The Corner Penthouse

This review was originally written on April 6, 2009, the day after the live Wrestlemania 25 event took place.

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I have been a WWE fan for over 25 years. I've seen every Wrestlemania, been to three of them "live" (via closed circuit television in the arena in the late 1980s - before pay-per-view existed), and have ordered every single one on pay-per-view for the past 15 years. I have enjoyed each and every one that I've seen...until last night's 25th event.

For starters, it annoys me to no end that WWE kept promoting the event as the 25th anniversary. It was the 24th anniversary, not the 25th. The first Wrestlemania took place 24 years ago in 1985, not 25 years ago in 1984. Putting that aside, going into the event it looked like it was going to be a great show. The first sign of trouble was the night before Wrestlemania at the Hall of Fame ceremony. The televised portion of the ceremony was like one big ad for the Wrestlemania event and the Legends of Wrestlemania video game. WWE even had Jerry Lawler stop the awards show to present a clip from the game featuring Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker. So much for giving it the guise of being a "prestigious" event.

While I'm on the subject of the Hall of Fame ceremony, WWE needs to start showing the entire ceremony live and unedited on television, like the Academy Awards and every other major awards show does every year. There's no need to show part of it live online and tape the rest, only to show it edited a few hours later on television. It's not like the USA Network has anything more important to show. All they played last Saturday night were 5-10 year old movies that they've shown numerous times before.


Anyway, getting back to Wrestlemania 25...Things started off fairly well. Although I thought Nicole Scherzinger's performance of "America The Beautiful" was rather lackluster, it served its purpose nicely and was well done overall. The Money in the Bank ladder match was also very enjoyable, even though Christian should have been awarded the prize instead of C.M. Punk.


Then came the first of the event's many downfalls: Kid Rock. What the heck was he doing there? Nobody goes to Wrestlemania to see Kid Rock. If, like Motorhead or POD, he was there to perform a superstar's theme music, that would be fine. Instead he performed a 10-minute medley of his "greatest hits", concluding with his latest single - which an on-screen graphic was kind enough to let us know is available on his latest album. Geez, even the video game shilling on the Hall of Fame ceremony the night before wasn't this much of a time waster.

Kid Rock segued right into the event's second downfall: the 25 "woman" Diva Battle Royal to crown the first ever Miss Wrestlemania. It started off bad, continued to be bad, and ended bad. Why weren't any of the Divas given introductions so we'd know who they all are? Yes, I know WWE were trying to hide the fact that they had a man in drag (Santino Marella) in the match, but why bring back all these women from years past and give them absolutely no attention whatsoever? Sunny was in the match, but there was hardly a mention of her, and she was only fleetingly seen on screen. The same for the other past Divas - Molly Holly, Jackie Gayda, Joy Giovanni, and Torrie Wilson - some of whom were only mentioned when they went sailing over the top rope. Victoria was the only past Diva who got any bit of screen time, and it was just a brief few seconds. Having no introductions also hurts the current Divas, as it gives them no way to stand out from each other. Looking at all 25 women in the ring, without knowing who is who, it ends up being just a sea of generic blondes and brunettes.


It's absolutely ridiculous that the women, some of whom can really work, were given one worthless spot on the card, and a man in drag walks away with the victory. That says a lot about what WWE thinks of its women's division. But WWE didn't just insult the Divas, WWE also insulted the audience by NOT having "Santina" be revealed to be a man in drag. The fact that WWE had neither the women in the ring NOR the commentators notice that there was a man in there was absolutely moronic. It was completely obvious to anyone watching, yet the announcers (of course) didn't notice that he was even there until the match was almost over, and none of the Divas even touched or attacked him throughout the match. After he tossed out his girlfriend Beth Phoenix, why not have her go back into the ring and pull his wig off, and then kick his butt? That would have been a somewhat respectable way to salvage this debacle. Instead WWE continued on as if "Santina" were a real woman. This match was clearly the Wrestlecrap Match of the Night. That's not something WWE should be proud of.


