Kenwith, Herbert

Sanford and Son - The First Season

Fred Sanford and his 34-year-old son live together many times lacking in harmony attempting to support themselves as junk dealers. They are surrounded by a cast of characters who help them keep their sense of humor.System Requirements:Starring: Redd Foxx Demond Wilson LaWanda Page Don Bexley Hal Williams Running Time: 364 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396094277 Manufacturer No: 09427

Sanford and Son - The Second Season

An early milestone in urban TV comedy "SANFORD AND SON" was an immediate critical and audience favorite when it debuted in the early '70s signaling the arrival of one of TV's most memorable characters: Cantankerous-but-lovable junk dealer Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx). An African American answer to "Archie Bunker" widower Sanford and his "Dummy" son Lamont (Demond Wilson) run a family junk business in Watts dreaming up schemes to strike it rich. Outspoken and outrageous Sanford serves up big laughs as he skewers stereotypes forever threatening "How'd you like one across your lip?" Aided by a colorful cast that includes acid-tongued Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page) "SANFORD AND SON" provided a showcase of black talent of all generations freaturing guest stars like Lena Horne and episodes written by Richard Pryor. Timely and topical during its highly-rated five-year run (1972-1977) "SANFORD AND SON" emerged as one of the decade's biggest TV hits inspiring producer Norman Lear to develop more barrier-breaking shows like "The Jeffersons" and "Good Times".System Requirements:Starring: Redd Foxx Demond Wilson LaWanda Page Don Bexley Hal Williams Running Time: 225 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396003507 Manufacturer No: 00350

This three-disc boxed set compiles all 24 episodes from Sanford and Son's second season, which began on September 15, 1972. The sitcom quickly vaulted to the No. 2 spot on the network ratings--right behind creators Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin's previous effort, All in the Family. The second season brought no changes to the show's basic format--comedian Redd Foxx remained the focus as cantankerous junkman Fred Sanford, with Demond Wilson as his son and perennial foil, Lamont. What the second season did bring was several new characters and some of the series' funniest episodes. The second season supporting cast was filled out by some of Foxx's fellow comics, including Leroy and Skillet ("A Visit from Lena Horne") and LaWanda Page as Aunt Esther, who became a recurring character after "The Big Party." Also joining was Don Bexley as Bubba ("By the Numbers"), Nathaniel Taylor as Rollo ("Have Gun, Will Sell"), and Barney Miller's Gregory Sierra as neighbor Julio ("The Puerto Ricans Are Coming!").

But Sanford and Son's strength remained in Foxx's sharp-tongued and often improvised performance, which was ably abetted by the scripts (a number of plotlines were taken directly from Steptoe and Son, the U.K. series that inspired Sanford). Richard Pryor and Paul Mooney penned two of the collection's most laugh-filled half-hours, "The Dowry" and "Sanford and Son and Sister Make Three," but every episode has its share of hilarity thanks to Foxx and his costars. Though only English and Spanish subtitles are offered as extras, series fans should be pleased with the set, especially as a reference for Fred's best zingers ("I'm gonna stick your face in a bowl full of dough and make gorilla cookies!"). --Paul Gaita

Love American Style - Season 1, Vol. 2

Love American Style was an hour-long television anthology which originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974. For the 1971 and 1972 seasons it was a part of an ABC Friday prime-time lineup that also included Brady Bunch The Partridge Family Room 222 and The Odd Couple. Each week the show featured different stories of romance usually with a comedic spin. All episodes were unrelated featuring different characters stories and locations. The show often featured the same actors playing different characters in many episodes. In addition a large and ornate brass bed was a recurring prop in many episodes. Charles Fox's delicate yet hip music score featuring flutes harp and flugelhorn set to a contemporary pop beat provided the "love" ambiance which tied the stories together as a multifaceted romantic comedy each week.System Requirements:TRT: 622 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097361322544 Manufacturer No: 132254

