...

In the interview with John Cleese on the Fawlty Towers DVD, he mentions that one of the reasons they stopped at 2 series was that peoples expectations in the making of a new season would be to out do the original 2.  Mr Cleese's most poinent point was that when you look back at each individual episode it's not the episode as a whole that people really think as funny, but rather selected moments of each episode, and most people expect an entire show to be equally as funny as just one previous funny moment.

This got me to thinking about all TV shows, and i noticed that everyone seems to think along these lines.  A short while ago a Friend and I were talking about FRIENDS on TV and how over the years it's tappered off and that we don't watch it as much as we use to. 
Having now revisted a few of the older and newer episodes of FRIENDS on DVD, I do believe to some extent that we were wrong at that the ever so wise Mr Cleese was 100% correct.   Even at Season 6 of Friends, there are some truly hilarious moments that stand out and make these landmark episodes.  And i do love the way each episode of FRIENDS is labelled with  "the one where...." "the one with....", "the one that...", simple effective and really quite clever.

Anyhoo, with 24 episodes at hand, Season 6 comes to DVD in no less than 3 DVDs, each double sided to fit 8 episodes (well in truth episode 24 is really a 2 parter, so there's 25 normal length episodes at hand)

Season 6, Disc 1 of this continually funny series contains the following episodes

• The One After Vegas
• The One Where Ross Hugs Rachel
• The One with Ross's Denial
• The One Where Joey Loses His Insurance
• The One with Joey's Porche
• The One On the Last Night
• The Where Pheobe Runs
• The One With Ross's Teeth

Season 6 was first released in 1999.

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VIDEO
If only the 1.33:1 Transfer as was good as this show is funny.

Sadly this is of a very average standard and offers not much better than really good VHS I'm afraid. 

Colours may be well saturated, but the hazy, detail lacking image lets this disc down big time.

Episodes 1 to 4 are on the first side of the disc with Episodes 5 to 8 on the flip side.

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AUDIO
The Audio comes in a Dolby 2.0 mix which is centre channel focused for all onscreen action.
Audience laugher can be heard from the sides so the overall spread appears nice and wide, but that's about it.

Dialalgoue is highly intellegable, which one expects for a sitcom.

...

EXTRAS
The Only Extra included on this DVD is the PC Friendly Web Interface with some Web Links. Quite frankly this is nothing but a was of space (taking up some 170 mb) and i would have preferred to see every bit of available space put toward the picture.

Season 6 is yet another great season from Friends, and with 8 episodes per disc, this is really worth it fro the fans.  Even so, the picture still should be better looking than this disappointing effort from Warner.

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB outputs)
Receiver : Denon AVC-A1SE THX Ultra (Dolby Surround EX, DTS-ES Discrete)
Speakers:-
     Mains: Quadral Amun
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Surrounds Left/Right: M&K SS500 (Dipole)
     Surrounds Back : Polk RT/fx (Diplole)
     Subby: M&K V125 

- Review Posted 6th November 2001

*  jpeg files for internet promotion use only. Copyright© exists on all aspects of these files by Warner Home Video