Year:  1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1986
Genre:  TV series, Comedy
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Ron Howard, Frances Bavier, Jim Nabors, Danny Thomas
Creator:  Sheldon Leonard
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     I have never before seen the Andy Griffith Show.  Of course, it’s one of those iconic shows that is so famous that I knew all about it.  I know that classic whistling theme music.  I know Andy and Opie and Barney Fife and Gomer Pyle and Aunt Bee.  (To be fair, I know Aunt Bee only because of her appearance on Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.  Yes, I saw Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. before I saw The Andy Griffith Show.)  At any rate, with the release of the 50th Anniversary collection Best of Mayberry, on DVD December 21st from Paramount Home Entertainment, I was excited to finally sit down and see what this show was all about.

     The Andy Griffith Show was off the air ten years before I was born.  It depicts a community, an ethos and warm-apple-pie values that I am not convinced ever actually existed.  That being said, this is one of those shows that makes me feel nostalgic for something that may never have actually taken place, for a place that was never on any map, for a lazy friendly community that was probably impossible no matter what era.  There’s something terrifically familiar about The Andy Griffith Show, even for someone like me who has never seen it before, and who has never experienced this idyllic portrayal of life in the 60s.

     I assume it’s shows like this one that create that sense among older people today that things were just better back in the 50s and 60s.  Remember how back then, women always made apple pie and cooled it on the window sill, boys would be boys, girls would wear pretty dresses and play with dolls, and every father in America would come home after a hard day’s work, kiss his wife, eat his dinner, and dish out wise advice to his children with appropriate gravitas.  I keep hearing people saying that “family values” were better in this era, that people worked harder and were happier and loved their spouse more and blah blah blah.  Watch Andy Griffith for ten minutes, and I can see that people might think that.

     Then again, watch Andy Griffith for thirty minutes, and you might remember that things really were not as idyllic and lovely as they seem through the revisionist lens of a television camera that shows a non-existent world.  At the end of every episode on this DVD, the characters in the show do a quick endorsement for a product of some kind.  Often it’s coffee and breakfast cereal, sometimes other food.  I love seeing this stuff – I think the scripted endorsements actually make me feel more nostalgic for this time than the show itself. 

     And they are more telling than is the show – especially the one for Jell-O cake mixes, which tells me that the little woman is working herself to distraction in the house, what with the laundry and the cleaning and having to cook dinner – how can we make dessert easier on her?  Well, with the easy-bake Jell-O cake mix, of course!  She will be so much happier if we take nine minutes off her prep time for cakes – and then imagine how the counters will sparkle!  She’ll have nine more minutes to clean!

     So these are my first impressions of The Andy Griffith Show.  My second impression is one of Andy Griffith himself.  I’m very familiar with Griffith from Matlock, because I’ve watched that show for year.  I love me my Matlock.  Now, I’ve never seen Andy Griffith interviewed.  But I suspect that maybe, more than any other actor in the world, he is just like the characters he plays.  I really get the sense that if I were to run into this man today, he would invite me into his house just because, and he would stop by a hot dog cart on the way, and he would have a rocking chair and slippers and extra guitars so he can jam with random guests who stop by.  This is what I picture.

     At any rate, this is a DVD set that I just love.  I think this show was one of the best ever, and it still makes me laugh today.  When Don Knotts gets all smarmy and pompous, I giggle.  He wants to be in the town choir even though his singing makes everyone cringe.  Maybe my favourite episode is the one where he gets into a war with Gomer Pyle over traffic tickets and arrests himself.  And the one with his motorcycle and sidecar is hilarious.

     There isn’t a ton of Gomer Pyle on this DVD set, I guess because he didn’t show up until later.  There’s a lot of Opie and a couple of episodes with the Darlings, a backwoods bunch of Bluegrass-playing hicks with a slutty daughter.  The special features are great too – the first episode on the first disc is the episode of the Danny Thomas Show which introduced sheriff Andy Taylor and his family to the world, and the final disc has the TV movie Return To Mayberry, where Andy Griffith, Ron Howard, Don Knotts, Jim Nabors and twelve other cast members reunited to drum up some nostalgia.  And there’s a monster in a lake, a plot straight out of Scooby-Doo.  Well…not everything in the Andy Griffith Show can be a winner, I guess.