The Chris Jericho vs. the Legends match started and ended with great disappointment. Roddy Piper was good, Jimmy Snuka was sad to see (he can hardly walk), but once Ricky Steamboat and Jericho were left to go at it one-on-one it was AMAZING! That part of the match was one of the few highlights of the whole night. Then it got really disappointing. Much ado was made of Ric Flair and Mickey Rourke, but they did little to nothing to effect the match. A run in or some interference during the match would be been appropriate (Flair briefly ran in and was quickly taken care of so that negated his presence at ringside).


After the match was over, THEN Rourke is brought into the spotlight, having been called out by Jericho. After an eternity of making his way into the ring, Rourke gets in two punches and Jericho is left holding his head. I know that the WWE likes to put celebrities over at Wrestlemania, but that just looked bad for both Jericho AND Rourke, and it was so anti-climatic for the audience. I suppose, looking back, there wasn't much more that he could have done, but WWE could have handled it with more excitement than THAT. Flair and Rourke might as well not have bothered to show up since they did nothing of importance.


The Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy match was another one of the event's highlights, so there's really nothing bad to say about it. Well, other than the fact that for an "Extreme Rules" match, there sure was a distinct lack of blood (save for a small cut on Matt's head).

The Rey Mysterio vs. John Bradshaw Layfield match was barely that. From bell to bell it ran a mere 21 seconds. The match was a disgrace to all the great Intercontinental matches in Wrestlemania history. I didn't pay almost sixty dollars to see an event with a match that didn't even last half a minute - especially when both wrestlers are capable of putting on an enjoyable and much longer match.


Next up was the Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker match. An absolute classic that was damn near perfect. If anything it could have been a tiny bit shorter - there were too many near falls for my liking - but that's a very minor quibble. This was the last match of the night for which I truly felt like I was getting *some* of my money's worth.


The first title match of the televised event was next, and it's the Triple Threat featuring John Cena vs. Edge vs. Big Show for the World Heavyweight Championship. I'd ask why there needs to be a Triple Threat at every Wrestlemania, but that's irrelevant. The whole match just felt like The John Cena Show to me. It was lame and predictable. WWE even had the same exact spot in the match that they had on free TV a few weeks ago: Vickie Guerrero on the ring apron, Cena runs at her but stops, steps aside, and Edge spears her off the apron. The Big Show never won a singles title at Wrestlemania. He's long overdue. Instead WWE gives us the same old, same old. Yawn.


The Hall of Fame Class of 2009 come out next and get the bows they deserve. Stone Cold Steve Austin then drives around the ring in his ATV and has a farewell beer bash. This was all well and good, but the fact that Kid Rock got more screen time than the Hall of Fame class is complete BS.


Then we have the final match of the evening: Randy Orton vs. Triple H for the WWE Championship. I was actually looking forward to this match because their feud was intense, and it could have been a big payoff. But WWE ruined it by getting awfully strict with the rules. When you have a feud where both men attacked each other in the most vicious and brutal ways, and each one of them is just waiting to get his hands around the throat of the other, you don't set up a match where the rules of disqualification are stricter than ever. Because of that, there was no twist, no interference (by either Legacy or the McMahons), no nothing. It was lame, tame, and ordinary. The build up was better than the match. Besides that, it had NOTHING to do with the title. This was a personal grudge match, not a championship match, not a pay-per-view main event, and sure as heck not a Wrestlemania main event, let alone the main event of this big landmark "25th anniversary" Wrestlemania. THIS is the match that should have had Extreme Rules, THIS is the match where they should have been beating the ever loving crap out of each other.


Wait a minute! That was the last match? When I ordered the event, one of the matches I was most looking forward to was the Champions vs. Champions Tag Team Title Match featuring Carlito & Primo vs. Miz & Morrison. But where is it? As I would find out the next day on WWE.com, the match did indeed take place at Wrestlemania - just not as part of the televised event. WWE shunted the match to the non-televised pre-show. A match for the freaking Tag Team TITLES was not worthy of being shown on television? It was not only a title match, but one in which the titles would be UNIFIED! Surely that's something important? Surely that's worth showing live on the air instead of a 10-minute Kid Rock concert or a joke of a Divas Battle Royal? The tag team match was thrown off the show so that Kid Rock could sing?!? Ummm...does WWE realize that the event is called WRESTLEmania, right? I paid to see wrestling, not a concert!

