The Best of The Electric Company Volume 2 - A quick review.

[BillKal]

Hey you guys! (no pun intended - yeah right!)

Anyways, just picked up the new DVD Set "The Best of The Electric Company - Volume 2".

As expected, it is a nice companion set to the 1st Box Set. It contains most of those "filler" sketches and songs that missed the first box set such as "The L-Y Song", "Grease (This Town)", "Happy Birthday Miss Jones You sure got nice...Bones!", "The Six Dollar and Thirty Nine Cent Man", "Sweet Sweet Sway", "Knock Knock Rock", "We are out of Sweet Rolls", "The Kid's A Hot Shot" The Director: "All For One And One For All" -- More "Slow Reader" messages (ex. Keep of The Grass, Do Not Bother This Giant Person) as well as a "LIVE - Version of the Slow Reader with Skip Hinnant and Jim Boyd) --- Also of Note -- We finally get a sketch with Pedro (of Pedro's Plants) and his side kick Maurice the plant.

Of course we get some repeats that were on the last set: examples: "Snore, Sniff, Sneeze", "Slient E", "Unlock your love, Unbutton Your Mind", "Boom", etc. and sketches like the one where Skip Hinnant is blind folded and each character brings him an object that starts with "GR" --- and of course "Greedy Gregory Grabbed The Green Grapes", etc.

It IS missing some old favorites such as "Billy Lick A Lolly", "Sock Hop", Jennifer of The Jungle singing "Bananas", Short Circus singing "Tilt", "Spidey Meets the Crusher", Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (Frustrated Conductor) (ie. That is Not the Note)

I also notice that there are more episodes from the 2nd and 5th seasons on this set -- more than the last set (2 episodes a piece for each season).

What IS THE REAL TREAT is the fact that 5 of the 7 or 8 original actors appear in new interviews and also do the introductions to each episode and trivia spots in between the episodes. ---- Jim Boyd (J Arthur Crank, Blue Beetle, Paul), Hattie Winston (Valerie The Librarian), Skip Hinnant (Fargo North), Judy Graubart (Jennifer of The Jungle, Winnie), and Louis Avalos (Dr. Doolats, Pedro). And I have to say it...boy they look a lot different in their older years. Some look better than others but it is nice to see them all give their insight to the production and experience on The Electric Company. Very interesting.

Too bad Lee Chamberlain, Morgan Freeman & Bill Cosby couldn't have praticpiated on this set. Maybe the next one

Bottom line: It's another winner and a great companion set to the first volume. Hopefully more will come on it's way so we can at least see 4 volumes!!

 

[BillKal]

Oh Yeah...a few more points on this set I'd like to comment

1) The previews are more "Family Friendly" --- such as the Old School Sesame Street Promo was one of them.

2) Nice commentary from Bill Cosby taken from The Dick Cavett Show in 1971. It sounds like the show hadn't been broadcast yet when the interview was taken place.

3) There is an intresting documentary on "The Electric Company" and it's affect on children and how schools are presenting the show. (I really haven't seen much of this documentary yet)

4) Each disc has a "Play Songs" feature.

 

[Drtooth]

So, pricing wise, is this set less, more, or the same as the last one? Does it have ANY Spiderman or Wile E. Coyote skits?

 

[BillKal]

I didn't notice any "RoadRunner" cartoons on the set.

It DOES have a few Spidey sketches on it ("The Spoiler", "The Yeti", "The Prankster", "A Night At The Movies (I think)")

I got mine from Amazon.com. for $29.99 plus shipping.

 

[Drtooth]

Sounds cheaper, but I don't get DVD's online.

You see, the first one retailed for about 40 bucks (though some places sold it for more) and I was wondering if the set was cheaper. Mainly because I've noticed price decreases on second sets of various other disks, ALF, Bullwinkle to name a few.

I'm concerned about the price, because I wanted to get one of the box sets. If this one's cheaper, I'd get it instead.

ANy trailers on the set? I have Super MArio Super Show V1, and it ironically had an advertisement for the first volume of EC. In fact, the Zelda trailer's the only thing on that disk that made sense.

 

[BillKal]

The trailers that are on there are The Best of The Electric Company Volume 1, and the Old School Sesame Street set.

The first box set is more expensive ($36.77) -- I also think it's because it's different packaging. The first set has like a "Folded over" cover that contains the discs plus a booklet.
The 2nd set is just a box cover with an opening with individual plastic DVD sleeves that open and contain the DVDs. No Booklet except for a mini one that just has the credits for the DVD set as well as advertisement for other Shout! DVDs.

IOW, the packaging was nicer on the first set (included with a ? page booklet). What's nice about the 2nd set packaging is that when you open up the DVD Sleeve, underneath the trays are nice photos of the cast members (under one of the trays in one of the sleeves is a nice photo of the cast in their respective characters posing in a park --- Fargo North (Skip Hinnant), Igor (Louis Avalos) , The Director (Rita Moreno), Jennifer of The Jungle (Judy Graubart), Paul the Gorilla (Jim Boyd), Easy Reader (Morgan Freeman), Valerie the Librarian (Hattie Winston), & Spidey (Danny Seagren) --- under another tray is a still of The Short Circus performing "Tilt").

 

[Drtooth]

The first box set is more expensive ($36.77) -- I also think it's because it's different packaging. The first set has like a "Folded over" cover that contains the discs plus a booklet.
The 2nd set is just a box cover with an opening with individual plastic DVD sleeves that open and contain the DVDs. No Booklet except for a mini one that just has the credits for the DVD set as well as advertisement for other Shout! DVDs.

That usually also has to do with the performance3 of the first set, and also the legal aspects, etc. Rocky and Bullwinkle Season 2 was cheaper than season one. It featured the same packaging, but had more episodes. Fancy that.

I actually like the slim line disk sets better than fold out. Personally, I found TMS s1's packaging pretty innovative, but the disks were hard to remove. You had to move one to get to another. Not to mention, you can just pull one disk case out, and not worry about the other disks sliding around, or falling on the floor.

I noticed the price change too.

TEC 1 was $37.99 at Newburry Comics, while TEC 2 was $29.99. That's the cheapest I've seen set 1, with the exception of some wierd local store I saw in New Hampshire. it cost 35 there, I can recall.