One Day At A Time: The Complete Series
DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:
This DVD set is a long-awaited treasure. One Day at a Time was a popular and long-running show in its time, and then disappeared. After E! stopped showing reruns in the 90s, it was rarely seen until Antenna TV began reruns a couple years ago. In both cases, the episodes were heavily edited to add commercial time. With the reboot on Netflix, it’s about time that people can discover (or re-discover) the original. Only the first season had been released on DVD, and most fans had long since given up. This is a welcome addition to the classic television library,
The originals were shot on videotape, which gave the show the signature Norman Lear “live” feel; the high key lighting and faster frame rate give a sense of immediacy that’s lacking in film (or current “filmized” digital shows). Unfortunately, the trade off is that the source material cannot be made HD, as is possible with many older shows shot on film. There will be some degradation of the SD image when viewed on a modern HD set. Each disc begins with a disclaimer that the episodes were mastered from the “best available sources.” However, the picture quality is lower on these DVDs than on the same episodes when seen broadcast in syndication, lower than on DVDs of other Lear videotaped shows from the era, and of lower quality than the same episodes on the “Season One” DVD release from a decade ago. The later seasons look better because of the improvement of video equipment in the ’80s, but I feel the image quality suffered somewhat a bit across the board in this transfer to DVD, videotape and SD source material aside. Because of this, I am giving the set 4 instead of 5 stars.
-Christopher B
I have waited for ever for the rest of this series to be released on DVD and the day has come. It comes to mind right away while viewing these incredible episodes that when this series was made it was at a time when the quality of TV shows was so very high. The cast, the writing, acting is all top-notch. How I wish that in 2018 that there are still high quality TV shows of this caliber on TV, but in my opinion, that is not the case. It does not hurt that I had a major crush on Valerie Bertinelli in the 70’s when she was on this show, and I am sure millions felt the same way. The sound quality is very good, but I feel that the picture could be better, but another reviewer said that in season 8 the picture improves so I am happy about that. The packaging is also top notch in this set, and it is great to see that “Shout” packaged the series in nice cases. Thank God for DVD sets like this. Fans of this show, please pick this up for yourself or your family and watch a classic Timeless TV show, and share the love, laughs and more from a incredible TV Show, but, now that I think of it. JUst about every show was great back then.
– RDW
I grew up watching One Day At A Time when I was growing up (in Prime Time and when CBS ran it weekday mornings), so when I heard Shout Factory put this out in a box set, I knew I had to get it. I ordered it recently and when I inspected the set, boy was I in for shock and dissatisfaction.
4 of the 5 DVD holders were broken in various places and one of the DVDs in the first holder was loose and scratched up unplayable. I was going to send it back to Amazon for a replacement, but they just couldn’t find my card information. So I wound up sending it back for a refund, which I got right away when the UPS driver scanned the return label.
I was majorly bummed out about what I received, but my story does have a happy ending. My local Walmart store (#1595 in Marysville OH) had 2 of the same box sets for a substantially lower price ($59.96) than what Amazon offered ($72.92). So I picked up one and now I’m a happy camper. It doesn’t have the book that comes with it (season and episode lists), but that’s fine by me. Now I can watch this classic show whenever I want to. The 5 star rating is for the show, itself. If I could rate zero on packaging, I definitely would. The picture I added is the box set I got at Walmart that was totally undamaged.
-Gerald W Brown
DVD Wholesale Main Features:
Actors: Bonnie Franklin, Valerie Bertinelli, Pat Harrington Jr., Mackenzie Phillips
Directors: Alan Rafkin
Format: Box set, Color, Full Screen, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 27
Rated: NR Not Rated
Studio: Shout! Factory
DVD Release Date: December 5, 2017
Run Time: 5130 minutes
ASIN: B075DSLWGF