Frustrated newlyweds and bickering marrieds, lecherous executives and bodacious secretaries, uptight squares and free-spirited hippies, suspicious wives and nervous husbands, inexperienced teens and swinging seniors. They're all part and parcel of Love, American Style, the era-defining anthology series that offered a comedic look at the so-called "new morality." Rebounding after studio-imposed DVD-interruptus, this three-disc set contains the 12 episodes that complete Season One. Each contains two or three playlets. Unlike The Love Boat, all are played for laughs: A honeymooning groom accidentally locks himself in an antique store's chastity belt; A bachelor pretends to have a wife and children to seduce a coworker who only dates married men; A harried man discovers his favorite restaurant has gone topless just as his wife surprises him for lunch. One intriguing story is "Love and the High School Flop-Out," whose story about an awkward teen who has the house to himself while his parents are out of town anticipates Risky Business, complete with friends who suggest he rent out the house for an "orgy." Love plays it completely straight. In one story, a newlywed complains her husband seems to be losing interest in her, prompting her mother to inquire if he is "strange." In another, an interior decorator in love with a mobster's daughter is dismissed by him as a "petunia" until he dispatches the thug's henchmen ("The fact that I have taste and a certain flair for color and design doesn't make me any less of a man," he argues). And in another, two bickering male business partners visit a marriage counselor to sort out their troubles. Of course, what really makes this show such a star-spangled affair is each episode's roster of character actors, TV Land cult faves, and future stars. Burt Reynolds already has his smirk going as a soldier whose wife has written a scandalous bestseller in "Love and the Banned Book." An 18-year-old Kurt Russell portrays a high school student poised to lose his virginity in "Love and the First-Nighters." Love American Style is hip enough to reference Alice B. Toklas, Bonnie & Clyde, Rosemary's Baby and Federico Fellini, but its chauvinistic attitudes now make the once-naughty show seem almost endearingly quaint. Still, to watch "Love and the Nervous Executive," which pairs prissy Paul Lynde with va-voom "Mighty Carson Arts Players" bombshell Carol Wayne, or "Love and the Big Night" with Tony Randall and Julie "Catwoman" Newmar, is to fall in Love all over again. --Donald Liebenson

Sanford and Son - The Third Season

Return for more laughs with SANFORD AND SON: THE THIRD SEASON starring legendary comedian Redd Foxx as grumpy Los Angeles junk dealer Fred Sanford and Demond Wilson as his long-suffering son Lamont. Emmy-nominated "Sanford and Son" was breakthrough TV as seminal as it was sidesplitting ushering in an African-American perspective to the small screen. Golden Globe® -winner Foxx told it like it was raising the roof with his bold brand of outrageous humor as phrases like "You big dummy!" "How'd you like one across your lip?" and "I'm coming Elizabeth" all entered pop culture. Created by Norman Lear ("All in the Family") "Sanford and Son" was as hilarious as it was historic the first TV sitcom featuring an African-American cast and urban themes as Fred and Lamont forever dreamed and schemed of making a better life. Returning cast members included Bible-thumping sister-in-law Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page) Fred's girlfriend Donna (Lynn Hamilton) and old pal Grady (Whitman Mayo) who even got his own spin-off series "Grady." Cool cameos during the show's third season includes Soul Sisters The Three Degrees and Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargas among others. For fans and collectors alike this deluxe three-DVD edition compiling the series' complete 24-episode third season is unquestionably "The Big One!"System Requirements:Starring: Redd Fox Demond Wilson Don Bexley Hal Williams Running Time: 198 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396013902 Manufacturer No: 01390

Though conflict erupted between comic Redd Foxx and the producers of Sanford and Son during its third season, viewers of this three-disc set, which compiles all 24 episodes of the 1973-74 season, are spared the backstage rancor and instead enjoy more hilarious episodes, fueled as always by Foxx's Emmy-nominated performance as cantankerous junkman Fred Sanford. Sanford and Son was a solid ratings hit as it entered its third season (ranked third among network shows) and Foxx had won a Golden Globe the previous year, but a contract dispute had driven a wedge between him and series producers Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear (who also ran the season's top-rated program, All in the Family). Negotiations would eventually break down, and Foxx would be absent from six episodes (Fred was said to be visiting relatives in St. Louis) and did not return to the show until season 4 was underway.