Years:  1964, 1965
Genre:  TV series, Comedy
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance
Director:  Maury Thompson, Jack Donohue
Run time:  11 hours, 59 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     You know how sometimes you can watch the same sight gag over and over?  Like The Three Stooges.  They do the same thing over and over, and it never stops being entertaining.  Or Buster Keaton, who always had the same problems, always got knocked over in the same way, and always choreographed his falling sequences in a similar fashion.  And it just got better and better.  Even the Marx Brothers, whose wordplay was most often brilliant, basically used many variations on the same joke over and over.

     Then there’s Lucille Ball.  With I Love Lucy, the jokes and physical comedy were repetitive, and awfully similar, from one show to the next.  But they worked.  Almost all the time.  Her second show, The Lucy Show, simply can’t live up to the standard she set the first time around.  Every joke feels stale, every pratfall is so familiar as to no longer be funny, and every set-piece feels like it has been dragged out of a closet on the I Love Lucy set, a closet where it was once relegated for just not being good enough.

     This is the same debate I have had with many classic rock fans here at the radio station.  Yes, AC/DC have made the same song, over and over, for thirty years.  But that song is good, and it lends itself to a number of slightly different interpretations that make it consistently interesting, and a new AC/DC album sells well.  By contrast, Nickelback have been making the same song over and over for ten years.  They do so because that song sells.  But it was terrible the first time, and therefore is no better the fiftieth time.

     The Lucy Show still has a few moments that shine through, but really it’s just Lucy and Vivian chasing men, trying to cover up some misdeed, and taking on silly situations so they can have a pratfall.  Like a raft inflating in a sporting goods store.  Or Lucy’s awkwardness on roller skates.  Or…the list goes on and on.  And it is now tiresome.  Paramount Home Entertainment releases Season Three on DVD November 30th, and I just can’t get into it.

Year:  1963-1964
Genre:  TV series, Comedy
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance
Director:  Maury Thompson, Jack Donohue
Run time:  11 hours, 59 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     It was neat to see the first season of The Lucy Show a while ago.  You know, see what Lucille Ball got up to after I Love Lucy, see her gift for physical comedy hadn’t lost any lustre.  But now, with the second season, I’m tired of it already.  EVERY episode is the same!  Lucy and Vivian plan something, then they fight, then the plan goes awry, then Lucy somehow fixes it or gets busted.  The end.  Season two comes out July 13th from Paramount Home Entertainment.

     There are some moments of real silliness that detract from this season also.  The scene where Lucy dresses up as a clown to save their party-planning scheme, then gets carried away by helium balloons.  It’s awful.  The scene where Lucy locks the bank manager in the vault – after spending the night with him, locked in the vault, just moments before.  Or the scene where Vivian and Lucy compete to see whose death can last longer on stage during a production of Antony And Cleopatra.  This show was always contrived, and usually bad, but for one season it was worth it to watch Lucille Ball, one of the greats.  It’s not worth it any more.

“The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.”

Year:  1964
Genre:  Musical, comedy
Country:  United States
Language:  English.  And bad English
Starring:  Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper, Jeremy Brett, Theodore Bikel, Mona Washbourne, John Holland
Director:  George Cukor
Run time:  170 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     There are serious flaws with My Fair Lady that really, in my opinion, prevent it from being one of those classics that hold up well over time.  That being said, it is still a phenomenal movie and one of Audrey Hepburn’s great performances.  So I am of two minds when it comes to writing this review.  Do I point out the great things about My Fair Lady?  Or do I point out why I think it doesn’t hold up?  Or both?  I am going to do both, but briefly.  First, the good stuff.  Audrey Hepburn is still my favourite actress of all time, despite the sad fact that she died when I was fifteen and didn’t even know she existed.

     In retrospect, I really wish I had known.  I probably would have ended up being a little more strange as my life progressed.  But had I fallen in love with Audrey Hepburn when I was nine, I could have had her poster hidden behind the other posters on my wall instead of Gabriela Sabatini and Katerina Witt.  And Samantha Fox.  I would have been better off, I think.  Hepburn’s performance in My Fair Lady is one of her best, playing a tough but poor as a mouse girl who sells flowers to make ends meet.  She is “discovered” by Rex Harrison, an arrogant professor who makes a bet that he can turn this uncouth flower girl into a proper sophisticated lady of society.

