Best Of The Muppet Show: Peter Sellers
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Cast: Peter Sellers, John Cleese, Dudley Moore
Extras: Introductions, Bonus Clips, Trailer
Rating:
Once again, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has released selected episodes from the Muppet Show on DVD. This DVD contains the episodes starring Peter Sellers, John Cleese and Dudley Moore. All three are indeed highlights of the Muppet Show as they are all hilariously funny and nicely showcase the respective guest’s talents. Each episode is once again introduced by Brian Henson, in which he explains some of the background that led to each particular episode and the involvement of the guest star.
Like the previous DVD releases of the series, ’Best Of The Muppet Show’ comes in a fullscreen transfer but this time it is in noticeably better condition. Colors are a tad more vibrant and the technical limitation of the original TV production are simply not as evident. The level of detail is good and color bleeding is at a minimum, making if a true pleasure to watch the vibrant and flamboyant puppets at work.
The DVD contains the original Stereo audio track from the show in Dolby Digital format. The track is clear and free of defects and anomalies, such as distortion and sibilance are well in check. The frequency response is somewhat limited, giving away the show’s age but it is never distracting from the experience.
The DVD once again contains some funny bonus materials, in the form of additional clips but other than that, the release is devoid of supplements. Nonetheless, every fan of the Muppet Show should grab these discs. They are beautiful renditions of the fabled show, immortalizing it on this format. While it would be much more preferable to obtain the show season by season – especially since there is no such thing as a Best Of in this case, where very episode was outshining the previous one.
