Cooper, Hal

I Dream of Jeannie - The Complete Fourth Season

Hold on tight as the fourth captivating season of I DREAM OF JEANNIE takes off! Join Jeannie (Barbara Eden)and her beloved master Major Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman)as they find themselves in some of the most hysterical situations of the series. This season Jeannie s magical and invisible dog from over a thousand years ago returns to terrorize NASA and is later transformed into a porcelain statue mistaken as a priceless ancient artifact from the Ming Dynasty. In a two-part episode Tony is replaced by a look-alike double agent who unwittingly becomes engaged to Jeannie. Jeannie s wicked twin sister returns to take another go at Major Nelson only this time in a crowded night club! The cast of Laugh-In race to cast Jeannie as Princess Armina in a special guest appearance on their show. Dr. Bellows is replaced by a younger and more aggresive psychiatrist who is dead set on exposing Major Nelson's secrets. With 26 hilarious episodes featuring such guest stars as Judy Carne Arte Johnson Gary Owens and Richard Mulligan the complete fourth season is every fan s fourth wish! System Requirements:Run Time: 639 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396212282 Manufacturer No: 21228

I Dream of Jeannie - The Complete Third Season

The fun continues as Jeannie keeps trying to fit in with the normal world and win her master Tony s heart. They work together to turn a chimpanzee into a human she transfers her powers to someone else for a day to prove she can live without her magic she grants Rodger a birthday wish she must train a new genie and much more magical mayhem. Every day with Jeannie is a new exciting escapade!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 043396176522 Manufacturer No: 17652

By its third season, the daffy 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie just got sillier--which is not necessarily a bad thing. Given that the show's premise involves a half-naked woman subservient to an astronaut, we're clearly watching a rampant male fantasy to begin with; it's the goofiness (ably executed by the stars) that gives the show charm instead of smarm. So bring on the evil twin sister, Jeannie 2; the Hawaiian royalty; guest appearances by Don Rickles, Paul Lynde, and Milton Berle; an epic (for a sitcom) four-episode story about Jeannie being trapped in a safe that's about to be sent to the moon; the groovy rock band (in an episode featuring record producer Phil Spector, later to become a gun-toting recluse, as himself)...it's all turned into a delirious soup of 1960s farce by Barbara Eden (who perfected the combination of sexy/ditzy long before Jenna Elfman or Jessica Simpson), Larry Hagman (one of the nicest guys on TV until he became ubervillian JR Ewing on Dallas), Bill Daily (among the greatest second bananas of all time), Hayden Rorke (the perpetually stymied Dr. Bellows), and Emmaline Henry (Mrs. Bellows, a hip and sexy older woman in the decade that launched the idolization of youth). I Dream of Jeannie scrupulously avoided political or social relevance--when Mrs. Bellows thinks that Jeannie is a young woman enslaved by Major Nelson and tries to rescue her, this troubling idea is played for laughs--but that puts the show in an engaging bubble of entertainment, as out-of-synch with its own era as much as with ours. --Bret Fetzer

I Dream Of Jeannie - The Complete Second Season

Get ready for another magical season with adorable Jeannie (Barbara Eden) and her master astronaut Captain Anthony Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) as they return to DVD for I Dream of Jeannie: The Complete Second Season. The fun continues in 31 fantastic episodes where every day is a new adventure. From changing the weather to learning her birthday and battling an evil Blue Djinn there s nothing Jeannie won t do to conquer her Master s heart and prove they re the match made in space! Join an illustrious roster of guest stars including Paul Lynde Groucho Marx Sammy Davis Jr. Dabney Coleman and others in this classic TV favorite. The bottle is uncorked on another season of everyone s favorite genie!System Requirements:Running Time 553 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396147751 Manufacturer No: 14775