     The costumes are incredible.  The dynamic between Hepburn and Harrison is, for the most part, electric.  And Hepburn’s father (Stanley Holloway) is one of the most memorable characters in movie history.  My Fair Lady won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Harrison), Best Director (George Cukor), Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Cinematography, Costume Design, Music, and Sound.  And it deserved some of them.  Rex Harrison was pretty good in this film but his beating Peter Sellars in Doctor Strangelove, was ludicrous.  As was Strangelove not winning Best Picture.  But Hepburn, who wasn’t even nominated, deserved at least to be considered for the Best Actress Oscar with Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins.

     Ironically – well, not really ironically because Hepburn wasn’t nominated for Best Actress – Andrews originated the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway.  But the producers thought she wasn’t bankable so they chose Hepburn for the movie role instead.  And then the same year Andrews won for Mary Poppins.  OK.  It’s a little ironic.  The most criminally overlooked actor in the film, however, was Holloway, who deserved the Best Supporting Actor Oscar over Peter Ustinov in Topkapi.  Remember Topkapi?  Yeah.  I rest my case.

     Anyway.  There are a few things that stop My Fair Lady from holding up today.  First, the songs.  They are good, and well-written, and reasonably well sung by Hepburn and Harrison.  But compare them to the songs in say, Mary Poppins from the same year, and they fall short.  They are far less memorable and far less singable than most of the songs in classic musicals.  I would make an exception for “I Would Have Danced All Night”.  Secondly, there is a disconnect between Harrison’s demeanor and Hepburn’s feelings for him.  I find it hard to believe that any man this abusive, arrogant, pompous and overbearing could actually engender feelings of love in anyone, let alone a girl who is supposed to be strong and independant.

     Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, watching this movie now makes it clear to me that it runs far too long.  At nearly three hours, I need better songs and more compelling romance to buy in.  And although I love the story, and the actors, I just don’t buy the Hepburn-Harrison romance.  And I therefore have a hard time buying the last hour and a half of the film.  And it drags, powerfully.  That being said, this is a classic, but more as an artifact than as a film that remains as powerful to this day.  I still like it, but I can’t watch it very often.  Buy it.  But you’ll be keeping it on your shelf most of the time.

“What are you dressed for?”

     The best part about Petticoat Junction is how hilariously and campily dated the whole thing is.  When Kate demands that Billie Jo change her clothes before she heads off to school, the slutty attire to which she refers is a knee-length dress that covers her entirely, neckline included.  Oh, how times have changed.  The Official Second Season hits DVD July 7th from Paramount Home Entertainment, and is notable mostly for the fact that a big star was added to the cast.  Well, not a big star as such.  Well, a bigger star than Edgar Buchanan.  OK.  Anyway, the biggest star ever to appear on Petticoat Junction was named Higgins.

     Edgar Buchanan’s career sort of peaked with this show.  Bea Benaderet sadly died in 1968 while the show was still going, and she was most famous as the voice of Granny, the old woman who always owned Tweety Bird in the old Warner Brothers cartoons.  Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo and Betty Jo were played by a total of five actresses during the run of the show, none of whom did much afterward.  No, Higgins was the biggest star ever to appear on Petticoat Junction.  In the first episode of Season Two, Higgins joined the cast when he followed Betty Jo home from school.  I get it though – I too would have followed Betty Jo home in the fifties.

     Higgins becomes the family dog in the first episode, and from there becomes a major part of the series in the second season.  He never had a name, and was refered to only as “dog” from then on.  He was awfully cute, and he quickly became the best reason to watch this show.  Season One was decent, but Season Two is slightly better simply for the addition of the dog.  Any creature that can give Uncle Joe less screen time overall is OK with me.  Oh – Higgins was the most famous actor on the show because he went on to play Benji in the 1974 film Benji.  He also guest starred on Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies.  Higgins was a Super Star!

Year:  1964, 1965
Genre:  TV series, Drama
Country:  United States
Languages:  English
Starring:  David Janssen, Barry Morse
Narrator:  William Conrad
Guest stars:  Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall
Creator:  Roy Huggins
Run time:  12 hours 51 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment
DVD extras:  Not much of anything
Related reviews:  The Fugitive Season One Volume Two, The Fugitive Season Two Volume One, The Fugitive Season Three Volume One

     The opening episode of The Fugitive, Season Two Volume Two, on DVD March 31st from Paramount Home Entertainment, stars David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble, still on the run after being wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife.  He is no closer to finding the one-armed man who killed his wife.  He is no closer to being caught by the feds who are chasing him down.  In fact, there is nothing different about this volume of The Fugitive than any other.  Except for this first episode.  You see, the first names you see on the screen when you pop in this DVD volume are Robert Duvall and Angie Dickinson.  Seriously.  Robert Duvall and Angie Dickinson.  In an episode of The Fugitive.

