Friends, let's take a break from looking at Head of the House to consider the news. As first reported by buddy Ivan of Thrilling Days of Yesteryear (well, first reported to me, and isn't that what matters?), Time Life has released a giant DVD collection of The Jackie Gleason Show culled from the 1966-1970 CBS run.
Follow the link for details and for some clips, and maybe look out for an infomercial. This is the first time I can remember scanning the TV listings hoping to find a half-hour ad, but I would like to see how the company is marketing this and to check out some footage while I'm at it. Here are the basics: 10 discs, 27 episodes, 20 hours, 7 "new" Honeymooners sketches. This set will bring the remaining number of surviving never-before-released 'Mooners segments to--well, to something very, very low. I'm no expert, but it appears that most everything except for some odds and ends and a 1970 Ed Norton sketch/pilot w/o Gleason (but WITH Al Lewis and Phil Leeds!) is now out there. MPI previously released multiple The Color Honeymooners volumes compiling the show-length installments of the 1960s; this set contains shorter sketches that had not been seen in years, let alone released.
Here's what we don't know yet: Are these unedited, full-length Jackie Gleason Show episodes? The website doesn't say so, and the running time indicates some if not many are edited. Time Life is known for several things: excellent quality, staggering prices, and impressive musical clearances. I am going to go ahead and say we can expect the first. We know the second is true, as this 10-disc set is 100 bucks. Did some of that money go to clearing the music on this variety show? We'll have to wait and see.
I realize the color years aren't for everyone. However, some people turn their noses at the Lost Episodes, and I think those are great. You have to be a pretty well-heeled Honeymooners completist to get this whole set for the new 'Mooners stuff, but Gleason is Gleason. He was more than just Ralph Kramden, and the variety show also featured characters like Reginald Van Gleason III. In addition to The Great One, Time Life touts a number of high-profile guest stars appearing in the collection.
So that's what we know this set IS. Here's what it ISN'T: A collection of the original black-and-white 1950s Jackie Gleason Show. While Time Life trumpets the fact that this material is IN COLOR, I personally have dreamed of uncut full-length episodes of the original home of the Lost Episodes, back when Gleason was in his prime. Don't get me wrong, Miami Beach audiences are the greatest in the world, as the Great One tells us, but I'm more interested in the original New York stuff.
Second on my wish list is American Scene Magazine, the 1962-1966 incarnation of Gleason's variety show before he went to Miami in full living color. I remember WOR in New York showed a half-hour syndicated version of that series, and as a little kid I was fascinated by this alternate view of the man who was Ralph Kramden. There was scuttlebutt years ago that this series was being shopped for potential DVD release. If anyone could do it, it would be Time Life. I bet the company figured the color years with the big guest stars were more marketable.
MPI had the license to this material for years and did increasingly little with it. A deluxe version of this set has the old Lost Episodes, the same material MPI put out a few years ago in a complete set. Does this mean MPI is done with the world of Jackie Gleason? If so, I hope Time Life someday decides to take a shot at the older stuff. For me, the black and white years, even the American Scene episodes, would be a must buy. As it is, I'd loooove to have this set, but it might take a while for me to come up with 100 bucks for it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment