Customer Reviews

The Best of the Dean Martin Variety Show - Volume 2

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

 

 

There are plenty of highlights in this hourlong "Dean Martin Show" compilation. However, the second volume is most notable for the 1967 preservation of Don Rickles' nightclub act. Mr. Warmth skewers a celebrity-packed audience for 20 minutes and delivers his classic Bob Hope zinger ("Why is he here? Is the war over?"). If you're a Rickles fan, this video belongs in your collection. Otherwise, you may want to purchase a better-rounded Dino volume.

Videotapes of THE BEST OF THE DEAN MARTIN VARIETY SHOW (2001) were once available from GUTHY-RENKER via a TV infomercial. There are 30 individual one-hour compilations in this series, which has since become somewhat of a collectible. (Note: these are highlights only, not complete programs.)

Title card seen here was also used as THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW LP cover. Audio is clean mono. Colors in these dubs of well-preserved tape excerpts are vibrant.

CONTENTS for Volume 2--
Dean's opening monologue
Producer/director Greg Garrison's comments on show openers
Sings "If You Knew Suzie Like I Know Suzie"
Jimmy Stewart intros Milburn Stone spoonerism bit with Dean
Takeoff of "Mr. Gallagher & Mr. Shean," with Phil Harris
Dancing song medley with Florence Henderson
Dom De Luise intros barbershop bit with Peter Sellers, Nipsy Russell, Dom and Dean
Dean's lyric line jokes, Ken Lane at the piano; straight version of "Pennies from Heaven"
Sings "Small Fry" with son Dino
In Abraham Lincoln party costume, Bob Newhart as Dean's bride; with Petula Clark as lawyer
Greg Garrison on Dean's singing style
Girl's name medley with Tony Bennett
Dean's sports reporter with Jonathan Winter as football coach Billy Joe Hardbody and two colorful players
"Wonderful television" skit with Florence Henderson, Tony Bennett, Bob Newhart, Dean and chorus
Dean intros celebrity-filled nightclub audience; Don Rickles insults them and uses bits also heard on his HELLO DUMMY! LP
Dean's chat with Don closes show; credits

Anyone who doesn't watch this volume two DVD and laugh through it is either jaded or honestly - just not 'getting it'! I can't believe the "too much Newhart" comment. Not a major comedian? So I guess those two wildly successful t.v. shows of his own were really 'minor' and the high ratings and years of continued popularity for not one but both of them are a figment of our imaginations? My personal favorite bit on this DVD though is the little ditty Dean-o does with Phil Harris - more often known these days no doubt as the voice of Balloo the Bear in Disney's "The Jungle Book." The fun these two are having is so contagious. They simply do not make shows like this anymore. I'm not even sure if you could. Who truly has the kind of ease in front of a camera/audience, talent, humor, sex-appeal professional savvy and pure unadulterated charm that Dean Martin did? Who even comes close? No one. He was one of a kind and we're lucky to have these to remember him with and enjoy good times with him again and again. I recommend this DVD (though all of the ones I've watched are great) to anyone who appreciates comedy that is clever, often more sophisticated then one may first realize, and certainly done by the best of the best of the best. The cream of the crop during T.V's real coming of age. I love it and I love Dean Martin and will til the day I go and probably even after.

First off, the show was funny, especially in its later days, probably
a testament to how fast cultural taste in comedy changed from the mid
to late 60s.

Also, one of the great innovations of the show was Dean's disregard of
what I call the "barrier of the proscenium", the separation between
the audience and production staff and the performer, the illusion that
the performer(s) existed in a self-contained universe. In T.V. up to
that time, even with live audiences, the two never mixed. Dean,
however, predates innovators like Letterman in breaking down this
barrier.

However, I couldn't agree more with Red Wood's review. What a
difference 4 decades make.

I bought the first three of the DVDs with the idea that it would
bring back fond memories of all the stars that appeared on
Dean's show. It succeeds in this area, but the humor is out-dated and
even embarasingly bad. This is quite incongruous considering the list
of all-time greats that appeared on the show: Woody Allen, Jonathon
Winters, Rowen and Martin, Bill Cosby, et al.

There's way too much Bob Newhart. While popular in the era, he wasn't
an important comedian like Winters, Allen and Cosby and his shtick
wears thin quickly. The sketches with Winters are bland and flat.
Woody Allen, one of the best stand-up comedians, is dull.

Then there's the Don Rickles sketch in which the sound stage is
converted to a nightclub scene with an audience of real celebrities
which is excruciatingly bad. Rickles in his prime was one of the best
insult comics, but this episode is not a prime example. The bit goes
on for most of DVD 3 and I fast forwarded though most of it.

The music is probably the best part of the collection with
luminaries like a young(er) Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, and the
great Ella Fitzgerald.

While I agree the overall presentation and format of this series could be improved and we could do without the presenters or producers putting in their cute remarks and just let Dean and his guests do the entertaining. However, there are two glaring sentences in the previous reviews that shook me up with a good laugh.
1. "Woody Allen, one of the best stand-up comedians, is dull." haha, how in the heck could Woody Allen be any other way? Good grief !!! That sentence tells me all I need to know about that reviewer and any other thing that's said loses all its credibility with me. "Over-rated' doesn't even do Woody Allen's comedy justice.
2. "It's 2008, folks, let's start acting like it! Get your silly heads out of the clouds!"
Please, ho Please show me what 2008 has in the way of creative, feel-good or just plain FUNNY comedy? I have tried and tried to find someone who is genuinely funny in today's comedians. Oh yes, there's talent galore out there. But the angry manner in which it is presented is far from real comedy. Most of today's comedians find it much easier to riddle their routines with 4-letter words in order to be 'shocking' than to actually try to come up with a creative, original routine.
Now, as far as this particular video series goes, it is not fresh, it is not the best of comedy or even the best of Dean Martin, but it shows legends who are having fun, it shows pure comedy in its raw form, it makes you feel good, it makes you laugh and smile. That's what comedy is all about.

I bought another one of these videos and I would love to complete the set! The VHS quality is excellent, best I've seen yet!

DVDs of THE BEST OF THE DEAN MARTIN VARIETY SHOW (2001) were once available from GUTHY-RENKER via a TV infomercial. There are 30 individual one-hour compilations in this series, which has since become somewhat of a collectible. (Note: these are highlights only, not complete programs.)

Title card seen here was also used as THE DEAN MARTIN SHOW LP cover. Audio is clean mono. Colors in these dubs of well-preserved tape excerpts are vibrant.

CONTENTS for Volume 3--
Dean's opening monologue
Producer/director Greg Garrison's comments on show openers
Sings "If You Knew Suzie Like I Know Suzie"
Jimmy Stewart intros Milburn Stone spoonerism bit with Dean
Takeoff of "Mr. Gallagher & Mr. Shean," with Phil Harris
Dancing song medley with Florence Henderson
Dom De Luise intros barbershop bit with Peter Sellers, Nipsy Russell, Dom and Dean
Dean's lyric line jokes, Ken Lane at the piano; straight version of "Pennies from Heaven"
Sings "Small Fry" with son Dino
In Abraham Lincoln party costume, Bob Newhart as Dean's bride; with Petula Clark as lawyer
Greg Garrison on Dean's singing style
Girl's name medley with Tony Bennett
Dean's sports reporter with Jonathan Winters as football coach Billy Joe Hardbody and two colorful players
"Wonderful television" skit with Florence Henderson, Tony Bennett, Bob Newhart, Dean and chorus
Dean intros celebrity-filled nightclub audience; Don Rickles insults them and uses bits also heard on his HELLO DUMMY! LP
Dean's chat with Don closes show; credits

Not as bad as the first DVD I saw in this series. A lot of entertaining stuff in this volume, including a dance with Florence Henderson and a great bit with Peter Sellers. However, there is still some commentary which distracts more than enhances the entertainment value. On a positive note, Don Rickles heckling celebrities from the the stage is... well you have to see it to believe it.

The DVD was in great condition and received in a timely manner. Gave it to my father for Christmas and was enjoyed by him and the whole family.

This is a review of the complete 'Best of Dean Martin...' sets. I'm not critiquing any specific volume, so I apologize in advance that this review is found on every one. However, since my review is for all buyers and not just those of a certain volume, this seems necessary.
'The Dean Martin Show'(1965-74) was a favorite of mine as a child &, outside of the vaudeville slapstick, it still holds up pretty well. As for the packaging, however, Martin's longtime assistant, Greg Garrison, has edited this whole thing together with no consideration to content or style: on e. volume, excerpts from all nine seasons are poorly tossed together, with the jump from time periods being extremely jarring & the style of the show completely lost. Included are reminiscences from guest stars of the show, but these are poorly edited into the format, looking more like cheap quality early 80s videos. A friend of mine, who also likes 60s TV, was just horrified when he saw this mishmash.
So, basically, if you're someone who just wants to see the show and has no concerns on how you view it, these'll possibly be fine. Contrarily, if you have fond memories of the show and its style, which Martin worked hard on, you'd probably do better waiting for a better package. A season by season release, as most TV offers now, is long overdue.
The real culprit here is Guthy-Renker, who has the rights to the show. It's an extremely dated company that does this very same thing to all programs to which they received the rights, such as 'The Carol Burnett Show' & 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'. I believe 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' has had this same problem, but handled by a different mishandler.