Here's the thing I just don't understand. It's a scripted show, WWE knows they only have four hours in which to fit everything in, so why doesn't WWE plan it out better? Set time limits for each match and segment so that everything can be shown, and nothing feels rushed.

Outside of two or three matches (none of which were for titles), this did not feel like Wrestlemania. Had this been No Way Out or Backlash, the card would have been fine and I probably wouldn't feel as negatively as I do about the fiasco. But it was Wrestlemania, it was the grandest stage of them all, and the WWE sorely disappointed. To make a big deal out of the "25th anniversary" and then put forth what I, and millions of others, watched Sunday night was almost atrocious.

[UPDATE]
When WWE later released Wrestlemania 25 on Blu-ray and DVD, they did more than the usual music replacement. They actually removed the entire Kid Rock performance, leaving the Diva's Battle Royal to start in progress. This is even more insulting than the live event. Not because they removed something that never should have been there in the first place (I'm happy that it's gone), but because it makes the whole thing pointless to begin with, and gives the Divas the indinity of having their match joined in progress (in addition to losing it to a man in drag). Since WWE knew that they weren't going to use Kid Rock's performance on home video (I don't know about the WWE Network), why pay him to be there at all?

Photos for this review are courtesy of WWE via this gallery, this video and this video.

I'm writing about a series of Hello Kitty DVDs released by MGM in 2003: HK Becomes a Princess, HK Saves the Day, HK Tells Fairy Tales, HK Goes to the Movies, and HK Plays Pretend. These five discs have also been bundled together into the Diamond Collection with a Jewelry Box, HK 5-DVD Collection, as well as paired into a Plays Pretend/Saves The Day 2-Pack (alt url). Finally there's a "Triple Feature DVD Set" with the discs for Princess, Saves The Day, and Fairy Tales all in one case (this might be exclusive to Target). Whew!

For those who don't already know, contained on these DVDs are stories from the 1987 Saturday morning series "Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater". You wouldn't know that by watching the discs because there are NO SERIES OPENING TITLES and NO SERIES END CREDITS!!! Yes, you read that correctly. They left out one of the most significant parts of a television series. Remember the catchy theme song? Well, all you'll have are your memories because that theme won't be found here. There's a credits block on the back of the case that lists the voice actors (Tara Charendoff as Hello Kitty in one of her first roles) and major crew, but it doesn't list the minor crew members. Pity all of the poor animators whose work on the series now goes uncredited.

The series consists of 13 half-hour episodes with 2 stories per episode (26 stories total). Yet only 25 of the 26 stories appear on these five discs. Keep in mind that's only 5 stories per each $10 disc (that's the original price). They could have easily fit the entire series onto two dual-layer discs for $20. So not only are you missing a story, and NOT getting the episodes in their original 2-story pairs with the original series opening titles and end credits, but you're being bilked for what little you DO get!

The previous VHS releases in the late 1990s (Wizard of Paws VHS and Kitty & The Beast VHS) were MUCH better than these five DVDs. Sure they only included four stories each, but they included the series opening titles and end credits, which makes them a vast improvement over these DVDs. I can only hope that someone at MGM wakes up and re-releases this series as a proper "complete series" set, but I doubt that that will ever happen.

After getting burned on so many budget DVD releases of The Beverly Hillbillies, The Andy Griffith Show, and Petticoat Junction due to the replacement music, I really lucked out when I picked Mill Creek Entertainment's The Best of The Beverly Hillbillies 40 Episode, 4 DVD set yesterday at Walmart for 5.00.