Foxx's departure allowed the spotlight to shine more brightly on co-star Demond Wilson (who would soon launch his own contract disputes, which prompted his leaving the series in 1976) as well as new cast member Whitman Mayo, who joined the show that season as Fred's pal Grady. While series aficionados are firmly divided over Grady, Mayo is quite funny, especially during the final six episodes (in particular "Will the Real Fred Sanford Please Stand Up?" and season closer "Hello Cousin Emma, Goodbye Cousin Emma"). Other standout episodes include "The Blind Mellow Jelly Collection" (in which Fred attempts to reclaim his donated record collection) and "Fred Sanford, Legal Eagle" (Fred defends Lamont in traffic court), which features Starsky and Hutch's Antonio Fargas. The third-season scripts, penned mostly by story editor Ilunga Adell (Moesha), remain sharp, as does the direction (the lion's share is handled by Peter Baldwin, though Bud Yorkin helms two episodes). Fans and first-timers alike will find plenty of laughs among the three discs, which unfortunately lack any extras. --Paul Gaita

Sanford and Son - The Fifth Season

Laughs & more laughs with SANFORD AND SON: THE 5TH SEASON. Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson return for another twenty-four hysterical episodes of SANFORD AND SON the comic misadventures of a cantankerous 65-year-old junk dealer and his outrageous circle of family and friends. For the series' fifth sidesplitting season Fred takes no prisoners as he unleashes an uproarious array of jokes jibes and insults at such targets as LA earthquakes Japanese restaurants the Sanford Arms apartments Lamont's mysterious new girlfriend the Senior Olympics escort services the Watts Businessman-of-the-Year Award and the roman a clef sitcom "Steinberg and Son." Nominated for seven Emmy Awards® and six Golden Globes® during its six-year run SANDFORD AND SON was the highest rated half-hour series in NBC-TV history. And here are two-dozen enormously funny examples as to why - uncut uncensored and commercial free!System Requirements:Starring: Redd Foxx Demond Wilson Running Time: 622 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396070790 Manufacturer No: 07079

Guest stars and more guest stars seem to be the theme of Sanford and Son's very funny fifth season (1975-1976). The 25 episodes feature a parade of celebrities supporting stars Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson in guest and recurring roles, including John Larroquette and Robert Guillaume in Steinberg and Son, a TV sitcom based on Fred and Lamont's life; Marlene Clark as Lamont's girlfriend June; Nancy (The Beverly Hillbillies) as Officer Hoppy's overprotective mom; and George Foreman, Merv Griffin, Steve Lawrence, and Eydie Gorme as themselves. The other addition to the series comes with the introduction of the Sanford Arms, a apartment built on former neighbor Julio's place, and which comes complete with a host of eccentric guests (the hotel, along with Sanford stars LaWanda Page and Don Bexley, would be the focus of its own short-lived sitcom following Sanford and Son's cancellation in 1977).

Otherwise, it's business as usual at Fred and Lamont's junkyard, with the pair getting involved in bank robberies, earthquakes, and escort services, while still finding time to go camping (in the season finale, written by Garry Shandling). The sheer amount of laughs offered by season 5 was a strong reminder of why the show had remained so popular for four seasons; unfortunately, time slot changes and the disinterest of both leads would spell the show's demise only one season later. As with the other Sanford sets, the fifth season box contains no supplemental features. --Paul Gaita

Bosom Buddies - The First Season

Kip and Henry work at an advertising agency as an artist and writer respectively. When the apartment that they were living in was condemned they had no place to live. So Amy their co-worker who has a crush on Henry suggests that they stay with her but the only the problem is that it's for girls only. So they get into drag and assume the personas of Buffy and Hildegarde. When Kip meets Sonny Amy's attractive roommate he is smitten and when they learn that there's a vacancy in the building Kip convinces Henry to take it so he can be close to Sonny and so that this experience might be good material for a book that Henry can write.System Requirements:Run Time: 478 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097361222448 Manufacturer No: 122244

