Hopefully any regular reader of KSiteTV can tell I’m a huge fan of television, and take the time to write about classic TV, especially, any time that I can. With that said, it might be surprising that, when presented with the opportunity to review the recent Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts: Complete Collection from StarVista Entertainment/Time-Life, I was presented with a rarity in my years of television fandom: Something I had never seen before!
Of course, I’ve seen roasts. (Thank you, Comedy Central.) I know who Dean Martin was. But aside from perhaps some late-night infomercials that I breezed past, I’d never known how funny – or how well-populated – they were!
Let’s put it this way: Imagine a series where some of the biggest current talents of TV all congregated to make fun of each other. With no offense to the Comedy Central roasters, who are quite funny themselves, they don’t come close to the possibility of having comedy’s biggest and brightest all in one room for specials hosted by one of the greats. I’m sure a LOT of it was scripted, but a lot of it was funny. Presented at the old MGM Grand in Las Vegas, in front of an audience, almost all of the episodes look like a comedy ballroom from the 1970’s – because that’s exactly where you are! The sound quality isn’t the greatest, but I’m sure it wasn’t the greatest if you were seeing it live, either. It’s just fun, it’s just gathering, it’s just great.
My favorite roasts that I went right to were, not so surprisingly, the roasts that involved TV stars. Nearly the entire casts of certain TV favorites are included in some roasts. Politicians, sports figures, and even Dean Martin himself get roasted within the 54 roasts that are included. The Roasts actually began during the final season of The Dean Martin Show and went on to be their own specials — this is TV history right here. Folks like Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Phyllis Diller, Jimmie “J.J.” Walker, Betty White… I really had no idea before about the level of talent on the dais.
Although some of the humor is politically incorrect today, some of the humor is kind of prescient: The early roast of Ronald Reagan, for example, made jokes about him becoming President nearly a decade before it actually happened! The not so PC stuff, while there are warnings on the set, didn’t bother or offend me so much in that a lot of them were in good fun, and, again, there is the excuse that this was nearly 40 years ago and we have come a long way since then.
Watching these sets — even though the interviews and bonus materials talk a lot about the behind the scenes of it all — got me a bit curious to read more about the Dean Martin roasts, too, which meant I got a little history lesson free of charge. I read about the fire at the MGM Grand, which is a spooky story in itself that I am pretty sure is mentioned nowhere on the sets. It did look like the casino shots in the opening credits were re-shot for the 1980’s episodes; I certainly hope so, because since it would be kind of morbid to see a casino that was mostly destroyed by fire, at a location where a lot of people lost their lives.
The Complete Collection — which is by far the best way to get these roasts, in one big set at DeanRoasts.com — also features a ton of extras shot specifically for the set. The history of roasting, several Dean Martin specials and bonus episodes of Dean’s variety show, and more are within, complete with interviews. It is because of all of this content that I took so long to write this review… like the recent Mama’s Family set, there is a lot to pore through!
It’s not to say this set is perfect, however: There are two things I would have preferred to see differently. For one, this collection is largely made up of earlier individual releases, and because of that, there are some features that I see on more than one “set.” I also REALLY would have loved it if the set gave us the roasts in chronological order – from Ronald Reagan in 1973 all the way through to Michael Landon in 1984.
What I would give to have a show like this again. It won’t happen, so I guess I’ll have to settle for these DVD’s. No big loss, because I really enjoy them, and even if we did have a similar Roast show today, you can’t replicate Dean Martin and his friends in this day and age. With the holidays coming up, these would be a perfect gift: Either for someone like me who was unaware of them before, or for someone older who grew up watching and loving these. I know I, for one, will be showing this to my mom.
The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts: Complete Collection is currently available exclusively at DeanRoasts.com.