Jeannie (Barbara Eden) is even more fetching in color in the second season of one of TV's most charming and endearing fantasies. Jeannie's navel is still not ready for prime time, and her live-in relationship with astronaut Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman), the man who freed her from that bottle, is still strictly platonic. But, like any wife, she is upset when Tony forgets their one-year anniversary in the season opener. And when Tony unwittingly frees the Blue Djinn, who originally imprisoned Jeannie, it looks like he won't survive year two. Naturally, being stuck in a bottle for 2,000 years, the vivacious and playful Jeannie is more innocent and naive than her bewitching counterpart, Samantha Stevens. Her well-intentioned magic complicates Tony's life in such episodes as "My Master, the Rich Tycoon," "My Master, the Rainmaker" and "My Master, the Spy." She transforms Tony into an operatic virtuoso in "My Master, the Great Caruso," landing him in a talent show, and leading to perhaps the most versatile lip-syncing scene since the Stooges sang the sextet from Lucia in Micro-Phonies. Jeannie blinks Tony back into the Old West in "Fastest Gun in the East," on Captain Kidd's ship in "My Master, the Pirate," and back to Napoleon's court in "My Master, Napoleon's Buddy." No wonder that in "There Goes the Best Genie I Ever Had," he considers taking advantage of Hajii Day and sending her back.

Not that there aren't advantages to having a genie around the house. In one episode, she anticipates TiVo by freezing the action on a televised football game while she and Tony go out. In "The Greatest Invention in the World," she fulfills Tony's best friend Roger's (Bill Daily) childhood wish to be the funniest man in the world by turning him into the one and only Groucho Marx. And when Tony is put in charge of providing entertainment for General Peterson's anniversary party, Jeannie summons "The Greatest Entertainer in the World," Sammy Davis Jr. (at his konk-ch-konk best). The season's most captivating story arc begins in the two-parter "The Girl Who Never Had a Birthday," as Tony and Roger resolve to determine Jeannie's birthday (the date is finally revealed in "Caruso"). Through it all, poor base psychiatrist Dr. Bellows (Hayden Rorke) is constantly confounded, Mrs. Kravitz-style, by the unexplained supernatural behavior to which he is witness. I Dream of Jeannie is far from PC, but in the realm of TV's guilty pleasures, it is master of its domain. --Donald Liebenson

Gidget - The Complete Series

Catch a wave with America's favorite southern California beach teen in GIDGET: THE COMPLETE SERIES. Join two-time Academy Award® winner Sally Field as perky 15-year-old Frances Elizabeth Lawrence - better known to her family and friends as Gidget - Don Porter as her ever-loving father Russ and a host of such soon-to-be-famous faces as Richard Dreyfuss Barbara Hershey Bonnie Franklin Harvey Korman and Henry Jaglom for 32 winning episodes of fun-in-the-sun comedy romance and adventure.System Requirements:Run Time: 768 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 043396129252 Manufacturer No: 12925

Gidget launched the career of the ever-perky Sally Field (who decades later still looks like the sweetie-pie beach bunny she played in the mid-'60s series). The show is a valentine to Southern California, surfing, and plucky girl power--in fact, Gidget's self-aware musings and intrepid ways of getting out of trouble lay the groundwork for later TV heroines like Buffy and Veronica Mars. The show's aged surprisingly well, mostly because of the undeniable charms of Field, who seems to take her teenage "horror stories"--as when squeeze Jeff (a.k.a. Moon Doggie) is poised to return to Princeton and suggests they date other people--with a knowing grain of salt. The teen drama is all a bit tongue in cheek, since it's clear nothing will get our Gidget down for long. The dialogue is a real treat, a crazy mix of late film noir ("How old's the underripe tomato?") and pre-Summer of Love hipster California-speak ("Well, look at all the wiggy birds around here!"). The set includes all 32 episodes, with a short interview with Field, who has a lot of affection for her young persona--as do we all, Daddy-o. --A.T. Hurley

