That Show with Joan Rivers, Volume 1 - 3 (1968/Synergy DVD Set)/Steve Coogan Live (BBC DVD Set)
Picture:
C/C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D/C Episodes: B-/C+
Here are
two comedy compilations for your edification so you don’t miss hearing about
them.
First we
have That Show with Joan Rivers, Volume
1 - 3, a 3-DVD set of little-seen episodes from the comediennes’ 1968 local
New York TV talk show on WNBC-TV. The
format is a half-hour where Rivers comes out and does a monologue, then returns
after a commercial break with a guest (usually a writer) who is an expert on a
subject, then the two are joined by a celebrity to further the discussion. Dr. Joyce Brothers is actually one of the
authors before her own rise to commercial success.
Synergy
has complied this set and it is a show worth seeing. The guest list includes episodes with no less
than Johnny Carson, Joel Grey, Carol Lawrence, Soupy Sales (on two different
episodes), Jerry Lewis, Steve Lawrence, Dick Cavett, Florence Henderson (we
guess just before The Brady Bunch),
Phyllis Newman, Kitty Carlisle, David Susskind, Nancy Walker, Orson Bean and
(in an appearance where he makes the guest expect nervous) Shecky Green.
Since we
will never see Rivers’ Tonight Show
work (Carson apparently sealed all her tapes up for good when she defected to
Fox for her later failed talk show, betraying him), this gives you an idea what
she was like at her best (that awful Fox show is unlikely to see DVD either for
being so bad) on her way for being the top comic female around until her
unnecessary fall. There are 18 episodes
here altogether, but no extras.
Steve Coogan Live is a compilation from the BBC of
four stand-up concerts by the immensely popular U.K. comic actor known like Tracey
Ullman for his multiple characters, hit TV shows, faux talk show host Alan
Partridge and movies like the recent indie The
Trip (reviewed elsewhere on this site).
I always thought he was smart and interesting, but I have never thought
he was a riot, yet he is still worth checking out and despite the overlap,
these sold out shows give you an idea of his range.
Extras
include animated shorts he was involved with by Paul & Pauline Calf,
highlights of his Australian shows and the featurette Steve Coogan: The Inside Story.
The 1.33
X 1 color image on Rivers foes have
good color and the analog NTSC tape sources are in tact, but here, the
transfers are a little soft throughout, though it may be as much an issue with
the original tapes as anything. Maybe
some further restoration would help. The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Coogan
fares a little better, but this is more of a compilation set in nature so you
get some variance, but the overall quality is a bit better than the Rivers set whose 1968 video is older
than anything here. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Mono on Rivers holds up better, recorded on the same stage throughout,
while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Coogan
is good, newer, but simple sonically and does not really need to be more.
- Nicholas Sheffo