   At this point in their careers, Duvall had two film credits to his name.  He had appeared in several episodes of The Twilight Zone, but in terms of movies he was by no means a name actor.  He had spent about ninety seconds on screen as Boo Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird, and he had played a bit part in something called Captain Newman, M.D.  Angie Dickinson was a far more established actress, having starred in films like Rio Bravo and Ocean’s Eleven.  Duvall plays a wheelchair-bound accident victim who needs round-the-clock care, and Dickinson plays his femme fatale scheming sister who hires Dr. Kimble as his caregiver, then tries to convince him to murder her brother.

   There are a lot of guest spots on TV shows today by giant stars.  (Think, every single episode of 30 Rock).  But this one is a real find.  Angie Dickinson was the Big Name when the show was shot, but Duvall is the real story.  Now, I may just be an enormous nerd.  In fact, I know for certain that I am.  But there is something incredibly exciting for me to discover a performance by one of the titans of acting in a place I would never expect.  This was just a job for Duvall, I’m sure, at a time where he was trying to get his name out there, seven years before he would become a giant of the movie world with The Godfather.  For me, nerd that I am, this is kind of like finding a letter to the editor once written by a 20-year-old Ernest Hemingway, or something of that magnitude.  And I am excited. 

   Oh, the rest of the season is cool too.  As cool as The Fugitive ever was.  But…Robert Duvall!  Robert Duvall!

Year:  1964
Genre:  TV series, Drama
Country:  United States
Languages:  English
Starring:  David Janssen, Barry Morse
Narrator:  William Conrad
Creator:  Roy Huggins
Run time:  12 hours 51 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment
DVD extras:  Not much of anything
Related reviews:  The Fugitive Season One Volume Two, The Fugitive Season Two Volume Two, The Fugitive Season Three Volume One

     When last we left Richard Kimble, “The Fugitive”, at the end of Season One, Volume 2, he was holed up in a house with two crazy odd-couple friends who were shielding him from the long arm of the law.  The net was closing in on him as the cops had set up roadblocks and a search party in his area.  And then…he escaped.  I was kind of hoping for a cliffhanger ending to that first season, but I guess they didn’t do that in the old days.  They just figured that people would continue to watch if they made a good series.  And they DID make a very good series.  I would call it refreshing if a series did it today.  But this one is from the mid-sixties, so I don’t know what to call it.  I guess I just thought it was nice. 

     But this lack of cliffhangers and continuing story lines becomes a bit of a problem in Season 2.  It was great in Season One when each episode stood on it’s own.  It set up the premise of the show wonderfully, David Janssen was brilliant as Richard Kimble, and the writing was great.  So, OK.  Now you’re in the second season, and the whole premise of the show has now been set up.  Kimble has been wrongly convicted of murder, but managed to escape thanks to a disastrous train accident on his way to death row.  Now he is on the run from the law, searching for the one-armed man who is the real killer.  But now that I’m into this second season, I want more story.  I want to follow his hunt for the one-armed man, and I want to root for him as he gets chased by the law.  The whole premise of the show is one that screams for continuity between episodes, but we still get one-offs, all season long. 

     But of course, those one-offs are still very good.  Season Two of The Fugitive begins with Kimble looking for help from a superstar lawyer played by Ed Begley.  By the way – here’s a hilarious excerpt from a review of this DVD set at  www.tvshowsondvd.com  - or, at least I thought it was hilarious.“15 episodes that include guest stars like Ed Begley (father of Ed Begley Jr.)” Hmmm…no kidding, eh?  But you KNOW nothing is going to come of it, because each episode ends the same way it begins – Richard Kimble is on the move and on the run.  Anyway, the season moves along at a brisk pace, one episode at a time.  In the end, it is compelling TV, but it isn’t the kind of thing where you want to watch several episodes in a row.  Although, that is more than I can say for most television.  One at a time is enough, which means you can watch all fifteen hours of Season Two, Volume One of the Fugitive on fifteen different days, over the course of the next three months, which should be just enough time for Season Two Volume Two to come out.  Volume One comes out tomorrow, June 10th, from Paramount Home Entertainment.