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By the 12th season “Dallas” was full of air as crisp,
cutting and hot as Texas during the summer time. If “Dallas”
had been a balloon it would have taken flight as the 12th
season was filled with an unexpected humor—the melodrama
played for laughs. Sure J.R. (Larry Hagman) was still around
to scheme and plot but absurdity rules the day. J.R. finds
the tables turned and ends up in prison and at the altar
waiting to get married. ---
Image & Sound:
“Dallas” looks wildly uneven here. Part of that is
no doubt due to the age of the series, part of that is due
to a lack of restoration and a simple transfer that adjusts
some of the minor issues that dog the prints that Warner
has in its vault and part of the problem is simply the audience
for the series—“Dallas” at this late stage doesn’t have
quite as big a following as it might have 10 years ago and,
as a result, the show has a limited audience (add in syndication)which
doesn’t justify spending the large sum of money (in Warner’s
eyes) to do a full restoration from the original negatives.
***
That said, you can see significant variation within
the same episode with a very nice image alternating with
a poorly compressed shot or one that has interlace issues
cropping up the next. The latter is due to sheer sloppiness
on the part of whoever was in charge of doing the transfer.
***
Warner probably got a deal on all of those hated DVD
18’s (dual sided DVDs) and puts them to good use here slapping
26 episodes on three discs. *** Audio sounds good with dialogue
front and center throughout the mono presentation. ---
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