Product Details

• Actors: Steve Martin
• Directors: Gary Weis
• Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Shout! Factory
• DVD Release Date: September 18, 2012
• Run Time: 390 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0089BSMWA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,917 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

How wild and crazy a guy was Steve Martin? This three-disc gem of a box set offers ample evidence, with six of his early comedy specials and clips from his 15 Saturday Night Live hosting gigs. --Entertainment Weekly, Sept. 21, 2012

Product Description

Over six hours of rare stand-up, television specials, guest appearances and more.


Steve Martin remains one of the most beloved and creatively prolific talents in American comedy, but until now his body of work on television has been largely unavailable on DVD. That all changes here. From the stand-up act that made him a comedy rock star (of which only two complete performances were ever recorded, both included in this set) to his four joyfully twisted NBC sketch comedy specials, his Oscar-nominated short film and a jewel box of additional comic bits, The Television Stuff finally delivers one of the most unique and treasured eras in Steve Martin’s celebrated career. Featuring special guest appearances by Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman, Lauren Hutton, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Lynn Redgrave, Paul Simon, David Letterman, Carl Reiner, Eric Idle and Johnny Cash


The Stand-up Specials

* On Location With Steve Martin (Live At The Troubadour, 1976)

* Homage To Steve (Includes The Absent Minded Waiter and Steve Live At The Universal Amphitheatre, 1979)

The NBC Specials

* Steve Martin: A Wild And Crazy Guy (1978)

* Steve Martin: Comedy Is Not Pretty (1980)

* All Commercials . . . A Steve Martin Special (1980)

* Steve Martin’s Best Show Ever (1981)

Bits And Pieces

Spanning 1966 to 2005, a collection of television guest appearances, speeches and music videos.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a review from an owner of the set... September 18, 2012

By Richardson TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Amazon Verified Purchase

When I cracked this baby open , I was first wondering where the promised '79 concert in its entirety was and was fuming... until I found it buried in disc 2 after the Homage To Steve..so Excuuuuse Me! I enjoyed that show in person and can say it brought back so many fond memories...
I was around 21 when Steve Martin blew up big time as a stand up so he's my (Daniel Tosh, Dane Cook etc.) and holds a special place in my heart along with George Carlin. Steve actually ended up with the career that Carlin had wanted when he began in the late 50's early 60's which saw him move from being court jester to movie star but for my money Steve Martin has never touched in any of his movies the brilliance displayed on these 3 DVDs of lunacy...stupidity..and surprisingly intelligent comedy. Of course I also LOVE all the banjo playing. While I am so happy to have the '79 show I actually attended..the '76 show from the Troubadour was a total surprise (I didn't have HBO in '76 and didn't know anybody else who did) so this even earlier nugget filmed more in a club environment is the perfect opening show!

Its a great mix of classic stand up and sketch comedy which is very much of its time but goodness when you have a Pre-Pee Wee Herman Paul Reubens a post Starsky & Hutch Antonio Vargas, classic Louie Nye...legendary writer Pat Proft and others like Richard Deacon and Peter Graves in your casts...you have a time capsule that is full of funny.

the DVD quality is very good...best source material possible and Steve's bonus interview on each DVD is also current and appreciated as an extra...in particular there is an option to view the bonus disc with Steve giving a brief intro to each segment and it really adds a great deal to that set. It seems a bit pricy but this is a comedy treasure and deserves to be archived with the great old Carlin specials.

I'd like to add a recommendation of another DVD I found on Amazon.com 92Y-Steve Martin (December 9, 2007) This is an hour interview with Charlie Rose. Charlie isn't super helpful and steps on Steve many times but Steve Martin is so open in discussing his stand up years (this was a promotional appearance for his wonderful book "Born Standing Up" Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life that I found it the perfect companion to this wonderful 3 disc collection.

41 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Martin and One of the Year's Best DVD Retropsectives August 30, 2012

By Andre Dursin TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Steve Martin, renaissance man - writer, author, comedian, playwright, screenwriter, producer, actor, banjo player extraordinaire - is more than deserving of his own Shout! Factory retrospective, and the label's wonderful STEVE MARTIN: THE TELEVISION STUFF ranks as one of the year's most enjoyable DVD catalog retrospectives.

Available on September 18th, this three-disc set focuses primarily on the early Martin years, with his two taped concert performances and handful of network TV specials comprising the set's first two platters. Martin's stand-up is particularly noteworthy, seeing as he abandoned it in lieu of his feature-film career. In both a 1976 HBO special and a 1978 appearance at the Universal Ampitheatre (included in the 1984 home video special "Homage to Steve," along with the funny short "The Absent-Minded Waiter"), Martin shows off both his adroit comedy writing and a side of his on-screen "persona" that viewers unfamiliar with his early material will find especially amusing. Unlike other stand-up acts which haven't weathered the years well (including the Richard Pryor concert films, which I've seen recently on cable, and are almost entirely dependant on drug/shock humor that's no longer shocking), Martin's material is sly and offbeat, relying on his "performance" as a hapless magician and comedian to milk laughs out of intentionally-poor material.

Martin moved on to a series of network TV specials before hitting it big as an `80s big-screen star - the 1978 effort "A Wild and Crazy Guy," 1980's "Comedy Is Not Pretty" and "All Commercials," and 1981's "Steve Martin's Best Show Ever" are all included here and work well within the confines of their genre, mostly comprised of SNL-like sketches with a series of guest stars appearing within (as Martin notes in a new interview split onto each of the three discs, the era of the star-driven network TV special was fading when he agreed to star in them). Disc three, meanwhile, is a self-described "Bits and Pieces" anthology of Martin appearances on SNL, Letterman, The Tonight Show, his Mark Twain acceptance speech from 2006, and even his first TV appearance in 1966 on "Dusty's Attic."

It's a tremendous compilation of nostalgic - and occasionally hilarious - material from a gifted comedian that's well worth revisiting or, perhaps, discovering for the first time - especially among younger viewers who may only know Martin from limp "comedies" like the "Pink Panther" and "Cheaper By the Dozen" films (and if that's the only Steve Martin they know, then shame on them!).

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent package and content... October 2, 2012

By Steve Brown

Amazon Verified Purchase

Worth the price just for Martins "Comedy Is Not Pretty" special. Still kills me to this day. Great to have his classic stuff all in one spot. The new interviews and comments from Steve Martin really highlight the discs and makes this another winner from Shout Video.