The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour - Seasons 1 & 2? (1 Viewer)

I see ads for the Best of Season Three. Does anyone know if Seasons 1 or 2 ever came out as season sets or best of sets? Seems ridiculous to me to skip ahead 2 seasons and ignore the first two. Maybe, this is some subtle joke?

We explained the strategy in our first story about this release:
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour DVD news: Rumors for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on DVD | TVShowsOnDVD.com

"We"? Are you connected with tvshowsondvd.com? No matter. This is HTF not that site, so don't expect some of us to know what you're referring to in advance with another site. That's rude.

That being said, I read your "article," more a news flash, and see the reasoning but disagree totally. As many of these older series have a one shot at success and then sink without a trace never surfacing for subsequent seasons (very sad that!) I would have preferred this otherwise.

By the way, why a "best of" and not a Season set? Poor decision all around. Very nice that the brothers are involved though. I'm a little torn here as to purchase or not.

HEY!!! Charles, this forum is so LINKED with TV Shows on DVD. 99% of the topics in this forum are linked to TV Shows on DVD. So, don't insult us by saying that ... it's just rude ...

Plus, Dave Lambert and Gord Lacey have an icon in their signature not to mention that pesky little TV Shows on DVD icon placed on the index page of this particular forum.

At any rate, I assume that you read the topic on Season 3, that you saw the link ... just do your research before you complain about it here.

Disagree with you as well. Putting an icon/logo on a signature doesn't mean a thing pal. Look in all sorts of forums out there on this site and elsewhere and people appropriate images/stills/graphics whatever with a vengeance.

Also, since when does slapping a logo on a forum page mean it's linked? If this is covered in a by law somewhere on this site you could fool me. I consider this a poor way to indicate it. you might consider STATING it out right but I guess that eluded you.

I've been a long time reader and poster on this site and I don't seem to recall seeing this mentioned anywhere. I stand by my previous assertion - both of you are the ones being rude and yes, I read the news bit BEFORE posting here jerk.

On both your points, we disagree.

As for releasing the last season first, well, it's a sketch show, so there's no story or continuity to be concerned about. Yes, it can be interesting, on an academic level, to see how a series grows and develops over time, but I don't think they'll lose many sales for that reason. It's often the case that shows take a little while to find themselves before they're firing on all cylinders. I don't know if that was true with "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," but it was certainly true of SNL, and without that name brand recognition (which "Smothers" doesn't have today), I can't imagine huge numbers of DVD buyers powering through the beginning of SNL to get to the seasons where they'd found themselves. It seems to me that leading with stronger shows is a much better way to ensure further releases.

For me, personally, I'm delighted that this is a "best of" release. I don't know how I could possibly buy another season set, given the number of unplayed DVD sets I have sitting near my television. There's only so much time in a day. Only the true fanatics want to sit through every minute of a sketch show and plunk down the extra money for the sake of completeness. If that's you, that's great, and I'm sorry you're not getting what you'd prefer. For me, fourteen hours of this stuff is hardly skimpy.

I know it's easy to get frustrated when you don't understand something, but there's really no need for this kind of attitude.

Somebody in this thread has been rude, but it sure wasn't Dave. His reply was to the point and helpful. It answered the question directly, even giving a convenient link. There is no hint of rudeness or sarcasm in it. But instead of being thanked for the information Dave is called rude for the unforgivable offense of using the word "We."

Wow. Suggest you back down with the name calling now CY. Trust me, this isn't a fight you want to pick any further on HTF.

Thanks for the assist, guys; I appreciate everyone jumping to my defense! It's time I spoke up for myself, though.

Charles Y, I'm sorry if you took my post as rude. As anyone who knows me, which (as you can see) is most people here at this part of the HTF, I rarely go for rude.

Usually my problem is that I talk way too much (which I'm going to go ahead and do now, so hang on). Whenever I DO post a terse note like that, it's usually because I'm distracted elsewhere, giving me time constraints, so I can't write as much as I would like to. What distracted me then? Well, in the past two weeks, in addition to work issues (naturally), I've experienced my brother, niece and step-mom in Houston go through Hurricane Ike and helping them (as much as I can long-distance) recover from it, my wife's grandmother (a central figure in my life for the past 14+ years) have a stroke and pass away from it, spend all of this past weekend helping my best friends move into their first-ever house together, and help get my wife prepped for a job interview (tomorrow; wish her luck). Not making excuses here, nor looking for sympathy; I'm just explaining that there's a bunch that's been going on with me lately, which is the main reason why some of my posts here lately have been as short as that particular one was. And all of that started happening JUST after I was running the TSoD site solo for three weeks, because Gord was overseas on vacation during that time (his girlfriend is from the Ukraine, and they went there together). So I wasn't trying to be rude, and neither did I expect any member, such as you, who's been here since 2003 to not know me, not know that HTF and TSoD have "relations", and not understand that I was trying to help.

So, yes, Gord Lacey is the founder and webmaster of TSoD (TVShowsOnDVD.com); I am the site's only other employee, as the News Director. Gord and I met here on HTF, prior to him deciding to design the site. He originally asked me to be a beta tester for the site, and after I did that and helped him with the site in other ways, he made the relationship official after a while.

HTF owners Ron Epstein and Parker "Packy" Clack have always provided us at TSoD with tons of support, which we're eternally grateful for. By the same token, we promote HTF at our site as our official place for "message board" discussions about our stories. This "SD DVD - TV Shows and TV Movies" area that we're posting in right now is, indeed, the central message board for those discussions.

