The Best Of The Electric Company – Volume Two
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: B+
The first DVD release of The Best Of Electric Company
was so strong that Shout! Factory has released The Best Of Electric Company
– Volume Two. It is almost as strong a set and we are big
fans of the show here at the site, but despite how rich this new 4-DVD set is,
I wondered why they just did not go and start issuing each season outright.
Except for listing the content of each episode, it was
hard to decide what to say about this set versus the first set in recommending
it, except it is more of the same and that is a very good thing. Bill Cosby,
Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno were the biggest stars the show had and though
Cosby was not always there, he is still strongly associated with it.
“Right On” and “Phantom Of Love” were song blasts from
the past, while Victor Borge’s Punctuation piece is a classic and Wanted: Robin Hood Of Sherwood Forest
was a spoof around the time Mel Brooks (who did work for the show) did his
failed TV series spoof on the same subject.
Carroll O’Connor & Jean Stapleton appear almost as their All In The Family characters in a brief
gag appearance, Loren Green & Michael Landon in a filmed Bonanza clip and Barbara Eden show up
in a cameo as herself.
Spider-Man surfaces in later shows in Spidey Super Stories and
the shows here are again in broadcast order, all 20 of them. After watching this all again, it becomes
very catchy and you just keep wanting to watch.
There is some overlap from the first set, but that is not as much a
problem here as it might be for most shows.
If you get it, just enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
The 1.33 X 1 image is as good as it could possibly
throughout, especially for a show that pushed videotape trickery a decade
before MTV. All were shot on
professional analog NTSC video and look fine for their age. The show also has classic animated and even
filmed sequences that hold up very well.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 is very good monophonic sound with newer segments
in simple stereo. This makes for a
playback combination better than anything you would remember from older
broadcasts and reruns.
Extras
include the "Remember The Electric
Company" featurette, more new episode intros by several persons
involved with the show, trivia, Bill Cosby on The Dick Cavett Show
segment promoting the show to a slightly bewildered audience that shows how
cutting edge and ahead of its time the show was and a "Play All Songs" feature. This time, a small paper insert is in place of
a booklet and the foldout DigiPak case (with slipcover) has been
replaced by four skinny slender cases.
I continue to be impressed by how well the show holds up
and am still glad this set arrived, but how many more volumes will they make
before it is obvious seasons are the way to go?
You can read more about the show in my first review of the first set of The
Electric Company at the following link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3405/Best+Of+The+Electric+Company
- Nicholas Sheffo
