Typical 1970's TV Production
596003
Yes Captain Picard is in this DVD!
However Patrick Stewart's role is not as eminent as some other actors from the British stage and screen who are featured in this series. Stewart plays Lenin and portrays the communist leader convincingly.
The story is about the three emperors from Germany, Austria-Hungry and Russia (Wilhelm II, Franz Joseph and Nicholas II) before and after the outbreak of World War I.
Being a history buff I've already read books about those three men. But if you haven't and enjoy British-style documentaries, then you might enjoy this.
However I must note the best movie I've seen on the last Tsar of Russia was "Nicholas and Alexandra."
4012615
If your a fan of Dean and Jerry or  of early televsion you'll overlook the rather dated vaudville entertainment and grainy kinescope quality and enjoy this. You get to glimpse what Dean and Jerry's stage act was like and what live TV was like in these early post-war years.
592687
Picture quality is not very good on some of the earlier DVD's, but this is understandable from a TV series filmed 40 years ago.
4256672
it was better seeing it on TV in 1971, it was fun to watch back then. Not every thing holds up.
1094443
I used to watch these when I was a kid. I don't even remember seeing the first season, so this was all new to me. I do get much more out of these now than I did back then. I remember some of the episodes from the second season, and watched some of these from a distant TV station when they were blacked out or pre-empted from our local CBS affiliate. This was the summer of a peak in sunspot activity, and one of my hobbies was to experiment with TV reception. I was able to pull a station in from North Platte, NE to here in Northern CA and actually got the week's episode a couple hours earlier that the airtime would have been here.  This was one episode I remembered where Mannix was up in a helicopter and spotted a man and woman struggling on a balcony, and no one believed him.
Picture quality and sound on these is first rate. The remastering makes these look pretty close to BluRay. The sound sometimes seems as if it were done in stereo, possibly they had a stereo track that was on the master that was not used in the days of the original airing.
I cancelled my DirecTV service, and for the price of a month of "expanded basic" I can enjoy the complete series of Mannix over and over as I please.
If you're sick of the low quality of the new shows, you owe it to yourself to own this!
1642597
Interesting. About right for me, being 10 to 15 years behind pop culture. I was not aware of this show when it was on TV. It's not believable that so many would work through24 hours and be effective but TV drama always exploits the time elements.
2677362
As good as I remembered!  A very nice trip down memory lane and a decent price as well!  Sure wish a lot of other one-season wonders from the 1970's would get a release like this!
2922685
This DVD set is typical fare put out by Paul Brownstein productions, classic variety shows hacked up within an inch of their life. The excuse will be "Too expensive to get all the music rights" but the real reason is cheapness exhibited by this company on all it's releases (Time-Life is simply the distributor of the set, not the producer). R2 entertainment, who is responsible for the Tony Orlando And Dawn and Captain And Tennille sets would have been a much better choice to produce this set. Episodes are shockingly incomplete, totally missing all performances by the Hollies, Joey Heatherton, Claudine Longet, and several others. Picture quality is passable to good, but not "Pristine" as one reviewer put it. This show was shot on videotape, so do not expect the stunning video clarity that exists on all of the live-action shows from the ITC library that were shot on film, such as The Persuaders, UFO, and Space:1999. Audio dropouts exist here and there, most notably in the final 10 seconds of "Help Yourself". Other video anomalies, especially in the opening 5 minutes of the Glen Campbell/Janis Joplin eppy nearly marr the viewing experience. The episode with The Who in black and white is a dissapointment, especially when state of the art colorization is available (Al'a season 1 I Dream Of Jeannie, colorization is light years ahead of what it used to be) or they could have simply chosen another episode. This set seems quite heavy on musical guests from the soul genre and late 60's "Drug culture" rock such as Janis Joplin, The Who, Joe Cocker. Replacing the Black and White Who episode with perhaps a Dusty Springfield or Mama Cass episode might have broadened this sets' appeal and made it all in color. Some real highlights are Mary Hopkins' "Those Were The Days", and the Moody Blues "Ride My See-Saw", where for some unknown reason, only shows Justin Hayward's and John Lodge's faces for about 10 seconds, but the camera seems to spend half of the song focused in on the crotch of Graeme Edge and Justin Hayward's hands. The Janis Joplin performance is quite electric and stunning to watch, and great performances from Aretha Franklin as well. Lots of gems..... but unfortuantely marred by poor execution, so take what's good about it and hope they give us more next time, that's all we can do.
1941302
I just started watching this show on tv in the past year, so I apologize if I am trampling on anyone's warm and fuzzy memories from the 70's, (I was a child in the 70's myself) but if not for Lynda Carter's excellent performances, this show would have fizzled out long before it did. My problem with this show is that some of the plots are very weak and hokey, the sound effects are awful, (such as when she jumps) and as for the special effects: I think they did a better job on the Batman show, which was done a decade earlier.

