One other caveat .. it isn't Jim Carrey's over the top singing performance in the finale that's meant to emulate Bette Midler singing "One More For My Baby" for Carson's farewell .. it's the song that Clint Black sings at the end of the show. (Which is oddly touching, and the same number that he performs in an earlier episode.) As Artie points out to Larry when Larry objects to "a man" singing to him .. "you don't have to worry about the homo-erotic overtones .. it's Clint!"
RM   posted 15.01.11

While I agree with your take on the genius of this show, it always seemed to have technical problems .. and they were in place from its inception, not just in this box set. The visible boom errors (when they were surely not intended, during office scenes when they are nowhere near the set for the show)aren't the result of any full-frame adjustments in the box set. They were apparent in many of the original broadcasts, of which I still have VHS recordings from HBO. Also, the Shout!Factory claim about the lack of image quality (most evident, but not limited to the first three seasons)being attributable to the quality of available masters, while technically accurate, has nothing to do with a superior master being available. This was the way the show always looked, even during its original broadcast on HBO. Not sure why this is, as the choice to use both film and video during production to distinguish between on and off air scenes obviously reflected great aesthetic concern. Perhaps there were complications in the original post production and telecine process, while trying to match both film and video elements for one broadcast master.
RM   posted 15.01.11

As well as the brilliance of the writing and the acting, I love the technical details such as using video for the talk show scenes but film for the rest (which I would credit them for doing first but I didn't realize until I re-watched The King of Comedy a few years ago that Scorsese did the same thing there) and, as Tolan points out on the commentary, they were really the first series to regularly utilize the moving-down-the-hall conversation scenes. Where would The West Wing have been without it?
Edward Copeland   posted 13.12.10