All in the Family - The Complete Second Season

Those were the days. Norman Lear's landmark comedy featured one of the most beloved families in television history the Bunkers. Starring Carroll O'Connor as Archie Jean Stapleton as Edith Rob Reiner as Mike "Meathead" Stivic and Sally Struthers as Gloria "All In The Family" remains an Emmy® Award-winning treasure. Watch this ground-breaking first season for yourself and just try to stifle your laughter!Disc One: Episodes 1-4Disc Two: Episodes 5-8Disc Three: Episodes 9-13Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396004054 Manufacturer No: 00405

With a new time slot (8:00 p.m. Saturdays) and three first-season Emmys®, All in the Family was primed for greatness, and these 24 episodes represent the series at its best. Carroll O'Connor leads the perfect cast as blue-collar bigot Archie Bunker, and the standout classic is "Sammy's Visit," in which black, Jewish rat-packer Sammy Davis Jr. visits the Bunker home, where he's hilariously horrified by Archie's prejudicial ignorance. The script was written by comedian Bill ("José Jiminez") Dana, and to borrow Archie's phrase, it's a pip, as Sammy turns Archie's racist remarks on their ear to the delight of young liberals Gloria (Sally Struthers) and husband Mike (Rob Reiner). Sammy's parting kiss on Archie's cheek is one of the series' all-time highlights. Then there's Burt Styler's Emmy-winning script for "Edith's Problem," in which Archie's "Dingbat" wife experiences the mood swings of menopause (another first, along with impotence in "Mike's Problem," in the series' taboo-busting candor). A showcase for Jean Stapleton (who deservedly won her second consecutive Emmy), it also demonstrates (as does "Archie and Edith Alone") the hurtful repercussions of Archie's unintentional cruelty. Edith's Archie-baiting cousin Maude (Bea Arthur) is introduced ("Maude" is a pilot for the character's spin-off sitcom, which premiered in '72), and credit must be given to John Rich, who directed all 24 episodes (winning an Emmy for "Sammy's Visit") with a flawless sense of ensemble chemistry, precision timing, and lasting political relevance. This season earned seven Emmys overall, including awards for O'Connor and Struthers. Given such a wealth of sitcom glory, it's a shame these DVDs are devoid of retrospective features. --Jeff Shannon

The Brady Bunch - The Complete First Season

Because of Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch, writer-producer Sherwood Schwartz will forever be a TV hall-of-famer. They were his only real hits, but they were both grand slams in their prime times and have remained syndicated favorites ever since. Following closely on the Gilligan's Island season 2 release, The Brady Bunch is ready for home theaters with a nicely designed, 4-disc set of 25 first-season episodes. The pilot episode, "The Honeymoon" sets up the story we all know from the theme song (lyrics by Schwartz) by giving us the marriage of Mike and Carol and the coming together of the six kids. Schwartz provides commentary for just this first show, but he fondly recalls his intention of sweet, subdued, and often corny gags the pre-fab family encountered as a precise format each week. Two other episodes include commentary by Barry Williams (Greg), Christopher Knight (Peter), and Susan Olson (Cindy), and their reminiscences are equally affectionate about time on the show and everyone's surprise at its enormous success. Every Brady episode is a classic in some sense, and this first of five seasons (those kids did grow up fast) includes some real charmers when the six Brady kids still seemed impossibly young. It's hard to say the show was ever hip, even though it became slightly more attuned to a pop sensibility as the Bradys moved into the '70s. But man, is this 1969 everyfamily ever square. Even so, it's hard to resist the way each one gets their own screen time with shows devoted to simple childhood joys and traumas--Jan's missing locket, Cindy's missing baby doll, Greg's crush on his math teacher, Peter's swelled head when he gets his picture in the paper, etc.

