The
Songwriters Collection (Showtunes/Broadway)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B+
As an early program produced for the fledgling cable
television business, CBS produced a series called They Write The Songs
in 1981 and later dubbed by the title of this set. The title is a tip of the hat to the Barry Manilow hit I Write
The Songs, which Manilow did not write.
In this case, it is some of the most important writers you have likely
never heard of, though you have certainly heard their classic music. The shows running time range from 45 to 55
minutes, as CBS still wanted to broadcast these on commercial broadcast TV, now
all collected in The Songwriters Collection.
That these shows even exist is now amazing and even those
making it could not have possibly known how important these would be a
quarter-century later, but here are the original creators performing,
discussing, explaining, revealing secrets of and often performing some of the
most important music works ever made.
The shows star:
John Kander & Fred Ebb – Chicago, Cabaret,
Woman Of The Year and music for the Martin Scorsese film New York,
New York (reviewed elsewhere on this site) are among their great works that
they perform together, as introduced by Liza Minelli herself. It is very entertaining and has a few
surprises.
Alan Jay Lerner – My Fair Lady, Gigi, Brigadoon,
Camelot, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, and the underrated Coco
(with Andre Previn) are among the great works Lerner created, often with
Frederick Loewe.
E.Y. “Kip” Harburg – The writer of Brother, Can You
Spare a Dime?, It’s Only A Paper Moon and Somewhere Over The
Rainbow among the 13 songs featured are sung by Harburg with amazing
passion and depth. This is one of the
most touching and impressive shows in the series.
Sheldon Harnick – Most of his Broadway Musicals have never
made it to film, but this incredibly successful Fiddler On The Roof. He opens up the show himself with If I
Were A Rich Man and does an exceptionally articulate show.
Burton Lane – Finian’s Rainbow and music for On
A Clear Day You Can See Forever are among the remarkable works of the very
talented, classy showman and he really shows his range here. He is in great form resulting in a solid
show.
Mitchell Parish – Neil Sedaka does a filmed introduction
for the man behind musicals like Stardust, Stars Fell On Alabama
and Deep Purple, who turns out to have exceptional wit and showmanship
to match his music talents. Good show.
Charles Strouse – Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, It’s
A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Superman and Annie are among the great
works he created with Martin Charnin, who joins him on stage for this amazing
show. He also wrote Those Were The
Days, the theme from All In The Family he was reluctant to even
do. Fun show.
Arthur Schwartz – The Band Wagon and many other MGM
Musical classics, including the ever-enduring That’s Entertainment were
written by this man, the man who discovered Judy Garland. One of the guest singers is Nancy Dussault,
who was later Ted Knight’s wife on the sitcom Too Close For Comfort. It is another great show on this set.
At first, it took a while to get adjusted to the old
taping and wondering if all we would get is some cheap, cornball 1970s show
that was just thrown together to cash in on trends before such series became
refined. Being from 1981 makes no
difference. Instead, it is a very open
show without any formula and dumbing down that is quite a treasury of music and
history. Even if you are not a
showtunes person, these episodes are too good to pass up. For fans, this will be a true collector’s
item.
The image is 1.33 X 1, except 1.78 X 1 for the Harburg
segment, reformatted for the purpose.
The professional NTSC tapings are just a bit softer than expected, but
look good and clean otherwise, with slight tape wear in a few sections. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono also shows its
age, but stands up a bit better. The
combination is still more than engaging.
Extras are few and vary if they exist at all. The Ebb, Harnick and Lane segments have stills sections, while
some biography information is offered sparsely. The Songwriters Collection is a pleasant surprise, as if a
landmark TV show has been rediscovered.
- Nicholas Sheffo
