Press Release MPI Press Release: JACKIE GLEASON TELEVISION TREASURES: 70th Anniversary Collection (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCEMENT​ ​ ​ Hours Of Rare Material Spanning The 1950's & 1960's Are Available For The First Time On DVD With The Release Of JACKIE GLEASON TELEVISION TREASURES: 70th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION April 26, 2022 Hours of rare material spanning the 1950s & 1960s long-lost segments of The Honeymooners along, seven Honeymooners rarities and other surprises in color Starring Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, Sheila Macrae, Jane Kean, Sue Ane Langdon, Joyce Randolph, Frank Fontaine, Elizabeth Wilson, and musical guest Peggy Lee.​ ​ ​ ​ JACKIE GLEASON TELEVISION TREASURES: 70th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION​ Jackie Gleason was “must-see TV” ages before anyone coined the phrase. In 1952, “The Great One” began hosting his own weekly CBS variety series, which included a fanciful array of characters of his own creation: aristocratic snob Reginald Van Gleason III, child-like Fenwick Babbitt, cocktail-loving Rum Dum, wise-cracking Joe the Bartender, the befuddled Poor Soul, loudmouth Charlie Bratton and, most famously, bombastic bus driver Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners sketches. This special 70th anniversary commemoration of The Jackie Gleason Show brings together all of the legend’s favorite characters in hours of rare material spanning the 1950s and 1960s when Gleason was a top ten hit on Saturday nights for millions of viewers. A full hour-long edition of The Jackie Gleason Show from 1953 with musical guest Peggy Lee provides the opportunity to view the program as it originally aired, complete with vintage commercials and the spectacular June Taylor Dancers, who open the show. Comedic sidekick Art Carney makes a surprise appearance on a 1960 Gleason special in which he teams up with the star for a Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton reunion. Additionally, for the first time on DVD, Gleason’s 1962-1966 American Scene Magazine series is celebrated with a selection of favorite sketches including long-lost segments of The Honeymooners. The subsequent 1966-1970 run of The Jackie Gleason Show is represented with seven more Honeymooners rarities and other surprises in color. The legacy and laughter of Jackie Gleason is further revealed in the 2006 documentary Genius at Work hosted by comic and lifelong fan Jeff Garlin (The Goldbergs). These are truly timeless television treasures. Starring Jackie Gleason, Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, Sheila Macrae, Jane Kean, Sue Ane Langdon, Joyce Randolph, Frank Fontaine, Elizabeth Wilson, and musical guest Peggy Lee.​ # # #​ JACKIE GLEASON TELEVISION TREASURES: 70TH ANNIVERSARIES COLLECTION Street Date: 4/26/2022 SRP: $29.98 (2 DISCS/DVD) Run-Time: 420 min Genre: Classic TV Rating: NR Language: English ​ ALSO OUT NOW​ ​ THE HONEYMOONERS SPECIALS: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION On DVD​ Second Honeymoon - On the Kramden’s 25th wedding anniversary, Ralph plans to remarry Alice in a special ceremony at the Raccoon lodge. However, the festivities become overshadowed when Ralph believes Alice is pregnant and old pal Ed Norton begins to teach him how to take care of a baby. Valentine Special - Alice Kramden secretly plans to buy husband Ralph a suit for Valentine’s Day but Ralph thinks she’s sizing him up for a coffin after he finds incriminating items, including a life-insurance policy. Believing Alice is seeing another man, Ralph gets pal Ed Norton to join him undercover, dressed in drag. Christmas Special - As Christmas approaches, Ralph Kramden'slatest get-rich scheme risks his and Alice's life savings -- and trusting pal Ed Norton's holiday bonus -- on the lottery. The gamble also places Alice's mother's Social Security check in jeopardy. A Christmas Carol - Ralph enlists Alice, Ed and Trixie to perform with him on stage after he agrees to supervise and star in the annual office holiday fund-raiser for a charity chosen by his boss’ wife. Ralph ends up rewriting and reimagining Charles Dickens’ dramatic classic A Christmas Carol with comedic results when Ed serves as the inexperienced director.​

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[Dave Scarpa]

I’ll pick this up but wish we got more complete episodes

 

[jdee28]

I just got a copy of it. They should have included more than one full 1950s Jackie Gleason Show. Unfortunately, the picture quality on the one they picked is pretty awful. The video for the other material on this set is not as bad, but not so great either.

