Tales of the City - The Complete Series

continue to watch it on VHS, unless they put out a truly "unedited" DVD.


Would have been perfect, but...   January 13, 2004
S. Antonio Arch (Toronto)
138 out of 139 found this review helpful

To begin, I give Tales of the City itself five stars. I would give it ten if I could. I get sentimental every time I catch it on TV, loved it on PBS ten years ago and just as much now.

My problem is with this DVD Collector's edition. It states very clearly on the box that this is the original, unrated, unedited version. Which is why I buy it, take it home and wait for one of my favourite scenes. Finally Brian picks up Connie Bradshaw at the Laundromat and I'm waiting for that wonderful post-coital confrontation. And I realise that the dialogue has been DUBBED OVER. Over the course of the next three hundred minutes I agonise over the several other scenes that have been cleaned up.

This boxed set is beautiful. It has some wonderful extras including rehearsals and commentaries, but the dialogue has been tampered with and yes it does absolutely detract from the story


Love, Romance & Mystery at 28 Barbary Lane   March 26, 2003
M. Hart (USA)
23 out of 24 found this review helpful

Thanks to writer Armistead Maupin, 28 Barbary Lane has become one of the most famous addresses in San Francisco; but it is fictitious. The address is the location of an apartment building created by Maupin when he began writing a fictitious weekly serial called "Tales of the City" for a local San Francisco Newspaper called the "San Francisco Chronicle" in 1976. After 13 years of weekly installments, Maupin converted them into a collection of six books. The first book, named "Tales of the City", was turned into a 6-hour TV miniseries by the BBC in 1993. When it aired on PBS in the U.S. in 1994, it caused quite a controversy not only for its honest depiction of gay characters, but also for showing men kissing one another and frequent drug use. The story's main character is the eccentric owner/landlady of the apartment building, Mrs. Anna Madrigal, played by the very talented Olympia Dukakis. Mrs. Madrigal is a free spirit choosing to live life to its fullest, including the growing of marijuana that she shares freely with her residents. Her residents are also a very interesting set of people including Mona Ramsey (Chloe Webb), Michael 'Mouse' Tolliver (Marcus D'Amico), Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney), Brian Hawkins (Paul Gross) and Norman Williams (Stanley DeSantis).

Taking place in the mid-1970's, the story begins with Mary Ann deciding to remain and move to San Francisco while visiting from the Midwest. She finds an advertisement for an available apartment at 28 Barbary Lane. She goes there, meets Mrs. Madrigal and immediately moves in. Mary Ann then finds a job as a secretary for the very wealthy Edgar Warfield Halcyon (Donald Moffat), who also employs his son-in-law, Beauchamp Talbot Day (Thomas Gibson). Beauchamp's marriage to Edgar's daughter, Deirdre Denise 'DeDe' Ligon Halcyon Day (Barbara Garrick), is rather dysfunctional with both engaging in extramarital activities. Mona also works for Edgar Halycon, but gets into trouble with her outspoken views. Mona and Michael, who is gay, become very good friends and spend a lot time with each other. Over the course of the story, ties between many of the residents of 28 Barbary Lane and their common acquaintances (but not necessarily known) are shown. One of the common acquaintances is Dr. Jon Philip Fielding (Bill Campbell), who is De De's gynecologist, but also knows both Beauchamp and Michael. Other well-known actors played minor roles in the miniseries including Ian McKellan (known more as Gandalf in the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy), McLean Stevenson (known more as the bumbling C.O. Lt. Colonel Henry Blake in the 1972 TV series "M*A*S*H"), Rod Steiger (known for many roles including Komarovsky in the 1965 film "Dr. Zhivago"), Swoosie Kurtz (played in the 1988 film "Dangerous Liaisons") and Janeane Garofalo (played in the 1997 film "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion"). Armistead Maupin also makes a brief cameo appearance as a writer in a window.

Overall, "Tales of the City" was very well done by the BBC and I rate it with 5 out of 5 stars. Sequels to the series were made later, but not all of the original actors reprised their roles to the disappointment of many fans. The two actors most commonly missed in the later sequels are Chloe Webb and Marcus D'Amico, whose roles as Mona Ramsey and Michael Tolliver were replaced by Nina Siemaszko and Paul Hopkins respectively. Admittedly, the chemistry that existed between Mona and Michael with the original actors in "Tales of the City" did not come across as effectively with their replacements in the sequels. Of the two miniseries sequels, the first ("More Tales of the City") is better than the second ("Further Tales of the City"). Each is based on the second and third of Maupin's books.


Poor quality at a HIGH price!   October 25, 2005
L.T. (Sydney, NSW Australia)
19 out of 21 found this review helpful

When this DVD version came out I was very tempted to buy. As a completist/Anal retentive I crave uniformity until I saw a friend's copy which was inferior to the DVD version in Australia. This mob who managed to mount a convincing DVD cover neglected the content! Please don't be deceived! The transfer is very grainy not artistic grainy but just plain poor quality grainy! If you want to see this on a plasma screen, forget it! it is that bad! I was fortunate to get a hold of the Australasian copy which is far far far superior and a whole lot cheaper than this! I guess all I can say is this is not good enough. If you can get a copy other than this one this title is a DEFINITE must have!


The DVD issue is a rip-off.   April 30, 2006
kwlsea (Seattle, WA USA)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful

Ah, if only I had read these reviews BEFORE spending my money. I concur with the complaints here: the quality of the transfer is horrid, and the dialogue has been dubbed. The box states that this is the "Complete 6-episode unedited version." False advertising.