Remembering the Man in Black

We weren't much of a fan of country music when "The Johnny Cash Show" came along in 1969. We liked rock music. And some rock music fans wrongly associated all country music with superpatriotism in the "I'm Proud to Be an Okie From Muskogee" mode.
But Johnny Cash and his show was different. Cash not only welcomed all kinds of music, including rock, but he embraced the downtrodden and even allowed a cross-section of political opinion, something not often seen in those days. And though his show was only on TV through three TV seasons, it made an impression on me and everyone who watched it
That is why "The Johnny Cash Show: The Best of Johnny Cash 1969-1971" will be in our top 10 DVDs for the year, even this early in 2008. The two-disc set features 66 performances from the landmark show. And even those don't begin to cover the wide berth of musical talent and influence the Man in Black's show presented.
Just the guest list of performers on the set gives you an idea, though. There's George Jones, doing a medley of his hits including the classic "White Lightning." James Taylor, just an up and coming talent at the time, sings "Sweet Baby James." Neil Young gives a stark, powerful performance of "The Needle and the Damage Done," a song about drug abuse that Johnny Cash himself was a victim of in his younger days. Jerry Lee Lewis, with his usual (in those days, anyway) cocky demeanor, gives a seminal performance of his rock classic "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." Bill Monroe performing his classic "Blue Moon of Kentucky." And that's just the beginning.
Several of the performers and performances on the set go beyond just deserving a mere mention. They are outright stunners. Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash get together on "Blue Yodel #9," which Cash introduces as a recreation of an old Satchmo recording session. When Satchmo blew the first few notes of the song, it hit us like a ton of bricks. It was that good.
Similarly, the two tracks by Derek and the Dominoes, led by Eric Clapton, are incredible. First, there's "It's Too Late," then Clapton, Cash, Carl Perkins and the band jam on Perkins' "Matchbox." Fantastic.
Bob Dylan, then pretty much a recluse, and Cash had something in common -- they were bold but individual, guys whose musical leanings were guided only by themselves. Dylan and Cash were great friends and recording buddies. Dylan's appearances on the Cash show, set around the time of the "Nashville Skyline" album, could only be called "events." This set includes "I Threw It All Away" and a duet with Cash on "Girl From the North Country."
And the spirit of his father was never more present in Hank Williams Jr. than when he performs a medley of Hank Sr.'s songs, including "You Win Again," "Cold Cold Heart" and "I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You."
Of course, the clips of Cash himself really show why we crowded to the TV set on nights the show aired. Cash's songs, such as "Ring of Fire," "Ride This Train," "Man In Black" (in one of his first performances after he wrote it ... he admitted to needing the words on a cue card), "Folsom Prison Blues", "A Boy Named Sue" and "I Walk the Line" became familiar friends to his viewers. (Just one minor complaint is the absence of "Orange Blossom Special," which became a real highlight and an audience favorite.)
After seeing this double set, we hope another will be on the way. There are so many great clips not included here. To name just a few clips that have been circulating among collectors: there's the Monkees (post-Peter Tork), Mahalia Jackson, Roger Miller, Tex Ritter and Joe South.
In addition to the DVD, Cash fans will also want the audio single disc The Johnny Cash Show: The Best of Johnny Cash. It has 17 tracks, including a couple that aren't on the DVD.

Watching Mr. Wizard

With all of today's matter-of-fact technological advances, it's humbling to remember back when science was a world of ooooo's and aaaaaah's.
The vintage TV "Watch Mr. Wizard," which began on NBC in 1951 and ran 15 years, was a lightning rod for curious kids in the '50s and early '60s. It showed young viewers (and older ones, too) how science was all around them in every day life.
Two new DVDs from Digiview "Watch Mr. Wizard - Everyday Illusions and More" and "Watch Mr. Wizard - Electricity and More" feature three rare episodes each from the vintage series.
Mr. Wizard himself, Don Herbert, was the kind of genial kind of guy everyone wished was his teacher. He had the magical knack of taking the mystery of science.
The first segment on "Watch Mr. Wizard - Electricity and More" has Herbert guiding young Alex to figure out six different methods of ways of producing electricity in a Rube Goldberg type of labyrinth. Among the objects: a slide projector, a balloon, a speaker, a motor, a hinge, a bicycle wheel, a moustrap, a medicine dropper and a measuring cup.
The answers aren't as easy as you might guess.
Herbert shows how electricity can be produced from ordinary objects. Some of the methods he uses are quite ingenious.
In "Everyday Illusions," he shows a wheel that looks like it's turning in different directions, but it really isn't. He takes a paper plate and cuts off around the middle, leaving the edge. Cut two sections out of the edge the same size, then lay them down side by side. The one on top looks smaller than the one on the bottom. Things like this make these shows fascinating. Adults will surely find themselves drawn to them, too.
For a show of this vintage, the quality is exceptionally good. All the shows, three on each DVD, are in black and white.
For anyone who grew up with "Bill Nye the Science Guy," these shows will be a revelation. For those of us who watched Mr. Wizard regularly, it will bring back some great memories.
"Watch Mr. Wizard - Everyday Illusions and More" features "Everyday Illusions," "Musical Instruments" and Puzzles in Geometry." "Watch Mr. Wizard - Electricity and More" features "Six Kinds of Electricity," "How Animals Move" and "Sticks and Stones."

