Bud Abbott and Lou Costello return in The Abbott and Costello Show Season 2 to the small screen for the final season of their classic television series, The Abbott and Costello Show, revitalized with new 4K-sourced restorations courtesy of The 3-D Film Archive.
The Production: 4/5
An early example of a first-run syndicated program, the second season of The Abbott and Costello Show follows where the first left off, with some minor format changes that eschew Bud and Lou’s onstage introductions from the first season in favor of launching right into the action for each episode. Although the shows were not filmed in front of a live studio audience, rather than simply using a canned laugh track, completed episodes were screened in front of a studio audience whose reactions were recorded live, which adds a certain ambience that works well here.
Like many comedy acts with vaudeville roots, by the time Abbott and Costello found themselves working in television, they had honed their material to perfection and were less interested in challenging themselves to create new scenarios each week, instead favoring an approach that saw them repurposing their best and most famous material for the small screen. In an era before home video and regular television screenings of older films, this proved to be the correct approach for the duo. Those old routines still had plenty of life left in them, and reformatting them for television allowed for them to make the most out of each episode’s 25-minute runtime. The purity of their comedic chops are allowed to shine through without needing to be shoehorned into some kind of logical framework. While the gags might already be familiar to even first-time viewers, they have arguably never been as zippy or effective as they appear here.
The 26 episodes contained within this set more or less follow the same basic structure: Abbott and Costello, playing out-of-work entertainers, are inevitably behind on their rent, and are in search of new get-rich-quick schemes to settle their debts. Whether providing ridiculous excuses to their landlord (Sidney Fields) or avoiding the watchful gaze of Mike the Cop (Gordon Jones), they often set forth trying to execute one of Abbott’s seemingly straightforward plans, soon turned into chaos by Costello’s inability to grasp things like common sense, logic, and basic grammatical constructions. Whereas the length of the duo’s feature-length productions would often force screenwriters into devising plausible excuses to build up to the shenanigans, the half-hour sitcom format (with many of scripts this season credited to comedy veteran Clyde Bruckman and Jack Townley) allows Bud and Lou to get right into the action. The result of their formula being boiled down to its essence is nothing less than comedy gold.
Video: 4.5/5
3D Rating: NA
The 3-D Film Archive has done tremendous work here, restoring the show from new 4K scans of the original camera negatives. After decades of seeing the same old standard definition transfers recycled and repurposed to diminishing returns, the results here (much as they were for the first season) are simply breathtaking. The 1.33:1 original aspect presentations are crisp and clean, with good contrast, rock solid stability and very little by way of age-related defects. The presentation quality among the 26 episodes is remarkably consistent. The episodes are spread equally across two discs. This doesn’t just look good for a 70 year old show; it looks great, period.
Audio: 4/5
The show’s original monaural audio tracks are presented via the lossless DTS-HD MA codec in fine fidelity. While the audio quality might be slightly below that of the video, it is still by far the best it has sounded in decades. There are occasional slight instances of hiss, and several brief moments where the dialogue isn’t as intelligible as it might be in a more modern production, but absolutely nothing that detracts from the enjoyment of the episodes. If anything, the choice to retain the characteristics of the original audio rather than over-processing them with an excess of digital manipulation is to be commended.
Special Features: 2.5/5
Audio Commentary by Stu Fink on “Amnesia” (Disc 1)
Audio Commentary by Ron Palumbo on “The Pigeon” (Disc 2)
Assorted Bonus Content (Disc 2, 34:06) – Available only as a single (chaptered) bonus feature, this assembly contains the following:
–Non-Audience Track For Episode 4, Reel 1 – the first part of a season one episode plays without audience laughter
–Routine originally filmed for Episode 24
–Campbell Soup Company sponsor bumper starring Bud and Lou
–E-Z Pop Popcorn sponsor commercials starring Bud and Lou
–The Lost Episode: “Star Reporters” – not actually a lost episode but a featurette about an un-filmed script)
–The Season 2 Theme – the unedited version of the stock track used as the season’s title music
–The Mystery Theme – stock music added to 70s-era airings of the show
–Second Season Additional Crew and Staff credits
While the bonus material for season two isn’t nearly as substantial as that on the season one set, there are a few tidbits here worth a look, and the commentaries add insight into the production.
Overall: 4/5
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello return to the small screen for the second and final season of their classic television series, The Abbott and Costello Show, revitalized with new 4K-sourced restorations courtesy of The 3-D Film Archive. While the show didn’t break new ground so much as it gave the duo an opportunity to present many of their classic vaudeville and film routines for a new television audience, these episodes have them firing on all cylinders and remain a delight for fans of classic comedy. The combination of restored episodes and new bonus features make this release from ClassicFlix the definitive version of the series on home video.
The Abbott And Costello Show: Season 2
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Josh’s fate as a physical media enthusiast was probably sealed the moment he figured out how to operate a top-loading VCR before he even knew how to walk. Since graduating with a degree in film production, he has enjoyed a career focused on the archival and distribution side of film and television. These days, Josh thinks of himself as a proud father of twins first. He would like to thank his wife for her unwavering support, and for every typo she’s ever caught.
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