Monday, May 15, 2006

Paul Brownstein Speaks

Here's an interview with Paul Brownstein, who is the leading producer/assembler of DVD sets for older television shows, particularly the "Dick Van Dyke Show" DVD sets. He talks about the process of finding good master material for these shows and tracking down the kind of stuff that makes for good extras: in-character commercials, award-show clips, kinescopes of live TV broadcasts (for the "Phil Silvers" best-of set, he included the cast performing an excerpt from the then-new sitcom on "The Ed Sullivan Show"), and so on. He also hints that he may be working on extras for the upcoming DVD releases of "Get Smart" and "The Odd Couple," two of the more prominent gaps in the TV-on-DVD catalogue.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Because of the way the show came out -- not hitting it's stride until about midway through Season 2 due to the change to the three-camera format -- Paramount would probably do better sales-wise by releasing the second season of "The Odd Couple" before Season 1 (it was one of several early-to-mid-70s sitcoms, "Mary Tyler Moore" being another, that markedly improved after their initial year, something that goes against the normal pattern).