Erman, John

Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.: The Fourth Season

Gomer Pyle a naive country boy leaves his home in Mayberry NC to join the U.S. Marine corps. His perpetual wide-eyed innocence frequently gets on the nerves of his tough loudmouthed sergeant. A successful spin-off from THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW.System Requirements:Running Time: 749 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097361327242 Manufacturer No: 132724

In a representative moment from Gomer Pyle's fourth season, Gomer, on a weekend pass, enthusiastically anticipates a glass blowing demonstration. Not for him the local bar or burlesque club favored by his barracks mates. "Sounds like a 'don't miss,'" he proclaims. And between a visit from Aunt Bea, a trip to Washington, D.C., a commanding guest star turn by Carol Burnett, and a return to Mayberry, so is Gomer Pyle's fourth season. Far from lagging in its penultimate season, this series had not lost a step (it was the No. 3-rated show that year), thanks to Jim Nabors' indelible embodiment of sweet and simple Gomer, who, to quote Sgt. Carter (Frank Sutton), has "a soft heart and a soft head." Gomer may still be "a lunkhead" at times, but he can always be counted on to do the right thing. In "Gomer and the Privileged Character," he pulls all-nighters to make up for the work he misses during the day while rehearsing for a concert. In "Gomer, the Good Samaritan," he is compelled to come to the aid of distressed strangers while en-route to pick up a general. The showcase for this season is the four-episode story arc that packs Gomer and Sgt. Carter to our nation's capitol for a concert to be attended by the President of the United States. The stirring Capra-esque climax finds Gomer, hoarse from stage fright, taking inspiration from the Lincoln Memorial, and regaining his voice while reading aloud the Gettysburg Address. Another standout episode features a welcome appearance by Frances Bavier as Aunt Bea, who insists on helping Gomer with barracks duty (anyone who's ever fantasized about what Bea would look like in fatigues, here's your chance). Carol Burnett is hard-driving "Corporal Carol," whom the unwitting Gomer sweeps off her feet, causing a rift with his girlfriend, Lou-Ann Poovie (Elizabeth MacRae; she of the honey-dripping voice). Gomer endearingly wears his heart on sleeve, and in the episode, "The Better Man," he declares his love for Lou-Ann to her initially disapproving father. By the fourth season, the great Ronnie Shell is gone, but a pre-M*A*S*H William Christopher appears as a fellow private, while Roy Stuart makes a fine straight man for Sutton as Cpl. Boyle. Too bad that Andy, Opie, and Goober are out of town when Gomer visits Mayberry (nitpick: Wouldn't someone have written him that Floyd had retired and Emmett had set up shop?), but keep your eyes open as Gomer gets on the bus out of town. With nary a topical reference (you'd never know the Vietnam War was raging) these episodes hold up well. There is no one like Gomer left in prime time, and he is dearly missed. As a grateful panhandler whom Gomer helps out in one episode observes, "I'm glad there's a few kind people left in this world." Or at least on DVD. --Donald Liebenson

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. - The Complete First Season

Gomer Pyle was a sweet but not too smart Marine from Mayberry North Carolina who was stationed at Camp Henderson near Los Angeles California. Gomer's innocence naivete and low-key demeanor often got him into trouble most frequently at the hands of his loud-mouthed superior Sgt. Carter. Duke Frankie Lester and Larry were some of Gomer's pals and fellow enlisted men at Camp Henderson and Lou Anne Poovie was his sometimes girlfriend who worked as a singer at the Blue Bird Cafe where Gomer and the boys often hung out.DVD Features:Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)Commentary by: Jim Nabors (select episodes)Dolby Digital 2.0All 30 episodes from the 1964-65 season on five discsGomer Pyle U.S.M.C. pilot episode from The Andy Griffith ShowAudio introductions by Jim Nabors on select episodesJim Nabors interview on The David Frost ShowThe Jim Nabors Hour clipFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097360788648 Manufacturer No: 078864

Golll-eeeee! The '60s' favorite TV country bumpkin, Gomer Pyle, won the hearts of viewers on The Andy Griffith Show, and spun off in to his own wildly popular series, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.. As the eternally cheery and clueless Gomer, Jim Nabors gives a comic tour de force performance as a newbie Marine under the command of the short-tempered Sgt. Carter, played with demonic fervor by Frank Sutton. Are Pyle and Sgt. Carter bitter foes or comedic sidekicks? "Surprise, surprise, surprise"--the secret to their chemistry was that the actors and characters were both, inseparable and adorable in their signature ways. The scrapes Gomer gets into are fairly routine and never exactly threaten national security, but Nabors' guileless delivery makes viewers tune in for more; the belly laughs are real. The boxed set includes engaging audio commentary by Nabors, who clearly still holds a lot of affection for his hapless alter-ego, as well as all 30 first-season episodes, and the pilot, which actually aired on The Andy Griffith Show. Other gems from the archive treasure trove include appearances by Nabors on The Lucy Show, The David Frost Show, and Nabor's own variety show, which also showcased his accomplished singing. Shazam! --A.T. Hurley

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. - The Second Season

Gomer Pyle a naive country boy leaves his home in Mayberry NC to join the U.S. Marine corps. His perpetual wide-eyed innocence frequently gets on the nerves of his tough loudmouthed sergeant. A successful spin-off from THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW.System Requirements:Running Time: 761 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097361225845 Manufacturer No: 122584

Thanks (but no thanks) to Full Metal Jacket, the name of "Gomer Pyle" is associated with a demented, suicidal screw-up. That's not the Gomer (Jim Nabors) we know and love! Sure, our Gomer may be, in the mentoring words of his bellowing Sgt. Carter (Frank Sutton), a "lunkhead," "yo-yo," "knucklehead," and "meatball," who invariably "pulls some beauts." But his heart is always in the right place, as in the episode "PFC Gomer Pyle," in which the newly promoted Private First Class unwittingly cancels Carter's Hawaiian furlough thinking it is a request for a permanent transfer. Our Gomer is unfailingly honest. In "Gomer and the Phone Company," he is arrested for trying to put back ill-gotten money he received from a malfunctioning pay phone. And, our Gomer is forthright, as in "Gomer and the Beast," in which he stands up to a feared, abusive sergeant (guest star Michael Conrad) who takes his waitress girlfriend for granted.

Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show, was one of the "surprise, surprise, surprise" hits of its day. In this second season (its first in color), it ranked second to Bonanza in the Nielsen ratings. That Nabors and Sutton were never even nominated for Emmys is a TV Land injustice. Nabors, especially, finds new music in what could have been a one-note bumpkin character (he even demonstrates his unexpected baritone singing voice in "Arrivederci, Gomer"). Providing expert support are Ted Bessell (That Girl) and Ronnie Schell (who demonstrates his standup comedy chops in "Duke Slater, Nightclub Comic") as Gomer's Marine buddies. Look sharp for two future M*A*S*H stars, Jamie Farr in "Gomer Pyle, P.O.W." and, in a couple of episodes, William Christopher. Making welcome visits from Mayberry are George Lindsay in the mistaken-identity episode, "A Visit from Cousin Goober," and Ron Howard in "Opie Joins the Marines," in which Carter bonds with the runaway Opie and, movingly, hints at a less than nurturing relationship with his own father. "The world has changed a lot since I was a kid," he remarks when Andy (Andy Griffith) arrives to retrieve his son, and puts a reassuring arm around the boy's shoulder. Television has changed, too, in the more than 40 years since these still funny episodes were first broadcast. Prime time could use another Gomer, with his boundless optimism, unwavering character and try, try again attitude. --Donald Liebenson

Alex Haley's Queen

There are two sides to every story the saying goes. For Alex Haley one side was roots the towering chronicle tracing severn generations of his mother's family. The othe side comes to the screen in Alex Haley's Queen the remarkable history of a paternal side of the author's family. David L. Wolper (Roots The Thorn Birds) is the executive producer of this acclaimed adaption of the story Haley was working on when he died. Halle Berry plays Queen daughter of a slave (Jasmine Guy) and a plantation owner (Tim Daly). During the turbulent decades of the antebellum South the Civil war Reconstruction and beyond she searches for a home in the two cultures of her heritage - and at times is shunned by both. Rejection and hate are no match for her unconquerable will however. Ann-Margret Danny Glover and Ossie Davis are among the many stars of this poingnant uplifting final chapter of the Haley legacy.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/BRITISH EMPIRE UPC: 085392425327 Manufacturer No: 1000035543

Roots - The Next Generations

Roots rocked the cultural landscape in the late '70s, creating a new wave of awareness of black history. That wave opened the door for its sequel, Roots: The Next Generations, even more of a star-studded event than the original, with stars like Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda, Marlon Brando, and James Earl Jones eager to partake in the tale. The sequel follows the rest of the saga of the family of author Alex Haley, from where Roots ended at the Civil War, up to the 1970s when Haley was researching and writing his earth-shattering family story.

While nothing can rival the power of the original Roots' unflinching look at the slave trade and slave life in the early years of this country, the sequel is still full of rich African American history, from Reconstruction, to Jim Crow, to the civil rights movement and the early rumblings of black power. Fonda and de Havilland are respectable in their period-piece roles, but the real power of this sequel is in the more immediate concerns of Haley and his own experience of prejudice while building a stellar reputation as a writer and journalist in the '60s and '70s. One of the most unsettling scenes takes place then, when Haley interviews the head of the American Nazi Party, played with chilling diffidence by Brando. (Brando won an Emmy for this performance.) Haley is also challenged by his fractious interview with Malcolm X (a gripping Al Freeman Jr.). Jones launches his acting career playing Haley with nuance and heart, but with a humanizing set of his own demons.

