Customer Reviews

Greg Garrison Presents - The Best of the Dean Martin Variety Show (Special Edition)

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

 

 

As another Amazon reviewer notes, this DVD is just one of a large collection of a DVD set. Notice how many stars are "featured" on this one hour DVD? It must be about nine or ten. That's simply not enough time for the producers of the DVD to do much more than just provide what I would call "extended clips" from the performances each great artist did on Dean's show. I suppose if you're really into the show you would certainly have to buy at least all 23 DVDs to then have a complete set--a complete set of extended clips, that is!

The picture is fair; they could have reproduced it better. The sound quality is rather good. The packaging is cheap but the artwork is not bad and there are a few notes about the show in general provided for us.

If you just want a brief overview then this is for you. But for the serious fan who wants so badly to remember these great performances you're going to be disappointed and agree with me that this is a mediocre effort. Too bad!

This DVD is the first of twenty three (1 of 23) DVDs in the collection. It is NOT the entire set. It offers segments of the show that involved the guests listed, NOT the entire shows in which the guests appeared. Each DVD contains approximately 60 minutes of guest appearances.

I have to agree with the reviewers here and take Greg Garrison and Company to task for the way in which this product has been offered to the general public.

Like many people I have very fond memories of sixties and seventies television, which as a kid I happily watched with my family and friends. Next to sitcoms and cartoons my favorites were the variety shows, and The Dean Martin Show was one of the very best.

So I was delighted to learn that all these years later The Dean Martin Show was being re-released, but my delight has turned to disappointment as I see how it has been packaged.

Is there a reason (beyond the screamingly obvious) why shows like this keep getting sliced and diced into "volumes" featuring annoyingly truncated segments, not to mention mere highlights and clips, of great performances by classic entertainers? What will it take before companies like Guthy-Renker realize that the buying public is sick and tired of such obnoxious practices?

I am not really a Dino "fanatic"-- I was a little girl in my first years of grammar school when his variety show debuted and was a junior in high school when it ended--but as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate Dean Martin's unique charm and talent, and to love and admire the best of his amazing body of work, from his frenzied Martin and Lewis period to the swingin' Rat Pack high life to his long and varied solo actor-singer years.

The Dean Martin Show was wonderful, capturing Dino at his easygoing best (especially in zany comedy bits with performers like Bob Newhart, Dom Deluise, Jonathan Winters, Don Rickles and Paul Lynde, who knew just how to play against their host's loopy, warmly playful shtick). Martin and his impressive roster of Golden Age of Hollywood guests deserve so much better than these clip and paste job "volumes"--and so do we.

Put the full season DVDs of The Dean Martin Show out there (and do it soon please) and we'll buy them. Until then Garrison and Guthy-Renker are not getting another penny of my money!

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.

This Special Edition disc differs from the rest of the series in one respect: celebrities intro and often narrate during every segment presented.


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 of Special Edition--
Orson Welles opens; "She's My Kind Of Girl"; Welles on Dean's closet; montage of famous guests who emerge from it
Bob Newhart on no rehearsals; he intros 1965 skit where Dean can't stop laughing at him
Dom De Luise intros Goldie Hawn's first appearance ("Dum-dums of America")
Welles on station breaks; Dean in magician's cabinet for his only "break" spot
Producer/director Greg Garrison on Dean's singing style; Happy blues medley with Gene Kelly
Jimmy Stewart intros doctor skit with Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon
Jimmy on segment where he does celebrity impressions
Gene Kelly intros Dean's Ding-a-lings segment, pretty girls who play 'musical questions' with Dean
Roy Rogers calls a square dance that Dean can't keep with
Jack Benny's Ding-a-lings compete with Dean's
Victor Borge on his 'lyrics with punctuation marks' medley with Dean
Medley with Ann-Margret
Newhart intros skit: Kay Medford, Ken Lane, Ruth Buzzi, Frank Sinatra and Dean (New Year's Eve show)
Finale- celebrity medley montage: Dean with Andrews Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald, Gordon McRae, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra
Credits

This definately was not worth what I paid for it. The quality was not that good either.
I thought that I would be getting a set of videos it was only one disc. Not worth $ [...] bucks.
I should have bought the one on TV.

I hope all seasons (1965-1974) of this wonderful show will soon appear on dvd 'cause i'm sure i will not be the only one who would buy them. That was certainly good quality TV compared with the garbage we get to see today.