The quality could be better - I noticed some compression artifacts on the side of the mansion when I quickly checked out the first few episodes - but for the price, number of episodes, and MOST IMPORTANTLY the original theme music, it's WELL worth it! Of course, a die-hard fan should buy the two "Ultimate Collection" volumes and "The Beverly Hillbillies/Petticoat Junction Ultimate Christmas Collection" disc, in order to get all of the public domain episodes and a TON of extras - albeit for about fifty bucks in total; but for the casual fan, this set is the best single item you can purchase.

This set includes 40 black & white episodes on 4 discs, and they're all in chronological airdate order (for the full list, see AlphaControl's review of this item). As I stated in my review title, the original theme music is used in ALMOST all episodes. Only two episodes don't use the original music:

* "No Place Like Home" uses replacement music and the titles are in progress, starting at "The Beverly Hillbillies" title screen and leaving out the "shooting at food" scenes beforehand. Since replacement music is used, I have no problem with cutting the full opening sequence.

* "Elly Needs a Maw" doesn't have any beginning titles at all. However, it's missing on another disc I have, so maybe all copies of this episode leave out the beginning title sequence - though they could have tacked one on from another episode.

I should also note that the theme song starts a few seconds late in the episode "Christmas at the Clampetts", though at least it's the original music!

I don't know if I got a bum copy, but the "Pygmalion and Elly" episode on Disc 1 won't play. When I try to view it, my player stops. If this defect exists in all copies, then technically there are only 39 episodes on the disc, and this episode should be added to the list of missing episodes below.

I tried the DVD in four different players, and the episode didn't play in any of them. Mill Creek was kind enough to send me a replacement set and that one also had the same problem. This is the only Mill Creek DVD I have that I've had a problem with - and I have about a dozen of their sets.

From what I've read, all 36 season one episodes and the first 19 season two episodes are in the public domain, which means that only 15 public domain episodes are missing from this set. Although it would be better if this were a six disc set and included those remaining episodes, all things considered, that's a fairly small number of episodes to be missing. For the record, these are the missing 15 episodes (excluding the two that need original music and/or beginning titles, and the one that wouldn't play on any of my DVD players):

1.05 10/24/1962 Jed Buys Stock
1.06 10/31/1962 Trick or Treat
1.09 11/21/1962 Elly's First Date
1.22 02/20/1963 Duke Steals a Wife
1.28 04/03/1963 Jed Pays His Income Tax
1.30 04/17/1963 Duke Becomes a Father
1.31 04/24/1963 The Clampetts Entertain
1.35 05/22/1963 Elly Becomes a Secretary
1.36 05/29/1963 Jethro's Friend
2.01 09/25/1963 Jed Gets the Misery
2.05 10/23/1963 The Clampett Look
2.10 11/27/1963 Turkey Day
2.11 12/04/1963 The Garden Party
2.13 12/18/1963 The Clampetts Get Culture
2.17 01/15/1964 The Girl from Home

That is all.

I bought the Lilian Garcia - Quiero Vivir! audio CD from Amazon in March 2008. Although I don't understand Spanish, I found it to be very enjoyable. Lilian has a great voice, and I wish that she had made a completely English version of this album. Thankfully two of the songs are English translations. Track 10 "Under In Love" is the English version of track 4 "Desenamorada", and track 11 "Where Did Love Go?" is the English version of track 3 "Adonde" (that's the duet with Jon Secada).

The one thing I dislike about the CD is one thing that I have *NEVER* seen on any CD that I've ever purchased. On the outer rim of the CD is this disclaimer: "This CD is the property of the record company and is licensed to the intended recipient for personal use only. Acceptance of this CD shall constitute an agreement to comply with the terms of the license. Resale or transfer of possession is not allowed and may be punishable under federal and state laws. This CD may be watermarked to identify the intended recipient."

It appears that Amazon is selling promo CDs, as this disclaimer pops up in articles about the current case of Universal Music Group (UMG) vs. Troy Augusto (do a Google search for "this CD is the property of the record company" to find more information about the case). Interestingly, Universal Music Latino is the distributor of the CD, though WWE owns the content. However, nothing on the packaging states that the copy Amazon sold me is a promo CD, so I have no idea why it appears on the disc.

Below is an image of the CD so you can see the disclaimer for yourself, and see that the disclaimer isn't presented to the customer until after the purchase has been made and the product has been opened - thus nullifying the "agreement to comply with the terms of the license" because you can't agree beforehand.


I sincerely hope that this is an error and that Universal Music isn't serious with this disclaimer or they certainly will have killed their CD sales for good.

What I'm about to write is not only for The Fall Guy: The Complete First Season DVD, but it also applies to The Fall Guy: The Complete First Season, Vol. 1 DVD.

In the pilot movie, during the bar fight scene, you'll notice the band performing in the background is blurred out, and there's some strange editing going on. Fox was trying to hide the fact that they replaced and edited out Paul Williams singing the Patsy Cline hit "Crazy", and the acting scenes he had before and during the fight. Since all traces of Paul Williams were edited out, his name was removed from the guest star credits at the beginning of the movie, and the song credit for "Crazy" was edited out of the end credits.

There's no mention of music replacement on the back of the box, but in their review of the set, TVShowsOnDVD provided some information that may indicate lots more music replacements in the set:

Chris Cook dug up some information from NOMA Music and posted it to the Home Theater Forum. NOMA posted this on their website: "20th Century Fox home video release of "The Fall Guy" starring Lee Majors features eight new songs by Robert Allen, Octane Saints, Don Fisher and Matt King." This, coupled with the odd scene from the pilot, leads me to believe there were some music replacements on the set. (source)

I watched the DVD episode a little more and noticed more instances of music replacement, such as during the restaurant fight, and some score music removed before and after that scene. There are probably lots more, but it would take a lot of effort to compile a complete list.

I taped this episode many years ago in syndication, and although the quality of my copy sucks (it was before I had cable), I have to keep it because it's a more complete copy than what's on the DVD.

It makes me mad that not only did Fox not mention the music replacement on the packaging (reminds me of Anchor Bay with the Grounded For Life sets), AND edit out all of Paul Williams' acting scenes, but that they're charging more than usual for the set - even going so far as to split it into two volumes to make it more affordable - which I presumed was due to music rights, but now I can only assume that greed was the motive.

Showtime really messed up the bonus material on the Dexter: The First Season DVD set. A bunch of the material is available as online content, but there's NOTHING on the packaging that indicates this, or the fact that you need a PC to view it; you can't view the content on a Mac or Linux machine. You insert Disc 4 into your DVD-ROM drive and if it doesn't run automatically, you can either run start.exe or \bonus\Bonus.exe (the direct route), which compiles information about your computer to generate a unique ID that then grants you access to the Dexter Bonus Content site.

On this site you can enter a contest which expired in January 2008, get a coupon for $25 off a new subscription to Showtime, watch the first two episodes of The Tutors, download a 241MB demo of the "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Hard Evidence" game, download an excerpt from "Dexter in the Dark" by Jeff Lindsay in PDF format, and finally view "The Academy of Blood - A Killer Course" featurette (a 3 minute 20 second piece about a real-life blood splatter expert and not directly related to the series).

The featurette should have been on the video portion of the DVD itself (the two unrelated hour-long episodes of the "Brotherhood" series should never have been included), and the novel excerpt should have been on the DVD-ROM portion of the disc itself. There's no reason to force customers to view these materials online, where they are guaranteed to be taken down at some point in time. On top of that, putting the materials online excludes Mac and Linux users, who wouldn't otherwise be excluded if the materials were on the disc itself.

With the exception of stating that the Tutors episodes were "downloads" (technically Showtime only wants you to view them streaming, not download them), Showtime made no indication on the packing that any of these noted bonus materials were only accessible via online, much less that you need the disc and a DVD-ROM drive in a PC to trigger the access to the site.

Even more annoying is that there are several short cast and crew featurettes created for Dexter that were shown on Showtime On Demand (and probably many more that weren't shown) that should have been included on the DVD in place of the two hour-long Brotherhood episodes. (For the record, the "The Academy of Blood - A Killer Course" featurette was shown on Showtime On Demand back in 2006 where I recorded it in much better quality than the small online video.)

