The Ultimate Goldbergs DVD (Updated 6/24/12)
I'm kind of curios. For some reason, there seems to be very little information about how many episodes in this set have Philip Loeb in them. From figuring out dates, I would guess there are 7 Philip Loeb episodes on this set. I cannot confirm this, however. All I can find out is there are 71 episodes, and as extras, some radio episodes. Don't know if he is in any of those either.
Is there anyone who owns this set can confirm the correct # he's in?
I suspect I'll be ordering this set before long so I'll have my answer. I bet there are other fans out there who would like this info also.
MY UPDATE:
I just got too curious. I have ordered "The Ultimate Goldbergs". I have never seen a complete episode before but I'm VERY pleased with this set. The series was off the air by the end of 1956 before I was one year old.
In case others are also curious, I was right. This set contains seven Philip Loeb episodes. There are two episodes with Harold J Stone as Jake and the rest have Robert R Harris in the part.
These shows are really well done. I was surprised that the characterizations seemed more natural then the more well known sitcoms. The situations were also less exaggerated. The characters may be somewhat stereotyped by today's standards, but not to the degree one may think. I was also surprised to see a bedroom shot (I'm presently up to the DuMont episodes) in which Molly and Jake sleep in the same bed together. The bedroom shot was in an episode from 1954.
As for the quality of the of the video, they looked pretty good, especially for "Kines". Oddly enough, the earliest ones, the CBS ones with Philip Loeb, actually looked the best so far. Although the NBC ones (1952/53) looked the worst they were still quite decent. Several of these NBC episodes are the rare 15 minute ones. The DuMont ones looked close to the CBS ones in video quality. I haven't seen the syndicated ones yet (where the Goldbergs moved to the suburbs), but since these were filmed for syndication, I suspect they'll look fine. The sound quality is somewhat varied, but there were no major problems so far. I'll update again when I finish viewing the entire set. There is a dozen radio episodes from 1939-45 included (these must be accessed via computer with DVD rom).
The total 71 TV episodes in this set make an excellent sampling of all the different phases of this series.
Based on my overall delight with the set, I just ordered the "Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg" documentary. I suspect it will be a nice companion piece.
I wanted to add some input as there seems to be a lack of info on this DVD. If, in the future, any more episodes turn up (certainly not an impossibility), I'll scoop them up on sight.