A classic infomercial returns

Let this be an alert to all ye viewers of too much television that one of the best infomercials (a dubious honor, I'll grant you) has returned to regular rotation. That is, an old favorite of mine has returned with a new installment. I am talking about the half-hour pitch for "The Best of the Dean Martin Variety Shows." This commercial, loaded with clips, interviews, and, well, more clips, is more entertaining than a lot of actual programming on TV these days (again, perhaps that's a dubious honor).

I've been down this road before. The infomercial touting the Best of the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts was a riot. In fact, it was so good I was actually tempted to buy the video until I noted the fine print and realized it was kind of a club with (likely) outrageous prices. Besides, the collection of snippets from the roasts was so well executed in its assemblage, and so mesmerizing in its repetition on late-night TV, that I feared the actual product would pale in comparison.

I felt much the same way when I saw Regis Philbin host a half-hour shill for The Best of the Dean Martin Variety Shows. Regis didn't need to give his "showbiz credibility" to the material; it sold itself with all the goofy footage of Dean singing, drinking, acting drunk, making drinking jokes with various celebrities. Or it would have sold itself had I been willing to pay for it. The infomercial was almost enough, and though I believed the DVDs would be a lot of fun, again I wondered if they could live up to the maximum per-minute fun ratio established by showing a series of brief tidbits.

Well, there's a new Regis-less version of this infomercial, with a new assortment of highlights shilling the same DVDs. The videos still offer music, dancing, comedy, and all sorts of good old-fashioned fun. I don't think the infomercial showed any clip longer than 60 seconds, but so what? What do you need with full segments when you have Ruth Buzzi and Dom DeLuise TELLING you how great the show was?

Last but not least, at one point we get a tantalizing glimpse of Dean Martin and Foster Brooks together! How does it happen? What transpires? I don't know, but they both appear sloshed, and really, that's probably all we need to know. The full sketch could very well disappoint.

So I'm not buying these DVDs, but if I catch the infomercial again, maybe I'll try to record IT.

UPDATE: As I went to press with this post (a fancy way of saying after I wrote it but before I published it) I saw the original Regis-hosted version of this infomercial. Each is recommended. I assumed the Reege one was pulled from circulation, but I may have missed the point. Maybe the goal is to keep producing the infomercials so that eventually a channel can program a whole night of Dean Martin Infomercials. And then, of course, there will be a Best of the Dean Martin Infomercials DVD Collection. And they'll need an infomercial to sell it...