THE BEST OF HARVEY KORMAN -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 7/25/17

 

A lot of people these days only know Harvey Korman from his Mel Brooks movies ("That's Hedley!"), but there was a time before that when his star shone brightly as the Emmy-winning second banana on TV's legendary "The Carol Burnett Show."

Time-Life's DVD release THE BEST OF HARVEY KORMAN assembles four complete (more or less) nostalgia-heavy episodes from 1969-71, three of which haven't been seen in 40 years, and they serve as a real time machine back to the way variety shows looked in those days.

Watching them now, the show's comedy is as incredibly corny as it can be, with paper-thin writing and forced punchlines, but also with a laidback informality (the performers break character often to either ad-lib or crack up at each other) that continues to appeal.

Production-wise, it often looks almost like a local TV production even though it was a top-rated show on a major network.  Strangely enough, this also adds to the show's charm--it didn't need a big budget with such likable performers to keep audiences happy.

Chief among these of course was Carol, that lovable, rubber-faced genius of physical and verbal comedy who always came across as the superstar next door.  She was a bundle of sparkling personality, especially during the celebrated Q & A segments with the studio audience.

Korman was second only to her in versatility, playing everything from henpecked husbands to weaselly lotharios (as in the lengthy and tedious Latin lover sketch) and everything in between. 

Rounding out the cast was cartoonishly handsome Lyle Waggoner, forever goodnaturedly spoofing his own manly image, while a sweetly callow Vicki Lawrence was the perennial "kid sister" before her eventual breakthrough as "Mama."

Comedy skits alternate with often cringe-inducing song and/or dance numbers, with the first episode in the set giving Lyle and Vicki solo songs that are less than memorable. Even veteran performers such as Bernadette Peters, Nancy Wilson, and Diahann Carroll can't do much with the tacky arrangements they're given. (A pre-"Jeffersons" Isabel Sanford appears briefly as a housekeeper in one segment.)

As for Korman, his appearances in the set are sporadic--the episodes seem pretty much picked at random and don't really showcase his best work at all.  The fact that he's in them seems enough to qualify them for inclusion here.

A skit in which he appears in drag seems to be the collection's highlight. Other points of interest are "The Old Folks" (Harvey and Carol as a doddering elderly couple), a solo comedy song emphasizing Harvey's vanity, Harvey as Richard Nixon, and a guest appearance by future castmember Tim Conway who would become Harvey's most frequent comedy foil. 

While not exactly THE BEST OF HARVEY KORMAN as the title suggests, it's fun to watch these episodes again after all this time and relive those decades-old memories.  Still, viewers who aren't seeing these creaky old skits and corny musical numbers through a golden haze of nostalgia might wonder what all the fuss is about.


PROGRAM INFORMATION
Format: DVD/Single
Running Time: 178 minutes
Genre:  TV DVD/Comedy
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audio: Stereo

THE BEST OF HARVEY KORMAN -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE BEST OF CAROL BURNETT: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 8/5/19

 

If you were watching CBS one night 50 years ago, chances are you saw the premiere of "The Carol Burnett Show." And if you were like me, you loved it and her, even though you probably didn't suspect that it would go on for another eleven years (1967-1978) and that 50 years later you'd be able to watch it all over again on DVD.

Time-Life's 21-disc boxed DVD set THE BEST OF CAROL BURNETT: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION allows us to do just that, with 60 episodes on 21 discs that also contain a wealth of bonus features, along with two illustrated menu booklets and a collectible memory book offering a colorful text history of the show.

The box contains three separate volumes, the first being THE BEST OF THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW (10 discs). This one gives us a chance to relive that first fateful episode and then takes us on a trip through the rest of the series with selected highlight episodes.

The early Carol is a delight as she has her first question-and-answer session with the live audience to open the show--which would become a revered tradition (as would her patented "Tarzan yell")--and wins them over with her easy charm, humility, and bubbling sense of humor and fun. 

Already an experienced performer (she'd just come off "The Garry Moore Show", where I first became a fan as a kid), we get to see her initial awkwardness work in her favor as she gradually becomes a more and more seasoned performer, as do beloved cast regulars Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner. (Frequent guest Tim Conway would later join as well.)

Her audience rapport and sense of fun in the skits and musical numbers to follow establish Carol's ability to relate to viewers on a personal level with no barrier between them.  She also proves willing to improvise and ad-lib her way through the skits, giving the show an enjoyably casual atmosphere where anything can happen.

