Customer Reviews

Stan Freberg Show 1

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

 

 

Perhaps Stan was an aquired taste. What I found was a brilliant series with some random dull moments thrown in where a joke was streched too thin and too long. For the most part, each skit is a gem, the best of which were released on albums in their own right. My favorite bit is when he pokes fun at what is now called "Political Correctness" with the song "Elderly Man River" (because Old seemed derogatory to many of their elderly viewers).

If you like classic radio with a slight "demented" twist, this is for you!

The sound quality of this set (shows 1-7) is insanely bad. If you have ever heard The Best of The Stan Freberg Radio Shows LPs, you know that these shows were recorded in full high-fidelity sound. What's on these CDs sounds like it was recorded in 1937, not 1957. It's simply a case of lazy dubbing, running the shows through the same filter they'd use for an old radio show in horrid condition, and producing that "old-timey" lifeless sound.

Also, the shows are NOT un-edited, despite what the box says, although most people will not be bothered by this. A line, a half-a-line, or a word here and there have been removed, and some sound effects, pauses, and audience reactions have been slightly shortened, dozens upon dozens of times, seemingly at random. I can't figure out why. Again, most won't be bothered by this, although in episode #13, the editing included "fixing" a line Billy May stumbled on, making the reaction following the line seem inappropriately uproarious.

If you have an appreciation of pop culture of the 1950s, and so know the context of these shows, they're still fun to listen to. So much of Freberg's humor depended on topical context, that those without a sense of history would probably want to pass on these--although, the "Citizen's Radio Committee Censor" (show #6) and its anticipation of political correctness has hardly dated at all.

The Stan Freberg Show was a weekly radio comedy show that ran on the CBS Radio Network for only fifteen episodes in 1957-58. The show, starring comedian Stan Freberg and featuring the vocal talents of Daws Butler, June Foray, and Peter Leeds and the musical direction of Billy May, ran in the 7 p.m. timeslot previously occupied by The Jack Benny Program (Benny left radio to go into television). The show received good ratings, but was canceled after 15 episodes, because it couldn't get an advertising sponser (probably due to Freberg's tendency to make fun of commercials). Despite it's short run, the show is recognized as a classic example of radio comedy. This collection features an "Audio Forward", where Stan and his co-stars June Foray and Peter Leeds discuss the show, and the first seven episodes of the show. These episodes feature many classic routines, including "Incident at Las Varoces" and "Elderly Man River". Funny stuff.

If you like Stan Freberg and want to know what he was like on his radio show, this collection may be for you. If you are an old-time radio collector, this set it not for you. Radio Spirits, in their effort to make the show sound "modern", i.e. free of static and the record pops, has sanitized the recordings so as to be almost unrecognizable. The crushing blow was to run the whole thing through a low-pass filter which may have taken away rumble and some static, but also left the show sounding so tinny as to sadden the true collector. Anyone who's heard the original shows before Radio Spirits did what they did to them will also recognize that considerable editing has been done. Freberg's a genius, the shows are ingenius, what Radio Spirits did to them is nothing short of tragic.