An array of reissued, repackaged and repriced vintage programs has been released this week, featuring Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, Betty White and many more stars of early television.
These are all public-domain episodes, so, as you might expect, the quality can be hit and miss, but a sampling tells me most are in remarkably good shape. The shows are quite watchable and some of the comedy here is truly timeless.
"The Best of Jack Benny" (Mill Creek, 1950-65, four discs, b/w, $9.98). Benny was a rare comedian in that he surrounded himself with hilarious characters and mostly just reacted to their wisecracks and shenanigans — and with Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Dennis Day and Don Wilson, and sometimes Mel Blanc and Benny's wife Mary Livingstone, the results were often hilarious.
These shows also include an array of A-list guest stars from the 1950s and '60s, including James Stewart, Bob Hope, Marilyn Monroe, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis — and in a riotous spoof of his tough-guy image, Humphrey Bogart.
Extras: full frame, 39 episodes (an in-joke for fans), featurette
"Johnny Carson: Late Night Legend" (Mill Creek, 1953-1963, four discs, b/w, $9.98). These are Carson's pre-"Tonight Show" gigs, with several episodes of his two self-titled shows, "Carson's Cellar," "Who Do You Trust?" and a variety of guest appearances: "The Jack Benny Program," "The Milton Berle Show" and specials starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, among others.
Extras: full frame, 35 episodes, featurette
"The Betty White Collection: America's Funny Lady" (Mill Creek, 1953-1958, four discs, b/w, $9.98). Well before "Hot in Cleveland," White was a hit on "The Golden Girls," and before that the game show "Password" and especially as snarky Sue Ann Nivens on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." And a couple of decades before that she starred in two sitcoms that were part of the earliest era of TV, "Life With Elizabeth" and "Date With the Angels." These episodes are from those two shows, and while they are dated, especially in their chauvinism, White is charming and funny..
Extras: full frame, 40 episodes, featurette
"Lucy: A Legacy of Laughter" (Mill Creek, 1953-1963, four discs, color and b/w, $9.98). These are from "The Lucy Show," Lucille Ball's sitcom that followed "I Love Lucy" and "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour." This set has a pair black-and-white episodes from the first season and the rest are color shows from later seasons. Guests include George Burns, John Wayne, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Robert Goulet and Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Extras: full frame, 30 episodes, five episodes of Betty White's "Life With Elizabeth," featurette
"Bonanza: Adventures With the Cartwrights" (Mill Creek, 1960-61, four discs, $9.98). These episodes are from the first two seasons of the iconic western series about a widowed rancher (Lorne Greene) and his three sons (Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, Michael Landon) on the Ponderosa. Guests include Stella Stevens, Leonard Nimoy, Ricardo Montalban, Jack Elam, Lloyd Nolan, Dan Duryea, Franchot Tone and (no kidding) Bob Barker!
Extras: full frame, 32 episodes, episode of "Wagon Train": "The Dr. Denker Story," featurette
"The Beverly Hillbillies: Meet the Clampetts" (Mill Creek, 1962-64, four discs, b/w, $9.98). These episodes of the surprise hit of the early 1960s are taken from the sitcom's first two seasons, silly nonsense about the hillbilly millionaires taking up residence in Beverly Hills.
Extras: full frame, 40 episodes, featurette
"Family TV Classics" (Mill Creek, 1949-70, four discs, color and b/w, $9.98). Consider this the equivalent of a mix tape, with episodes from "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Lassie," "Petticoat Junction," "The Edgar Bergen Show," "The Ed Wynn Show," "Sea Hunt," "Sky King," "The Milton Berle Show" and "The Dennis O'Keefe Show."
Extra: full frame, 45 episodes
"Heroes of the Old West" (Mill Creek, 1934-63, four discs, color and b/w, $9.98). This set includes episodes of "Bonanza," "The Lone Ranger" and "Outlaws," along with 10 theatrical films starring John Wayne, Bob Steele, Maureen O'Hara, Gabby Hayes, etc., ranging from early sound efforts to "McLintock!"
Extras: full frame, 20 episodes, 10 films
EMAIL: hicks@desnews.com