Plus there is a Target exclusive bonus disc that from what I've read contains the Paley Festival Q&A with the cast, which is about 1 hour long. Rather than pandering to the big box retailers, pander to the customers and include this instead of the Brotherhood episodes.

Shame on you Showtime!

This film is filled with so many plot holes that I simply can not list them all here. In fact, I couldn't even list them all because there are more than I can recall. I will go through the ones that immediately sprang to mind as I was watching the film and was thinking about it afterwards.

-- What museum in 2006 doesn't have security cameras? Surely someone would have watched the tapes and seen the living creatures..

-- There's major noise and ruckus every night, yet no one in the city notices? The police are never called?

-- The movie takes place over three to four consecutive days, yet Larry (Ben Stiller) never sleeps the whole time. He's on the job at night, and seen awake during each day.

-- Why did Cecil (Dick Van Dyke) and his crew wait until they retired to pull off the heist? Why put up with the job and the living creatures for 50+ years? It would have made more sense for them to do heist when they were young, and then take it easy for the rest of their lives.

-- Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) is aware of the fact that he's a mannequin (he tells Larry that he can't help him because he's just a mannequin and not the real Teddy Roosevelt), so how does he and the other mannequins and statues have the knowledge and behaviors of the people and creatures they resemble? Maybe they "overheard" their character's history during the daytime museum tours, but they wouldn't know as much as they apparently do. This invalidates the notion of Rebecca (Carla Gugino) talking to Sacajawea for "personal" information about her life.

-- The museum curator noticed the fire extinguisher foam in the cavemen exhibit, but didn't notice that one of the cavemen was missing?

These were just the few things I noticed immediately during and after watching the film.

Should you still wish to own the movie, it is available on Blu-ray, 2-Disc DVD, 2-Disc DVD, 1-Disc DVD, and in several sets with the second and third movies.

I will be reviewing ProVenture Label Maker v4.0, which may be the product that some Amazon Marketplace sellers are selling here, here, here, here, and here. It was released in 2006 (according to the copyright date on the blue and white box).

Product Information
* Developed by: ProVenture
* Published by: Avanquest
* UPC: 018059051249
* Serial/SKU/Model: 5124

System Requirements:
* Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
* Pentium III or higher
* 95 MB disk space
* 128 MB RAM
* CD-ROM Drive
* Inkjet or laser printer

I bought this product because I wanted to have a 32-bit replacement for the label making component of the old 16-bit Print Shop Deluxe that I've been using (it came out in 1994 and was designed for Windows 3.1!!!). I saw this on the shelf at MicroCenter, and although I don't buy boxed software anymore (at least not without downloading a trial first), I couldn't resist the ten dollar price tag, so I bought it.

This review will actually be a quick list of notes I wrote up as I was testing out the program. Some are criticisms, and others are notes on using the program. These are somewhat organized in the order in which you'd come across these issues when installing and running the program, though the information on the registration nag is at the end so it is easier to read.

-- Run setup.exe to directly install the program without having to go through the trial screen interface (trial copies of other programs are available on the CD). You still will be nagged to install a payment service (to accept credit card payments for your business) and the NewsFlash program (used to send you company updates). You can easily say NO to both.

It would be nice to not have ANY kind of nags like this.

-- The program doesn't copy the clipart folder from the CD to the hard drive, even though it makes an empty Clipart directory in the program directory.

-- Some program settings are found in mylabels32.ini in the C:\Windows (or C:\WinNT) directory. This file is not deleted if you uninstall the program.

-- The program saves _FOUR FILES_ for every saved label (the files have the extensions .lbl, .bcf, .fsif, .msif). Even if you just have a label with one piece of data on it, and nothing in the databases, it still saves it as four files. For a simple label with just a name and address on it (no database entries), the combined size of the four files is 35 Kb. Other label making programs save only one file, with a size between 1 and 6 Kb.

This is the primarily deal-breaker for me. This is the reason why I'm no longer keeping the program. If I make 10 labels, I will have 40 FILES(!) to deal with. That's just not right.