For what it is, it's overpriced and disappointing. There's no explanation as to why they chose these particular shows and clips over others, especially for the non-Honeymooners stuff; it seems pretty random.

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

Most of the material consists of transfers already done and just taken off the shelf. The Color Honeymooners sketches were already featured in the Time-Life collection which is now out of print.

The Adoption episode was prepped for air on TVLand or somesuch years ago, and also was featured on the complete Bluray edition of The Honeymooners.

The randomly assembled American Scene sketches had been featured in whole and in part on an official(ish) Jackie Gleason website which used to feature links to buy The Color Honeymooners dvds, a discussion board for all things Jackie, and contact info for image/video/film licensing.

99.9% of the material here, including the Peggy Lee show, has been circulated for a number of years in trading circles and official releases. Nice to have it all in one place, but the representation of American Scene is lacking. One would prefer complete shows, but there are sync rights, talent licensing and other hurdles facing such variety shows on home media.

Perhaps a streaming outlet would be possible for more complete shows, but then they'd just be ripped and sold on the grey market, yet again, like the 1/2 hour edited versions.

This might be the last go for The Great One, and a lost opportunity to really open the vaults and toss out some rarities like The Incredible World Of Ed Norton, Poor Soul In Christmas Land and some of those classic, unedited monologues from the color variety shows.

All in all, a nice bookend to previous releases, and it is interesting to see some of the Ralph and Ed stuff on videotape that was previously circulated as kinescoped media. Not overpriced but, maybe, a bit lacking in those teased "surprises"!

 

[Likecats]

I just ordered mine from Walmart.com

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

Most of the material consists of transfers already done and just taken off the shelf. The Color Honeymooners sketches were already featured in the Time-Life collection which is now out of print.

The Adoption episode was prepped for air on TVLand or somesuch years ago, and also was featured on the complete Bluray edition of The Honeymooners.

The randomly assembled American Scene sketches had been featured in whole and in part on an official(ish) Jackie Gleason website which used to feature links to buy The Color Honeymooners dvds, a discussion board for all things Jackie, and contact info for image/video/film licensing.

99.9% of the material here, including the Peggy Lee show, has been circulated for a number of years in trading circles and official releases. Nice to have it all in one place, but the representation of American Scene is lacking. One would prefer complete shows, but there are sync rights, talent licensing and other hurdles facing such variety shows on home media.

Perhaps a streaming outlet would be possible for more complete shows, but then they'd just be ripped and sold on the grey market, yet again, like the 1/2 hour edited versions.

This might be the last go for The Great One, and a lost opportunity to really open the vaults and toss out some rarities like The Incredible World Of Ed Norton, Poor Soul In Christmas Land and some of those classic, unedited monologues from the color variety shows.

All in all, a nice bookend to previous releases, and it is interesting to see some of the Ralph and Ed stuff on videotape that was previously circulated as kinescoped media. Not overpriced but, maybe, a bit lacking in those teased "surprises"!

I need to amend this post with some notes from closer examination and personal observation:

The Color Honeymooners sketches have been zero-noised with some heavy-handed software application, to the point where every recorded sound and echo of the cavernouse theater gives of a tinny, electronic, swirly buzz sound. Slap on a pair of headphones and you'll want to throw them across the room within a minute! It's that bad!

Other video tape clips and sketches also have noise reduction applied to the audio to varying extent, but it is still noticeable. The black & white video tape images also seem to have undergone some processing which has reduced clarity and introduced some vhs-style artifacting to the image. I wouldn't call these restorations, as such, more like just transfers that have been tinkered with to satisfy the eyes and ears of the content producers.

Thing about it is, the Gleason shows from Florida all had that open-air hiss and extra echo sound due to the design of the venue and the recording technique. There is no way to eliminate that without destroying the original recording, as has been done here. I do not recall the Time-Life versions being affected in this way. In fact, those are so detailed you can actually hear the buzz and pop of the physical edits to the Quad tapes, and the artificial fades and application of canned audience response to the color sketches which were recorded without an audience present to accomodate Art Carney's availability. So, then, the tinkering has happened in the interim.

