Customer Reviews

Greg Garrison Presents The Best of the Dean Martin Variety Show - Volume 4 (Four)

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Dean Martin's NBC variety show was truly one of a kind when it came to spontaneous, laid-back atmosphere. The late Greg Garrison, Martin's TV producer and director, compiled several highlight videos from the 1965-74 series. Volume 4 is among the best, with a memorable assortment of famous guests (ranging from Rosemary Clooney to Jimmy Stewart), unrehearsed skits (a Western spoof featuring Roy Rogers and Don Rickles collapses into a hilarious shambles) and wonderful surprises (you never knew who was behind that closet door). Naturally, the show would not be complete without Dino's smooth crooning and endless drunk jokes. Like fine scotch, Martin's freewheeling approach to television has aged well.

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 4--
Opening moologue and song: "Things"
Dean pumps pipe organ for Minnie Pearl's rendition of "Truckload of Starving Kangaroos"
Bill Cosby monologue: "Revenge," from the 1967 comedy album of the same name; NBC censored the last line
Song: "Real Live Girl"
Jimmy Stewart intros domestic skit: Dean and Audrey Meadows
Rosemary Clooney and Dean song medley adds their first names to lyrics
Woody Allen monologue: blind date with future second wife
Skit: Don Rickles' barkeep insults Dean's Oklahoma Kid and the Kid's challenger, Roy Rogers; with Dale Evans
'Love' song medley with Petula Clark includes "If This Isn't Love" from her 1968 film, FINIAN'S RAINBOW
Lyric one-liners with Ken Lane; Dean's Uncle Leonard emerges from closet to do a novelty dance
Song: "Please"
With Buddy Hackett, who recalls stage plays he acted in such as THE DESPERATE HOURS
Popular tune medley with Lena Horne
KING KONG parody: Goldie Hawn, Dean and the ape stuck in Empire State Building elevator
Down south medley with Michael Landon
Skit: Frank Sinatra and Dean meet in park, matched up by computer dating service
Rowan & Martin gunfight skit narrated by Bill Cosby, with Dean as sheriff
Producer/director Greg Garrison on doing complete theme song; Dean ends season by singing "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime" in its entirety, accompanied by Ken Lane's piano
Credits

I loved Bill Cosby and Don Rickles in some of the sketch comedy presented in this DVD but once again this is a compilation from several different shows. Is there no way to get these shows on DVD by season, like you can with almost any other television program?

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.

A refreshingly original variety show on several editions culled frm several episodes. With all the big names it's really Dean who shines, especially on the Bing Crosby tune, "Please", and guess what theme song, actually introduced by Greg Garrison, present-day..

Comedy stuff, well, moderately amusing, amazingly dated, though Bill Cosby's storytelling is superb, taking us back to winters in Philly, way back when. Woody Allen has some great lines, though his recollections do not resonate, in comparison. Don Rickles is more energy and enthusiasm than wit. Buddy Hackett survives the time capsule, in a relaxed segment with Dino. And naturally, Frank Sinatra is on the scene. Here, he and Dean work through a more "written*, (but presumeably unrehearsed) bit, about two tuxedo'd studs who both get stood up at the park...but find a way to make a night of it, anyway.

Note: Audrey Meadows, not listed, is featured in a wild sketch, where she stays planted in the living-room recliner, while husband Dean endures constant costume changes, as he jumps to her whimsical imaginings...even delivering a camel to the set!

Audio/Video good to very good.

The shipping service was fast and accurate, but the product was different than expected. Only one hour of Dean Martin show for $30. For someone with a lot of money and doesn't care, this would be a way to see all the old Dean Martin shows, but I won't be depleting my bank account on the remaining episodes.

watched this last night and i laughed all the way through it. i can't wait to show my mother-in-law, she is going to love it LOL