Unfortunately, MicroCenter won't take the item back because they don't take back opened software (as is the usual policy for most stores). I can't take advantage of the publisher's 30-Day Money Back Guarantee because I didn't get a chance to install the software until a bit more than 30 days after I bought it. Granted, ten dollars isn't a big loss, but it's still a loss.

-- To print an entire sheet of labels containing the same data on each label (just a single name and address - hard-coded to the design, not from a database), you must set the number of copies on the Print dialog box to the number of labels on the sheet (30 for the Avery 5160/8160/8660/6460 layout). This is not very intuitive, as the Copies field normally selects the number of PAGES to be printed (as it is standard in all Print dialogs for ALL Windows programs).

This is the other deal-breaker, especially since the number of "copies" resets to 1 every time you run the program (as that is what Windows normally does in the Print dialog window of ANY program). So every time I open and print one of my labels (as I tend to create labels with singular data, not from databases), I have to remember to change the number of "copies" to 30. The program won't even save that information to any of the four files that it creates for each label.

-- If there are multiple records in your database, and you just want to print one, select the record you want to print by entering the same record number in both From and To fields in the Print Range.

HOW TO REMOVE THE REGISTRATION NAG WITHOUT REGISTERING

This information is for ProVenture Label Maker v4.0, which was released in 2006 (according to the copyright date on the blue and white box). I don't know if it applies to earlier or later versions. This info will tell you how to to remove the registration nag without registering, which is free but shouldn't be necessary (and will be impossible when the registration server goes offline years from now).

1. Open Notepad and type in the text that appears below.

REGEDIT4 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ProVenture\Label Maker\Reg] "Registered"=dword:00000001

2. Save the file as "nolabelnag.reg" (you might have to use the quotation marks in order to get Notepad to save it with a .reg extension). For easy access, save it to your desktop.

3. Now double-click on the file, and a message will pop up asking if you want to add the information to the registry. Click on YES.

4. Another window will pop up telling you that the information has been successfully entered into the registry.

5. Now run the Label Maker program, and notice that there is no registration nag screen when it loads. Enjoy!

I'm a big fan of Grounded For Life and have every episode on tape from the original Fox and WB broadcasts since day one (January 10, 2001). I was thrilled with the prospect of buying all of the episodes on DVD (save for season 5 which hasn't been released yet) so that I could have better quality copies, taking up less shelf space, and could then erase all of the tapes I recorded.

Although I have not had the chance to watch any of the episodes on the Season 1-4 DVD sets, I did check out all of the discs (to ensure playability) and actually stumbled upon something that I did not like: The season 1 episode "I Wanna Be Suspended" (disc 1, episode 3) has been ALTERED! The Ramones song "I Wanna Be Sedated" played during the concert scene in the original tv broadcast was replaced with generic music on the DVD (at 4:37), a brief concert flashback a few minutes later (at 7:28) replaced some instrumental song with a different instrumental song. There may be more alterations to this episode, or other episodes in any of the sets, as I didn't check any further than this.

I know why music is routinely replaced on TV-on-DVD releases, so I don't have a problem with the replacing of the music. However, I am displeased by the misleading packaging which states that these are "uncut" episodes. Although there is a difference between "uncut" and "unaltered", the "uncut" remark on the box implies that the episodes are exactly the same as what was originally shown on TV, which obviously isn't true. The "uncut" statement should have had an asterisk directing to text at the bottom to tell that music has been altered in some episodes.

I sent an e-mail to Anchor Bay (TVonDVD@anchorbayent.com), the company that released the DVD sets, to get a complete list of all alterations (music or otherwise) for every Grounded For Life set. Surely a list of alterations for every set must exist, as the person at Carsey-Warner whose job it is to replace the music when the episodes are prepped for DVD has to have a list to work off of. Since I have the entire series on tape in their original network broadcast versions, I need to know which of my recorded episodes I need to keep because they're different from what I just bought on DVD, as I plan on erasing the taped episodes that are 100% exactly the same as on the DVD.

