Customer Reviews

Pioneers of Primetime

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The television documentary Pioneers of Primetime informs the audience about emergence of primetime broadcasting and its founders. These pioneers were characters such as Steve Allen, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Sammy Davis Jr., Buddy Ebsen, Bob Hope, Rose Marie, Donald O'Connor, and Red Skelton who helped shape what television is today.

The 1930s was the decade of the radio, as it had a large number of celebrities performing audio theatrical plays and comedies. However, the radio began to fade out of its stardom when the television seized its grip of the American population through shows such as Red Skelton Revue, Love Lucy, and The Milton Berle Show. These shows spread the word of the television, as these new TV stars awakened the curiosity within millions of Americans. Their performances, simply put, vastly increased the television sales, as countless people had the desire to experience these shows.

With the increasing attention for television, the new market demanded more talent, which they drew from the radio programs and vaudeville shows. These groundbreakers in network televisions were threading on never before explored territory, as they simply brought their talents and skills to the television world. They prepared in the same manner while their audience grew from what possible on stage. In addition, the ability to have moving images together with the sound pushed radio aside while ever-growing dedicated viewers sat down in front of their small televisions with TV dinners.

It was a time before Teleprompters and taped programming. These were the days when TV comedians and stars were under the gun of live television during each and every episode. Careful and rigorous rehearsals helped provide the TV audience with the best possible entertainment during television's toddler stage. It was a time when the pioneers were new to the TV phenomenon while they laid down the grunt work for the coming generations such as Seinfeld, Cheers, and Hill Street Blues. This made-for-TV documentary offers a truly astonishing view of the early days of television, and its impact on the contemporary TV culture.

As the other reviews detail, this is a basic(VERY basic) overview of a few of the vaudevillians that started the TV medium: Milton Berle, Red Skelton, Jack Benny, and Bob Hope. All were part of the radio medium, as well, which is discussed about as much as television in this documentary (already pushing its main subject to the side a bit). Others who primarily came from film included Jackie Gleason, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz - all, again, barely touched on here. Much historical information is missing, like Gleason's variety show that introduced "The Honeymooners", which is the only thing discussed here on him (yet, the original show played on TV for years, so long that when the latter show debuted on its own, it was old hat at the time & didn't last, believe it or not). Interviews with these heavyweight powerhouses of the early years sadly only primarily include Berle and Skelton, with a few statements from Hope. Sid Caesar, who is one of the few to have actually made it exclusively through the TV medium, is also interviewed(although very little, too). Others from the early years of TV who are interviewed include Buddy Ebsen (who talks about his brother/sister act from VAUDEVILLE), Sammy Davis Jr (who talks about the post-VAUDEVILLE circuit), Donald O'Connor (who seems to be more of a VAUDEVILLE historian here than anything else), Rose Marie (who talks about being a child of VAUDEVILLE), and Steve Allen (who discusses his VAUDEVILLE mother and others from the medium). As you can probably tell from all this, "Pioneers of Prime Time" is somewhat of a misleading title. "Vaudeo: From Vaudeville to TV" would have been a more realistic one. The bonus special features on the DVD are the "extended" interviews, which are extremely non-illuminating and worthless, as well, except for the Skelton one ... where he tells some pretty good - you GUESSED IT - vaudeville stories. However, if you're a completist on early TV-as I am-you may find some of the bits and pieces interwoven throughout somewhat interesting. For instance, the early clips of Sammy Davis, Buddy Ebsen, Bob Hope, and Donald O'Connor are from early TV programs, however quick these fly by(one can tell its kinescope, though, so these are @ least from the medium). Also, there is a decent amount of Berle from the archives & a couple quick moments from "The Red Skelton Show" & "Your Show of Shows" (with Caesar, Carl Reiner, Imogene Coca, and Howard Morris). But these are are available now on DVD under their own titles. Most of this is ironically documented on "Vaudeville", an impressive documentary on that topic. This is also available here on video/DVD from Amazon-and that is well worth your dollar, if you're interested in the subject. However, that literally makes "Pioneers" obsolete. On the topic of early TV, though, there was a broadcast years ago called "NYTV"(New York television). It was shown in two parts and is very interesting, documenting the medium's home base in New York. It's chock full of information from all areas of the medium-news, variety, comedy, music, sports-you name it and it mentions it. I don't know of its availability, though. Also, one that I believe was a straight-to-video title was "Legends of Comedy". Although it focuses on classic comics from film, radio, and TV, there is, ironically, more info here on those who came from the radio and TV mediums than what can be found in this "Pioneers" documentary.

The only problem with PIONEERS OF PRIMETIME is that it's too short. As difficult as it must have been for the producers to have chosen from thousands of hours of tape, it still remains a pity that this documentary couldn't have been two hours instead of one.

I am too young to remember most of the performers featured here, but seeing these highlights of the moments that made them famous was just like listening to the older generation of my own family reminiscing about their favorites.

As such, PIONEERS OF PRIMETIME is both an education and an evocative depiction of an earlier era.

This feature makes the point that only five or six performers crossed successfully from vaudeville in the earliest decades of the 20th century, through the "radio days" and on to television, which they created as much as they succeeded in as stars.

Bob Hope, Burns & Allen, Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Red Skelton and one or two others make up this small group.

Several other stars were involved primarily in the "Golden Days" of television, such as Lucy & Desi and Sid Caesar.

So many viewers will find PIONEERS OF PRIMETIME to be fascinating viewing: those with an interest in the formation of the medium of television, those who enjoy comedy, those who would like to relive the early days of the 20th century. For anyone who falls into these categories, this video should not be missed.

I wish every kid would see videos like this so they would know where the comedy of today comes from and why, in many ways, the talent is not what it once was. I find it sad that nearly all of the people in this video have since passed on, but what a great way to remember them. I would have paid extra if they had included an hour or 2 of the actual interviews with the stars. As good as the edited documentary is, the source material must have been a lot of fun as well.

Buy it, watch it with your kids and discuss what TV and Radio (Vaudeville) comedy meant to people during the Depression and WWII.

The Pioneers of Primetime has great production value, but is to short. The subject should really have been covered as a documentary not as an hour long show on the subject. The interviews with the Old Time stars where great, but should have dug deeper into this marvelous time in show business history. Though uncredited, I know the tremendous amount of work Steve Z did to bring this show about. Chin up! And as Red Skelton would say "May God bless!"

Where is the prime time part of this documentary? They spent far too much time on radio and vaudeville. At one point I thought it was titled pioneers of vaudeville, not prime time television. Where are the producers, the directors, the technology? Where are the great children's shows and the adventure shows? This documentary is nice as far as it goes, but it does not go very far at all. In fact any number of 1920s, 30s and 40s musicals had more about the anticidents of prime time television then this documentary did. The clips, the few they had were nice, otherwise save your money

Interesting, though short, telling of the beginings and early evolvement of "must see TV". All the early greats are here; Bearle, Skelton, Caeser, Ebsen, Hope, O'Conner, et al. Really wish this was longer. I received an advance copy and thoroughly enjoyed it. The program is approx 60 minutes with extras that include extended interviews. Now, I wish someone would produce a series on vaudeville.

STOP right here. It's a waste of time to go any further. The first review is SO right on! This DVD is much more about Vaudeville than TV (Period)