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The Very Best of St. Elsewhere - Four Tape Set
by (Primary Contributor: Denzel Washington)
Product Group: Video
Studio: Mtm Video
ISBN: 0767010019
EAN: 9780767010016
UPC: 767685540039
VHS Tape
Running Time: 400 minutes
Original Release Date: 1982-10-26
Theatrical Release Date: 1982-10-26
Release Date: 1998-06-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
SKU: 07120128
Condition: Like New Very Good
Comments: Four VHS tape set in like new condition. From private collection so no rental or library stickers. All four individual cases are like new and slipcase which holds all four tapes is very good with minor wear and tape on one edge of top and side of case. Play-tested and tape picture quality is like new. Very nice collection of classic St Elsewhere programs.
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Editorial Reviews
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Description
For six memorable years, St. Elsewhere proved how good TV can be. Exquisitely written, directed and performed, the series’ unique mix of hard-hitting drama and heartfelt humor garnered 13 Emmy® awards and the coveted Peabody® and Humanitas awards. Many
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Amazon.com
Long before the angst-ridden tension of ER and Chicago Hope, television audiences tuned in to St. Elsewhere for their weekly dose of hospital hijinks. From 1982 to 1988, this Boston-based NBC series shared the spotlight with Hill Street Blues as cutting-edge TV drama, paving the way for shows as diverse as Northern Exposure and L.A. Law. Once dubbed by TV Guide as "the greatest dramatic series of all time," St. Elsewhere wears this accolade remarkably well, as evidenced by this four-tape boxed set. For example, many dramatic series now incorporate humor as a vital element, but St. Elsewhere may be the first long-running dramatic series to consistently use intelligent humor in a compelling, off-beat manner. Each of the eight episodes in this boxed set demonstrates this nuanced humor. Representing the most highly acclaimed shows from each season, The Very Best of St. Elsewhere showcases the work of several cast members who continued their careers after the series' demise, including Mark Harmon, Howie Mandel, Helen Hunt, Alfre Woodard, and of course, Denzel Washington. St. Elsewhere lent a much-needed human element to the never-ending trials of a frenetic, big-city hospital, and the drama was made real with the pioneering use of handheld cameras, looping story line episodes, and overlapping dialogue. The show's fresh urban edge revitalized a genre long stale with the likes of Marcus Welby, M.D. and Medical Center. Garnering 13 Emmy Awards and a fiercely loyal following, the show endured a five-year run, despite increasingly poor ratings. Finally, on May 25, 1988, St. Elsewhere closed its doors to the public, as well as network television. --Stephan Magcosta
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Customer Reviews
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One of the finest television series
Rating  (5)
Date: 2004-10-31
6 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
This really was one of the best of all time. This 'Best Of' box set is very good, though it probably would have been better to stick to the first few seasons. That's the proble with the MTM box sets: they go for an overview, and most series get worse over time (The Mary Tyler Moore Show was probably the only television series ever to retain the same high quality). Still, this set is the best chance to catch a great show.
The truly shocking thing is it never won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. Whilst Lou Grant, Hill Street Blues and Thirtysomething rightly did, St. Elsewhere missed out. And you know what won it both years when St. Elegias should have won? Cagney and Lacey!! Probably the biggest mistake the Emmies made - that forgettable cop show looks trifling and mediocre now.
St. Elsewhere was intelligent television that's hard to come by these days. They were innovative, literate, funny, and challenging. The excellent acting was matched by terrific writing. The first two or three seasons were the best; it was the kind of tv that was so good it could give you a high, like the first few years of The West Wing. If you haven't seen it in a while, get the box set of St. Elsewhere (on eBay if it's out of print on Amazon).
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The very best of saint elsewhere
Rating  (1)
Date: 2004-06-17
5 out of 14 customers found this reveiw helpful
I Love Saint Elsewhere and we were tickled to finally get this video, although a DVD with all the series would be better.
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Why is there no complete DVD box set ?
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-05-31
17 out of 18 customers found this reveiw helpful
Does anyone (out there or at Amazon) know why all the episodes of St. Elsewhere have never been released on DVD? I have sent several E-mails to both NBC and MTM productions asking this but never get a response. In doing internet searches, it seems like there are alot of people out there who grew up with the show and would be more than happy to pay for the box set. Is it some type of ownership or copyright issue? These "Best of...." series are ok, but I would much rather own the complete series. With all of the other series currently being released on DVD (Friends, ER, The West Wing, etc.), why not some of the great ground breaking series such as St. Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues? It just seems very strange that the owners of these old great series are turning down what (to me at least) would seem to be a very profitable venture. Does anyone know what is behind the lack of release of these two great series? Thanks.
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The Doctor is IN
Rating (5)
Date: 2004-05-03
6 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
As an aspiring surgeon during my college years, I viewed St. Elsewhere with a critical eye. The dialogue, the case scenarios, the arrogance within academe, ad infinitum... precociously, St. Elsewhere captured it all during a time when most of the US was proverbially asleep--a condition not too unlike today wherein millions tune in to mindless fodder as The Bachelor, The Apprentice, Real World, etc... A DVD collection would truly be awesome... but I seriously doubt Hollywood would comply.
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The best television has offered
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-03-25
16 out of 16 customers found this reveiw helpful
To paraphrase some dialogue from the final episode, it was a privilege to live in the time that St. Elsewhere aired. The show took more chances than any other show in the history of television, and while there certainly times that the show's reach exceeded its grasp, the show as a whole succeeded admirably throughout its run. The show boasted perhaps the largest recurring cast of characters in the history of prime time television, and an amazing group of actors (and even a few non-actors) brought these characters to life - Williams Daniels, Ed Begley, Jr., Denzel Washington, Alfre Woodard, David Morse, Ed Flanders, Stephen Furst, Helen Hunt, Bruce Greenwood, Ronny Cox, Patricia Wettig, Bonnie Bartlett... the list goes on and on. The stories that the show told over its 5+ year run fit together in an unprecented combination of the silliness, drudgeries and horrors of life. The best of the series always had somewhat of an epic feel as the result of the range of plots and characters (as well as the constant in-jokes, ironically), and the extraordinary two-part episode Time Flies, which is featured in this videocasette set, is the apotheosis of that tendency, as the show brilliantly weaves the 50 year history of the fictional St. Eligius, its staff, its patients, and its neighborhood into a magnificent two hour tapestry.The only negative comments I can make concern the soundtrack changes on the videotape editions described by a previous reviewer and the lack of other episodes on video. Hopefully, someday, this series will someday appear on DVD, with commentary from the series' writers, producers and directors (if ever a television series needed that kind of commentary, this is the one).
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