the abbott & costello show season sets (1 Viewer)

[marcSo]

Just saw over at tvshowsondvd.com that the complete first season of this classic show is coming in september this is one of those classic shows I have been waiting for thats finally here in season sets.I love so many of the old black and white shows this will be one that i will be adding to my collection.
I believe this show came out in 13 seperate volumes but I don't buy shows in that format.looking forward to the season sets.

 

[Jeff#]

The Abbott and Costello Show TV series was kind of disorganized in terms of the jokes, even though it had what resembled a plot (most of which involved Bud and Lou struggling and odd jobs to make extra cash to pay their rent).

There's also plenty of slapstick and it revives a lot of the routines they guys did both in the movies and on radio for years, such as "Who's On First?". On the backdrops have changed. As with those mediums, these shows can really be seen in any order. There are no 2-parters, and only the theme music is different from the 2 seasons of the TV show. There's also a montage of clips from their movies in one of the seasons, and just an ordinary curtain seen in the other season.

Also look for future 3 Stooges comedian Joe Besser (post-Jack Benny radio show), playing a bratty kid (!!) named Stinky, who turns up to annoy Lou in about 13 episodes.

 

[Jeff#]

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello also did another TV series in the early 1950s as semi-regulars / hosts on The Colgate Comedy Hour, in which they could sometimes be seen twice a week between that live sketch comedy series on NBC and their filmed first-run syndicated sitcom.

 

[Joel_Hinojosa]

The cool thing about these sets is the bonus features which will include Lou's Home Movies, interviews with his daughters and a never before seen short film. Can't wait!

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Looks like it's time for more double dipping (sigh). Too bad too, as the others from Sanache DVD were pretty expensive. Did all the episodes ever get released last time? I think there were still some missing.

 

[Steve...O]

The news item says these are coming from Passport video which I tend to associate with basement quality public domain releases. Hopefully they got access to to the Sanache prints which were said to look excellent as this was one of my favorite shows growing up. Sid Fields, Hillary Brooke and the aforementioned Joe "Stinky" Besser all made for a wonderful cast.

Steve

 

[Jeff#]

Ah, yes....Hillary Brooke, Lou's girlfriend. She was the babe on the Abbott & Costello Show, and had previously been in some of their movies.

Sid Fields, meanwhile, later turned up in some sketches on The Jackie Gleason Show in the 1960s.

 

[Randy Korstick]

This is good news if they are indeed the Sanache Prints. I had them on VHS and they are indeed excellent. I held out on DVD for Season sets and I hope it was worth the wait and they will be the same transfers.

 

[Gary OS]

Hmmm, I'm in a quandry here. As a huge A&C fan, I'd normally double dip regardless. But if Steve is correct about the potentially poor quality of a public domain release, then it causes me to pause. The Shanachie dvds are great quality releases, and I don't regret buying them when they first came out several years ago. Abbott and Costello are so high on my list that waiting for a more economical season set just wasn't an option.

Ultimately I imagine I'll purchase these two season sets just for the extras, because I am big fan of "the boys."

Gary "seeing home movies from Bud and Lou's family life will be great" O.

 

[Elena S]

This show was before my time. Can someone tell me about it? Was it a variety show or a comedy? Were there weekly guest stars?

 

[Randy Korstick]

It was a 50's sitcom like I Love Lucy. With different stories each week and some regular cast members. I don't believe it had any guest stars of note. It repeated alot of their classic routines just like their films but they seem to be a little more energetic in this than the films they were making at the same time which they seem to be bored with. Its nowhere near as good as their 1940's films but I feel its better than their 1950's films. They did also regularly host the Colgate Comedy Hour which was a Variety show with different guest and the 2 shows are sometimes confused.

 

[Carlos Garcia]

Jerry Seinfeld has admitted that this show was a major influence on his show "Seinfeld", with many characters being "way out there". I love this show and will jump on these season sets as soon as they're released. I can't wait!

 

[Bob Hug]

Steve, I have to agree with you on this . . . Passport Video typically releases public domain material, though it is possible that they have struck some sort of deal to release the better prints and I hope that's the case. In any event, I found a review of Passport's release of "The Burns & Allen Show" (from the same era) at DVD Verdict which might provide some clues as to what we might expect . . .

http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/bu...collection.php

It all boils down as to what source material Passport will have available to them for this release.

 

[Jeff#]

Sorry I wasn't clear that The Abbott and Costello Show was the sitcom.

A correction though: Their sitcom was originally on CBS before it went into syndication.

The Colgate Comedy Hour was on NBC. And the A & C episodes alternated with other comedians hosting / appearing in sketches, such as Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Eddie Cantor, and Danny Thomas. All of these comedians had radio series previously -- and some of which were still on the air at that time.

 

[Jeff#]

The Abbott and Costello Show on radio ran for about 9 years, throughout all of the 1940s. You can download high-quality mp3 files of these shows for FREE at

www.free-otr.com/serials.php?genre=Comedy

Abbott and Costello is the first show on that list alphabetically.

They only have 71 episodes though from 1940 to 1949.


Zoot Radio has 76 episodes, beginning in 1942 and also going to 1949. There are probably going to be a lot of duplicate episodes, but the audio quality with Zoot's copies of these old radio shows are often very good to excellent.

http://zootradio.com/Abbott_And_Costello.php

Bud & Lou's radio series containing their names was more like TV's Colgate Comedy Hour, because they are sketch oriented and feature big-name guest stars such as Anne Baxter, Charles Laughton, Linda Darnell, Judy Canova, and Blondie & Dagwood (played by Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake).

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Okay, so I've counted 10 Abbott & Costello Shanachie DVDs which I own - were there any others I missed, and have all the TV episodes been put out?

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I don't think this is correct. All of my references say it was syndicated from the beginning and never on a network.

 

[Bob Hug]

Joe, Shanachie's web site shows 13 volumes, each with 4 episodes, representing the entire run of the series.

http://www.shanachie.com/

 

[Jeff#]

I thought they were produced for first-run syndication too, Joe, but when I saw TV.com listing their sitcom being on CBS I corrected myself. Maybe they were wrong, making our recollections accurate.

 

[JeffT.]

PASSPORT VIDEO has always marketed inferior public domain video transfers when it comes to its tv series DVD releases so why should we believe any differently in this instance?!

The prospect of acquiring all 52 black-and-white, half hour episodes of THE ABBOTT AND COSTELLO SHOW (Syndicated 1952-54) in a digitally remastered and fully restored (from superior source elements), albeit reasonably priced, multi-disc collection is certainly an attractive enough prospect...but is this what will be coming out from PASSPORT?!

If so, then how can it be conclusively confirmed prior to the actual release so that any preorder (online) discounts offered can be taken full advantage of?

Hmmmmm?

Jeff T.