I Married Joan Collection 1

I MARRIED JOAN starred Joan Davis, a movie and radio comedienne billed as "America's Queen of Comedy," and Jim Backus, the voice of MR. MAGOO and the popular character Thurston Howell III from the GILLIGAN'S ISLAND TV series. The show centered on Joan, a scatterbrained housewife, and her husband, Bradley Stevens, who was a staid and settled domestic court judge. Beverly Wills, Joan Davis' real-life daughter, also co-starred on the show playing the part of her sister. The show was cut from the same mold as the I LOVE LUCY series, with Joan Davis' comedy antics derived from the physical school of humor. Ms. Davis produced the show under her own production company for NBC and the series ran for three years between 1952 and 1955. This special DVD collection, on 2 discs, contains 12 complete episodes from the TV series: Prize Fighter, Wall Safe, Joan's Haircut, Changing Houses, Talent Scout, Bad Boy, Honeymoon, Home Movies, New House, Neighbors, Alienation and Sister Pat. Bonus Features: Actor Bios| Previews| Episode Selection Specs: 2-DVD9s; Dolby Digital Mono; 318 minutes; B&W; 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; MPAA – NR; Year – 1952-1955; SRP - $14.99.

A LAUGH RIOT! NO ANNOYING BULLETS IN VCI Video Collections

As an avid purchaser of VCI DVD releases, I have noticed two important items of interest to collectors regarding their releases versus other Public Domain distributors out there.
First, the annoying bullets, commonly know as "bugs" (those pesky company logos found imbedded or burned-in on the screen - just like the cable IDs). These 24 public domain VCI Entertainment episodes of the "I Married Joan" on Collection One and Two are the same episodes released by Alpha Video and others. However, the VCI versions are CLEAN of ANNOYING LOGOS (BUGS), unlike the Alpha releases which are burried all over the titles and credits of each episode! You are going to pay more for the VCI releases, but they are surperior. If I want to view logos on the screen, then I can go to cable! Please for the sake of collectors and viewers alike, remove the bugs! You the PD distributor will sell more copies that way! I plan to review more of these so the collector can be more informed. I do not want to spend my money on stupid bugs in the corner. All the major companies don't do this, so should the public domainers out there follow suit like VCI! St. Clair Vision is also good at keeping the screen clear of these annoying bugs. The biggest perpetrator of the bugs is Alpha, Platimum and more recently, some of the Echo Bridge releases.
The second issue is the varying quality of the public domain TV shows, released by these companies. Because the mostly 16mm films are from old well-used syndicated prints, depending upon the transfer, telecine method film and tape stock used to master, the quality varies. These episodes of "I Married Joan" seem to be from broadcast video transfers and are still quite enjoyable today. I saw these back in the early 80s on CBN, and they are well worth the price. The quality overall is fine on the VCI releases, and have been authored well for the price. The only technical gripe I find is the altered ending titles for all the episodes, which are identical,and were altered removing the cast credits (possibly a generic syndicated version).
Overall, the best company for these Public Domain releases seem to be VCI and St. Clair Vision. A side note about Alpha. They do have the largest variety of items, and I have bought 100's of their items. The quality varies and most are quite good. They just recently in the last two years started putting the bugs in their products, mostly in the titles and credits, both in TV shows and movies. November 6, 2008

I Married Joan

I really enjoyed watching Joan Davis and Jim Backus again in these 1950's comedy classics. I used to watch them when I was growing up as a kid and they are as funny as they were then. March 27, 2008

Discover or rediscover "I married Joan"

Joan Davis (radio comedian) plays an empty-headed house wife. Jim Backus (Peter Bowers in "Boys' Night Out") plays the husband, Judge Bradley Stevens (1952-1955) (38 episodes, 1952-1955).

Each episode is a wholly contained story that starts out sane and logical. As time go on unlikely elements creep in to make the situation hysterically ridicules. Eventually everything is wrapped up. The actors and their characters is what make this comedy work so well.

Disk 1:
Prize Fighter
Wall Safe
Joan's Haircut
Changing Houses
Talent Scout
Bad Boy

Disk 2:
Honeymoon
Home Movies
New House
Neighbors
Alteration
Sister Pat
June 25, 2007

retro enjoyment

It's a great product, if you liked the tv show this is just a copy of it. The picture quality is excellent.
April 4, 2007

Watch Out Lucy, Here Comes Joan Davis

I've always been a fan of Joan Davis in "I Married Joan". Her humor was never insulting to her public, she did her physical comedy that was believeable, interesting and funny. Her co-star husband, Jim Backus ( Mr. Howell in Gillian's Island), was the perfect straight man because you have to be good at setting up the funny situations and timing.
To get a preview of Joan Davis, watch her in the Abbott and Costello movie called "Hold That Ghost", its a classic. February 21, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...