Korman, Harvey

Blazing Saddles (30th Anniversary Special Edition)

Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humor is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from the lunkheaded Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a bunch of hungry cowboys, heaping servings of baked beans and, well, you get the idea. --Jeff Shannon

The railroad's got to run through the town of Rock Ridge. How do you drive out the townfolk in order to steal their land? Send in the toughest gang you've got...and name a new sheriff who'll last about 24 hours. But that's not really the plot of Blazing Saddles just the pretext. Once Mel Brooks' lunatic film many call his best gets started logic is lost in a blizzard of gags jokes quips puns howlers growlers and outrageous assaults upon good taste or any taste at all. Cleavon Little as the new lawman Gene Wilder as the wacko Waco Kid Brooks himself as a dim-witted politico and Madeline Kahn in her Marlene Dietrich send-up that earned an Academy Award nomination all give this sagebrush saga their lunatic best. And when Blazing Saddles can't contain itself at the finale it just proves the Old West will never be the same!Running Time: 93 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 085391895923

Gypsy

Widely considered, top to bottom, one of the finest musicals in Broadway history, Gypsy got lucky in its film version. Granted, Rosalind Russell doesn't have the bell-ringing voice one craves for in "Everything's Coming Up Roses," but as a domineering stage mom, she's truly fearsome. Trouping through vaudeville with her is her daughter, the future celebrity stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, played by Natalie Wood in all her youthful lusciousness. The production is studio-bound, but this actually fits the unreal show-biz world depicted. The Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim score has no weak spots, and some of the burlesque numbers ("Let Me Entertain You" and the riotous "You Gotta Get a Gimmick") are so authentic, you'd swear they were at least 100 years old. Gypsy is one of those big, somewhat stately musicals that does satisfying credit to its stage origins; no cinematic ground-breaking here, but a swell way to spend a rainy afternoon. --Robert Horton

Everything comes up roses when you let Rosalind Russell Natalie Wood and Karl Malden entertain you in the lavish movie musical of the Broadway hit about Gypsy Rose Lee and her formidable mother. Year: 1962 Director: Mervyn LeRoy Starring: Rosalind Russell Natalie Wood Karl MaldenRunning Time: 143 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 085391675525

The Carol Burnett Show - Show Stoppers

If you don't get at least a half-dozen belly laughs from this compilation of outtakes from The Carol Burnett Show, you'd better check your pulse. Originally broadcast on CBS in 2001, this affectionate retrospective reunites the peerless cast of Burnett's variety show--Burnett, Vicki Lawrence, Tim Conway, and Harvey Korman--to answer audience questions and reminisce. The cast recalls the many times they lost composure on camera, halting sketches due to all varieties of faux pas, from faulty props (or urinating horses) to mutual crack-ups. Culled from the show's mid-1970s heyday, the clips are infectiously hilarious, and the cast never missed an opportunity to inject a little raunchiness (later deleted) into their otherwise wholesome entertainment. Conway's the real conspirator here, frequently turning Korman into a helpless heap of giggles, and costume designer Bob Mackie (pulled from the audience) is given fair tribute for his outlandish creativity. TV like this doesn't exist any more, and Show Stoppers will make you wonder why. --Jeff Shannon

Dracula - Dead and Loving It

A comic reinvention of the Bela Lugosi classic about a Transylvanian vampire who works his evil spell on a perplexed group of Londoners. Mel Brooks's Count is a pratfalling evil prince of a guy who believes in long relationships. Brooks portrays vampire hunter Van Helsing who won't give a bloodsucker an even break.Running Time: 90 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 053939270020

In 1995, it was promising to hear that Mel Brooks was creating "the companion piece to Young Frankenstein." He had also brought in the heavyweight of deadpan--Leslie Nielsen. As Lt. Frank Drebin in the Police Squad movies, Nielsen has no peer for silly stuff--just the player Brooks would seem to need for a strong movie, as any fan of Brooks perpetually hopes a new film may rekindle his madcap magic. Alas, the end results in Dracula: Dead and Loving It include a sprinkling of amusements and one big belly laugh. Brooks and his writers use a very tight adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, but the spoofs can be spelled out as we go, as if they are paint-by-number. Some are jabs at Coppola's version of Dracula, but most are attached to classic Dracula films. If any real pleasure comes from the movie it's thanks to the efforts of the cast. Peter MacNicol plays the crazed Renfield to the letter, Steven Weber has a good time as the tight British Harkin, and Lysette Anthony charms as the doomed Lucy. Brooks and Nielsen ham it up just fine. There's even a surprisingly controlled performance by Harvey Korman (a character spoofing Anthony Hopkins's role in the misfire The Road to Wellville). As with Brooks's period comedies, the film looks better than it needs to and includes a few tricky special effects for good measure. This has nothing to do with the audience laughing--we need bigger jokes. And when you double over laughing in one scene--involving a stake through the heart and a bucket of blood--you want the movie to achieve Brooks's days of glory, when hearty laughter was the norm, not an isolated moment. --Doug Thomas

