Customer Rating: 
Summary: Please release this on DVD!!!
Comment: This is a must-have for any classic movie buff. It gives inside information on the way the studio was run, some of the greatest actors and actresses of all time and gives some insight into the downfall of the studio era. I hope this is released on DVD at some time in the near future. They certainly don't make stars or movies like that anymore!
Customer Rating:
Summary: PREVIOUS REVIEWER DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT!
Comment: Sam Goldwyn left the company that beared his name LONG before the merger of MGM. The new company did move into his old studio, but he had nothing to do with this by 1924. REVIEWER: check your facts!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Collapse
Comment: This final part of the series about MGM really leaves one with a sense of loss. It begins where the last tape left off and discusses the studio's unique approaches to musicals led by Arthur Freed, talks about the wonderful stars the studio employed like Frank Sinatra, Esther Williams, Judy Garland, and Elizabeth Taylor, and the new process of Cinemascope and then turns dark. Many of the stars quit or are released from their contracts, Louis B. Mayer is fired and then dies, television changes audience's attendance at theaters, and bosses allow films to be made about antiheroes featuring violence. Finally, it all ends when Vegas man Kirk Kerkorean purchases the struggling studio and sells its history by demolishing the backlots and selling famous props.
Patrick Stewart's narration moves the sad story along and interviews with many stars like Stanley Donen, Esther Williams, Roddy McDowall, Samuel Marx, Van Johnson, June Allyson, Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, Charleton Heston, Ted Turner and more bring it to life.
Clips are shown from several films including Anchors Aweigh, Meet Me in St. Louis, Bathing Beauty, Good News, The Pirate, Battleground, Little Women, On the Town, The Asphalt Jungle, The Red Badge of Courage, An American in Paris, Singin in the Rain, Brigadoon, Blackboard Jungle, Jailhouse Rock, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Gigi, Ben Hur, Dr. Zhivago, 2001: A Space Oddessy, and more.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mayer the Dictator
Comment: Patrick Stewart hosts this documentary in period garb surrounded by a set reminicient of MGM's glorious heyday.
This part of the series takes up where the last one left off. It addresses new issues like some of the technical aspects of film including costume designs by Adrian. Films that became serieses like Andy Hardy films, the Dr. Kildare series, and The Thin Man films are spoken of and shown in clips. New stars like Greer Garson, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr, Katharine Hepburn, and child stars get their chance in the spotlight. This also covers MGM during the war; we see stars donning uniforms and others selling war bonds.
Many of the same stars from the previous segment are interviewed including new ones like Mickey Rooney, Van Johnson, June Allyson, Roddy McDowall, and Dory Schary.
Clips are shown from all sorts of films including The Great Waltz, The Good Earth, The Christmas Party, The Devil is a Sissy, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Captain's Courageous, The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, Ninotchka, Mrs. Miniver, and Lassie Come Home.
Customer Rating:
Summary: More Stars Than There Are in the Heavens
Comment: When the Lion Roars is a tribute to MGM, perhaps the best studio of old Hollywood. It boasted wonderful stars, great films, and a sense of family between its employees. This documentary examines the early life of the studio focusing on moguls like Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg, stars like Greta Garbo, Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, Buster Keaton, John Gilbert, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, and Jean Harlow, and explaining the transition to sound and the preview process used to perfect films.
There are interviews with many major names in Hollywood including stars like Helen Hayes, Lew Ayres, Samuel Marx, Eleanor Boardman, King Vidor, Jackie Cooper, Maureen O'Sullivan, Freddie Bartholomew, and others.
There is an extravagant opener for each installment of this series featuring detailed miniatures which transform into lifesized sets. Patrick Stewart in period costume narrates the film.
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