New Goodtimes DVD set

[shimp scrampi]

Yes, there's ANOTHER JB public domain collection available! 18 episodes, 2 discs. Most are on the Madacy, Diamond, etc. sets, but there are a few less common shows:

3/6/55 - Jack Takes the Beavers to the Fair
10/23/55 - with Art Linkletter
10/20/57 - with Hal March, doing $64,000 Question

BTW, is Don's son, "Harlow" in the Hal March episode his real-life son?

And, the real reason to pick up this set, General Electric Theater from 11/21/54, "The Face is Familiar"! This is a great, more overtly comedic production of the same story Jack did on radio on "Suspense". It's a movie-quality production, directed by Frank Tashlin, and has a lot of terrific character actors, Jesse White, Joseph Kearns, Benny Rubin, Eleanor Audley. Definitely worth the price of the set for this episode alone. Plus, you get Ronnie Reagan introducing and Mr. Wizard himself, Don Herbert, doing some GE Government propaganda in the break!

And, Goodtimes has also released an 18 episode Burns and Allen DVD set that has Jack's great guest-starring episode from 4/24/52. I love seeing Jack, George and Gracie together, their real-life chemistry really comes through. Jack does a hilarious imitation of George in this, who knew he was a talented mimic as well!

The bad news, the video quality is pretty sketchy on some of the Jack Benny episodes. Some even appear to come from old off-air VHS, at one point in the Beavers episode a black bar appears at the bottom of the screen, apparently to block out some kind of crawl or station ID bug! The Hal March episode has some obvious video tracking lines and looks like you are watching underwater. I found both sets at Best Buy for $13 apiece, so still less than a buck an episode.

FYI, here's the complete rundown of the Benny set:

10/25/53 Humphrey Bogart
5/23/54 Road to Nairobi, Bob Hope
3/6/55 Jack Takes Beavers to Fair
10/17/54 Jam Session, K. Douglas, F. MacMurray
10/23/55 Art Linkletter
11/21/54 GE Theater - The Face is Familiar
1/17/54 Liberace
12/6/53 - Irene Dunne, Vincent Price
2/7/54 - Jack Dreams he is Married to Mary

Disc 2
11/3/65 Jack Benny Hour - Beach Boys, etc.
1/1/61 Jack Casting for Life Story TV special
4/19/53 Fred Allen
12/30/56 Talent Show w/Jayne Mansfield cameo
2/6/55 Four O'Clock in the Morning
10/20/57 Hal March 64,000 Question
10/31/54 How Jack Met Mary
1/9/55 Bedroom Burglars

[Shemp]

Disc 2 has an error on it. Rather than "How Jack Met Mary," its a repeat of disc 1's "Jack Dreams He's Married to Mary."

[shimp scrampi]

Disc 2 has an error on it. Rather than "How Jack Met Mary," its a repeat of disc 1's "Jack Dreams He's Married to Mary."

Thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't noticed. I have to say I haven't looked at most of the episodes on this set that repeat others I have.

On the plus side, the Burns and Allen DVD set actually has another Benny guest shot! Jack comes in at the tail end of an episode where Gracie throws a party for George because she's circled the date on her calendar and can't remember why. Turns out the party was supposed to be at Jack's and he's miffed!

Slightly OT: If you're a B&A fan, a select few of the episodes on this set are from the filmed series! Ironically, the film episodes which were syndicated - and in the past much more commonly known than the first 2 live seasons, are tough to see now. Even TV Land, when it aired B&A recently only showed a very few episodes from the first film season. Most of the video releases, save a few "official" videos from Columbia have been kinescopes of the live shows.

And, back on topic: Happy 39th Jack!