The four-disc set includes all seven episodes plus a compelling documentary, Roots: The Next Generations--The Legacy Continues, with interviews with Jones, costar and episode director Georg Stanford Brown and a still starry-eyed David L. Wolper, who understands the cultural impact of the two miniseries he helped bring to the screen. --A.T. Hurley

Could there be a worthy follow-up to the most-watched miniseries ever? "We felt the other did so well," Alex Haley said, "that we should just let it hang there." But Haley began carrying around a tape recorder, dictating more of his family's tales as they came to his memory. Those remembrances filled a 1,000-page transcript: raw material for Roots: The Next Generations. Winner of the Emmy for Best Limited Series, this landmark continuation of a landmark event - with 53 stars and 235 speaking parts - "is in many respects a superior achievement," Newsweek said in comparing this to Roots. Twenty-five years later, it has lost none of its dramatic and emotional power to make us confront history and examine ourselves. One man's family remains everyone's!

Stella

From DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS to BEACHES, superstar Bette Midler has wowed audiences worldwide with her music, humor, and charisma! Midler now delivers a most engaging performance in her latest hit, STELLA! Tough and fiercely independent, Stella discovers that she is pregnant after a brief relationship with Dr. Stephen Dallas, but is too proud to accept a marriage of convenience from him or her well-meaning best friend, John Goodman (O BROTHER, WHERE ARE THOU?). Ready to face life without regrets, Stella single-handedly raises her loving daughter Jenny (Trini Alvarado). Through the years, the two share a very special relationship, until Stella faces the truth -- that she cannot provide her daughter with a life of advantages her wealthy father can give her. STELLA is a warm, humorous, and thoroughly entertaining film that speaks to the heart of all audiences!

Victoria & Albert

Recasting history as a particularly lavish soap opera, Victoria and Albert sets the story of the relationship between the queen and her consort against a background of family strife and political wrangling. Sticklers for accuracy might be disappointed, but the strong cast and lavish production values make for an entertaining film.

Victoria is barely 18 when her uncle King William IV dies. She is introduced by the family adviser to a young German prince called Albert, and in spite of their initial indifference to one another and a great deal of political opposition, they fall in love. Marriage brings its own problems, however, and as Victoria, grows from an inexperienced young woman into a shrewd and powerful monarch Albert struggles to find a role for himself in both the family and the nation.

The relationship between Victoria and Albert was a remarkable one and this film, while occasionally erring on the side of sentiment, brings that relationship to life. The young leads are charming, but it is the supporting cast of British acting stalwarts--including Nigel Hawthorne, David Suchet, and Diana Rigg--who make Victoria and Albert truly worth watching. --Simon Leake

Scarlett

This soapy but highly watchable television "sequel" to Gone with the Wind, the most popular Hollywood movie ever made, has nothing to do with memories of a vanished antebellum South. But it does end up in Ireland, where the determined Scarlett O'Hara Butler (played with frosty passion by Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) turns hard times into an opportunity by buying the ancestral home of her family. Before that happens, however, Scarlett fights to win back the estranged Rhett Butler (manfully portrayed by Timothy Dalton), often seen in the company of other women, struggles for control over the homestead Tara, and gets caught in yet another compromising position with poor Ashley Wilkes (Stephen Collins). The troubles never stop (Scarlett's Ireland adventures land her in a heap of trouble from which only Rhett can save her), but this TV miniseries wisely keeps the focus on these captivating characters, their entangled histories, and the collective destiny that refuses to part them. The show also looks good: the location scenes in Ireland are particularly handsome, and there is something unaccountably satisfying about seeing Scarlett and Rhett walking through peaceful green hills. Enjoy. --Tom Keogh

An Early Frost

This award-winning TV drama portrays an average American family who must cope with the realization that their homosexual son is dying of AIDS. Contains outstanding performances and exerts commendable effort in use of subject matter.System Requirements:Running Time 97 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 754703762603 Manufacturer No: WOL4246D

Get out your handkerchiefs. Though An Early Frost was made for television in 1985--in the first few years of AIDS awareness and research--it's still as potent and wrenching as more sophisticated efforts that came along a short while later (Philadelphia, And the Band Played On, Longtime Companion). Much of the thanks goes to a stellar cast--Aidan Quinn, Gena Rowlands, and Ben Gazzara--who elevate a familiar, familial tale of conflict that begins when a successful lawyer son (Quinn) comes home to make peace with his enabling, compassionate mother (Rowlands) and disgusted, confused father (Gazzara) who cannot reconcile himself to his son's gay lifestyle.

Director John Erman crafts a stark, wintry movie, its title a metaphor for a life cut short. An Early Frost was lauded for its compassion, and though it seems a little patronizing now after the many films with similar themes and variations, this was the first to bring gay life as something normal into the average living room, and it holds up pretty well. After all, the humanistic, family element is what the film strives to convey, and that theme is always universal. --Paula Nechak

Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys