Customer Reviews

The Best of the Andy Williams Show

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I did enjoy this DVD. Excellent musical numbers with Ray Charles, Cass Elliot, and of course Andy. There was also a good comedy routine
with Jonathn Winters.

But the shows are incomplete. Sceens have been cut out.
I can only assume it may have been for music rights.
Which too bad because I love to see entire episodes.

I like the interview with Andy. I found it be very informative.

First, I am a big Andy Williams fan, and saw about all of his shows in the 60's and 70's and own almost all of his music. I remember this episode well and it was great ---- it was a special of 5 or 6 shows he did in the late 60's before returning each week in 1970.

The problem is whoever put this show together, as well as ALL of Andy's Time Life DVD's chopped it (them)up so badly you can barely recognize them at times. I would bet that most people bought these Time Life DVD's mostly to see Andy Williams sing his 3-4 songs per show, secondly to hear him sing with his guests, and thirdly to see his guests. In any of these DVD's, you MAY get to hear Andy sing 2 songs in total. In a couple of these Time Life DVD's, his guests sing the final song on the cut versions. Definitely not what I bought it for.

Time Life should not have butchered these episodes as they did. I was really looking forward to them but I was very disappointed. I'd love to see them reissued in their entirety (without commercials) which would end up being 45-50 minutes each. Now THAT would be worth buying.

I wasn't expecting much more than just what the title suggested: "Best of" clips of various shows.

But "best of" doesn't mean "after this commercial break" and various other incidental material from Andy's shows.

However, this was mostly a good, albeit brief, time capsule of two shows and an extensive, interesting interview with Andy.

There were two highlights on this DVD: Ella Fitzgerald singing "Lover Man", a performance that was stunningly perfect, and the medley featuring a youthful Burt Bacharach (Andy's introduction for Burt bordered on weird, in my opinion).

The medley with Cass Elliot was flat out cute and fun (what a loss that she died so young). Cass and Andy appeared to have had a blast doing this act, judging from their chemistry.

All in all, this is a respectable DVD, but as others have said, it didn't contain enough musical numbers, and the editing left much to be desired.

As a teenager who listened mostly to the pop stars of the day back in the 60's (like the Beatles, Supremes, Young Rascals, etc.), I must say that there was something about The Andy Williams Show that made me want to tune
in every week along with my parents. The voice, of course, cannot be denied, but Andy had such an easygoing charm and self-effacing sense of humor that I found him very appealing. I really did get a kick out of his show, and it stands as one of the better musical variety shows from an era when there were a LOT of variety shows.
I looked forward to this DVD, having purchased another "Best Of" DVD of his show about 5 years ago. From the back cover info I expected two complete episodes, or at least something close to it. The guests are all wonderful, but it is way too edited. Out of an 80 minute running time, only about 52 minutes is the actual show. The rest is a recent interview with Andy. I wouldn't even have minded an edited version had it not been so heavy-handed. In an introduction to the first episode, the present-day
Andy talks about a wonderful duet he did with Ella Fitzgerald. That duet is NOT on the DVD! And then his opening number has so obviously been cut out of the show, only to have him mention who his guest stars are TWICE IN A ROW! Who butchered this thing? Once I got past the crazy hatchet job done on the episodes I did enjoy it. The guest stars are all wonderful, and were all at the top of their respective games, whether it's
Ella smoldering through "Lover Man" or the Smothers Brothers doing their patented schtick. There's a wonderfully silly duet with Andy and Cass Elliot, and a fabulous medley of Burt Bacharach songs done with Burt leading the orchestra. But why do we have Andy singing "Strangers In The Night" instead of one of his own hits? It's just another example of the randomness of this DVD. But you cannot fault the performers. They're all wonderful. I just wish more care had been put into this release.

Must have for Andy Williams Fans. I just wish it was long or more of them!