The Captain & Tennille – The Ultimate Collection
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: B- Episodes: B+
After keeping CBS #1 into the mid-1970s, Fred Silverman
went over to ABC to see if he could work his magic on that network. CBS has been #1 since the dawn of network
TV, but Silverman was shrewd and after some smart, strategic moves, ABC (which
was already having some successes) suddenly had an avalanche of hits. One type of program he had huge success with
was the music variety show, like Tony Orlando & Dawn and Sonny
& Cher, plus the less musical and still wildly successful Carol
Burnett Show. What if you could
take the next step, put out even more money, get more guests, bigger names to
boot, larger sets, fancier dance numbers and get even crazier. You would need stars that the audience would
really want to see. He immediately
turned to Toni Tennille and Daryl Dragon.
The singing duo was so confident in their work that they
funded their own album and it was so good, A&M Records picked it up and The
Captain & Tennille became the label’s next Carpenters with huge hits
like Love Will Keep Us Together, The Way I Want To Touch You and Lonely
Night (Angel Face). Unlike Sonny
& Cher, they were not having any martial problems, so Silverman saw magic again
and their TV series was a huge hit that helped establish the network on its way
to becoming #1 for the first time ever.
This new 3 DVD Captain & Tennille - The Ultimate Collection
offers 11 episodes from the lone 1976 – 1977 season. The couple was not comfortable with this format, though they
excelled in it and even had Dick Clark come in to pump up the music side of it
in later episodes.
What follows are the shows with each guest cast:
1)
Pilot – Penny Marshall, Jackie Gleason and Welcome
Back, Kotter cast members Ron Palillo, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, and Gabe
Kaplan.
2)
Bob Hope, Red Foxx and John Travolta (singing).
3)
Gabe Kaplan and Happy Days cast members Ron Howard,
Erin Moran, Roz Kelly, Donny Most and Gabe Kaplan.
4)
Rita Moreno, Leonard Nimoy, Andy Griffith and original What’s
Happening cast members Ernest Thomas, Fred Berry, Heywood Nelson Jr. and
Andy Griffith.
5)
Raymond Burr, Loretta Swit, Pat Morita and original Charlie’s
Angels cast members Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith.
6)
Mohammed Ali, Joe Namith, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis,
Jr., John Byner, England Dan & John Ford Coley sings Nights Are Forever
Without You.
7)
Tony Randall, Jim Stafford, Dick Clark and The Sylvers
singing Hotline.
8)
Ed McMahon, Loretta Swit, Paul Williams, Rufus & Chaka
Khan singing Sweet Thing.
9)
Vincent Price, Don Knotts, Dionne Warwick and Heart
singing Dreamboat Annie.
10)
John Byner,
Natalie Cole, George Burns, Roy Clark and Bread.
11)
Rich Little, Don
Knotts, Leo Sayer, Engelbert Humperdinck and Henny Youngman.
Just these guest groupings alone make the set worth the
price just to see what you missed, but I have to say the show was a progressive
step forward for such a show and led to the likes of Solid Gold before
MTV killed such shows. Toni’s two
sisters also join her in each show to sing backup (might the Mandrell Sisters
been inspired by this?) throughout the series.
A tendency to cover R&B classics may seem odd or even surreal in
this Hip Hop era, but Miss Tennille did all of her singing sincerely. Even if she did not make all these songs
totally her own, she always had a great singing voice and that extended to her
speaking, introduction of guests and delivery of jokes. The joy is amazing and sorely lacking in
just about any TV we see today.
Of the guests, some brief stories. The Captain played for The Beach Boys for a
few years before he launched into a hit duo with his wife. Travolta’s songs here were hits from a hit
album he pulled off. Roz Kelly played
occasional guest character Pinky Tuscadero briefly on Happy Days before
producers were unhappy with the way things were going with her. She was quietly written off the series,
replaced with her sister Leather (no joke) and never discussed again. Dionne Warwick was on her way to a career
comeback and Nimoy had no idea Star Wars would cause a major Star
Trek revival that just finally ended this year! Bread’s appearance here was a reunion of the famed Soft Rock
band, but Lost Without Your Love turned out to be their last major hit
and lead singer/songwriter/producer David Gates soon went back to his solo
career that yielded more great work. It
makes these shows sometimes highly ironic.
Regular skits included The Bionic Watermelon, Masterjoke
Theater, and a guest duet segment.
Though the show folded after one season, the duo went on to have more
hits into the early 1980s and did a few TV specials to boot. The show in general was a peak of what The
Big Three Networks produced competing so fiercely with each other and a time
capsule in many ways. It was a fun, great
time and the shows are worth rediscovering.
Daryl’s hat jokes were amusing and though the show has traces of the
Disco era, it is not as dated by that as much as you would think. It reminds us when TV was fun without
degrading or humiliating anyone. The
show has heart and soul, while its stars (still together today) had chemistry
and class. It is nice to have them
back.
The 1.33 X 1 image looks good off of the NTSC analog video
reels, with solid color fidelity for its age.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is decent as well, which remains so when
stereo hit records are played. As was
the case with similar sets of Tony Orlando & Dawn and Sonny & Cher, the
playback will pleasantly surprise you.
Extras include a bonus CD single that came with our set called Saving
Up Christmas that is brand new recording in time for the holidays. It is not bad, though also sad and a bit
depressing considering the current Middle East situation. The rest of the extras are all on DVD 3,
including a video jukebox that allows you to isolate and play select tracks, Do
That To Me One More Time Music Video (their last big hit, which was #1 and
a huge seller), their national TV debut on The Tonight Show starring Johnny
Carson, Tee-Time For Toni golf gag clip, Landscaping With Love
clip set to Love Will Keep Us Together, Ride, Captain, Ride! clip
with Daryl driving a keyboard mobile, dance rehearsal clip, Daryl’s One Man
Band and Broody Bounce montage of their beloved dogs. Captain & Tennille - The Ultimate
Collection is a fun blast from the past well worth your time.
- Nicholas Sheffo
