'Electric Company' is still relevant for kids
By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
Three very different DVDs are featured this week.
The Best of the Electric Company
When The Electric Company made its debut in the fall of 1971, I was a senior in high school, but I remember seeing bits and pieces of the show and thinking that this would have been a great way to learn to read.
That was the point of this companion show to Sesame Street. It was designed to carry along children who had learned their alphabet with Bert and Ernie.
While Sesame Street had the star power of The Muppets, The Electric Company had Bill Cosby and Rita Moreno heading a talented cast that also included a young Morgan Freeman.
Through skits, songs and animated sequences, the basics of reading were introduced over the show's original six-year run.
This new four-disc set contains 20 half-hour shows, plus a number of special features including introductions by Rita Moreno and a blooper reel from the show.
Now some might see this release as an exercise in nostalgia and while it will undoubtedly inspire fond memories from people who grew up watching it, The Electric Company is as powerful a learning tool now as it was then.
Aside from some groovy 1970s visual elements a little psychedelic, a little Peter Max this remains a very contemporary show.
The only element that remains a bit odd is the fact that Cosby smoked cigars on air in sketches. Hopefully your five-year-old won't want a stogie after viewing!
For more information, log onto www.shoutfactory.com.
The Warriors: Ultimate Director's Cut
Director Walter Hill made a name for himself in the 1970s and '80s as an action director who liked his stories gritty and real. The Warriors was a departure for him as, although the film is indeed an action adventure, it has a surreal bent to it.
The Warriors is an adaptation of an ancient Greek story of how a group of soldiers cut off from their army managed to get through enemy territory and get to the sea where they could escape to safety. Hill put that plot into New York City and made the opposing armies different street gangs. The gangs were outrageous in how they looked and Hill reveals in one of the interesting documentary segments that he wanted a comic book feel to the film an approach that was not fully realized until now.
When it was first released the film proved to be so controversial that some theaters didn't want to book it. Gangs liked the movie and when more than one group attended a showing, there tended to be trouble.
This new edition has seven animated scene transitions that Hill had wanted in the original version, but couldn't include due to budgetary concerns.
Starring Michael Beck, James Remar and Deborah Van Valkenburgh, the film holds up well as a dynamic and different kind of action movie.
It's rated R for violence and language, so be aware it's not a film for the kids.
For more information, contact www.paramount.com/
homeentertainment.
Significant Others: The Complete Series
This 12 episode limited run series originally ran on Bravo and follows the progress or lack of progress of four couples in marriage counseling.
We have one couple who married after a fast torrid courtship and now don't know if they want to stay married; a pair in their 20s who haven't quite grown up; an older couple who clearly hate one another; and one more pair who aren't sure whether or not they're good parents.
The show is only partially scripted and the actors clearly are capable of ad-libs that are not only funny, but all too real.
This is an adult show, with some situations and topics that simply aren't for youngsters. Yet it's never gross or tasteless in its presentation.
I think that most couples would get a kick out of Significant Others. You just might see a little of yourself up on the screen.
For more information, log onto www.shoutfactory.com.
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