Alan King – Inside The
Comedy Mind (Gold & Platinum)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: B
Alan King is one of the great stand-up comedians and could
also be considered a solid supporting actor.
Back in 1991, for cable TV, King used his clout to host a series of
interviews that turn out to be a remarkable record of the entire cross-section
of comic talent in the entire entertainment industry. Alan King – Inside The Comedy Mind is a remarkable early
cable series before such shows were considered respectable. The Ace Awards are retired, but these shows
deserved to be revived and BFS has issued two volumes that consist of eight
hours (read 16 episodes) per DVD.
Dubbed Gold and Platinum, the amazing list of interviewees
are as follows:
Gold:
George Burns
George Carlin
Mel Brooks
Buddy Hackett
Jerry Seinfeld (just before his hit TV series launched!)
Rob Reiner
Carl Reiner
Neil Simon
Dennis Miller
Garry Marshall
Platinum:
Robin Williams
Bob Hope
Billy Crystal
Whoopi Goldberg
Carol Burnett
Jack Lemmon
Howie Mandel
Charles Grodin
Steven Wright
Norman Lear
And that does not include every episode, as the credits
flying images seem to suggest. The
great plus in having King do the show is that he is a very knowledgeable
veteran and survivor who makes the most of the time with each name. That he got so many people in, across and
even behind the scenes in the industry is amazing and rarely today will you see
a series of this integrity, depth, substance or diversity. The only series that come to mind of equal
are The Charlie Rose Show (not always focused on entertainment,
obviously, but really good when it is) and Inside The Actors Studio.
The shows with the eldest legends tend to yield surprises
for those who have not heard enough about them and in that they rare did or
needed to do interviews. Those who were
about to be bigger stars are a bit more open by default, while some of those
who might not immediately come to mind (Rob Reiner, Garry Marshall, Neil Simon,
Charles Grodin) very much belong here, because this is a show trying to cover
as wide a space of time and work in comedy as it can and this one does it very
well.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image is as expected for its age,
shot on old professional analog NTSC videotape, from masters that are clean and
undamaged. Even something this new,
especially in television, can be susceptible to damage from neglect alone. Add that tape does not hold up as well as
film and that cable’s early isolated history has produced many a concert issued
on home video that did not look or sound as good as it should have. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound here is
monophonic, but clear for what it is.
Regular Dolby Pro Logic Surround was only starting to take off on
non-film program in cable at the time, so this is typical for the most
part. The only extra is text about King
and the performers on their given DVDs, but these discs are nicely loaded with
these shows and if there are more, let’s hope BFS gets them issued ASAP.
- Nicholas Sheffo