A note to anyone producing content like this- Stop! Don't use noise reduction of any kind, be it audio or image processing! Especially if you don't know how to use the tools effectively and without producing unwanted affectations of the source material!

 

[Capt D McMars]

I just got a copy of it. They should have included more than one full 1950s Jackie Gleason Show. Unfortunately, the picture quality on the one they picked is pretty awful. The video for the other material on this set is not as bad, but not so great either.

For what it is, it's overpriced and disappointing. There's no explanation as to why they chose these particular shows and clips over others, especially for the non-Honeymooners stuff; it seems pretty random.

When did the show move to Miami?

 

[Capt D McMars]

I need to amend this post with some notes from closer examination and personal observation:

The Color Honeymooners sketches have been zero-noised with some heavy-handed software application, to the point where every recorded sound and echo of the cavernouse theater gives of a tinny, electronic, swirly buzz sound. Slap on a pair of headphones and you'll want to throw them across the room within a minute! It's that bad!

Other video tape clips and sketches also have noise reduction applied to the audio to varying extent, but it is still noticeable. The black & white video tape images also seem to have undergone some processing which has reduced clarity and introduced some vhs-style artifacting to the image. I wouldn't call these restorations, as such, more like just transfers that have been tinkered with to satisfy the eyes and ears of the content producers.

Thing about it is, the Gleason shows from Florida all had that open-air hiss and extra echo sound due to the design of the venue and the recording technique. There is no way to eliminate that without destroying the original recording, as has been done here. I do not recall the Time-Life versions being affected in this way. In fact, those are so detailed you can actually hear the buzz and pop of the physical edits to the Quad tapes, and the artificial fades and application of canned audience response to the color sketches which were recorded without an audience present to accomodate Art Carney's availability. So, then, the tinkering has happened in the interim.

A note to anyone producing content like this- Stop! Don't use noise reduction of any kind, be it audio or image processing! Especially if you don't know how to use the tools effectively and without producing unwanted affectations of the source material!

I got the Miami years in the Life Time dvd collection and there were not these sound issues with them.

 

[usrunnr]

Still no decent disc of "Gigot".

 

[Capt D McMars]

I was able to find a collection of his color varity show that I remember watching as a kid, Live from the Entertaiment Capital of the World...Miami Beach Florida, the announcer would proclaim...It's the Jackie Gleason Show!!! But those are rare, the older version I don't remember.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

I was able to find a collection of his color varity show that I remember watching as a kid, Live from the Entertaiment Capital of the World...Miami Beach Florida, the announcer would proclaim...It's the Jackie Gleason Show!!!

I believe that would've been Johnny Olson, the voice of many Goodson-Todman game shows over the years, and the man who put "COME ON DOWN!" into the public consciousness.

 

[Capt D McMars]

I believe that would've been Johnny Olson, the voice of many Goodson-Todman game shows over the years, and the man who put "COME ON DOWN!" into the public consciousness.

No body Bellows like Johnny Olsen!!! a true TV legend, like Don Pardo fro NBC New york!!! giving he all for ....It's Saturday Night LIVE!!!!

 

[William B.]

I was able to find a collection of his color varity show that I remember watching as a kid, Live from the Entertaiment Capital of the World...Miami Beach Florida, the announcer would proclaim...It's the Jackie Gleason Show!!! But those are rare, the older version I don't remember.

"The Entertainment Capital of the World" was actually a reference to New York City, where Gleason's American Scene Magazine was based from 1962 until his 1964 move to Miami Beach - hence, the "Sun-and-Fun Capital of the World" moniker.

 

[Capt D McMars]

"The Entertainment Capital of the World" was actually a reference to New York City, where Gleason's American Scene Magazine was based from 1962 until his 1964 move to Miami Beach - hence, the "Sun-and-Fun Capital of the World" moniker.

So when did Gleson move his show from New York to Miami?

 

[Robbie^Blackmon]

So when did Gleson move his show from New York to Miami?

1964