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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The original Bozo and why WGN's Bozo may be hard to get on DVD, March 22, 2008
I'm from Chicago and therefore I am most familiar with the Bob Bell/Joey D'Auria Bozos. I purchased Volume 2 of the Larry Harmon Bozo the Clown DVD a couple years ago and I must say, Frank Avruch did do a good Bozo. HOWEVER, if we want to be technical about this whole Bozo ordeal, the original and therefore REAL Bozo was neither Bob Bell or Frank Avruch. Pinto Colvig was the voice of Bozo when the character started out as a children's storybook and record from Capital Records. Colvig also was the first LIVE Bozo when KTTV in Los Angeles broadcast the first Bozo show in 1949. Also, Larry Harmon did not originate the character as I mentioned before, Capital Records was the Bozo originator. Harmon licensed the character and made the clown as popular as he became with the cartoons and different Bozo shows throughout the country, and of course the merchandise.
Anyway, with all that aside, I now switch back to Chicago's Bozo. As much as I wish that Bob Bell's Bozo come to DVD, the reality is that this may be more difficult to achieve. Don't forget that the show was broadcast live from 1961 to 1980 and tapes of these would be scarce if they exist at all! Of the shows that could be put on DVD would be Ned Locke's final show in July 1976, Bozo's live broadcast from Chicagofest in 1979, the Bozo 25th Anniversary special that aired live from Medinah Temple in 1986, the 30th Anniversary Special, Bozo: 40 Years of Fun, and a special on Bob Bell entitled Bozo: The Man Behind the Makeup that aired on WGN in 1984 when Bob Bell retired. Plus let's not forget about the special, "Bozo, Gar, and Ray" that airs on WGN every Christmas Season. These specials were part of the Television Archives at the Museum of Broadcast Communications and I was fortunate to see these shows as well as a few other Bozo shows. It would be a wonderful treat if these shows did make it to DVD. I also hope to someday see Bob Bell's last Bozo show in its completion because the tape that the MBC had cut off early, just before the memorable final pie fight Bell participated in as the character (he also participated in the pie fight at the end of the 25th Anniversary special, but as himself since Joey D'Auria was Bozo at the time). I also have wanted to see some of Joey's first shows as Bozo and how he interacted with Frazier Thomas, who died near the end of Joey's first season as Bozo.
As much as I wish I could see these shows on DVD, they are more wishes than hope. Anyway, I have not yet purchased these DVDS of Avruch's Bozo, but I do plan on doing so. I am not betraying my love for Chicago's Bozo because both Bob Bell and Joey D' Auria remain my favorites. However, I respect how other actors portray the character and Frank Avruch DOES portray a good Bozo. It is my hope and wish that I can contribute to what I hope to someday see, and that is the Bozo shows from Chicago that I have seen in archives and the wishes I have for the shows that are not at this known to exist....as of now!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Hallucinatory Time Capsule In Popsicle Colors, October 4, 2007
Bozo: The World's Most Famous Clown, Vol. 1 (2007) features 30 full-color episodes of the famous children's program which reached the zenith of its popularity during the 50s and 60s, when 'Bozo' was then both a national treasure and a national franchise. Those episodes included here were culled from the Boston show, which featured Frank Avruch as the title character.
Depending on the viewer's taste and on which Bozo they experienced in childhood, Avruch either makes an excellent Bozo or merely a serviceable one. Immediately noticeable is the fact that Avruch doesn't play the High Clown role in any appreciable sense: he essentially speaks and behaves just as any average male adult would when dealing with fairly small children in public.
This is a failing of the show in several ways, since Avruch is neither particularly poised, charming, nor amusing. He doesn't try to be funny, and isn't. The program's other performers, who hurry on and off the stage with both forced and sincere abandon, are equally awkward and amateurish, even clumsy.
Most of the skits, which are completely without wit, appear to have been creatively drummed up moments before their execution, leaving viewers very likely to feel embarrassed for everyone involved.
The games are rushed and the hazy rules arbitrarily shouted out to the dazed children, who are rushed from their seats and then rushed back to them; giant beachballs go array, bouncing out of camera range or right into the camera. Younger viewers may wonder how and why this program, or the larger Bozo franchise, ever became successful to any degree.
As Bozo, Avruch's clown hair is extremely long, unruly, and curled up around the ends, giving him something of the weird, sinister caste that many adults today attribute to clowns.
However, for those watching this DVD set for nostalgic purposes, none of this will really matter, for the program, seen today, actually gains from having been crudely produced in its era, especially since the material presented here hasn't been remastered.
The array of bright auditorium colors, the meager puppet animals, the crude vintage cartoons, and slightly grotesque makeup and costumes of Bozo's associates fascinate, especially if the viewer watched the show zealously as a small child and hasn't glimpsed it since.
Since most Americans owned only black-and-white television sets during the show's heyday, seeing it in color for the first time will only add to its bizarre glamour.
Equally mesmerizing are the relatively enthusiastic and largely well-behaved children who compose the audience, most of who are Caucasian and decked out in their Sunday finest. Baby boomers will appreciatively recall this era, when middle class little girls always wore dresses and bows in their hair, and little boys appeared at social events wearing ties, buttoned collars, and their hair unpleasantly flattened with Brylcreem.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
this is great, September 16, 2007
Ive been waiting for classic childrens TV like this to be rediscovered for years. Lets not kill chances for further releases just because you dont like the host of this set. This is americana at its best. Please release more soon.
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