The Carol Burnett Show - Let's Bump Up The Lights/Showstoppers (2-disc set)

Mama's Family - The Complete First Season

A spun-off sketch from the Carol Burnett Show Mama's Family mined humor from a squabbling family in the Midwestern blue collar suburb of Raytown. The noisy clan was headed by Mama a buxom gray-haired widow with sharp opinions and a sharper tongue who shared her small house with her high-strung sister Fran a journalist for a local paper. Mama's lazy dimwitted son Vint a locksmith by trade moved in at the start of the series with his troublesome teenage children Buzz and Sonja after his wife run off to become a Las Vegas show-girl. Much to Mama's disgust Vint soon took up with the flirtatious neighbor Naomi.Running Time: 278 min.System Requirements:Running Time 278 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 012569804920 Manufacturer No: 80492

Do you remember Mama? How could you forget her? As indelibly portrayed by Vicki Lawrence, formidable Mama put the "diss" in dysfunctional. Like Tyler Perry's Madea a decade later (but without the penchant for firearms or corporeal punishment), Mama dispenses no-nonsense motherly advice, discipline, and verbal kicks in the backside. She makes Dr. Phil look like Stuart Smalley. Thelma Harper does not suffer fools. She makes them--well, everybody--suffer. These include her sister, Fran (Rue McLanahan, The Golden Girls), a journalist who lives with her; her feckless son, Vint (Ken Berry, F-Troop), who moves in with his two teenagers after he is evicted from his house; and "bleached-blonde bimbo" Naomi (Dorothy Lyman, the original Opal on All My Children), who marries Vint by episode 4. Mama's extended family includes her two daughters, highfalutin Ellen (Betty White) and high-strung Eunice (Carol Burnett), who, to say the least, has issues. No one will mistake Mama's family for the Cleavers or the Bradys. They communicate mostly by screaming, and with put-downs often more cruel than comical. As a bystander tells Mama and Eunice in one episode, "Hold it, you're giving me a headache." One of the most memorable episodes is the one in which the Harpers must stick together when they appear on Family Feud (featuring a game Richard Dawson). Lawrence and Burnett, who appears in four episodes, share a palpable chemistry, honed all those years on The Carol Burnett Show, where Mama originated. As with those classic sketches, the best of these episodes, such as "Cellmates," in which Mama and Eunice are jailed after a disastrous birthday celebration, can make you laugh one minute and move you the next. Mama's Family is a great place to visit. Thank god we don't have to live there. --Donald Liebenson

The Carol Burnett Show - Let's Bump Up the Lights

One of the most endearing features of The Carol Burnett Show was the Q&A session with the audience that opened every show; it provided a charming forum for Burnett's warm rapport with her fans, as well as a showcase for her improvisational skills. This 2004 TV special (which, like Burnett's Showstoppers retrospective from 2001, posted huge ratings) puts the comedienne and her series co-stars--Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner--in front of an audience once again to reminisce and introduce some vintage Q&A clips. Burnett remains fast with a quip, and game enough to once again venture a stellar Tarzan yell, and she's well-matched by her former castmates, who spin some terrific stories about smooching male and female audience members, wrangling with the legendary Mrs. Miller, and struggling to keep a straight face while one of them (usually Conway) stole the show. For fans of the series, this is an enjoyable highlight reel of its funniest unscripted moments. --Paul Gaita

THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW - LET'S BUMP UP THE LIGHTS! reunites Carol Burnett with her illustrious cast to relive personal favorites and expose never-before-seen clips from the legendary studio audience Q&A sessions. This hilarious television special kept more than 13 million viewers in stitches.

Herbie Goes Bananas

This fourth Love Bug movie is a wooden story about Herbie's funny adventures heading toward a race in Brazil. Charles Martin Smith and Steven W. Burns try hard to bring some life into this project, but it just doesn't happen. There is one good laugh in the whole thing, in a scene where Herbie becomes a matador. Otherwise, even the picturesque, south-of-the-border stuff doesn't help. --Tom Keogh

Set in exotic locations in Central America, the internationally renowned Herbie, everyone's favorite "love bug," demonstrates his special brand of "car-isma" and high-octane humor in this action-packed, stunt-filled comedy outing. The fun begins when Herbie sets sail for Rio de Janeiro's Grande Premio racing competition with his two new owners. En route, they get sidetracked by a smuggling syndicate, pestered by a pint-sized pickpocket, and bullied by a raging bull. Laughter shifts into high gear in this zany Disney comedy!

Blazing Saddles

Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humor is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from the lunkheaded Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a bunch of hungry cowboys, heaping servings of baked beans and, well, you get the idea. --Jeff Shannon

The Flintstones Yabba-Dabba Pack (The Flintstones/Viva Rock Vegas)