion, and gender issues. They were not being jammed into the episodes willie-nillie but it was a show that lead with love on that front, and took the opportunities presented to reinforce positive stereotypes rather than negative.
I made a video after the passing of Ann Morgan Guilbert last month talking more aboutsome of the ways the show impacted me, if you are interested you can see what I had to say here.
Now onto the packaging... This is a Shout Factory release from 2015 and comes a the complete series and a disc of bonus features. Also included is a nice booklet on glossy, much heavier than usual paper, with extra pictures and the episodes and a brief description of each included.
booklet
As I mentioned in my video, the outer box is the heaviest duty case I have ever seen. This is not going to bend or warp from being picked up or being left on your shelf.
The seasons are packaged in three standard size DVD cases, each case holding 2 seasons. The discs are on front and back cover as well as interior flip trays. They are not stacked, so are easy to find and take out, an ideal situation for preventing damage to discs. The discs have pictures on them and are multi-coloured and easy to see and read. The season and disc number is written in the same spot across all season in bold writing with a high contrast background. The discs of each season have a different colour prominently featured, making it easier still to identify what season is what and where they belong as the disc colours match they case exterior. Making this a vision impaired friendly set on that front. Closed captioning is also provided for all episodes.
discs inside case holding season 1 and 2
As for bonus features this set has an exclusive to the complete set extra disc with new interviews that tell the behind the scenes story of The Nanny and a Making of The Nanny feature. beyond that, select episodes have commentary provided by Fran and others involved with the show.
bonus disc
Overall, this is one of my favourite sets. Shout Factory rarely disappoints but this has to one of my favourites from them so far. If you are wanting to revisit The Nanny or have been thinking about thinking about purchasing this set, I would say there is nothing in the packaging to worry about and the series is still a fun, enjoyable watch all these years later.
What is a show you would like to see a complete set of/ Shout release? I’ve got a few still on my list Coach, Living Single, and Caroline in the City being high on the list. I would love to hear some that you would like to see out soon, so let me know in the comments below.
Be sure to check out my Youtube channel if you haven’t before. I post new videos every Wednesday and often an extra one at the weekend as well. I’d love it if you’d subscribe and it’s definitely where I am most active.
This information is referring to the Here's Lucy complete dvd box set released in 2014 by MPI home video.
Here's Lucy was an American sitcom which ran for 6 seasons between 1968 and 1974 starring Lucille Ball, her real life children: Lucie & Desi Jr, and Gale Gordon. This was Lucy's second sitcom since I Love Lucy ended and followed The Lucy Show (also excellent).
I was a bit disappointed when I opened my box to find 3 of the dvd cases were cracked and/or broken. Although I suspect this was down to shipping issues it is still quite disappointing. Lately I have had numerous items (dvds and books) arrive damaged. It appears that online companies have greatly reduced the protective packaging in recent years at the same time as the post office seems to be treating packages far rougher than previously.Annoying at best.
But anyways, each season of Here's Lucy is packaged in a standard size dvd case with the discs inside on flip holders rather than stacked and are easy to access. On the back of each cover is basic episode information for that season.
The 6 seasons are housed in a cardboard box of very simple and lightweight design that is not going to take much (any) abuse. The packaging could use a bit more work on this one and I think is only worth purchasing as a box set if you plan on buying all the seasons and is cheaper than buying the individuals when totaled together as this set offers nothing special beyond that.
Leave it to Beaver was an American family sitcom which aired for 6 seasons between 1957 and 1963. It starred Hugh Beaumont, Barbara Billingsly, Tony Dow, and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver. Leave it to Beaver has been consistently popular in syndication since going off the air, and it could be argued that it was more popular in the years after it went off the air as it was never a top 30 show during it's original run but was popular and beloved enough in the 80's to see a revival with the original cast and picking up to see where their lives had taken them over 20 years later,
Here I am providing information for the complete box set released by Shout factory in 2010.
Each season is packaged in a standard width dvd case. Discs are on the front and back cover and on flipper holders inside. There is a separate booklet with the episode list and description inside each case.
A slimline case holds the bonus features disc and a board game (on poster style paper). These cases are all contained in a nice box of sturdy and good weight cardboard to hold the cases required for the series.
Overall the packaging and production are excellent (as you can depend on from Shout!) and it is a well loved set set that has seen much use since it's purchase in 2010 but does not show it.
I hope this was helpful and that you are having a great day!
Annie x
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