The Story:
A retrospective of comedy in America, as originally presented on PBS back in 2009. 6 episodes, spread out 2 per disc, because apparently 6 hours of information is too much for one DVD...
The first episode concentrates on the oddballs, jerks and nerds.
Emphasis falls on Johnathan Winters, Robin Williams, Harold Lloyd, Phyllis Diller, Woody Allen but many others are mentioned and featured.
The second episode is the breadwinners and homemakers.
This concentrates on tv shows, especially I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners and the Dick Van Dyke show.
The documentary seems to jump scatter-brained from past to present, back and forth, with no real rhyme or reason to the skipping.
The subtitle of this documentary was "The Funny Business of America".
To me, that's how this should have been presented. They were looking at 100 years, start with vaudeville and the silent movies and end with the stand-ups/tv/movie funnymen of today.
I think that would have given a bit better focus on the growth and importance of American comedy.
So there was some interesting nuggets to be had, but I'm not sure that anyone in the house wants me getting the remaining 4 hours to see how it turns out.
The series was hosted with intros by Billy Crystal, and it offered some insightful commentary by people that are no longer with us, like George Carlin.
Overall it was a nice experiment that could have used some tightening in execution.
Final Grade: B-
Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Nope, not even sure I'll get around to finishing the rest of the series.
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