I received a reply from Rose Zivkovich. She e-mailed Janet Bonifer, Executive Director of Marketing & Creative Services at Carsey-Warner (her address is either jbonifer@carseywerner.com or jbonifer@cwm.com), who told Rose that "Our legal department advises against providing this type of information to consumers."

These is no legal reason why Janet, or anyone else at Carsey-Warner, could not furnish the list to me (whether through Rose, or to me directly). Anyone who has every episode on tape from the original Fox and WB broadcasts (like me) and has the time (not like me) could check every one of the 78 episodes (91 episodes, including Season 5) one-by-one to compile the same list. Getting the list from Carsey-Warner would save time, energy, and insure completeness in the list.

I tried e-mailing Carsey-Warner directly via the most appropriate contact I could find (Janet's boss): Barron Postmus, bpostmus@cwm.com, Vice President of Marketing & Creative Services. To no surprise, he has not replied to any of the e-mails that I've sent to him.

I made one final attempt to obtain the list of alterations by writing a letter to the series creators Mike Schiff & Bill Martin via their agent (c/o Nancy Jones, Creative Artists Agency, 2000 Avenue Of The Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90067). It's now two months since I sent the letter and I have not heard back from them, by either postal mail or e-mail.

It's rather disheartening to know that Carsey-Warner does not want to cooperate in the matter. It's sad that they treat their fans this way. The company makes money off of us fans, and would go out of business if none of us watched their shows and bought the related products.

This DVD contains just one episode, "The Flintstone Flyer", which aired on 9/30/1960, and has an exact runtime of 26:23. Although this was the first episode to air, contrary to what it says in the upper right corner of the packaging, it is NOT the pilot episode (that would be "The Swimming Pool" which aired two weeks later - and can be found on the "Cartoon Crack-Ups" DVD). I know that this episode and many more can be found on the Season 1 release, but I'm not that big of a fan of the show, so I'm happy with just this one episode (which I previously taped from Cartoon Network). I also have no qualms about the video and audio quality as it looks and sounds good.

My issues with this DVD are in regards to features that are apparently prevalent in ALL of the titles in Warner Brothers' "TV Premiere DVD" series.

-- The disc does not come in a plastic case, but rather in a cardboard sleeve which opens on the side. I've purchased $1 public domain DVDs from no-name companies that came in plastic slim cases, so it's appalling that a $6 DVD from a big-name company would be done so cheaply. Also, the sleeve has a hole at the top in the center where the peg would go for it to be hung on a rack like an action figure or toy. The hole has been edited out of the promo photos that Warner Bros. gave Amazon to display for the DVDs.


-- The text on the disc is very faint and hard to read - another way Warner Bros. skimped on production costs.

-- The cheapness doesn't stop at the packaging. The DVD does not contain a menu, not even a plain one. Because of this, there's an interesting glitch that happens if you let the DVD play past the episode. You see, after the episode plays, it goes to a FBI Warning on title 3, which then goes to the non-existent menu, so the player just hangs on a black screen.

-- They were even cheap in the placement of the chapters marks, which are placed every ten minutes (0:00, 10:00, and 20:00) no matter if it makes sense in the episode content for one to be there or not.

-- From what I've read, most (if not all) of the titles in the "TV Premiere DVD" series were originally released on VHS and/or laserdisc, with these DVDs being done from the VHS and laserdisc masters. The quality of The Flintstones DVD definitely appears to be better than VHS, so either it came from a laserdisc master, or not all of the titles were done from old home video masters.

Although at first I didn't mind paying $6 for one 26 minute episode, that was before I knew that the DVD didn't even come in a plastic case. Now that six dollars really seems like a rip-off.

Warner Bros. "TV Premiere DVD" Series (10 titles)
* The Flintstones - Flintstone Flyer
* The Jetsons - Microchip Chump
* ER - Pilot
* Babylon 5 - The Gathering
* Taboo - Tattoo
* Gilligan's Island - Two on a Raft & Home Sweet Hut
* The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest - Escape to Questworld
* Gilmore Girls - Pilot
* The Waltons - The Foundling
* Kung Fu - Pilot
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