Some like it Hanks in this cross-dressing sitcom that launched one of Hollywood's most accomplished careers. It doesn't get any "Before They Were Stars" than this. The future Oscar-winner hadn't even made Bachelor Party yet! Hanks (in riffing, wiseass mode that lives on in Vince Vaughan), and Peter Scolari star as struggling ad-agency artist and writer Kip and Henry, best friends whose apartment building is demolished. Desperate for a place to live, they transform themselves into Buffy and Hildegarde so they can live in the for-women-only Susan B. Anthony Hotel. Kip and Henry pass themselves off as the "girls': brothers, allowing Kip to romance nurse and aspiring dancer Sunny (Donna Dixon), and Henry to write a book about the experience. "This is nuts, stupid, crazy," Kip rants, and so it is, but Bosom Buddies is never a drag, thanks to Hanks and Scolari's spontaneous chemistry. They are a comedy team without, pardon the expression, a straight man. The late Wendie Jo Sperber is a force of nature as Amy, the ad-agency receptionist with an unrequited crush on Henry, leading to one of this season's less jokey, more character-driven episodes, "Beauty and the Beasts." Holland Taylor is at her imperious best as Kip and Henry's credit-grabbing boss. Lucille Benson replaces the pilot's Edie Adams as the Susan B. Anthony's formidable new manager.

Bosom Buddies fitfully finds its voice in its inaugural season. Hanks and Scolari are able to elevate the clunkiest of jokes with seemingly ad-libbed asides or physical bits of business. Greeting the morning in wigs and shaving cream while singing "Macho Man" is a signature giddy moment. A Hanks-Scolari reunion for the DVD release would have been nice, but if Bosom Buddies requires any kind of makeover, it is to restore the show's original theme song, Billy Joel's "My Life," which has been replaced by some generic tripe that ages the series at least 25 years. --Donald Liebenson

Sanford and Son - The Complete Fourth Season

Return to TV's most famous junk shop for an outrageously funny fourth season of "Sanford and Son." Golden Globe ® Award winner Redd Foxx stars as Fred Sanford the junk dealer with a big mouth and every get-rich-quick scheme in the book. Caught up in his plans are his long-suffering son Lamont his best friend Grady and his arch-enemy and sister-in-law Esther. Returning from a trip to St. Louis Fred wastes no time in getting knee-deep in trouble; from accidentally growing "special herbs" in his backyard garden to trying to return a ring he thinks was stolen from Frank Sinatra to setting Lamont up with a computer date. The fourth season welcomes such guest stars as David Doyle ("Charlie's Angels") Ron Glass ("Barney Miller") Howard Hesseman ("WKRP in Cincinnati") and Scat Man Crothers. One of the 70's highest-rated shows this legendary sitcom is now yours to take home and enjoy over and over again in a collectible three-disc set.System Requirements:Starring: Redd Foxx Whitman Mayo LaWanda Page Demond Wilson Running Time: 601 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396028845 Manufacturer No: 02884

Sanford and Son's fourth season (1974-1975) was the highest rated of its five years on network TV (the program reached no. 2 on the Nielsen charts); the program and star Redd Foxx both received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for the season, all 24 episodes of which are compiled on this three-disc set. Behind the scenes, however, the series was in turmoil due to Foxx's dissatisfaction with the tone and quality of the program, and he went missing from nine episodes, three of which kick off the first disc (Fred's absence is explained away as a trip to St. Louis).

But even without Foxx, Sanford and Son still managed to generate plenty of laughs, thanks in no small part to its hard-working supporting cast; Whitman Mayo's Grady, in particular, gets plenty of chances to shine, especially in "Grady and His Lady" (disc 1) and "The Family Man" (disc 3, which served as the pilot for Mayo's own short-lived series). Pat Morita's Ah Chew makes his first appearance in "There'll Be Some Changes Made (on disc 1) and Gregory Sierra as Julio makes his last in "The Stung" (disc 3); guest stars include Billy Eckstine and Scatman Crothers. Sanford and Son's fourth season can be viewed as something of a swan song for the popular series; after a ratings dip and timeslot change in the fifth season, Foxx and Wilson would both depart the show by the sixth season, and the show was cancelled in 1977. --Paul Gaita

Gimme a Break - Season One

Nell Carter shines as Nellie Ruth Nell Harper the role that twice earned her Emmy® and Golden Globe Award nominations and helped redefine the meaning of family. Available for the first time ever on DVD Gimme a Break! is the funny hip and sometimes poignant portrayal of the Kanisky family: widowed Police Chief Carl; his three daughters Katie Julie and Samantha; and their unflappable housekeeper-turned-surrogate mother (Carter). This 3-disc set includes all 19 episodes from Season One as well as a preview from Season Two bonus episodes from the smash-hit sitcoms Kate and Allie and Charles in Charge and a special featurette that takes a look back at other great TV shows of the eighties. Featuring renowned guest stars such as Danny Glover Rue McClanahan and Helen Hunt Gimme a Break! is the beloved sitcom that delivers both love and laughs.System Requirements:Running Time: 468 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 025192941320 Manufacturer No: 29413

