Product Details

• Actors: Alistair Cooke, Leonard Bernstein, Helen Hayes, Royal Dano, Crahan Denton
• Producers: Fred Rickey, Mary V. Ahern
• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 2
• Studio: New River Media
• VHS Release Date: January 30, 2000
• Run Time: 55 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003XALA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #206,248 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In 1950, only 1 percent of the American population had televisions; by the end of the decade, more than half of the homes in the U.S. had sets. Welcoming this new era of communications was producer Robert Saudek's weekly hour-and-a-half program, Omnibus. Alastair Cooke hosted the live, Emmy-award-winning program, which ran from 1952 to 1961. Featuring drama, dance, music, science, art, history, and opera, the show brought in crisp black and white an extraordinary world to people's living rooms. Omnibus: Television's Golden Age is a 100-minute documentary, narrated by Hume Cronyn (who tells a marvelous story about working with the then-unknown actor James Dean), about the groundbreaking show that incorporates full-length skits. These include: Les Paul and Mary Ford performing together; Frank Lloyd Wright discussing the cost of designing a house (a remarkable $30,000 to $45,000); comedy team Mike Nichols and Elaine Mays performing a telephone skit that is still funny today; Dr. Seuss talking about his favorite museum; Johnny Unitas and Sugar Ray Robinson as the impetus for a new dance; Eartha Kitt singing a Turkish song; Archibald MacLeish narrating a piece about Grandma Moses; the Benny Goodman Trio playing Gershwin; and more. This program also shows what the times were like as Cooke takes to the streets of New York to discover "Night People"; spends a day at The New York Times; and allows Senator John F. Kennedy Jr. to host a segment on courage. There are touching moments as well, as when an older Cronyn watches himself and Jessica Tandy performing in A Streetcar Named Desire. This marvelous documentary will not only be appreciated by those who watched the TV show when it was live, but by new audiences who will see the real potential television has. --Jenny Brown

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enlightening account of what television was like once, February 7, 2000

By 

albertatamazon (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Omnibus: Television's Golden Age (1999) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I saw this program when it was aired on PBS just after Christmas. Yes,the picture quality isn't what it is today,and all of the actual "Omnibus" clips are in black and white,but not only does this documentary show us the enormous range of excellent entertainment that network television was willing to put on in the 1950's and early '60's, it is a sad reminder of what television has become since, concentrating on sitcoms,cop shows,soap operas,quiz shows,and other forgettable,mindless stuff,and relegating all its "highbrow" and "cultural" shows to PBS,A&E, and the Bravo channel.As the Amazon reviewer says, we see astounding clips on this show--Jessica Tandy in her Broadway role as Blanche,with Hume Cronyn,her real-life husband, playing Mitch (Karl Malden's original role) in "A Streetcar Named Desire". We see a beautiful clip of Gershwin's once notorious one-act failure "135th Street" (a.k.a."Blue Monday") a short opera about blacks,which, unlike "Porgy and Bess", had to be originally performed by white actors in blackface because it was written before black singers were allowed on the Broadway stage.Here it is magnificently sung by black singers,and far better than in the more historically accurate (and intentionally embarrassing story-wise) presentation it got in the 1945 Gershwin biopic "Rhapsody in Blue". We see Gene Kelly in an entertaining clip which compares dancing to sports. And best of all,we see a clip of Leonard Bernstein's famous 1954 "rewriting" of the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony,which made him TV's leading classical music teacher virtually overnight.

Now if only some intelligent video distributor would see fit to release all of the "Omnibus" shows on separate videos,so we could see them in their entirety.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If only Omnibus would come back!, July 4, 2005

By 

Kathleen Herb (San Diego) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Omnibus: Television's Golden Age (1999) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In this era of junk reality tv, it's almost painful to watch Omnibus, because it was just so good. Everyone from Leonard Bernstein to Gene Kelly to JFK made appearances on this pioneering show. Best of all, they didn't talk down to us! I only wish they would release individual shows, because this montage only whets my appetite for more!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Waiting 50 Years to see Omnibus again!, September 4, 2010

By 

Michael Ryan (Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Omnibus: Television's Golden Age (1999) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Well, it's now been over ten years since this fine production was released on VHS tape and now the number
of copies available in the nation are down to a handful. What a shame! Why is it that a good DVD anthology
collection of the Omnibus broadcasts could not be produced and released to the public through Amazon?
It's so sad that our television heritage is slipping away from the present generation. Omnibus, along with
C.B.S. Studio One and Playhouse 90, was arguably one of the most important cultural television series ever
to be broadcast into American homes. True it was done in black and white with the technology available at
the time, but so much contemporary television pales in comparison with Alistaire Cooke's erudite presentations.
Why can't an anthology of episodes be preserved and released on modern DVD media to preserve this unique
broadcasting heritage? The Ford Foundation owns the rights to the series and have archived all of the original
kinescope recordings. I'm sure a smart producer could clear the rights and produce what would be a much
appreciated historical collection of the original Omnibus shows. It would be a treasure trove of some of the
most important television ever done! Criterion Collection where are you???