Happy Holidays In Pittsburgh
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Program: B
After
years of being swamped with mostly awful VHS and Beta titles on Christmas that
arte among the most disposable titles in home video history, the programs are
coming to DVD. Now some were actually
good and a good number of that junk was so poorly produced that we will never
see it on DVD. One of the best titles is
a recent one. Happy Holidays In Pittsburgh was produced in 2002, and the title
makes one wonder if this is just some kind of program pandering to tourists
and/or is some kind of promo item from a promo board.
Instead,
it turns out to be a surprisingly rich show about the unusual amount of
celebrations form an unusually diverse section of the country. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is located in Allegheny County, the second-oldest county in the
entire United States.
It was also a huge center of industry, and thus of immigration, in its
heyday as The Steel City. Well, the
communications age has eclipsed the industrial one, but the later generations
of diverse ethnic and religious groups remains and this DVD does a nice job of
presenting a longer version of the show than WQED-TV did. That is the first public television station
ever, from Pittsburgh that has been producing an
exceptional series of shows locally for the “Pittsburgh History Series” and
with other PBS affiliates nationally, such as the remarkable Sandwiches That You Will Like. (See our review elsewhere on this site.)
Along
with the wide-ranging sets of religious and ethnic groups noted, it also shows
the unusually numerous ways the holidays are celebrated all over the tri-state
area Pittsburgh is centered in.
There are the window displays, past and present, in old Downtown
Pittsburgh (not that there is a new one, but one that survives) that was a huge
center of business and competition before the massive arrival of suburban
shopping malls. There is the
unbelievable number of lights located at the attraction known as Hartwood
Acres, an exceptional Miniature Railroad section at the Carnegie Science
Center, very homely events in towns and neighborhoods all over, and a look at
this history of celebrating that is certain to strike a chord with anyone who
celebrates during the holidays, wherever they may be. This is especially the case with all the
everyday people who share their thoughts.
The
program is shot on high-quality late analog videotape, and this transfer does a
decent job of capturing the images, plus there is a wealth of great film
footage and stills within the program.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is simple, but effective and clear. The combination is as watchable as most
programs in the Christmas batch, and better for being on DVD. The only extras, besides the longer version
of the program, is a set of promo spots for this and many of the other fine
programs that have come out of this prolific output of product form WQED and
ace TV producer Rick Sebak.
Obviously,
some people still only think of DVD as something for motion pictures, TV or
music programs, but the immense wealth of documentary and special interest
titles that have been issued still has not brought the consumer to rethink this
enough. This site has covered many
really good examples of the latter, for which we can add this one to that
list. Even if you are not from Pittsburgh, or even The United States,
everyone can appreciate Happy Holidays
In Pittsburgh if they like the holidays in the first place. You can visit www.wqed.org
for more information.
- Nicholas Sheffo
