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Guthy-Renker Classic TV informercials

S

searadiofreak

Guest
I detest infomercials in general, but I must say the classic tv guthy-renker ads, namely for The Dean Martin Show, and The Carol Burnett Show are quite entertaining and could be mini-documentaries in themselves. Of course, this is all a big sales pitch for guthy-renker, but I think they do a real good job with the tease. Almost too good, in that they offer too much content in the infomercials, and the actual shows might be a letdown. Thoughts?
 
If I remember correctly, Guthy-Renker was also selling DVDs of Dean Martin's Celebrity Roasts and Johnny Carson's Tonight Show a few years back (many of those earlier Carson episodes were found to be perserved in salt mines somewhere in either Rocky Mountains or the Midwest). With that said, they can be pretty entertaining, even to someone like myself that that just turned 30 recently, and wasn't alive when these shows were initially airing (except for the last third run of Carson's run, but by then I was too young to stay up; and I've seen the Burnett reruns long ago).
 
The Carol Burnett Show shows that are sold by Guthy-Renker on DVD are the ones that were sold through Columbia House years ago through their mail order service on VHS with basically the same art and episode order. I bought the whole VHS set for 10 cents apiece (I'm not kidding here) and there were at least 30 in the set. All are the uncut and unedited hour versions from 1972 to 1978 and includes the last episode of the show.

I'm looking for more of The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts but all I have found so far are those of Dean Martin himself, Jimmy Stewart, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Ronald Reagan.
 
Re: Guthy-Renker Classic TV infomercials

The Time-Life infomercials for all their various music collections are quite entertaining, what with the old video footage of artists performing their hits. I don't exactly like the way these collections are packaged, because I would rather have an extensive hits collection by any one or two of the artists represented in these infomercials, rather than having just one hit by each of over a dozen different artists. But that is just my preference.
 
anotherguy said:
Wasn't there also an infomercial for episodes of Laugh-in as well? It seems like I can remember seeing this at some time.
Click to expand...

I think there was a "Laugh-In" collection at one time..

Just last night, I saw a 160-song collection of "1960's Pop Hits" with a lot of the more "tame" songs-Nothing by the more popular rock groups..This was hosted by Bobby Goldsboro and actress Pamela Roylance, best known (by me anyway) for her portrayal of "Sarah Carter" in The Little House of the Prairie sequel series, "Little House, a New Beginning"..

I love watching these types of informercials, though one wishes they would sell the video performances you see on screen..Would love to have a set of those..
 
Just last night, I saw a 160-song collection of "1960's Pop Hits" with a lot of the more "tame" songs-Nothing by the more popular rock groups..This was hosted by Bobby Goldsboro and actress Pamela Roylance, best known (by me anyway) for her portrayal of "Sarah Carter" in The Little House of the Prairie sequel series, "Little House, a New Beginning"..

I love watching these types of informercials, though one wishes they would sell the video performances you see on screen..Would love to have a set of those..
Click to expand...

I had no idea who Pamela Roylance was. I figured she was a radio person. I'm guessing you could bounce a quarter off Bobby Goldsboro's face, because he looks no older than he did 35 years ago! I also think it's neat to see the old variety show clips (bet the majority come from either Sullivan or The Hollywood Palace). As far as the popularity of the MOR songs, ya gotta remember that those artists were still having #1 hits all through the 2nd half of the 60s (Henry Mancini's "Love Theme From 'Romeo & Juliet' hit #1 in early 1969).

The Guthy-Renker "Midnight Special" infomercial is quite fun to watch, too.
 
ShawnHill1 said:
If I remember correctly, Guthy-Renker was also selling DVDs of Dean Martin's Celebrity Roasts and Johnny Carson's Tonight Show a few years back (many of those earlier Carson episodes were found to be perserved in salt mines somewhere in either Rocky Mountains or the Midwest).
Click to expand...
...those copies located in the Kansas salt mine vault were kinescopes of the Carson show that were made for the Armed Forces Radio & Television Service. The March 6, 1969, Tonight Show that had George Gobel coming on after scheduled guest Judy Carne and the Bob Hope and Dean Martin "walk ons" (Carson probably was in on the bit from the get-go) was among them, but the DVD released only has portions of the Judy Carne and Bob Hope conversations, indicating that perhaps a reel of the kinescope was either irreparably damaged or outright missing...
 
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