In a brief bonus featurette we get more innocuously entertaining interview comments from Schwartz, Williams, Olson, Knight, and Mike Lookinland (Bobby). It's interesting that all the subjects make note of how seriously the classically trained (now-deceased) Robert Reed took his role as patriarch, Mike Brady. His reputation as being "difficult" followed the long run of the show, but if Schwartz's first choice had gotten the role it could have been a lot worse. (Schwartz is delighted to reveal the famous name and career path that followed, so the mystery shouldn't be spoiled here.) As it was during its TV run, The Brady Bunch on DVD is clearly meant for a specific generation--yours. --Ted Fry

THE BRADY BUNCH - THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON tells the story of Carol, a single mother of three girls - Marcia, Jan and Cindy and architect Mike Brady, a single father of three boys - Greg, Peter and Bobby who get married and blend the two families into one. Added to the mix are housekeeper Alice and dog Tiger. The Bradys' experience the same obstacles as any family, from adjusting to their new extended family, to sibling rivalry. The comedy series famous for its catchy theme song truly has become a pop culture icon and is still enjoyed by viewers of all ages.

The Brady Bunch - The Complete Second Season

The adventures of a family created when two divorced people with children, marry each other.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: BRADY BUNCH
Title: SEASON 2
Street Release Date: 07/26/2005
Domestic
Genre: TELEVISION

The Brady Bunch never scored high ratings during its five year run, but this friendly family comedy has remained in reruns ever since, while bigger hits have slipped into oblivion. Pretty much everyone who grew up in the 1970s or '80s knows the show inside and out: A vision of suburban family life so utopian it's as fantastical as Neverland or Santa's workshop--and just like these imaginary realms, it casts a spell over every kid who wished all problems could be resolved with a few wise words, a good-natured shrug, or a winsome smile. The Brady Bunch: The Complete Second Season is indistinguishable from every other season, but the reassuring formula is crucial to the show's appeal. Eldest brother Greg (Barry Williams) may decide he's all grown up and wants a groovy bachelor pad, or eldest sister Marcia (Maureen McCormick) may get all riled up about women's lib and decide to join the Frontier Scouts, or super-maid Alice (Ann B. Davis, whose persona is hilariously similar to Ellen DeGeneres) may fantasize about running off with an old flame, but by the end of the show you know everything will return to a zen-like domestic harmony.

It's all pretty bizarre when you realize that both halves of the family have suffered the death of a parent! The most angst to be found is the relentless identity crisis of middle sister Jan (Eve Plumb), who tries to remove her freckles with lemon juice and buys a curly brunette wig to forge a new self-image. Nowadays Jan would be a prime candidate for bulimia, but in the Brady world such psychodrama is unthinkable. This even emotional keel could have been creepy and antiseptic, but due to the charm of the kids and the smooth yet earthy presence of Robert Reed and Florence Henderson as parents Mike and Carol Brady, The Brady Bunch just seemed nice. You wanted that to be your family. If you watched the show in your childhood, watching The Brady Bunch: The Complete Second Season as an adult will lull you into a sweet, blissful dream. --Bret Fetzer

The Brady Bunch - The Complete Fourth Season

The Bradys just keep on movin', keep on groovin', keep on doin' it right. By season four the Brady Bunch crew had got the magical formula down and was churning out one groovy television classic after another. Not only is season four the best of the later seasons, including the memorable performance by the Brady band "The Silver Platters," but the episodes included in this run almost read as a "Brady best-of" list. If there is a hall of fame for three part television episodes, this season's opener would easily be among the top five. The "Bradys Abroad" formula seemed to be so successful after season four's two-part opening trip to the Grand Canyon, the gang was able to pack it up and head to Hawaii. The Hawaii trip has it all; a family trip to the USS Arizona, Greg's Surf contest, a family Luau, the mysterious tiki idol, and guest appearances by b-horror staple Vincent Price and Hawaiian idol Don Ho. After the tropical vacation it's back to school. In order to fit in, Marcia the freshman signs up for every after-school activity on campus including the elitist "Boosters." Greg's love life gets complex when he discovers his girlfriend and sister are both in competition for the coveted head cheerleading spot, and he is the judge! Love strikes Marcia too, who falls in love with her dreamy dentist, only to be crushed by Jan's news that he is married with children. Never one to rest on the rebound, Marcia lands a date with Doug the campus hero only to have her heart ripped out once again when the boys break her nose with an errant flying football. Then there's Peter who has to play Benedict Arnold in the school play and is suddenly on the receiving end of his peers' snide remarks calling him a traitor. And in the classic season finale Greg and Marcia battle it out to see who gets to move out of the kids' bedroom and into their own space in the attic. Corny, yet cool, dated, yet timeless, vanilla as is comes, but still mesmerizing, The Brady Bunch - The Complete Fourth Season is the season that most people will identify as quintessential Brady. --Rob Bracco

