Classic TV on DVD
Mr. Ed
Green Acres
Lost in Space
TV being the vast wasteland that it is today, and with ratings that are diminishing
as people desert todays offerings in favor of alternative entertainment
such as DVD, it might help to explain the rush of classic television shows being
released on the digital disc.
Weve covered such venerable offerings as The
Outer Limits, Star Trek (in various incarnations),
Soap, the Dick Van Dyke and Mary
Tyler Moore shows and many more.
And now we have boxed sets of three series that critics love to revile: Mr.
Ed, Green Acres, and Lost in Space. These are aimed at the great unwashed who
undoubtedly wont hang out at the right Hollywood, New York, London or
Toronto cocktail parties, but does that make them as lowbrow as conventional
wisdom would dictate?
Actually, no. While theyre each undoubtedly minor footnotes in TV history
compared with some of the shows named above, they each have things to recommend
them if only as guilty pleasures.
And in an age where sexual and bathroom humor and excess attitude
is the order of the day, its wonderful to sit down and watch shows where
people love and respect each other and arent always mouthing off to those
around them.
Take Mr. Ed. This was a show that I managed to avoid
like the plague during its initial run (yes, Im that old) and during any
subsequent airings. After all, a talking horse? Give me a break!
And that damn theme song! I hated it even when Id never seen the show
and now that I have it followed me around for about three days after
sitting down with this Best of Mister Ed set.
Okay, the concept of a talking horse is ludicrous, unless youre married
to a real nag (which Im most definitely not, dear!), but you know what?
They make it work! They actually take the silliness of the concept and play
on it, with hero Wilbur Post (Alan Young) careful to keep his equine relationship
secret lest he be branded a whacko. This he learns the hard way.
Alan Young is really good as Wilbur, very likable, and he has an easy rapport
with Ed, a horse he kind of inherits when he and his wife (Connie Hines) buy
a California home. Ed can talk to anyone, but hell only talk to Wilbur
because thats what he chooses to do. Hey, its all about choice isnt
it?
This gives Wilbur an excellent friend, a wise being who also happens to be
able to compose hit songs and do a number of other interesting things. Alas,
it also means that anyone Wilbur tells about Ed will think he needs a shrink
of course.
Usually shows like this always feature a nutty neighbor, but in this case neighbor
Roger Addison (Larry Keating) is the straight man for the humorous situations
that go on in Wilburs life. Addison thinks Wilbur's the nutty neighbor.
Its all done with intelligence and wit, which makes the ludicrousness
even funnier - and whoevers off camera getting Ed to perform on cue did
one heck of a job.
This two disc best of set (Volume One) is an excellent introduction
to the show and features 21 episodes from the 1961 pilot through the 1963 season.
Besides the pilot, which does a good job of putting the show, its situations
and the subsequent stories into context, you get encounters with Clint Eastwood
(who was then on the Rawhide TV series), George Burns, Jack Albertson, and Zsa
Zsa Gabor, whose sister co-stared perhaps not coincidentally in Green Acres.
Youngs Wilbur never lets the situation get the best of him and hangs
onto his lighthearted manner through all. Ed, of course, gets the best lines.
The supporting cast and guest stars are also good but as usual its
the writing that makes Mister Ed and wed like to see more writing of this
caliber today.
Just get that damn theme song out of my head, please!
The transfer onto DVD is excellent, with a razor sharp black and white image.
Its presented in the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, of course, so it wont
fill the 16x9 TV unless you stretch and/or zoom it. Sound quality is okay.
Green Acres is almost like the original reality
TV show, except of course that its fiction. But just like Foxs The
Simple Life took a couple of pampered bimbos and dropped them into
the real world, Green Acres drops a pampered pair of New Yorkers one
of them reluctantly into the boondocks far away from the cocktail circuit
set.
Eddie Albert is Oliver Wendell Douglas, a big city lawyer who always wanted
to be a farmer. His wife Lisa (Eva Gabor), likes the Big Apple just fine, however,
and has to be dragged kicking and screaming to Hooterville to take up life in
an extremely rundown farmhouse her husband bought and foisted upon her.
Oliver doesnt really know a lot about farming, or home repair, or anything
else that regular people know, but at least he has the right attitude. He got
ripped off on the farm, especially the awful house, but he doesnt care:
hes keen to fix up everything with his own two hands and turn the farm
into a profitable operation where he and Lisa can live off the land like "real
Americans" do.
