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."

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.

Here's Johnny -- a long time ago

The Johnny Carson Show (Shout Factory): When it comes to talk show hosts, there can be no doubt that Johnny Carson was the king. Even in his later years when he could have walked through his show each night, he knew how to push the buttons to make his audience laugh.
He wasn't always so smooth, though. The Carson on view in Shout Factory's "The Johnny Carson Show" is young and a bit nervous, maybe even a little self-conscious. But the qualities that made him such a favorite with audiences years later were there, even if they were still developing.
There was the boyish charm, the down-home, relaxed attitude and the genial humor, even if he was still a bit unsure of himself.
And there's a lot more of his stand-up humor in the 10 episodes of this early Carson work than "Tonight Show" viewers would see in his later years. That's because Carson's humor was a lot more of the show. He had guests, but not the parade of celebrities that begged to come on "The Tonight Show" in his later years. He did TV parodies of then-current shows such as Edward R. Murrow's "Person to Person" and "Dragnet."
Shout Factory's two-disc set includes some extras: an episode of his later ABC show "Who Do You Trust?" co-hosted by Ed McMahon, a rare episode of a 1956 CBS daytime show he hosted and a clip from a 1958 stint as substitute host of "The Jack Paar Show" -- in a role he'd replace Paar in in 1961.
Given the age of these films, the quality is rough. Compared to his later work, "The Johnny Carson Show" definitely shows Carson had some development as a comedian to do. But they're also fun to watch.
Carson fans will also want to hunt down a budget two-disc release by Timeless Media Group also called Here Is...The Johnny Carson Show. The set has four episodes from "The Johnny Carson Show," an episode of "Who Do You Trust?", an episode of "The Jack Benny Program" with Carson as guest, commercial bloopers and a rare 1972 color promo film done on the set of "The Tonight Show." "The Tonight Show" promo film alone makes this one worth it. Since this is a budget release, it's very easy on the wallet. Note: If you do hunt for this, make sure you get this two-disc set (the link will get it). There are several single-disc releases by various budget disc companies. This is the one you want.
While on the subject of vintage talk shows, let's mention a couple of others. When Johnny Carson burst on the TV scene, the king of late night at that time was Jack Paar. Shout Factory has a three-disc set called The Jack Paar Collection that includes celebrity interviews, monologues and full episodes from "The Jack Paar Show," which was the precursor to Carson's "The Tonight Show." One disc includes the PBS documentary "Smart Television: The Best of Jack Paar," disc two has interviews with Bobby Kennedy (done shortly after the assassination of JFK), Richard Nixon (including the famous incident when Nixon played the piano) and Muhammed Ali, while the final disc has interviews and rare footage of Bette Davis, Judy Garland, Richard Burton, Bill Cosby and others. Paar's delivery wasn't as relaxed as Carson's would be later, but he was great in getting his guests to open up about themselves. Paar's often pointed questions would probably be nixed by p.r. reps from celebrities nowadays, who like to super-manage their appearances nowadays. Here's a look at a time when that wasn't the case.
And there's Edward R. Murrow - The Best of Person to Person, a dazzling three-disc collection of superb interviews from the '50s and '60s by outstanding journalist Murrow. Unlike talk show interviews today that are done under bright lights and with a studio audience, these were transmitted generally from the homes of those interviewed with Murrow asking questions from the studio. The relaxed atmosphere brings revealing comments from the subjects as they relax their celebrity persona. Those interviewed here include John F. Kennedy, Sammy Davis Jr., Humphrey Bogart, Billy Graham, Liberace, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Dean Martin and Bette Davis. Highly recommended.

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Here's a memory piece we wrote and that was published shortly after Carson died about the three times we saw Carson in person, once on "Who Do You Trust," the other two on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."

Viewing Carson was best from seat in studio audience (Originally published Jan. 26, 2005)

Watching Johnny Carson host ''The Tonight Show'' was seeing a master comic at work.
Over the years, I saw Carson do his magic in person three times -- twice on ''The Tonight Show'' and once on ''Who Do You Trust?,'' the game show he emceed (with perennial sidekick Ed McMahon as announcer) before he took over the NBC late-night show.
Watching Carson at home was, of course, like seeing an old friend. But seeing the show live was a different experience. When you were an audience member, the larger-than-life Carson heard you laugh at the jokes that were funny, as most of them were -- and your groans at the jokes that didn't quite go over. You -- we -- were the target of his witty retorts.
''Who Do You Trust?,'' which Carson -- who died Sunday of emphysema -- hosted from September 1957 to December 1963, was taped in New York. On a trip to visit an aunt in Jersey City, my dad took my sister and me -- we were in grade school -- to see several TV shows.
The ''Who Do You Trust?'' taping was filled with a lot of joking between Carson and McMahon, including a noisy mishap involving a washing machine being used in a commercial.
After the show, with no connections to anyone with pull, my dad somehow got us backstage to meet the very tall McMahon. We didn't get to meet Carson, though I recall seeing him stand a short distance from us. Little did I realize he would become the king of late-night television.
More than 15 years later, in 1977, as part of a honeymoon trip to Southern California, my wife and I managed to snag tickets to ''The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.'' After waiting a couple hours in front of the NBC Burbank studios, we were allowed in and discovered, to our surprise, how small ''The Tonight Show'' studio was in comparison to how it looked on TV. We were warned by the ushers not to yell anything out during the show, but that didn't stop the familiar sounds of ''hi-yo'' resonating when Carson walked out on the stage.
About six months later, we decided to go back to Southern California again, and because we enjoyed it so much, we figured we'd pay a return visit to ''The Tonight Show.'' We scored tickets to two shows, one on Monday, Carson's usual night off (with guest host George Carlin, a favorite of ours), and one the next night.
In the pre-show warm-up for the second show, producer Fred De Cordova announced proudly that Carson was in the building and would be hosting the show, which brought a big round of applause from the audience.
The audience got a few extras the home viewers didn't see.
The warm-up featured some extended music and jokes (often of a more risque variety than on the show) from De Cordova, McMahon, Doc Severinsen and members of the Tonight Show band. (Carson didn't appear until you heard the familiar ''He-e-e-e-e-e-re's Johnny.'')
During commercials, the lights on stage were turned off, leaving Carson and the guests in the dark.
One of the guests on that show was film star Ann-Margret. She and Carson chatted in the dark during the commercial break. With other guests, Carson might throw out the occasional ''How is everyone?'' to the audience.
But most memorable was something he apparently did at all tapings. Remember the famous golf swing he would enact after his monologue as the show faded to a commercial? Well, Carson would hold the pose, and after the camera light clicked off -- assuring he was not on the air -- he would say, ''Oh, shit.'' Of course, the audience, not expecting anything like that from the normally genteel Carson, burst out laughing.
That was the final time we saw ''The Tonight Show'' in person. Unfortunately, neither of the shows we saw had any moments that would have made ''best of'' compilations.
In 2001, I wrote a review about the newly released DVD collection of highlights from ''The Tonight Show,'' called ''The Ultimate Carson Collection Vols. 1-3.''
Though Carson himself wasn't available for interviews, his nephew, Jeff Sotzing, told me the words no Carson fan wanted to hear. ''He's retired; he's thoroughly enjoying his retirement. I don't expect him to do any new production whatsoever.''