"I'm going to be a real legitimate actor. I'll be like all those Broadway stars who have their pictures in Sardi's restaurant. After my opening night, they'll want to hang me too." - Milton Berle
Milton Berle's Buick Hour: Volume 1 DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
Milton Berle earned the nickname "Mr. Television" because, as legend has it, his presence as host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater, television's first smash hit, led to the sale of countless numbers of TV sets. When the show began in the summer of 1948, Berle's broad vaudevillian style was a perfect fit with the fuzzy-looking images that came through America's newest entertainment contraption. Everyone wanted to see the crazy antics of Uncle Miltie, so they either gathered around the sets owned by lucky neighbors or scraped up the money to buy one of their own.
In 1953, Texaco decided to move its sponsorship to other shows, and Buick came aboard as Berle's sponsor. The show, now called The Buick-Berle Show, was a hybrid of traditional variety shows, sketch comedy, and sitcoms. Each show had a sitcom-like through line involving Berle, Ruth Gilbert as his lovelorn secretary Max, and helium-voiced Arnold Stang as NBC stagehand Francis. Basically, it was a comedy/variety show about the making of a comedy/variety show, complete with famous guest stars.
Milton Berle's Buick Hour: Volume 1 collects a pair of the series' episodes. The first episode, "Broadway," is presumably the first of the shows under Buick's sponsorship. As the show begins, the singing Texaco servicemen begin to perform the traditional Texaco Star Theater opening until Berle interrupts to inform them that the show now has a new sponsor - Buick. After the opening credits - which, of course, feature Berle driving around in a Buick - Berle and his company of dancers perform a musical number to introduce the episode's conceit: Berle has decided that above all else, he wants to become a Broadway star.
After the number, Berle heads over to the newsstand to check Variety for possible Broadway acting gigs. He discovers that Tallulah Bankhead is producing a play and is negotiating with Frank Sinatra to play the male lead. Berle vows to win the part for himself, especially after Sinatra sidles up to the very same newsstand and begins to exchange insults with the comedian. The two race for Bankhead's apartment, and for the remainder of the episode they compete for the part and for Bankhead's attention.
Much of this episode is sharp and funny, although at times the dialogue is hard to hear (see below). The three stars seem to be having a grand time sending up their public images. Bankhead, for example, is so self-absorbed that her "apartment" consists mostly of bookshelves covered with copies of her own autobiography. In between the repartee, the impossibly slender Sinatra manages to sing an energetic "I've Got the World on a String" and duets with Berle on "It Must be Love." Even Bankhead croaks along with the boys in the show's closing number. The only major misstep in the episode is a scene performed by the three as an "audition." The dramatic scene is actually played seriously, and it feels a little out of place here.
The second episode, "Party Date," is far less successful. In it, Berle is invited to a big NBC party, but cannot find a date. He and guest star Martha Raye reluctantly agree to attend with each other, but Raye hatches a scheme to back out when she finds a better date, handsome actor John Payne. This episode is not as well written as "Broadway." The wit of that episode is jettisoned in favor of Raye's annoyingly grating mugging.
Raye, who makes the always over-the-top Berle look subtle and modulated, is downright bizarre here. Maybe this was aimed at neighbors who were not allowed in the house but were instead forced to watch the television through the living room window. Her performance is so out there - at one point she starts barking during the middle of a scene - that it leads to a sense of numbing boredom. Her only truly funny moments occur early in the show when she completely misses a cue and can be heard performing a different scene while Berle is on camera in another scene. When the camera comes back to her and she becomes aware of her mistake, Raye drops character and displays a giddy charm that unfortunately does not carry over to the rest of the show.
It should be noted that the live commercials have been cut out of these episodes.
The two episodes that make up this volume are housed on a single disc. The episodes are divided into eight chapters which are accessible through each episode's individual menu screen.
