The Jackie Gleason Show [DVD]

Love it and brought back many happy memories of Saturday nights. Now please release the 1962-1966 American Scene Magazine episodes!

Just received this for Christmas and was overjoyed that "The Jackie Gleason" show was released on DVD, if not for seeing "The Great One" but for the 7 "Honeymooners" sketches that hadn't been seen in 50 years. What they don't tell you, however, is that the introduction numbers with the June Taylor dancers are cut out, in every episode I've watched so far. When they say "And Away we Go.." it is supposed to show the June Taylor dancers doing a number for about 3-4 minutes, then Jackie comes out after they have finished and are 'frozen' in place. They skip right to Jackie's entrance. Now, why is this cut out? Music right clearances? Some issue with June Taylor's estate? No explanation is given. If you are not from this time era, you probably wouldn't even notice. As for "The Honeymooner" sketches, these are not incorporated with musical numbers like the "Color Honeymooners" with the Trip to Europe. They are actually very quick segments at the very end. Gleason doesn't introduce the cast (Sheila Macrae, Jane Kean, Art Carney) during the curtain call, either. I'm not sure if that's what he did later on when they devoted a full hour to the Honeymooners. The comedy routines that I've watched with Orson Bean and Red Buttons are too long and a bit dated. Jackie smokes his cigarette while they do their routine and makes remarks every now and then, but it really isn't that funny. Maybe it's because our humor 50 years ago, is different than today. Now to the restoration of the master tapes: Excellent job. I would give that 5 stars, but it loses 2 stars for the 'edited' versions with no explanation on the box.

I liked the content for the most part, but this was obviously edited. All his shows used to start with a musical number featuring the June Taylor Dancers. Not one episode had that opening. There was no opening monologues with Jackie and his coffee. There were none of his pantomimes and characterizations of the poor soul and Reggie Van Gleason or Joe the Bartender. All shows were incomplete. Who knows what else they cut. Worth half what I paid for it. I would have added one star for complete shows. The the picture quality is 2 out of 5 which is somewhat understandable for the 60's but Star Trek was very good quality, so what is the difference?

. . . given what has been said about what was taken out of each show for a variety of reasons, I held out until a reasonably-priced used copy came up. In that sense, this fulfilled my expectations. But Gleason and his crew definitely knew how to put color to the show once it went color after 1966. One thing I noticed about when Tim Conway guested: Something tells me Gleason wouldn't have tolerated any more of Conway's stream-of-consciousness way of working the way Carol Burnett did.

This DVD set was a major disappointment. TIME-LIFE left out the things most purchasers acquired the set for: those wonderful skits featuring The Poor Soul, Rum-Dum, Reginald van Gleason III, and others; the comedy routines with Joe the Bartender and Frank Fontaine (with Fontaine singing a song at the end); and the dance routines by the June Taylor dancers. The only things they did a good job with are the assorted guest performers, and Gleason saying “How sweet it is!” at the beginning. The original broadcasts should be presented in their entirety (including the commercials), in black & white where that was the original format (to preserve the original ambience).

I enjoyed these shows when they first aired. I appreciate your good service.

Before I continue let me say this: Not only was The Jim Nabors Variety Show--- and Johnny Cash; Carol Burnett; Johnny Carson; Flip Wilson... ---heavily edited because of copyrighted music, so are non-variety series such as WKRAP Cincinatti/Northern Exposure/Happy Days/The Andy Griffith Show/Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. After MANY years, most, but not all music was re-included into THE WONDER YEARS. There a-r-e, oddly enough, ways to GET some of the songs back. Buy a cheap [usually 16 episodes] "Mayberry" or "Best of Andy Griffith" collection and The Dillards will have extra songs singing as "the Darlings family". Catch is, while the 16 episodes were NOT copyrighted because it was known they had no rerun-value, the, so-called, boot-leg copies are NOT allowed to use the original opening/closing theme song! Hmmm. Okay, THAT said, only a couple of the JACKIE GLEASON episodes, included here, actually have any JUNE TAYLOR DANCERS dancing. An occasional song, or two, ARE deleted. The episodes range from 36-50-minutes.SO0o... for what you CAN get--- Jimi Hendrix's, surviving family members will NEVER have to work a day in their lives ---that which IS on this collection is pretty good. I hope to see more releases so I can relive the Joe The Bartender moments [even if there IS no singing in the bar by Mister Fontaine].I was born in 1949. I am a Vietnam veteran. I missed a few things when I was "overseas":* THIS show.* Man walking on the moon.* Mom's apple pie with a thin slice of cheddar cheese.

Great old shows and quality of video and audio excellent!!