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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Everybody Loves Raymond-Complete Third Season (1998)

Everybody Loves Raymond-Complete Third Season (1998)

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Released 12-Jul-2005

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Main Menu Audio & Animation
Notes-Series Index
Audio Commentary-Ray Romano & Phil Rosenthal (Creator) Episode 12 And 26
Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
Featurette-Museum Of Television And Radio Panel Discussion
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1998
Running Time 587:25
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered
Multi Disc Set (5)
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By John Fortenberry
Ellen Gittelsohn
Gary Halvorson
Asaad Kelada
Studio
Distributor

Warner Home Video
Starring Ray Romano
Patricia Heaton
Brad Garrett
Doris Roberts
Peter Boyle
Madylin Sweeten
Sawyer Sweeten
Sullivan Sweeten
Monica Horan
Jon Manfrellotti
Tom McGowan
Katherine Helmond
Georgia Engel
Case ?
RPI $74.95 Music Rick Marotta
Terry Trotter


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
French
Hungarian
Dutch
Arabic
Finnish
Greek
Hebrew
Norwegian
Portuguese
Swedish
English for the Hearing Impaired
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, some episodes

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    

    This third season of Everybody Loves Raymond is really where the show goes from a good quality sitcom to a great one, as this series is consistently hilarious. It was for this season that the awards and nominations really started to flow in, including six Emmy nominations.

    Everybody Loves Raymond is a domestic sitcom, set around the titular character, Ray Barone (Ray Romano) and his family. The title is meant to be sarcastic and comes from Ray's older brother constantly being jealous of his success, family and popularity. This third series first aired in the US in 1998/9.It is now the highest rating comedy on US television and consistently rates well here. The show has just finished its last season.

    The main characters are:

    Most of the comedy stems from the difficult and sometimes painful interactions between these characters, and interestingly a lot of the situations and even character traits come from the actual families of Ray Romano and Phil Rosenthal. One of the highlights of the show over the different seasons has been that each season has had its own opening credit sequence. This series has one of the best ones, which is a parody of action films featuring Ray & Debra trying to make the house appear like they are not home after noticing Frank, Marie & Robert heading over the street.. Not all of the episodes include this credit sequence. Sometimes it is left out because they need the time for the story.

    Changes in this series include more sex jokes, as the show moved to a 9pm time slot in the US, allowing more latitude, and Patricia Heaton obviously being pregnant early in the series. There is a very funny moment in the bloopers relating to this.

    This series includes 26 episodes all of just under 23 minutes duration.

    In detail, the episodes included are:

Disc 1

1.The Invasion - Ray & Debra's house has termites and they have to move in with Frank & Marie while the place is fumigated.

2.Driving Frank - Frank crashes into Robert's patrol car and Robert books him. He needs to do a test to get his licence back.

3.The Sitter - Ray & Debra decide to get a babysitter but Marie gets offended and the kids prefer the sitter to Debra. Features Patricia Heaton's husband, David Hunt.

4.Getting Even - Debra organises an auction to raise money for Ally's school but Ray embarrasses her while he is the auctioneer. Great episode.

5.The Visit - Debra's mother comes for a visit and things are very uncomfortable between her and them.

6.Halloween Candy - Ray buys condoms instead of getting a vasectomy but Frank mistakenly gives them away as Halloween treats. Very funny episode.

Disc 2

7.Moving Out - Robert decides finally to move out of home, however, he moves in with a couple very much like his parents. Amy appears in this episode.

8.The Article - Ray gives his friend Andy feedback on a article he wrote, which Andy does not take well.

9. The Lone Barone - Robert moves into an apartment and Amy freaks him out by telling him how to arrange the place and decorate it.

10.No Fat - After Debra's parents go overseas, Ray is pleased that they will have Thanksgiving at Marie's. Unfortunately, he does not count on Marie's new health kick.

11. The Apartment - Ray starts spending a lot of time at Robert's apartment after he realises the building is full of attractive women.

12.The Toaster - An absolute classic episode in which Ray buys the whole family an engraved toaster for Christmas and Frank & Marie return it without noticing the message of love on the side. The Fruit of the Month Club is mentioned and Ray Romano's brother appears.

Disc 3

13.Ping-Pong - Ray & Robert reminisce about playing Ping-Pong with Frank. Marie reveals that Frank once let Ray win because he was crying..

14.Pants on Fire - With Ray's birthday coming up he admits that he once threw a party as a teenager while his parents were away.

15.Robert's Date - Robert goes out with his patrol partner, Judy, and some of her friends but tries just a little too hard to fit in. This episode was nominated for a directing Emmy.

16.Frank's Tribute - Franks is named Man of the Year by his lodge, however, when Ray & Robert try to prepare a video tribute for him, they don't really get the reaction they expect. Debra is obviously heavily pregnant in this episode and is basically missing from the next three.

17.Cruising with Marie - Frank injures his knee and Marie convinces Ray to go on a pre-booked cruise with her instead of Frank.

18.Ray Home Alone - Debra takes the kids to her parents for a weekend and Ray gets concerned about sleeping in the house on his own.

Disc 4

19.Big Shots - Robert talks Ray into taking him to a Sports Hall of Fame dinner to induct the '69 Mets. This episode is probably the weakest of this series despite having some funny scenes. Maybe it's just that baseball does not translate well.

20.Move Over - Ray has a problem with the way Debra sleeps and she takes offence.

21.The Getaway - Ray & Debra take a weekend away together without the kids but all does not go well.

22.Working Girl - Debra decides to go back to work but Ray is not happy about it. Features Julie Hagerty who many will remember from Flying High.

23.Be Nice - Ray & Debra realise they are nicer to other people than to each other and try to do something about it.

24.Dancing With Debra - Ray suggests that Debra should go dancing with Robert but he gets jealous when they have a good time.

Disc 5

25.Robert Moves Back - Robert sees Amy with another guy and they get back together but then get caught in a compromising position

26.How They Met - As has now become a tradition, the series ends with a flashback episode, this time to when Ray & Debra first met. Watch out for Robert's great hair.

    This is a very funny TV series and definitely one of the best US comedy series in recent years. To my mind this series has great replay value as despite having seen all of these episodes before, I greatly enjoyed them. I am really looking forward to Series 4, as this one is the best of the first three. Highly Recommended.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video quality is very good and an improvement on the two previous series.

    The feature is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. It does not have the clarity of film but this is to be expected. There was some very light grain throughout. The shadow detail was very good.

    The colours were quite bright and vibrant and an improvement on previous series.

    From an artefacts perspective there was some aliasing, however it was better than Series 2. The usual suspects aliased such as picture frames, shirts, Venetians, Frank & Marie's table and stacks of plates.

    There are subtitles in 12 languages including English and English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read and very close to the spoken word.

    The layer changes occur between episodes or are very well hidden.
    

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is perfectly suited to the material.

    This DVD contains three audio options, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s and the same in French and Hungarian.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync. Obviously, in a comedy show this is the most important audio item and it comes through here with flying colours.

    The score of this series by Rick Marotta features the theme tune and some other incidental music. It does its job without standing out particularly.

    The surround speakers added some mild atmosphere when played with Dolby ProLogic II.

    The subwoofer added some bass to the theme tune but this is a function of my amplifier's bass management rather than the soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    The extras are located on Discs 2 & 5.

Menu

    The menu included scenes from the shows, stills of the actors, the ability to select each episode, and a plot synopsis of each episode.

Series Index

    Each disc includes an index of all episodes showing which disc they appear on.

Disc 2 - Episode 12 Commentary

    A commentary is available for this episode from Ray Romano and creator Phil Rosenthal. This commentary is a bit less interesting than those on previous series, however it's not bad. They discuss where the story came from, the new credit sequence, trivia and the appearance of Ray's real brother.

Disc 5 - Episode 26 Commentary

    Again this commentary is by Ray Romano and creator Phil Rosenthal. Another decent commentary which includes discussion of how they met their real wives and how those stories were woven into the script. They also discuss why Peter Doyle does not appear in this episode.

Disc 5 - Deleted Scenes (20:07)

    A very funny selection of deleted scenes, most of which are jokes that they obviously decided not to use.

Disc 5 - Blooper Reel (11:08)

    Just for something different to most blooper reels, these ones are actually funny and worth watching. The last three minutes is actually behind-the-scenes footage and pretty pointless.

Disc 5 - Museum of Television and Radio Panel Discussion (69:42)

    During this third series the show was inducted into the Museum and accordingly an evening was held at which an episode was shown and Phil Rosenthal, Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Brad Garrett, Doris Roberts & Peter Boyle attended. After the showing of the episode they sit on the stage as a panel and answer questions from a moderator and from the audience. This is very interesting for fans and has some funny moments. Excellent Extra.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The sets released in each region are identical except for PAL/NTSC differences and the Region 1 has a Spanish soundtrack instead of the Hungarian. Let's call it a tie.

Summary

    The best season so far of Everybody Loves Raymond. Lots of great episodes and very re-watchable.

    The video quality is better than the previous two seasons but still has some issues.

    The audio quality is fine, doing everything this show requires.

    The set has a very good selection of extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel Bruce (Do you need a bio break?)
Friday, August 12, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV667A DVD-V DVD-A SACD, using Component output
DisplaySony FD Trinitron Wega KV-AR34M36 80cm. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC).
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer VSX-511
SpeakersBose 201 Direct Reflecting (Front), Phillips SB680V (Surround), Phillips MX731 (Center), Yamaha YST SW90 (Sub)

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