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The Movie: Another edition of the classic series about the Boston bar where "Everybody knows your name", "Cheers: Season 2" starts where the first season left off, and continued to improve along the way. Although the show wasn't terribly popular during it's opening run, then-NBC president Brandon Tartikoff championed the series, which ended up running for a remarkable 11 seasons, ending in 1993. This second season certainly has wonderful moments, but future seasons held further improvements, as memorable characters played by Kelsey Grammer (who has now played Dr. Frasier Crane for 20 years) and Woody Harrelson joined the cast. The DVD edition of this second season does present the episodes with impressive (considering the age) image quality; apparently the episodes were digitally remastered in 2001, and if that's the case, it certainly has helped. However, it would be appreciated if future season sets could provide more in the way of participation from the cast and crew on the supplements. 23. 2- 1 023 29 Sep 83 Power Play 24. 2- 2 025 13 Oct 83 Little Sister Don't Cha 25. 2- 3 027 20 Oct 83 Personal Business 26. 2- 4 024 27 Oct 83 Homicidal Ham 27. 2- 5 028 3 Nov 83 Sumner's Return 28. 2- 6 029 10 Nov 83 Affairs of the Heart 29. 2- 7 032 17 Nov 83 Old Flames 30. 2- 8 026 24 Nov 83 Manager Coach 31. 2- 9 031 1 Dec 83 They Called Me Mayday 32. 2-10 033 8 Dec 83 How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Call You Back 33. 2-11 037 15 Dec 83 Just Three Friends 34. 2-12 030 22 Dec 83 Where There's a Will 35. 2-13 034 5 Jan 84 Battle of the Exes 36. 2-14 036 12 Jan 84 No Help Wanted 37. 2-15 035 19 Jan 84 And Coachie Makes Three 38. 2-16 040 26 Jan 84 Cliff's Rocky Moment 39. 2-17 039 2 Feb 84 Fortune and Men's Weight 40. 2-18 038 9 Feb 84 Snow Job 41. 2-19 041 16 Feb 84 Coach Buries a Grudge 42. 2-20 042 23 Feb 84 Norman's Conquest 43. 2-21 043 3 May 84 I'll Be Seeing You (1) 44. 2-22 044 10 May 84 I'll Be Seeing You (2) The DVD VIDEO: All of the episodes are presented in 1.33:1 full-frame in this set. Considering that these episodes are nearly 20 years old, they look remarkably good. Sharpness and detail are largely terrific; while there are some soft or dimly-lit moments, the majority of the episodes boast very good definition and clarity. There are a few minor specks and marks visible on occasion, but the image seemed to remain free of such issues as compression artifacts and edge enhancement. The show's rather low-key color palette looked accurately rendered and clean. SOUND: All of the episodes are presented in 2.0 stereo. The audio remains perfectly acceptable, with clean dialogue and a not much else. EXTRAS: The featurettes included here are similar in nature to that of "Frasier"'s recent second season release: in other words, they are general character featurettes that pull together some basic interview footage and clips from the show. These include: Strictly Top Shelf: The Guys Behind The Bar (a general overview) and Cliff’s Notes: The Wisdom of Cliff Clavin, Carla The Comeback Queen: Insults For Every Occasion and Di Another Day: Diane Chambers From A-Z. The only non "making of" is a fun little blooper reel that lasts a few minutes. Hopefully, future sets can provide more supplements in the form of a commentary or a longer documentary. Final Thoughts: It's great to finally have "Cheers" on DVD, especially with such unexpectedly good image quality, considering the show's age. Still, for such a classic series, I would hope that future sets would offer documentaries that take a further look at the show's run and impact on TV. Recommended. |