Best Of Latino Laugh Festival (1996/CBS DVD)/The Carol Burnett Show: This Time Together (Time Life DVD Set)/Family Ties: The Sixth Season (1987 –
88/CBS DVDs)/Key To The City
(1949/Warner Archive DVD)/Parental
Guidance (2012/Fox Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
C+/C+/C+/C/B- & C+ Sound:
C+/C+/C+/C/B- & C+ Extras: D/B/D/C-/C- Main Programs: B-/B+/C+/C/C-
PLEASE NOTE: Key To The City is only available from Warner Bros. from their
Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.
Now for
some comedy releases of note for good and bad…
Cheech
Marin hosts The Best Of Latino Laugh
Festival, a 1996 compilation special produced by Viacom that features some
familiar names in the Latino entertainment community, plus plenty of then-new
talent, some of which I had not heard of before and many of which we should
have heard from again since this was first broadcast. After an intro by Ricardo Montalban, we see
some political sketch comedy, many stand-up comedy routines as Marin gives out
his own special awards to the various talents shown. This runs only 86 minutes, but is a great
crash course on talent then and now that may have dated as far as the use of
old analog video is concerned, but is also a valuable time capsule of often
unsung talent that deserves this DVD release.
Paul
Rodriguez, Daisy Fuentes, Edward James Olmos, Liz Torrez, Eric Estrada, Maria
Conchita Alonzo and even Geraldo Rivera show up among others and though there
are no extras, this is good material throughout.
The Carol Burnett Show: This Time
Together is the
second terrific 6-DVD set of the brilliant comedy variety series we have
covered following The Carol Burnett Show: Carol’s Favorites DVD set we
covered at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11868/The+Carol+Burnett+Show:+Carol%E2
I feel
just as strongly about this set as I did about the last one, but the 17
hour-long shows here are a little more obscure and show a rarer side of the
long-running CBS hit that includes some great guest turns and skits that do not
get seen as much or discussed as often despite being as great as the most
popular ones.
Highlights
‘this time’ include As The Stomach Turns, more spoofs of TV commercials that are
funny even if you never saw the ads (though you can find them on YouTube for
more laughs), more of The Family, more Mr. Tudball & Mrs. Wiggins, Lily
Tomlin in some great early TV work, a Godfather
spoof, early Pointer Sisters as guests, a few Dick Van Dyke guest turns, a
great Madeline Kahn guest show, Peggy Lee, more musical numbers, more old movie
spoofs, Hal Linden (Barney Miller)
as a guest star for an episode and more surprises you will absolutely
enjoy. This is a great set and the best
release on this list.
Extras
include separate on camera interviews with Burnett, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence
and Steve Lawrence (no relation, save they could both be very funny), This Time Together cast reunion
featurette, the shockingly unlisted featurette Side Effects May Include… - About the “TV Commercials” covering
their spoofs of the big hit TV ads of the day they did all the time and Gags & Gowns – A Tribute To Bob Mackie
featurette, plus the thick DVD case adds two
nicely illustrated booklets on the show and this set including informative text
on all the shows included.
By the
time TV got to Family Ties: The Sixth
Season (1987 – 88), the show was still a hit, but it had not grown much
from its debut season, which we reviewed at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4938/Family+Ties+%E2%80%93+The+Com
The
actors certainly became more integrated and naturalistic in their performances,
but the show was always formulaic and predictable, but by this time, a very
young Brian Bonsall was added to the cast though they had not grown that old
collectively, but it kept the ratings high for NBC. All 26 half-hours are here over 4 DVDs, but
we again get no extras. Yes, CBS now
owns the show, but it was NBC’s hit.
An early
George Sidney comedy film, Key To The
City (1949) is an MGM laffer with Clark Gable as an unlikely major meets
Loretta Young as a then-rare female major, sparks of conflict fly and we get what
is essentially a situation comedy with some predictability, a few amusing
moments, some time capsule moments and after the 100 minutes are over, a
passable time killer that likely worked better upon release, but has dated
awkwardly with good performances all around (including Frank Morgan, James
Gleason and Marilyn Maxwell.
Gable and
Young do have some star chemistry and this is the only film they ever made
together, so in the end, it is an adequate curio that deserves an official DVD
release like it gets here from Warner Archive and some of the politics are
amusing even by today’s standards. A
trailer is the only extra.
Last and
least is Andy Fickman’s Parental
Guidance (2012) which has a good cast like Key To The City, but manages to fully waste them and us for 115
long minutes as Billy Crystal plays a radio baseball announcer fired form his
job for being too old, which does not totally bug wife Bette Midler (a pairing
that should have worked great and does not) but her daughter Marisa Tomei wants
to take a trip with husband Tom Everett Scott, so she agrees against the
fired-husband’s will to take care of the three grandchildren.
Funny? No.
Tired and phony? Yes. The writers are not even trying as this plays
like a warmed over bad 1980s mall movie comedy that was too bad to make then
and somehow got recycled now. I even
liked the cast, but somehow the potential for this to work is killed at almost
every single moment it shows up. The
result is a dud to be skipped, no matter who you like here.
Extras
include a Digital Copy and Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, while the disc extras include a Gag Reel, Deleted Scenes, In Character featurette and feature
length audio commentary track by the director.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 AVC @ 30 MBPS digital High Definition image transfer on Guidance is the best performer on the
list as expected being the only Blu-ray, but not by much as some of the color
is muted and we get more than our share of motion blur moments. The anamorphically enhanced DVD version is
softer and is equaled by the analog NTSC professional videotapings of 1.33 X 1
video shoots on Burnett, Ties and Festival. The 1.33 X 1 on Key is the softest image here,
originally shot on 35mm black and white film, but Warner explains this is the
best material they had for this version, but maybe a future Blu-ray will yield
better results.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Guidance is also the best sounding release here as expected, though
the sound can be more towards the front speakers than I would have liked and
being dialogue/joke-based, is only going to have so much sonic activity. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 version on DVD is
weaker and is actually equaled by the decent, lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Burnett and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo on Ties and Festival. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Key is the least capable track here,
showing its age and not particularly warm or clear throughout. At least it has no warping or major sound
issues.
To order Key To The City, go to this link for it
and many more great web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.warnerarchive.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo