Customer Reviews

Saturday Night Live: The Best of Dana Carvey [VHS]

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dana Carvey stopped appearing as a member of the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1992, but he left behind an amazing legacy of hilarious fictional characters, while also showing himself to be one of the leading impressionists in contemporary American comedy. During a period when SNL was largely a hit-or-miss affair (as compared with its classic first five years), Carvey could always be counted on to elicit guffaws when he appeared as Garth of "Wayne's World," The Church Lady, The Grumpy Old Man, Hans the bodybuilder, or even the grossout-inducing "Massive Headwound Harry." But it is perhaps as an impressionist of political and show business personalities that Carvey showed his greatest talent. He became nationally famous for his George Bush impersonation, but he repertoire included so many others: Paul McCartney, Ross Perot, Tom Brokaw, George Michael, Keith Richard, Jimmy Stewart, Johnny Carson, Strom Thurmond, Bob Dylan, and on and on--his ability to capture every nuance of a character was nothing short of astounding.

This video presents an excellent cross-section of Carvey's work, including some hilarious Church Lady sequences, a rapid-fire series of impersonations, and a terrific combination impression of Johnny Carson and Arsenio Hall called "Carsenio." Anyone who enjoys laughing will find this video well worth the money.

It's surprising to me that in recent years Dana Carvey has not found a lot of new venues for his great talent. While his onetime partner on "Wayne's World" Mike Myers has achieved superstar status as "Austin Powers," Carvey has more or less receded into the show business background. Here's hoping that Dana finds his winning show, film, or character soon.

I ordered this DVD (along with several others from the 'best of' collection) because I used to really enjoy watching SNL when I was an undergraduate in CA and because it is unavailable in Europe. This DVD has some mediocre to good skits with Dana Carvey from SNL, but does not include a single full skit of "Church Chat" opting instead for a "Church Chat Montage" which has small snippets of various church chat skits. I found it quite annoying to watch a few seconds of a skit and then have it cut short - I wanted more. My rating of three stars is because I think several full-length skits of 'Church Chat' should have been included as they were one of the most popular (and one of my favourites). For those of you who can tape episodes when they appear as re-runs, I would suggest doing that rather than buying this DVD. A disappointing 'best of' for a great SNL cast member.

Dana Carvey left "Saturday Night Live" 12 years ago, but he left behind a hilarious body of work only matched by Phil Hartman and Will Ferrell. He was one of the show's most vesatile performers of the classic 1986-93 years, creating a wide range of classic characters and dead on impressions. "The Best Of Dana Carvey" features all of his best moments from his seven year career, plus several from his eight guest appearances.

All of Dana's best charcters are here, including the Church Lady, Hans of Hans and Franz, Garth Algar, Grumpy Old Man, Ross Perot and of course, President George H.W. Bush. All of the sketches featured here are hilarious (though I would have preferred a full "Church Chat" bit and the 1988 and 1992 debates sketch with Bush). Also there's a great montage of all his most memorable impressions including George Michael, James Stewart, Paul McCartney and John Travolta and the infamous Il Cantore sketch. The funniest sketch is the Tom Brokaw segment where he's going over various ways of announcing Gerald Ford's deah. As the sketch progresses, each potential from of death gets more absurd, from commmiting suicide to getting eaten by wolves.

If there's any complaints I have, is that are no Ching Chang or "Nightline" sketches (Dana Carvey's impression of Ted Koppell was so hilarious). But still, this is a hilarious look at Carvey's amazing "SNL" career.

I am a big fan of SNL and have really enjoyed Dana's work in the past. I hesitated before I bought this dvd not sure if it would be another effort to cash in on a poorly put together dvd... However I was impressed with what I saw. The DVD contained some of my favourite of Dana's moments including some Waynes world skits, Church Chat, his hillarious impression of Dennis Miller, George Bush and my personal favourite the skit where he plays the psychic contestant on a gameshow... It made me sad watching it all knowing that Dana wasn't doing as much as he should be now! The best part though was in the special feature not listed here "Dana's original uncut audition for SNL" this rare never before seen piece is worth the price of admission alone! Check it out for fans of Saturday Night Live or just people who appreciate fine comedians.

This is exactly like it state's, "The Best of Dana Carvey" from 1986-1992. If you are familiar with Dana Carvey in any way, you will love this DVD. If you are not familiar with him and you have any sense of humor at all, you will not be disappointed. It has a lot of great skits in it.

Dana Carvey is truly one of the funniest comedians of our time. Carvey has also been in a few movies, notably "Wayne's World", but my personal favorites are "Opportunity Knocks" and a movie for the family "The Master of Disguise" is hilarious. The "Master of Disguise" came out in 2002 and my kids are still saying "I'm a turtle".

