Starring: Ted Danson, Shelley Long, Rhea Perlman, George Wendt, John Ratzenberger, Woody Harrelson, Kelsey Grammer
Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment
Video: 4:3 Fullscreen
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles: English closed captioning
Length: 635 minutes (4 discs)
Rating: ****1/2
One of the most beloved television series of all-time, Cheers garnered
28 Emmy Awards over its 11-year run. Set in the city of Boston,
Cheers centers upon the staff and patrons of a local bar owned and
operated by former major league baseball relief pitcher Sam “Mayday”
Malone. The charm of Sam’s drinking establishment is that it’s a
place where “everyone knows your name.” Highlights from the fifth
season include: “The Godfather, Part III” wherein Woody gets engaged to
Sam’s goddaughter; “Dance, Diane, Dance” in which Diane decides to
audition for the Boston ballet despite her not having any dancing
talent; “Dog Bites Cliff” wherein Cliff gets bitten by a dog and
thereafter falls for the dog’s beautiful owner; and “I Do and Adieu”
wherein Diane leaves Sam at the wedding altar to finish writing her
novel (this episode also marks Shelley Long’s farewell appearance as a
regular on the show). The entire 26 episodes from the 1986-1987
season are spread out over 4 discs. (Disc One: The Proposal; The
Cape Cad; Money Dearest; Abnormal Psychology; House Of Horrors With
Formal Dining And Used Brick; Tan N’ Wash; Young Dr. Weinstein. Disc
Two: Knights Of The Scimitar; Thanksgiving Orphans; Everyone Imitates
Art; The Book Of Samuel; Dance, Diane, Dance; Chambers Vs. Malone;
Diamond Sam. Disc Three: Spellbound; Never Love A Goalie- Part 1;
Never Love A Goalie- Part 2; One Last Fling; Dog Bites Cliff; Dinner At
Eight-ish. Disc Four: Simon Says; The Godfather, Part III; Norm’s
First Hurrah; Cheers: The Motion Picture; A House Is Not A Home; I Do
And Adieu).
The video quality for this DVD set is very good. Images are crisp with
considerable detail. Colors are faithfully reproduced with fully
saturated hues. Black levels are uniformly deep throughout.
Picture defect mastering is commendable with no major flaws or
compression artifacts.The overall audio quality is good with the
English Dolby Digital 2.0 track serving as the basis for this
review.The soundtrack mix predominantly favors the forward
channels.Dialogue is intelligible and properly positioned in the center
channel. Surround channel activity is limited to the opening
theme song and the audience laugh track.There is negligible LFE channel
and tactile sound activity.
Reference equipment: [Video monitor-NetTV DTV-34XRT; Video scaler-
Silicon Image iScan Pro; DVD player- Philips Q35AT; A/V Receiver-
Sherwood Newcastle R-963T; Speakers- Acoustech 5.1 channel system;
Tactile Transducer- Clark Synthesis TST 329 Gold; Cables and Wires-
Bettercables. ]
