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Rating:  -
Much of this material I didn't have before, but I think I enjoyed seeing Jackie Gleason backstage, so to speak, getting into his different characters. He still doesn't get the respect he deserves for his work and I have to admit, loving Ralph Kramden above all others and will watch and enjoy The Honeymooners until my last breath. Maybe even after, but any Jackie Gleason fan should like this DVD.
Rating: -
The rotund "Great One" was well into his career long before I was born.
In the late 1950's early 1960's, I sat up close to the black and white
television, sometimes with a blanket over the television and my head,
as I had been ordered to go to bed, but Jackie Gleason's Honeymooners
were too great a gravitational pull. I was always amazed by the opening,
and asked everyone "Where are these tall buildings? Why do they get
fireworks over them? Where do the Honeymooners live?" I so wanted
to be a next door neighbor, wherever they lived. The rest of the cast,
just beautiful, comedy giants in their own right! These are my memories starting in grammar school, and have loved and appreciated the "Great One" even now into middle age.
I was thrilled to see this DVD available, "Genius at Work" allows the
most devoted fans, another glimpse into the life and work of Herbert John
Gleason; to quote a line penned by Woody Allen, "He gave us many a laugh and tear!" There will never be another Jackie, I appreciate having been
able to stroll down memory lane and 'to the moon' once again with this DVD. And away we go.,..,!!
Rating:  -
This is an excellent compilation of all of Jackie's TV characters. Although I will always like Ralph Kramden above all of the others this is an excellent look at The Poor Soul, Joe the Bartender etc. The commentary by Marilyn Taylor Gleason is notable and it is also great to see Art Carney in multiple roles.
Rating:  -
Once again, MPI Home Video drops the ball with how they have handled release of the old "Jackie Gleason Show" material. For the Gleason aficionados out there, this DVD is another example of how this company seems to do everything wrong.
I had been awaiting the release of this DVD for a while, and was excited to see some of the material that was billed as "never before released." Needless to say, I was highly disappointed when I watched the video and realized that this is essentially a re-edit of "The Great Gleason," a documentary that MPI released back in 1987! Most of the highlights are the same, and edited in almost the exact same way. Not only this, but Jeff Garlin's commentary is sometimes a word-for-word repeat of the narration from the older documentary!
It's my understanding that MPI owns the rights to well over 100 hours of footage from the original "Jackie Gleason Show" (1952-1955, & 1956-1957 seasons). WHY in the world, after nearly 20 years, do we see the exact same clips??? Can't they put out some material that is truly "never before released?"
Another issue I have is the quality of a number of these clips. Granted, all of this material comes from old kinescopes, and the image quality will vary widely in some cases. But there are some clips on this DVD that looked BETTER when we saw them back in the late 1980s. An example: the Fenwick Babbitt sketch where he's working in the cake factory. On this DVD, the clip is extremely blurred, and very poor quality. However, I have this same sketch on VHS when it aired as part of the "Best of Gleason" TV special hosted by Harry Anderson back in 1988. The video looks better on that VHS than on this DVD! Either MPI has no idea how to properly restore these images, or they've let the kinescopes further deteriorate since they took possession of them back in the mid 80s. Either way, it reflects badly on them.
The main redeeming factor about this DVD is the bonus feature - excerpts of Gleason performing on his variety show in May of 1954. But again, MPI drops the ball - rather than include the full episode, they only include a 15-minute edited version. Why could they not include the whole thing?!
Are they too cheap to spend the money on dual-layer DVD media?
It is frustrating that MPI essentially rehashes a program that is over 20 years old, when there is material they've been sitting on that would be well-worth releasing. Some of you may recall news coverage back in 2004 when the Peabody Award Archives located a rare 1954 kinescope of the Honeymooners "Love Letter" episode. Every article at the time mentioned that MPI planned to release this episode. Nearly four years have passed. Has this release happened? Of course not.
It would be wonderful to see the original Jackie Gleason Show from the 1950s see a full DVD release. Perhaps there is some hesitation, since they already chopped out all the Honeymooners episodes from these shows and released them on their own. But I know there are legions of Gleason fans who would gladly pay for full-season releases of the shows from the 1950s.
It's a real shame that MPI owns the rights to these shows, as they really do not seem to appreciate Gleason's legacy. Why can they not do Gleason's material justice and release it properly? And why does Jackie Gleason Enterprises let them get away with this?
Rating: -
Along with Bert Williams, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Harpo Marx, and Louis Jordan, JG rules in my view among the Kings of Comedy.
This DVD does him well. Originally airing on television in 2006, this set has his widow Marilyn Taylor Gleason (also sister of his choreographer June Taylor) talking about JG in the midst of some really brilliant clips that shows that our man should be remembered for more than just Ralph Kramden. Those who are my age and older who remember watching JG's Saturday night variety show remember his amazing array of characters such as Joe the Bartender, the Poor Soul, Fenwick Babbitt, Reginald Van Gleason (mmmm, that's good booze!), Rudy the Repairman, etc. etc. The man was a one man theatrical troupe! But since his show has not been available in its entirety since going off the air in 1970 (when I was six years old), most people know him only as Ralph Kramden.
This DVD presents some brilliant skits of the above mentioned characters and then some. The Poor Soul skit, where Art Carney teaches him how to bowl, is a SCREAM and the sight of JG flying down the bowling lane when he aims his ball is a marvel to watch, as is Rudy the Repairman's destruction of a fancy restaurent while installing an air conditioner, Fenwick Babbit's acrobatics during a BEAT THE CLOCK type game show, and Reginald Van Gleason's OUTRAGEOUS dance scene with Audrey Meadows (in a role other than Alice Kramden).
Trust me, these are some of the funniest and most creative moments ever caught on film! You will HOWL and pound on the floor laughing at this stuff.
Okay, so why do I give it 4 stars? Well, this is the DVD age and there is no reason why these wonderful sequences shouldn't be presented in their entirety. One tantalizing sequence has the Poor Soul performing an fascinating ballet with Marilyn Taylor (before she was Mrs. JG), but we only see about two minutes of this! A bonus feature has segements of a 1954 JG show with our man discussing and performing his menagerie of characters, but once again we only see portions of this!
Be that as it may, this is indeed entertaining and whets the appetite for MORE to be released from the JG archives. Genius is right! AND AWAY WE GO!
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