A review/report on The Fabulous Films Tour Of Duty
Season One DVD Release

I felt that I should write about the Fabulous Film DVD Season One release of Tour of Duty , because many people have already spent out money on the Sony and or the Mill Creek sets and so might be unwilling to buy this version. Here I'll try to let you know why you should buy it and what you get for your money. 

Its not so much a review of the show, as most people visiting here already know all about the show Tour Of Duty, its more of what do you get for your money ,What's different in this set to the previous sets. That's Apart from the Whole of Season One of Tour Of Duty with the ORIGINAL music soundtrack. 

Firstly I'd like to say as a long time fan of the show, It's great that this show has been restored back to its original glory with a better picture quality and sound then the Sony version and MORE importantly it has the ALL original soundtrack , all the music how it was first broadcast all those years ago.

Fans of Tour of Duty have always wanted to own the show on VHS long before DVD was even thought of and were left extremely disappointed when the sony version came out with its replaced music and cuts and edits. This Fabulous Films release more than makes up for the short comings of the Sony & Mill Creek releases , this release has a heart  an understanding of what fans deserve and want from a Tour of Duty boxset.
 
(Note: the "War Lover" episode problem with the first batch has now been sorted, if you require a replacement disc please contact rjfwalker@hotmail.com ).

Don't know what to do with your old disc once you have the replacement one ?


Please Note the scans here are of a lower quality than the actual real thing to deter bootlegs


So what do you get for you money ?

You get a very detailed Booklet with an episode guide,
detailing each episode far better than the Sony booklet, you don't get a booklet with the Mill Creek dvd set
 ( See the Sony Booklet at the bottom of the page)

On the back cover of the booklet are the quotes that are at the beginning of the episode.




There are 45 small photos in the booklet some colour some black & white.

Have we seen them before ,
Most Tour Of Duty die hards will have seen them on the various Tour Of Duty websites but not everyone will have seen them all.




The details of each episode is also recreated on the discs, and before each episode plays you can read about the episode.




The Actual discs,


Well they all the same in look ,
 unlike the Sony ones they don't have pictures of the cast on them or a scene, which I don't know if I like of not .
(See the Sony Disc at the bottom of the page)

The actual dvd case is strong plastic and the discs are held in place well,
Don't panic if like me you open it to see what looks like a disc missing ,

It was just due to the way the disc holders were in the case.
A simple un-clicking if the disc holder and turning it around soon improves the look.
 

Disc 1 sits underneath/behind the Booklet on the inside cover.

The picture quality of the episodes looks to me to be slightly lighter than the Sony releases, The colours seem crisper and the greens of the foliage greener. I noticed the picture quality straight away especially the opening scene night scene with Zeke in the pilot episode.
( I know it's a night scene but I like to see the reactions on peoples faces).
To me the sound seems better to, crisper but that could be my age.

What about the bonus features , these are found on Disc 5 along with the episode The Hill.


Well the 55 minute 'Making of ' is an amazing feature ,
you learn about why people left the show, how things were for the guys , how they felt about making it , how they feel about the people who actually fought the war.
 

Steve Akakoshi aka Spec 4 Randy "Doc" Matsuda
 

You won't be disappointed and this is only part one. I deliberately won't go into details and tell you all about this because this alone is reason enough to buy the Boxset , let alone the original music and uncut episodes.

What else is there ...

Series Synopsis

Series Concept

Cast Biographies

The character biographies are brilliant as to be expected and were written by none other than DC from tourofdutyinfo.com

Crew biographies

The galleries ..is there anything new there you ask,,,YES LOADS.
Again I'm not going to give it all away here.
 

Behind the scenes photos , 20
Colour photos , I think I counted 58
B&W photos - 42
Louise Dushkins behind the scenes - to many to say as it auto runs for over 10 minutes ,
I'd say over 80 for sure and may be more than 100.
  

Publicity photos - 35
Posters - 4
Lobby Cards - 12

 

Glossary of terms - There are Six sections to this part.


The stills galleries are fantastic, long since gone forgotten and hard to find items one of originals are here
as fans as well as cast and crew of the show were involved in helping to make this great bonus disc.

All in all the makers of this boxset have done a fantastic job.

Don't  just take my word for it

Posted on the HUM90 message board by Louise Dushkinon 12/8/2011, 4:46 am
 

Please feel free to compare the Sony set below

The Sony Booklet


Inside the Sony Booklet

The Sony Disc


The bonus features
 Simply put there aren't any...so your still thinking of buying the Sony set ,,,,,,,,,,, I didn't think so.
Thinking of getting the Mill Creek set ...why ?? 
 

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