Actress-singer Nell Carter provided the heart and soul for this much-loved NBC family series (1981-1987) about a black woman who cares for a white police chief's daughters after the death of their mother. Though some of the show's humor was derived from jibes about Ms. Carter's size and the clash of parenting styles between the no-nonsense Chief (stage veteran Dolph Sweet) and Carter's warm, sassy Nell Harper, Gimme a Break also addressed more serious and emotional subjects with surprising warmth and drama. The debut episode, "Katie the Crook" (which is featured on this three-disc set, along with the other 18 episodes from the 1981-82 season), does a fine job of touching on the tougher issues, as the Chief's three daughters (Kari Michaelson, Lauri Hendler, and Lara Jill Miller) each react to the mother's untimely passing in realistic manners. Other episodes in the first season offer a good blend of humor and pathos, including "Mom's Birthday" (in which Nell allows the family to celebrate their mother through home movies), "The Emergency" (a rare TV storyline about teen birth control), "Your Prisoner Is Dead" (the Chief is traumatized after killing a drugstore burglar, and considers retirement), and "Nell Goes Home" (Nell is rejected by her ailing father during a trip to Alabama). Much of the credit for the show should go to the cast, especially Ms. Carter and Sweet (both who have since passed away), though veteran character actor John Hoyt deserves mention as the family's grandfather; their enthusiasm for and skill behind the roles is undoubtedly a large reason why Gimme a Break still enjoys a following. The first-season set includes a preview of the show's second season (the episode "Nell Goes to Jail"), as well as episodes from Charles in Charge and Kate and Allie, two other popular family sitcoms from the '80s. A 30-minute featurette on '80s TV (the same one featured on the Charles in Charge first-season set) rounds out this fan-pleasing set. -- Paul Gaita

Good Times - The Complete First Season

One of television's groundbreaking Dyn-O-Mite sitcoms debuts on DVD!System Requirements:Running Time: 334 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396003439 Manufacturer No: 00343

What first comes to mind is super-skinny Jimmie Walker proclaiming "Dyn-o-mite!" and waving his arms like a funky scarecrow in a whirlwind of 1970s jive. But while Walker's James "J.J." Evans Junior became the most famous face of Good Times, the bedrock of the sitcom were the actors playing his parents, Esther Rolle and John Amos as Florida and James Evans, two good-hearted but fallible people struggling to raise their family amid the poverty of the Chicago projects. Add to the mix boy-crazy daughter Thelma (Bernnadette Stanis), preadolescent black activist Michael (Ralph Carter), and Florida's world-wise best friend Willona (sassy Ja'net DuBois), and you've got one of the best comic ensembles of the time. Modern politically correct sensibilities may wince a bit at J.J.'s sometimes cartoonish antics, but what's far more striking about the first season of Good Times is how frank the show was willing to be about race, politics, class, religion, sexual double standards, and family conflicts--considerably more direct and daring, in fact, than just about anything you'll find on television today. The topics of shows range from the corruption of television evangelism and white-centered history classes in school (Michael gets suspended for stating that George Washington owned slaves) to more typical sitcom themes like a housekeeping contest or J.J.'s girlfriend troubles--but even the most lightweight episodes tosses out a few acerbic (and genuinely funny) comments on the difficulty of being black in America. --Bret Fetzer

Sanford & Son - The Complete Sixth Season

Redd Foxx and Demond Wilson return for their sixth--and last--hilarious season as "SANFORD AND SON." Join Fred a cantankerous but loveable sexagenarian and Lamont his loving but long-suffering son as they welcome guest stars B.B. KING CHUCK BARRIS ROSS MARTIN PAT PAULSEN and SHELDON LEONARD to their South Central neighborhood junkyard as one of TV's funniest sitcoms comes to an uproarious conclusion. This three-disc DVD collection features the legendary comedy series' final 24 sidesplitting episodes.System Requirements:Starring: Redd Foxx Demond Wilson Running Time: 616 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396094703 Manufacturer No: 09470