The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show

The husband and wife comedy team of George Burns and Gracie Allen developed their popular routine over more than three decades of stage, radio, film and television. They were one of the best-known couples in Hollywood history. Burns left most of the laughs to Allen, who had a way of engaging in dialogues of "illogical logic" that left her verbal opponents dazed and confused and her audiences in stitches. Burns, entertainment's most nimble straight man, balanced Allen's scatterbrained antics. Their chemistry made The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show an instant hit when it moved from radio to television in 1950. Product Description

Not bad for the money!

Lured by the color photo of Gracie & George on the cover, versus all the other DVDs of Gracie & George I perused on Amazon.com, I decided the information about this set, plus the total viewing time offered (over 4 hours) might be worth $10. Well...the cover art is definitely the best "video" about the set, but that's not to say the video is bad. Of the two enclosed discs, the first has some of the best video, the second has most of the best audio, given that Timeless Media Group apparently did NO restoration (audio or video) of the source material. However, the last episode on the second disc not only is the best episode of the two discs, it also has the best video and audio quality of the two discs! The episode must have been from one of their later (and better) shows, with a new set design, which was a little more modern, with better lighting...better everything!! It was a nice way to conclude the two-disc set.

There are no captions or subtitles on either disc, so with the first disc especially, one must listen attentively, or use the slow speed on your DVD player (if you're lucky enough to have that feature) to capture all the wonderful one-liners that Gracie throws out at lightning speed.

The shows are much like todays sit-coms, only from the '50s, and much, much more tame. The humor is family-oriented and fun to watch. Gracie is the life of ALL the skits!

Gracie seems much like an early version of Goldie Hawn, but without tatoos, blonde hair, or a mini-skirt. Gracie was a wonderful comedian who acted completely oblivious to the lunacy she delivered, and was utterly charming at it!! Goldi Hawn, who really became famous with her role on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" in the '60s, may have fashioned herself somewhat after Gracie! After all, the "George Burns & Gracie Allen Show" would not have been the hit that it was without Gracie!

The shows (there are ten episodes on the two DVDs) have fillers in between episodes that are mostly of the variety-hour type...tap dancers & singers, so when they appeared, I just fast-forwarded through them. There are also commercials for Carnation Evaporated Milk, and they are integrated directly into the skits, which is not something you see these days! Between skits, George rambles on with a few stories, trying to be funny with his classic facial expressions/contortions, until you get to the scenes with Gracie, and then the fun begins, and FUN it IS!!!

This really is an enjoyable, old-fashioned show, and if you remember this wonderful couple as do I, you can re-live their show in your living room once more with this enjoyable two-disc set! I do recommend it. The only reason for not giving it more than 3 stars is the overall poor quality of the audio and video on the discs. The programming, however, is quite fun! July 22, 2008

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