Also if you ever get the chance, check out his short lived TV show from 1996 simply titled "The Dana Carvey Show". ABC pulled the plug on this instead of moving it to a later time slot. I wish "The Dana Carvey Show" would make a triumphant return to network TV, but at least we get to see Dana's comedic genius every once in a while on Letterman or Leno. And of course, this "The Best of Dana Carvey" DVD.

This is a great DVD! Carvey as Tom Brokaw going through all the possible ways former President Gerald Ford might perish (eaten by wolves, from an overdose of crack-cocaine, strangled by Nixon, etc) is by far the best skit on this DVD. Carvey as Bush was of course his signature, but I wish they would have included more Presidential scenes. There is only one Perot scene and two Bush scenes on this DVD - a few more of these (such as the Bush-Dole skit from Nov 96) would have made this a 5-star DVD. It still is a great buy and I highly recommend it.

Dana Carvey is simply brilliant. To watch him is to witness magic. His unique talent helped largely to bring Saturday Night Live out of its slump, and has made countless people take notice of the show. He is my greatest influence and I can't say anything more than I just adore him. He is, as Dave Letterman once put it, a national treasure. Probably even worldwide.

Nowadays when people think of Dana Carvey, they think of another washed up ex - "Saturday Night Live" castmember who makes crappy movies like "Master On Disguise". But when Carvey was on "SNL" in the late eighties and early nineties, Carvey was one of the biggest comedy stars in America, elicitng uproars of laughter alongside Phil Hartman and Mike Myers, to name just two of the rest of that "dream team cast".

"Saturday Night Live - The Best Of Dana Carvey" captures the 6 1/2 years Carvey spent as a cast member on the show. It features all of his most popular recurring characters (though I can't help but notice they didn't include any sketches with Ching Chang, the stereotypical Chinese chicken shop owner who Carvey played 8 times on the show), including the Church Lady, Garth from "Wayne's World", Hans from "Pumping Up With Hans And Franz" and the Grumpy Old Man who used to be a commentator on "Weekend Update". Also included is the infamous "Massive Headwound Harry". This sketch may be disgusting, but it's hilarious.

However, many of the best moments on this dvd are when Carvey is impersonating famous people, whether they're politicians or entertainers. Whether he's doing Ross Perot, Tom Brokaw (the best sketch on the dvd) or President George W. Bush (interesting fact: Carvey has portrayed prez 41 38 times, the second most recurring impression after Darrell Hammond's Bill Clinton (73 times)), he made you feel like he was really them.

Overall, this is an excellent documentation of Carvey's career on "Saturday Night Live". Here's hoping that Carvey gets his career back on track and has a big hit film, because a talent like him truly deserves one.

(Note: Also check out Carvey in "Wayne's World)

Dana Carvey may have left "Saturday Night live" in 1993, but his legacy still lives on. Along with Phil Hartman, he was the most versatile actor of the show's 1986 - 94 seasons, creating a variety of classic impressions and zany characters. This dvd shows just how amazing he was in those seven years (plus the years he came back to host).

Unlike Phil Hartman's dvd, this disc I have no complaints about. If you like good, old - fashioned American comedy, then look no further here. On this dvd, Carvey's most popular comic creatiosn are here. Whether you enjoy the sarcastic Church Lady, the conceded bodybuilder Hanz or the lovable Garth from "Wayne's World", it's hard not to enjoy what's here. Also, there's a series of his amazing impressiosn. In additon to two hilarious George Bush sequences, most of Carvey's repetoire is hre: Ross Perot, Tom Brokaw (the funniest sketch on the whole dvd), Paul McCartney, Johnny Carson (in the infamous "Carsenio"), John McLaughin, George "Look At My Butt, Dennis" Michael, Robin Leach, Prince Charles and a host of others. Even "Massive Hoeadwound Harry" is funny once gget past being grossed out at Carvey's bleeding head and the dog chewing on it.

This is a great dvd honoring one of the greaetst contemporary American geniuses. Highly recommended for "SNL" fans and anybody who enjoys laughing.

I think that Dana Carvey is probably the funniest and most creative SNL Member ever to join the cast and this DVD celebrates his creativity. Most of the sketches are very very funny but you have to wonder why some of them ended up on this DVD like Massive Headwound Harry. It's about Dana with this huge spurt of blood spurting out of his skull and he comes to a cocktail party. But most of them are very funny such as Wayne's World on Communism and the Church Chat Montage. In Wayne's World, Wayne Campbell [Mike Myers] and Garth Algar [Carvey] tell us "THE TOP 10 REASONS WHY THEY'RE BUMMED COMMUNISM FELL IN THE SOVIET UNION" and Church Chat contains snip-its from the Church Lady, like a conversation with the husband of Madonna and Danny DeVito singing alongside Church Lady playing the drums. The Extras contain Dana Carvey's Audition Tape and Where Are They NOW?: Hans and Franz. I recommend this DVD to all SNL fans everywhere.