If you're not done Christmas shopping

DVDs make a great and easy gift if you're still trying to decide on things. Here are a few recommendations from us:

The Sopranos - Season 6, Part 2 and The Sopranos - Season 6, Part 2 [HD DVD]: The final set of the series goes out with a whimper and not a bang. This one should have been loaded with special features, but isn't. The series, though, stands on its own merits. It wasn't always even quality, but it was heads above most other shows.

The McCartney Years: A comprehensive history of Paul McCartney videos. Completists complain it doesn't have everything and the live shows on the third disc are excerpted, but for most, this set works nicely.

Perry Mason - Season Two, Vol. 2: The most recent release of this fine series. Raymond Burr was steel jawed and tough as nails. A classic series.

Cult Camp Classics 1 - Sci-Fi Thrillers (Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman 1958 / Giant Behemoth / Queen of Outer Space): Warner Home Video released four of these sets in 2007. This was just the first. It contains "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" and "Queen of Outer Space". How can you go wrong?

Cult Classics 20 Movie Pack (4 DVD): And speaking of cult classics, this inexpensive little set has a collection of vintage exploitation films, including "Reefer Madness" and the infamous "Child Bride" (with the quick nude glimpse of its young star). They don't make 'em like this any more.
You can still get all of these by Christmas with one-day shipping.

Here's what's coming up ...

11/27/06 - Waitress
11/27/07 - Futurama the Movie: Bender's Big Score
11/30/07 - Heroes of War Collection - Frontline Combat
12/4/08 - Saturday Night Live - The Complete Second Season
12/4/07 - 24 - Season 6
12/4/07 - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
12/4/07 Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Collection 3 - Still Laughing
12/4/07 - Battlestar Galactica: Razor
12/11/07 - Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald Volume 3
12/11/07 - Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit -
12/11/07 - Walt Disney Treasures: Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic
12/11/07 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
12/11/07 - Frasier - The Complete Tenth Season
12/11/07 - Lost - The Complete Third Season
12/11/07 - Bourne Ultimatum
12/18/07 - Blade Runner - Ultimate Collector's Edition
12/18/07 - Blade Runner - Complete Collector's Edition
12/18/07 - Blade Runner - The Final Cut
12/18/07 - Halloween
12/31/07 - Two-Lane Blacktop
1/1/08 - Naked Prey
1/1/08 - This Sporting Life
1/1/08 - Miss Julie

America's favorite family

By now, it all seems a bit remote. But back in the 1950s, the Nelson family -- Ozzie, Harriet, David and Ricky (later Rick) -- were the type of family we all wanted to be.
They seemed to have it all -- a nice house in a respectable neighborhood, a husband and head of the household who spent a lot of time at home (and was never was seen going to work), a wife who was a dedicated homemaker and mother, and two sons, well-behaved boys who respected their elders.
They weren't the Ricardos with the crazy redhead. Or the Cleavers with the goofy, mischievous kid. Or the Brady Bunch with the rambunctious family.
They were the cool, calm and collected Nelsons. They were a comfort zone for TV fans of that decade.
That becomes very clear when watching "The Nelson Family Presents The Best of the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" (Shout Factory) and "The Essential Ozzie & Harriet Collection" (Mill Creek Entertainment), two recent releases spotlighting the venerable series.
Fans will want to pick up both, and for different reasons.
"The Nelson Family Presents The Best of the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" from Shout Factory is the first authorized release of shows from the series. The four-disc set features 24 of the show's 435 episodes in chronological order taken from the show's masters. The set includes commentary on a few episodes by David Nelson, the only member of the televised family still living, and Sam Nelson, a member of the Nelsons rock group and the son of the late Rick Nelson. It also includes some Nelson home movies, a trivia quiz and a documentary on the family.

What it doesn't include, though, is the full length versions of the shows with commercials. That's where "The Essential Ozzie & Harriet Collection" (Mill Creek Entertainment) comes in. This charming set rounds up 100 shows, almost a quarter of the series, on 12 discs. Unlike the Shout Factory set, the shows are complete and many include the original commercials, some of them done by the Nelson family members themselves. (Hearing Harriet rave about Aunt Jemima Pancakes or Kodak now-vintage cameras is wonderfully charming and adds an interesting historic perspective since, in the case of the Kodak cameras, those cameras have long been abandoned by more modern cameras.)
While the Shout Factory release is authorized and is the better quality of the two, the Mill Creek set is very watchable, with only occasional rough glitches. The overall difference in quality between the two overall is minimal.
The dilemmas faced by the Nelsons were never more earth-shaking than Ozzie trying to remember if he had to go bowling that night or trying to hide a present from Harriet.
Still, in the cool, calm and relatively collected '50s, "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" reflected what we all wanted to be. That dream would be shattered in the turbulent '60s, but at least while Ozzie and Harriet were on the screen, all was right in the world.
In 2007, it seems like a fairy tale or life in a fantasy land. And maybe that's what keeps the series still enjoyable, even though we know life will never be that simple again. It was once upon a time -- or at least this series made it seem that way.

We're back: We've been away from doing this for a few months. Life intervened, so to speak. But we're back and have several reviews in the works we hope you'll enjoy. We'll try to post something at least every two weeks and maybe more often. We hope you'll keep us in your favorites and add your comments on reviews. We'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions.