"Love is a feeling you feel when you're about to feel a feeling you never felt before." - Flip Wilson as Geraldine
The Best of the Flip Wilson Show, Volume 1 DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
When Flip Wilson's variety show premiered on NBC in the fall of 1970, it became an unlikely smash hit. In its first two seasons, the series hit the number two spot in overall ratings, behind only Marcus Welby, M.D. in 1970-71 and All in the Family in 1971-72. This was particularly impressive considering that only 14 years earlier The Nat "King" Cole Show could barely find sponsors willing to fund an African-American hosted show.
The Flip Wilson Show was a trailblazer in breaking the color barrier, but as this DVD shows, the years have not been kind to its particular brand of humor. Many of its jokes and comedy bits were old then and dead now. Overall, the writing is just terribly weak, even in "classic" skits like "The Church of What's Happening Now." The sketch presented here in the first episode is essentially one joke stretched over a too lengthy piece.
Geraldine Jones, perhaps Wilson's most famous character, also falls a bit short. There was a time (paging Uncle Miltie!) when the mere fact that a comedian dressed in drag was enough to send an audience into spasms of laughter. Times have changed, however, and a man in a dress is no longer all that novel. These days it seems like everyone has a cousin who likes to put on a rhinestone encrusted denim dress and lip sync to Dolly Parton songs on weekends. For cross dressing to endure, more than a dress is needed - it has to be backed up with good writing and characterization. Wilson provides Geraldine with tons of sassy character, but the writing ultimately fails him.
A prime example of this is a sketch in episode two. In it, Bill Cosby, playing himself, is convalescing in a hospital. When we learn that a new night nurse is about to come on duty, we breathlessly wait in giddy anticipation for Geraldine's appearance. The tension is palpable as we imagine the possibilities. Geraldine arrives.and then nothing happens. The sketch is all build up and no delivery.
Even fans of the series probably will not be satisfied with this release. In its network run, The Flip Wilson Show was an hour long. These episodes were culled from the show's entire run and have been edited down to 22 minutes, including the closing credits. Presumably this was done for the show's syndication or cable run. There is little sense of how the show was originally paced. Plus musical guests have mostly been cut out. Sure, Leslie Uggams and Ray Charles perform, but both are saddled with Wilson singing along - either as himself or Geraldine. Only The Osmonds get to perform a true musical number without a comic slant. (Or at least, not an intentional one).
Other guests in these episodes include Big Bird, David Frost, Gina Lollobrigidia, Don Rickles, Redd Foxx, Tim Conway, Bobby Darin, Ed Sullivan, and Lucille Ball. Of them, Foxx is the most successful. The sketch in which he plays a heckler to Wilson's hack comedian crackles with life as he expertly (and effortlessly) hurls insults at Wilson.
The main menu provides access to the five episodes included on the disc, the "Flip's Fotos" extra detailed below, and a "Shortcuts to Guest Stars" menu that allows direct access to scenes with individual guest stars. When an individual episode is chosen, the viewer is taken to that episode's menu. This menu allows the viewer to choose from three or four selected scenes, or to simply play the entire episode. There is no "Play All" feature.
