Kylie's Review of The Best Of The Dean Martin Shows From Time-Life

Hey pallies, likes today we bring you a special review of the recent Time-Life Dino-dvds by Miss Kylie Hughes. Ky has been a Dino-devotee even before she came outta the womb, 'cause likes her father has been a life-long lover of our most beloved Dino.

Kylie hails from down under and although young in age---early twenties---she is long in her Dino-passion. I am so grateful that she has taken the time to express her personal opinions related to the 6 disc release of the Best of the Dean Martin Shows, and I know you will find this edifyin' Dino-readin!

Thanks Ky for tellin' it likes it is and givin' our ilovedinomartin readers your considered Dino-reflections. Dino-forever, DMP





I wanted to share my thoughts on the recent release of The Time-Life collection The Best of the Dean Martin Shows.
These shows have been so heavily edited, it`s beyond belief. Some episodes have been cut back from 53 minutes to around 18 minutes.

Let`s start with Dean's songs...we see Dean come on at the start telling a few jokes, then Dean says, "Here`s a nice man to tell you who our guests are tonight."
Dean is then supposed to sing his opening number but the song has been cut from the show. Disbelief !

The first show goes straight to Dean introducing Bob Hope doing a long monologue.
Another show goes to Dean introducing Orson Welles who later gives a very long and very boring monologue On the plus side we get to see The Old Time Radio Sketch, always funny but this same sketch is included on The Guthy Renker Dvds.

There are no couch songs, most fans of The Dean Martin Shows I`ve known over the years look forward to Dean singing a serious song on the couch. We see Dean open the closet and then sit on the couch, then they skip the song and go to Dean introducing another guest. For the finale, Dean says be sure to be watching next week and the end credits start rolling.

The end credits are the only part of these shows which have not edited. We get to see stills of all the parts which have been cut. Being such a big fan of Dean singing, I felt like screaming before I was even halfway through the set.

There are 20 edited shows and we only hear Dean sing his opening solo song on 3 shows..."The Birds and the Bees," already released by Guthy Renker....later in the set, "If You Knew Susie,"...and finally, "Somebody Stole My Gal" from 1971.
We do get to see an opening duet with Dean and Gene Kelly singing "I Want to Be Happy" from the later 1972 episodes.

There are duets but most have been edited. One of the most annoying edits is the duet with Sammy Davis Jr. On my original copy of this show, Dean and Sammy sing a great medley of songs but all we get here is a short rendition of Birth of the Blues. Everything else has been edited out.

The shows are more about Dean's guests than Dean himself. We see musical numbers from Joel Gray, Peggy Lee, Dinah Shore, Jack Jones. We see long monologues from people like Orson Welles, Woody Allen which by the way is the same long monologue already included in the Guthy Renker sets plus Bob Newhart and there are other comedy monologues from guest stars I`ve never heard of.

One of the biggest dissappointments for me is a show from 1970. I was so full of hope that Dean would sing the "Welcome to my World" medley with The Golddiggers, instead we see Dean saying goodnight surrounded by The Golddiggers and as if to rub salt into the wound Time-Life show the closing credits with pictures of The Golddiggers.As a big fan of Dean Martin and The Golddiggers medleys this really had me shaking with anger.

Afterwards I wanted to skip a few nights before I decided to watch more. I wish I could find something good to say about this set but I`m at a loss. This set is an insult to The Dean Martin Shows.

I realise there are many fans who have never seen The Dean Martin Shows and this set might not impact on them as much as it would to those of us lucky enough to have seen at least some of the original Dean Martin Shows. I had heard bad things leading up to getting this set but I wasn`t prepared for just how bad this is.

Anyone who has never seen The Dean Martin Shows before and this is their first experience of seeing The Dean Martin Shows would most likely be uninterested if the complete shows were ever released after watching these, which I think is very unlikely to happen now.

There are a few great moments, for me seeing Dean finish a show singing "Everybody Loves Somebody" uninterrupted by voice overs had me glued to the screen. Although it`s been released before, another great moment is seeing Dean sing "Small Fry" with his son Dino Jr. Another great song is "Four of a Kind" performed by The Ding a Ling Sisters...and there is a lovely duet with Kate Smith.

So many great parts of the original Dean Martin Shows are missing, the opening songs, the couch songs, Let`s Play Musical Question. And hard to believe but Frank Sinatra is missing completely. I never thought I`d say this but if you want to see Dean Martin at his best, buy the Guthy Renker set.

The set is a disgrace and an insult to Deans memory. Having watched all the discs I feel the last 2 discs were the best of a sorry lot. The episodes are longer and we get to see the full unedited sketch of Dean singing "My Buddy with Phil Silvers which is great. Overall, nothing like we had been hoping for.

Thank you

Kylie (Deansgirl)