The Victor Borge Show Collection (Passport)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C+     Episodes: B

 

 

Victor Borge combined classical music and comedy link no one else and for six months, his Victor Borge Show brought class to NBC in 1950.  14 of those long lost shows have been collected in Passport’s Victor Borge Show Collection.  Even Art Carney joined in a few years before he found immortality on the original Honeymooners.  The shows hold up surprisingly well for their 55+ years of age and put the “classiness” of Lawrence Welk to shame in their richness.

 

Another fun aspect is that Kellogg’s was smart enough to sponsor the show and several animated commercials are here throughout the episodes, as well as live-action ads and brands that they have ceased to make.  As for Borge, he has some good sets mixed with the cheap production values typical of early TV, as well as an audience whose applause is shown in overlapping montage that looks more like Silent Soviet cinema than anything else.  His grasp of Classical Music is amazing and the fun he has with them is amazing.  He makes the music fun and that such a smart show was ever part of network television at any time is amazing unto itself.  That is why it is worth seeing now.  A later Borge set has been issued on DVD, but I don’t know how the material could be better.  We’ll have to see that one sometime.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image throughout is poor and often from kinescope sources.  These would look better first generation, but frankly not that much.  However, the Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono might be easier to clean up and fix with the right work.  Either way, the combination is watchable.  Extras include appearances on Jackie Gleason’s Cavalcade Of Stars (9/16/50), Bud Abbott (& Lou Costello) introducing him on The Colgate Comedy Hour, an appearance (11/14/64) at The Hollywood Bowl and even a comic ad he did for the 1964 Pontiac Grand Prix.  Overall, a decent collection worth your time.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo