"Look at those pants. They're so tight, you're gonna have to carry your wallet in your mouth." - Telma Hopkins in reaction to Tony Orlando's wannabe Shaft outfit
Tony Orlando & Dawn: The Ultimate Collection DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
When The Sonny & Cher Show went on a four week summer hiatus in July 1974, CBS decided to replace the hit show with another musical variety series hosted by a popular singing group: Tony Orlando and his backup group, Dawn (Joyce Vincent Wilson and Telma Hopkins). With a similar mix of put-down humor, hit songs, and dumb sketches, Tony Orlando & Dawn proved to be a perfect compliment to Sonny & Cher, and it became a hit. The show became a full-fledged series - and a hit - in December 1974, but ratings steadily decreased until Tony Orlando & Dawn was finally cancelled in December 1976. Now, thanks to Tony Orlando & Dawn: The Ultimate Collection, DVD viewers can see every shag-hair, platform shoe sporting, and rhinestone leisure-suited moment of the best episodes of this campy forgotten gem.
The series is at its best when its stars are singing selections either from their wide list of hits ("Tie a Yellow Ribbon," "Sweet Gypsy Rose," "Who's in the Strawberry Patch with Sally") or then-contemporary favorites ("Theme from Mahogany," "You are the Sunshine of My Life"). Luckily, each disc contains a video juke box that allows viewers to jump straight to the disc's individual songs, or to play all of the songs juke box-style. At least one bonus song is included on each disc: "Steppin' Out (Gonna Boogie Tonight)" on disc one, "One Man Woman" with Tammy Wynette, "Mr. Big Stuff" with Florence Henderson, "Ain't She Sweet/That's My Baby" with Art Carney, and "Aquarius" on disc two, and "Get Closer" on disc three. One would be hard pressed to resist the charms of Tony Orlando & Dawn after these winning performances. Especially endearing are the performances in each episode where Orlando ventures into the wildly enthusiastic audience for one final song. Just try not to be charmed by his spontaneous duet in episode two with an audience member named Hymie who is celebrating his fiftieth wedding anniversary.
Tony Orlando & Dawn features appearances by a virtual Who's Who of '70s variety show guest stars: Rosie Grier and M*A*S*H's Loretta Swit in episode one; Jackie Gleason and The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Nancy Walker in episode two; Ruth Buzzi (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In), Danny Thomas (Make Room for Daddy), and Dom DeLuise in episode three; Hank Aaron and The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Ted Knight and Georgia Engel in episode four; Phyllis Diller, Neil Sedaka, and Jim Nabors in episode five; Adrienne Barbeau (Maude), Freddie Prinze (Chico and the Man), and Bob Hope in episode six; Hee Haw's Grandpa Jones, Lulu Roman, Junior Samples, Gordie Tapp, Roni Stoneman, and Buck Owens in episode seven; Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, and Sid Caesar in episode eight; Anne Meara and Jerry Lewis in episode nine; Alice Cooper (!?) in episode ten, and Freddie Prinze and England Dan & John Ford Coley in episode eleven. These guests are truly a mixed bag. MTM fans, for example, will be interested in the note-for-note riff on Ted and Georgette by Knight and Engel. They seem to be guesting as their fictional characters rather than as themselves. Diller's shtick is always funny, as is her introduction, in which she literally flips her wig for Orlando. Prinze's standup is as fresh as ever. Less successful are Berle and Caesar, who spent the 1950s raising TV to an art form and the 1970s negating these accomplishments in bad variety show sketches.
The show's sketches provide its biggest clunker moments. Some are surrealistic and inspired, as in the "Sleep It Off" sleeping pill commercial as directed by master of disaster Irwin Allen. After becoming sedated by "Sleep It Off," Orlando's apartment is beset by a variety of disasters, prompting his hysterical wife Anne Meara to yell "I know it's fast and effective, Harry, but we're having a tidal wave and an earthquake and a zeppelin and a flood!" In another sketch, Sid Ceasar plays a waiter who serves everything flambé, including the dinner rolls. Other lame commercial and movie parodies will leave viewers with an even greater appreciation for The Carol Burnett Show which pulled off such silliness so effortlessly.
One recurring sketch has Vincent Wilson and Hopkins playing Lou Effy and Moreen, a pair of poor friends who have each other and little else. Some of the Lou Effy and Moreen sketches are quite funny. The packaging indicates that the sketches were "rumored to be the inspiration for Laverne and Shirley," but surely this rumor never spread beyond the Tony Orlando & Dawn writers' room.
In the final two episodes included here, the series morphs into The Tony Orlando & Dawn Rainbow Hour and comedian George Carlin joins the cast as a regular monologue contributor.
The eleven episodes that make up The Ultimate Collection are divided onto three groovily designed discs. The discs are housed in a foldout case decorated with publicity photos and a written history of the show. The case slides into a cardboard sleeve.
Butterflies, pinwheels, and rainbows are the order of the day on the equally groovy full motion DVD menus. Viewers can play all episodes or choose an individual one. There are also scene selection menus.
Overall, this is a well-designed package.
It should be noted that the episodes are edited. The running time of each episode varies by as much as ten minutes.