As far as any official position here at this site goes: I have none. I'm not a moderator at HTF; I have no authority here (nor do I want any, truth be told!).


re: "That being said, I read your "article," more a news flash, and see the reasoning but disagree totally"

To be fair, I never called it an article; I described it as a story. I got the information about the strategy directly from the head of video at Time Life, who dealt with the actual Smothers Brothers in deciding how these should be released. I suspect that much of it boiled down to dollars and cents: the thought that the first release ought to be the strongest of them, and since the third and final season had the strongest content, it would be the right match to get strong DVD sales on the first release. The decision to not do season sets was partly due to material that was expensive to license (or else possibly not able to be licensed in a few cases). The Bros. made sure that the best segments were planned for the release, and Time Life made sure that the costs were covered as necessary to license the material needed to make sure all those segments would be included.

Did it work out for a good release? I haven't seen it yet, but I can tell you that my mother-in-law, whose copy arrived on the day of her mother's funeral, has enjoyed the release immensely, and it has helped distract her from her grief. She's one of the biggest fans of this show I've ever met, and is no pushover when it comes to being pleased by TV-DVDs.

As always, the decision whether to buy the release is up to you. I hope that whatever you decide brings you the most possible pleasure. Take it easy,

I've been enjoying this "best of" set as well but would sure have loved to see the Beatles episodes that were not included.

Must have been copyright reasons or something.

George Harrison makes a solo appearance.

Anyone remember what the Beatles did on the show?

Thanks,

Maxx

Anyone who's been a long-time reader and poster on HTF should be sufficiently familiar with the Rules here to know what is and isn't acceptable.

Calling someone a "jerk" does not fall under the category of acceptable. We do not expect to see any such further rhetoric in this thread.

Back to the topic at hand.

M.

At least Hey Jude and Revolution. I own snippets of one of those, but not both. But they're available online.

Thanks, Michael. As far as the Smothers Brothers release goes, I don't care how we're getting this particular series on home media as long as we're getting it. The Smothers Brothers have been one of America's original comedy duos and I'm greatful that we're getting any kind of a release with this particular show. I'm just surprised that the show still exists in anyone's vaults to warrant a release.

I remember growing up watching reruns of the original series on television, long before there was cable. IN addition, I also remember listening to my dad's vinyl recordings and 8-track tapes. These two guys are absolutely hilarious and I can't to get my hands on this DVD release.

Oh, how I'd love to see this series (even in edited form) in syndication.

Just to make things clear- this is the other Charles- the nice one who's been on this board longer! Now that's out of the way:

Moore Maxx: Can you tell me if the 'acoustic' episode with Donovan and Jennifer Warnes is part of the set? That's probably my favorite in the entire series!

Charles I believe it is but I haven't made it there yet. This is some of what it says about the episode in the booklet that came with the set..............

Episode aired Nov. 17 1968

Jennifer Warren sings "Santa Monica Pier"
Donovan sings "Lalena", "Happiness Runs", "I Love My Shirt", and "Abraham, Martin, and John", and closes the show with the entire cast singing "Those Were the Days".

It's an episode staged in the round and most music, including the opening theme, are done acappella because of a musicians strike.

THAT'S IT!!! You've made my day- now I really have to buy the Time/Life set from their site!

Regarding the Smothers Brothers Season 3 "best of" DVD set, I'm still wondering why two episodes weren't included -- the one with the Beatles and the one with the first David Steinberg sermonette. Also, was there an episode with Classical Gas and the art montage?

Considering how insanely guarded the Beatles image is I'm not surprised that they weren't included.

I just read this post and while we're past it, I too have to rise to David's defense. His post simply stated that we already posted this news and he did provide a link. I check tvshowsondvd.com daily for that ever elusive annoncement for season 7 of AITF (Hey David! Now that I've supported you...any news? )...anyway your question was answered and the link was posted. Jump down the poor guys throat...not cool. I don't keep in touch with every website and announcement out there nor do I know everyone who runs a website. If I'm looking for the information, I'm thankful someone posts a way for me to find it. If it is a link to a new website, I bookmark it.

SO...Beatles wise, they were the films of Hey Jude and Revolution and I think the SBs were the first ones to air them in America if I'm not mistaken (I wasn't alive at this time so I'm not sure). One week Barbara Feldon was on the show and the next week Nancy Sinatra was a guest (I 'think' I have that right).

I don't care too much about the strategy either...I'm just glad that these shows are available now. The third season released first made somewhat sense to me as it was allegedly the season that got them terminated. They had the excellent Smothered documentary a few years ago which collected many of the so-called 'controversial' moments. When I watch these shows in their entirety now, they seem pretty tame. It was just a good natured variety show with great writing and some clever/edgy social commentary sprinkled throughout. The 'legend' of the show would lead one to believe (at least I did) that every show was so controversial. That is not the case. Like any variety show, it had great bits, good bits, and bits that didn't work IMO. I think you'll see with future releases that it will take a step back into a more traditional variety show. Funny thing is that CBS fires them for these controversial things and 18 or so months later, they air the first episode of All in the Family.

In the set, they claim that the episode that didn't air in '69 'cause the brothers were fired, didn't air on television until E! aired it in the early 90s. A friend of mine said that he remembers that episode airing with the Smothers Brothers was syndicated here in Chicago in the 1970s. He remembers seeing it and it being advertised as 'the episode they wouldn't dare show on network television' or something to that effect.