The skits themselves are a hit-and-miss affair, some screamingly funny while others either don't quite click or are absolute clunkers.  But there are just so many of them that we're always entertained, especially when we get to see favorite continuing characters such as Mr. Tudball and Mrs. Wiggins, The Old Folks, Carol and Sis (lookalike Vicki Lawrence often played Carol's younger sister), and the blackmailing Girl Scout.

There's also the insufferably nagging wife, the soap opera spoof "As The Stomach Turns", Tim Conway's "The Oldest Man", and of course "The Family", with Carol and Harvey as Eunice and Ed Harper and Vicki Lawrence really coming into her own as Eunice's grouchy and eternally disapproving Mama in some of the show's most brilliant and memorable scenes.

In addition to the continuing segments are a wealth of commercial spoofs, Broadway and movie tributes, and other one-shot skits that range from yawners to side-splitters. Most of them are delightfully lowbrow, willfully unsophisticated, and packed with silly fun.  Not only that, but the cast delight in making each other burst into helpless laughter, especially when Tim and Harvey get together. 

Like most variety shows of the time, there's also a resident dance troup who perform semi-weekly song and dance numbers that viewers who appreciate such things will no doubt enjoy. As for me, these are excuses to exercise my chapter-skip button, something I wish I'd had when I was a kid and wanted to get back to the comedy.

I love the mischievous air that pervades the show, with the cast often playing on-air pranks on each other. One episode occurred during a musicians' strike so everyone has to hum the show's incidental music. 

Carol's all-star guests are a stellar line-up of actors, singers, and comedians who represent some of the best and most popular names in the entertainment industry at the time. These include Rita Hayworth, Bernadette Peters, Soupy Sales, Ella Fitzgerald, Sid Caesar, Andy Griffith, Mel Torme', Imogene Coca, Martha Raye, George Gobel, Ken Berry, Cass Elliot, Diahann Carroll, Nanette Fabray, Ray Charles, Carl Reiner, Roddy McDowall, The Jackson 5, Steve Lawrence, Dinah Shore, Ben Vereen, Neil Sedaka, Rock Hudson, and Carol's favorite guest, Jim "Gomer Pyle" Nabors.

The second 10-disc volume in the set, THE BEST OF THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW: 11 YEARS, TOGETHER AGAIN, is another wonderful collection of 27 shows from Carol's 11-season run on CBS. This time guests include Lucille Ball, Bob Newhart, Don Rickles, Eddie Albert, Nancy Wilson, Chita Rivera, Burt Reynolds (who performs an amazing stunt gag), Don Adams, Lesley Ann Warren, Flip Wilson, Vicki Carr, Carol Channing, Ruth Buzzi, Jack Jones, Lily Tomlin, The Pointer Sisters, Dick Van Dyke, Sammy Davis, Jr., Madeline Kahn, Stiller & Meara, Eydie Gorme, and Hal Linden.

The third volume, THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW: THE FINAL SHOW, is Carol's sentimental swan song, which, in addition to the live-audience performances, also features taped reprises of some of the show's highlights over the years.

Mr. Tudball and Mrs. Wiggins appear for the last time as they prepare to move to a new office, while the final "Family" segment shows Mama disrupting Eunice's much-needed session with her therapist.

There are outtakes, TV and movie parodies, and appearances by such guests as Liza Minelli, Perry Como, Bob Hope, and several more. The sudden appearance of a surprise guest, Jimmy Stewart, gives Carol one of her biggest thrills of the show's entire run.

After a tearful goodbye rendition of the show's theme song performed by Carol's beloved "Charwoman" character, she's surprised by a procession of past well-known friends of the show including Harvey Korman, who had left the show sometime before.

Bonus features consist of a cast-reunion featurette, "The End of 11 Years: Saying So Long" and an interview with Carol.

Several of the other discs in the collection also include bonus features too numerous to mention.  These include all manner of outtakes, cast and guest interviews, and a variety of informative featurettes of interest to fans of the show.

Not all of the episodes are complete--some have shorter-than-average running times, but the deletions are probably limited to some of the show's less exciting dance numbers. Pictorially, the shows are in very good condition.

THE BEST OF CAROL BURNETT: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION is a gold mine of entertainment for fans of the show and a great introduction for those who've never seen it before. And as good as the skits and musical numbers are, it's those times when Carol just stands there visiting with the audience in her friendly and totally unassuming way that really make this set a joy to watch. It reminded me of why I've loved her for the last fifty years.


TECH SPECS:

Type: DVD (21 Discs)
Running Time: 58 hours, 51 min.
Rating: N/A
Genre: TV DVD
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (4:3)
Audio: Stereo

THE BEST OF CAROL BURNETT: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION -- DVD Review by Porfle