This DVD set gives us the complete first season of 32 episodes (viewers got
value in those days: the episodes are also longer, thanks to fewer commercials
and promos), kicking off with the uneven pilot in which were treated
to a lame documentary-type presentation of Oliver, his life, and his dream of
buying the farm not in the military sense, of course.
So he pays through the nose for the Haney place and he and Lisa finally show
up in Hooterville to take up their new life. The episode features appearances
by Petticoat Junction characters Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchannan), Sam Drucker (Frank
Cady), Hooterville Cannonball engineer Floyd Smoot (Rufe Davis), and Arnold
Ziffel the wonder pig.
The country people are portrayed as rubes (this is yet another brainchild of
the Beverly Hillbillies team), and/or crooks, though over time the diamonds
beneath their rough does manage to show through at least a little.
Its classic fish out of water stuff, and if the Douglases and the country
folk manage to teach each other a few things along the way thats even
better.
Oliver, of course, is having the time of his life even if it isnt as
easy as hed expected, and Lisa ends up embracing the situation and even
becomes friends with their neighbors including said wonder pig.
This program has traditionally been thought of as yet another country bumpkin
comedy such as Petticoat Junction (from which it was spun off),
The Beverly Hillbillies (from which Petticoat was spun)
or even The Andy Griffith Show. But in some ways its more
like the first two Bob Newhart sitcoms, with its straight man star who is perhaps
the only truly sane person in the cast and sometimes you have to wonder
about him.
The two disc set includes the whole first season, with no extras.
The film transfer (aspect ratio 1.33:1) is pretty decent, with good but slightly
smeary color and some artifacts, mostly in the opening titles. The sound is
okay.
Then theres Lost in Space, a show I watched
religiously when I was a kid until Star Trek came along.
The eight disc DVD set includes all of the shows first seasons
29 episodes plus the original pilot and a promo pitch CBS used to woo advertisers
to the show.
I remember the show being hokey in the extreme, which is one of the reasons
why I bailed when I got to know Star Trek. Then, watching a classic TV festival
many years ago, I saw an episode and realized that its hokiness was deliberate.
It was camp, much like the 1960s Batman series was, except that while
Batman never took itself seriously Lost in Space had a more elevated opinion
of itself.
Especially some of the earlier episodes seen here. The series kicks off with
the launch of the Jupiter 2 in the far off future year of 1997. Theres
some great background material here for those new to the series, as Dr. (Colonel)
Smith sabotages the mission, but gets stuck on board and is forced to accompany
the Space Family Robinson on their misadventures.
It isnt until the third episode that they actually land on a planet,
and thats where the series starts to lighten up a bit. The first two episodes
are so self important, so plodding and yet so unintentionally hokey (this
may be science fiction, but the science is not in attendance).
In fact, I dont remember a single Warning! Warning! from
the robot until near the end of the third show. Sacrilege!
The overall storyline, which unfolds as a continuous narrative with cliffhanger
endings for each episode, is simple: a family of brave explorers becomes stranded
on a strange, alien world. Along for the ride is their pilot (who's also the
love interest for the teenaged daughter), the robot, and that verbose and cowardly
doctor who stole the show almost every week.
Its funny how your perspective changes over the years. Back then it was
Penny (Angela Cartwright) or Judy (Marta Kristen) who were the eye candy for
the boys yet now I finally realize what a babe June Lockhart was then,
too!
In all, its silly but entertaining. If youre looking for serious
science fiction you wont find it here, but if you want some enjoyable
hokum, this may be your cup of tea.
The video quality of these black and white episodes (aspect ratio 1.33:1) is
okay. It isnt as good as that on Mister Ed (Green Acres is in color),
but its okay its sharp enough that you can easily see the
wires holding up John Robinson (Guy Williams) during his EVAs, so thats
something.
Audio, Dolby Digital mono, is okay.
One thing I found fascinating was the inclusion of the name Johnny Williams
in the closing credits, as the person who did the music. Yessirree, thats
the same man who grew up to be John Williams, in my never humble opinion the
greatest composer for motion pictures that there ever was.
Funny. I had always liked the theme from Lost in Space. Now I know why.
Tell us at TechnoFile what YOU think