SHARI LEWIS CHRISTMAS, A - DVD review

"A Shari Lewis Christmas" is priced to be a stocking stuffer ($9.98), and it could be one of the best gifts that a Baby Boomer gets. But it's strictly for nostalgia buffs and students of television's early days.

In 1953, when most of television was filmed and broadcast live, a very young, beautiful, and talented ventriloquist hosted a TV show that originated in New York. Up until Shari Lewis, we had only seen ventriloquists like Edgar Bergen and Paul Winchell with their full-body dummies, Charlie McCarthy and Jerry Mahoney, sitting on their knees. Neither man was particularly good--you could see their lips moving so clearly that you wondered if they were even trying--but it made you think you could do it too. So you put a Jerry Mahoney or Knucklehead dummy on your Christmas list, thinking you'd have a go at this ventriloquism business. Then Lewis came along. And her lips didn't move. Wow, you thought. And there was a reason why Shari Lewis characters were manufactured as plastic-headed puppets instead of full-bodied ventriloquist dummies. With puppets, you could hide behind a puppet theater screen and didn't have to try to match her virtuoso performance.

Seeing these shows again reminded me of just how talented Lewis was. After an appearance on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts" and "Captain Kangaroo" she ended up hosting her own local TV show and in 1960 got a network TV show featuring her stable of characters: the cute-as-a-button Lamb Chop, the not-so-bright Charlie Horse, the down-home Hush Puppy, and a character named Wing Ding who looked like a crow. To add variety to her puppet show there was also a man in a giant bulldog suit who would cavort and quite often dance with the graceful and multi-talented Lewis, who also sang. But it was the interaction with her puppets that made the show worth watching. While true puppet shows have scripts and scenarios, Lewis's gang were more like those ventriloquist dummies insomuch as they would simply engage her in a conversation that was designed to be humorous and draw upon each puppet's character. What's amazing to watch now is how Lewis insisted on tight close-ups to basically showcase just how good of a ventriloquist she was. Even those see-every-blemish shots have you marveling at how little those lips moved as her characters talked, even if you forgot about the character and simply looked at her the whole time (as many kids did, back in the day!). She was a rarity in television, and not just because she was the only really accomplished ventriloquist our generation had ever seen. "Kukla, Fran, and Ollie" and "The Shari Lewis Show" were the only kids' programming (aside from TV pre-school entries like "Ding Dong School" and "Romper Room") to feature a female host.

Does it play today? Well, yes and no. Some of the routines are still fun to watch, but the pacing is really really slow, and some of the conversations between Lewis and her puppets seem to go on forever without strong jokes to prop them up. That means kids today may not warm to them, other than to see what Mom, Dad, Grandpa, or Grandma watched when they were younger. Children used to plots may also find the variety format formless and (by extension) pointless. But there's no denying this woman's talent. Kids who are into puppets (and there are still a few) will be able to learn from these routines simply because they are so leisurely paced and you can savor the expressions Lewis is able to wrench out of what are essentially elaborate sock puppets. Point that out, and kids today might be inspired to create some of their own more complicated sock puppets.

Mostly, "The Shari Lewis Show" has value as a television artifact, and we have S'More Entertainment and the UCLA Film & Television Archive to thank for this presentation. "A Shari Lewis Christmas" is a compilation of three Christmas episodes televised between 1960 and 1962. And unlike the daily shows, these do have more plot--though they're awfully loose. The first show features a jaded Charlie Horse who wants a new top hat for Christmas, but at Thimbles (not Gimbel's) Department Store, where a dance routine takes place, he becomes convinced that no one will buy him what he wants and comes to the conclusion that people ought to just eliminate the middle man and buy themselves a gift. That leaves the door wide open for Ms. Lewis to have a teaching moment, not just for Charlie Horse but for the kids watching at home. Charlie Horse is at the center of the second episode as well, hogging all the attention and trying to take center stage at an upcoming Christmas party at the expense of all his puppet friends. And the same thing happens here, with one twist: Charlie Horse has a chance to redeem himself when Lamb Chop may not be able to perform her part. In the final installment, occasional character Mr. Goodfellow is feeling sad because his family is too far away for him to visit this Christmas, and so naturally the puppets and Ms. Lewis decide to throw him a special Christmas party.

Video:
One word says it all: kinescopes. Without them, none of these early live television presentations would have survived. Essentially, the kinescopic technique involved simply pointing a 16mm camera at a TV monitor while the show was being broadcast in order to record the show. Posterity wasn't the issue here. Performers wanted to be able to reference their early work to see how it played on the small screen and make adjustments to their routines. Plus, it was the only way, for a time, for shows to be distributed across a network. So what you're seeing is a really rough picture that's a little rougher-looking than the original broadcast because it's once removed. In addition, age has taken its toll. These three episodes vary in quality, but you could say that the contrast levels are uniformly low and there are plenty of flickers of dirt and fish-eye moments when the 16mm camera wandered too close to the monitor's edge. As with most TV shows, "A Shari Lewis Christmas" is presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Audio:
The audio is a Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, with the level of scratchiness that you'd expect from a title this old and recorded on kinescope. It's predictably also a little flat, but there are few breaks in the soundtrack and because it matches the quality of the video the sound isn't an issue.

Extras:
Here's a really nice surprise. "The Shari Lewis Show" was broadcast in 30-minute installments, but also included here is a full one-hour Christmas episode of "Hi Mom," which was broadcast between 1957-59 and also featured Lewis as a co-host, joined by Johnny Andrews and Paul and Mary Ritts for the final year. This show was aimed at young mothers and offered medical advice from a guest R.N. (Jane Palmer), cooking tips from Josephine McCarthy, and various guests and film clips about children, child care and childrearing. Lewis was joined by her puppets for the show, and this particular example is in better condition than the three Christmas episodes that are featured. Early TV and nostalgia buffs will really be tickled that the old-time commercials are still here, too, including early plugs for Bosco chocolate syrup, Cremoland butter, and films like "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad." Also included is a color theatrical promo clip with Christmas greetings from Shari and Lamb Chop.

Bottom Line:
I don't know about repeat-play value, but "A Shari Lewis Christmas" is a priceless journey back to television's early days.