The Red Skelton Show: The Lost Episodes

It's not quite true that “everybody loves a clown,” as Gary Lewis once sang. But America loved Red Skelton, who rose from vaudeville, radio, and movies to headline his own variety series, which lasted two decades and won several Emmys for Skelton, the series, and the writing. Alas, these 18 new-to-video episodes—all of them 50-plus years old—have not aged well and may only be of interest to early Baby Boomers or seniors with fond memories of the entertainer. Skelton was a skilled clown and a deft mime as he demonstrates here in several mostly non-verbal sketches (the man on a high-dive who discovers that he forgot to put on his swimsuit is good for a cheap laugh). The dated verbal sketches are worse, particularly those in which Red portrays a stereotypically henpecked husband opposite the likes of guest star Eve Arden. One of his signature characters, Clem Kaddidlehopper, appears in a sketch in which a computer picks the ideal candidate for President of the United States. The guest star lineup is less than stellar, including Buster Crabbe, Sebastian Cabot, Terry Moore, William Demarest, Gordon MacCrae, Jackie Coogan, and Vivian Vance. In two bonus segments, Danny Thomas, Arthur Godfrey, and Jackie Gleason fill in for Red while he is recuperating from surgery. The black-and-white picture quality is only fair, although the price is certainly low enough for this to be considered for larger TV collections. Optional. (D. Liebenson)