Thanks Steve, but I don't believe I deserve those accolades. What Sam has said is of course true in some instances, and it almost always has to do with music clearance issues. Paramount is the best company out there as far as releasing vintage TV shows (none of the studios are even close to them when it comes to 50's and 60's fare) and they do get a large portion of my business.

When it comes to GOMER PYLE, there have been one or two music substitutions, because Jim Nabors sang a few times on that show and in certain instances the folks that owned a particular song wanted way too much money and Paramount did indeed cut that part out. But it's only happened once or twice, not many times.

Sam, you are correct that it's possible to get a "bootleg" version of a show that actually is more intact, but like Steve said you are almost always going to have inferior audio and video. That's going to be the case 99.9% of the time because taping shows off air cannot compare to professional studio work. Therefore I'd stick with the official releases in every instance. Just my two cents.

Gary "in the case of Gomer Pyle I'd much rather have the solid prints from Paramount's release, even if it means a song was deleted, than look at worn out, uneven homemade dvds" O.

Thanks Gary (and Steve) for your responses. That's what I guessed. Plus the fact that while the first box set was advertised as THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON while the others were advertised as THE SECOND SEASON and THE THIRD SEASON, ommiting the word COMPLETE in the latter 2. I plan to continue to buy the OFICIAL LEGIT versions of course as I despise bootleggers. Also as for GOMER PYLE, after a spectacular FIRST SEASON packed with EXTRAS, it was sad to see that CBS/Paramount are releasing the other seasons as BARE BONE DVD'S! And back to the music clearance issue, I am assuming that CBS/Paramount won't release the excellent THE JIM NABORS HOUR (that succeeded GOMER PYLE in 1969)on DVD as since it was a variety show with lots of musical bits, that will be a problem getting a clearance for since if you edit out the musical numbers, There will be only 15 minutes left from THE JIM NABORS HOUR! Fortunately we will not have to worry about Music Clearances on the Fabulous CHARLIE CHAN BOX SETS from Fox!!!