Now that I've said all that, and infuriated the hardcore WW fans, I will say that I enjoyed the first season set in WWII, and again, Lynda Carter is great in the role. She always looks sincere, and looks like she's giving it her all, even when burdened by a ridiculous plot and awful effects. I wanted to give this series 3 stars, but just because of Lynda I put another star on there to make it 4 stars. If you are a devoted fan of the Wonder Woman character, or you have warm memories of watching this in the 70's, this dvd set is well worth picking up.
1064972
The production could have been better and smoother like the PBS shows. Still a good memory,,,
2383070
Its weird seeing classic TV stars like Gavin Mcleod and Ed Asner in bit parts on this old TV show. This was in syndication and played late when I was younger so I never had the opportunity to see all the episodes. Have only had it for one day and I've finished Season One/Disc One already.
The episodes are not going to be that much fun for a new viewer. They're rather silly in many ways. But if you are a fan you will find them all here and isn't that the whole point of DVDs? For the fans.
1491165
This is late 70's Who. Personally, I prefer mid 70's which has more dramatic action, with greater stories. However, I do enjoy some of the silliness of the late 70's, particularly the Doctor's humor. I saw some good comical scenes in the first story of this set, and also the second story. The "Stones of Blood" wasn't too comical, but good, cause it reminded me of the mid-70's horror era. The 4th story wasn't my favorate of the set, but OK, and I havn't watched the last 2 stories yet. If you like cheap scifi with not a bunch of action, but has a little humor thrown in here and there, this is a good set. Let me also mention that this season is 6 stories which come together as 1 story, which I think is neat. I wish there were more special features though. And for pic and sound quality, they could have done a better job restoring this set, but I'm not picky so it didn't bother me. Beware that the UK just released this season in a better restored set with more special features. It may one day hit the states, so you may want to wait, but beware that the price for that may be much higher (I don't know). This set here though is a great deal considering how much it cost to buy these stories separate
1918183
This is a nice box set with 3 animated movies for TV made in the late 1970-s by Hanna Barbera studios. The 3 titles are Black Beauty, Gulliver's Travels, and The Last of the Mohicans. They run about 47 minutes each without the commercials. Each movie comes in it own DVD case, and the 3 are in a slipcover cardboard case. Black Beauty is a classic story, the tale of a horse in England who has many negative experiences before finding love in a new owner. The script moves along pretty well, the animation is standard fare for TV.
Gullivers Travels, not to be confused with the older musical Fleisher Studios version, is the well known tale of a man that is shipwrecked on an island, only to find himself prisoner of a race of tiny people called Lilliputions. Good voice acting in this one, decent animation and character design.
The Last of the Mohicans. In frontier America, a half Indian scout heads up a group that is relocating the daughters of a British officer in wartime.
The DVDs played well in both of our players at home, no freezing or other issues. The image looked cleaned up or remastered. These films are a great way to introduce kids to the classic books these films are based on.
1993012
I was the writer/producer/director/actor for this video back in the mid 80's, and I was quite surprised to see that it is still available.  It was made on a shoe string budget with what a couple of guys had on hand, a VHS camcorder, and a VCR.  Some of the filming was done in my apartment.  As I remember, the closing credits were done on a Commodore 64 computer, state of the art.  Now a bit dated and some of the facts are a bit off, it has stood the test of time fairly well.  I stil have the original master VHS tape.  Too bad we don't get royalties!
4201601
A TV classic. Of course, a bit dated and predictable. A nostalgia watch.
4957421
This is yet another series we inherited from the British back in the early 70s.  Here it ran all in 1 season while there it took 2 (as usual).  Tony Curtis a self made rich kid from a poor family in Brooklyn, Roger Moore the typical British aristocrat.  Together they team up to tackle cases the law won't or couldn't touch around the globe.  Both sets were originally released by A&E separately (I got them both from Marketplace Sellers for a tad less than the price for this combo deal,) and if the photograph is true, all your are getting is the 2 separate sets for a combined reduced price.  It's not like the previously (some more recent than others) released Megasets of Nero Wolfe, Space 1999, Prisoner, Danger Man/Secret Agent (both original and now the new coming combo of that) or Upstairs Downstairs/Thomas & Sarah set, so my advice get the best deal you can.  If this turns out to be an actual complete megaset rather than just a nice deal for the 2 separate sets in 1 piece of cellophane, I will modify my review. As a program, it's a rare find, as a "deal", watch all 3 listings carefully, VERY CAREFULLY.  UPDATE:  If you really want the full series in 1 set, you can get it from the UK store in a special edition "9 disc set".  Kicker is you will also have to buy a multi region player.  Fortunately several Amazon sellers here in the USA store for great prices (I have 1 en route as I type this).:-)
1475866
Vintage material remembered vaguely from childhood. The picture quality variable, as one would expect, but generally fair to good. The discs do give fairly short measure--four 25min episodes per disc. Most stories carry a moral point with them, and John Payne is surprisingly good, even if at times he tries to emulate James Stewart. The 3disc set seems to offer much better value for money, but this set is not expensive and is enjoyable.