Sanford and Son - The First Season

Fred Sanford and his 34-year-old son live together many times lacking in harmony attempting to support themselves as junk dealers. They are surrounded by a cast of characters who help them keep their sense of humor.System Requirements:Starring: Redd Foxx Demond Wilson LaWanda Page Don Bexley Hal Williams Running Time: 364 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396094277 Manufacturer No: 09427

All In the Family: The Complete Third Season

The hilarious landmark comedy series ALL IN THE FAMILY returns for Season Three with its flawless sense of ensemble chemistry precision timing and lasting political relevance intact (and went on to win both the Emmy® and Golden Globe® for Outstanding Comedy Series). By now these characters have come to feel like television's first dysfunctional family: blue-collar conservative Archie (Carroll O'Connor) his long-suffering but loving wife Edith (Jean Stapleton) "little girl" Gloria (Sally Struthers) and her liberal husband "Meathead" Mike (Rob Reiner). Series creator Normal Lear broke nearly every rule and taboo but their foibles produced some of television's biggest laughs. They could also make us cry as with the heartbreaking "Gloria the Victim" or shock us as with "The Bunkers & the Swingers" (1973 Emmy® for Writing in a Comedy Series).System Requirements:Starring: Carroll O'Conner Jean Stapleton Rob Reiner Sally Struthers Running Time: 610 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396047624 Manufacturer No: 04762

The enduring appeal of one of television's best and most controversial programs comes through loud (literally) and clear on All in the Family: The Complete Third Season, some 10 hours of compelling, entertaining viewing that serve as a timely reminder that even as TV in the new millennium has seemingly become more diverse and inclusive, with its many gay-themed shows and, gasp, proliferation of all manner of minorities, it has lost the kind of bite that the beloved (well, by some folks, anyway) bigot Archie Bunker used to bring to the small screen.

All 24 episodes (there is no bonus material or extra features) from the '72-'73 season of executive producer Norman Lear's sitcom are contained here, and those unfamiliar with the show may well find them a bit startling. The language is part of it; Archie's frequent use of terms like "gook" and "fag" would never pass muster in these politically correct times. Yet even more striking is All in the Family's subject matter. Again and again, serious themes like politics (the '72 presidential race, pitting Richard Nixon against George McGovern, is mentioned frequently), racism ("Archie in the Hospital" is just one episode dealing with that issue), the death penalty and violence in the name of religion ("Archie Is Branded"), sexual assault ("Gloria, the Victim"), and gun control ("Archie and the Editorial") are handled with remarkable frankness. At the center of it all, of course, is Carroll O'Connor's Archie, who remains belligerent, boorish, and downright mean to the bitter end. Whether he's bribing an IRS agent, cheating an insurance company, or just being pig-headed in general, Archie is utterly unrepentant; basically, he never does the right thing, a trait that's somehow both irritating and refreshing.

All in the Family is hardly perfect; the dysfunctional family's ceaseless squabbling and shouting--usually involving Archie and liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Rob Reiner), although wife Edith (the brilliant Jean Stapleton) and daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) aren't immune--eventually becomes tiresome and shrill. But for the most part, the show's acting, writing (which manages to be very funny as well as incisive), and point of view make this set a must-have. --Sam Graham