Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Most of these reviews here are in anticipation of something the reviewer has never seen. I purchased this at Costco this weekend in California where they're already on the shelves (for half the price, $29.99). I'm glad, because this is a lousy set. It's branded the BEST of the Dean Martin Variety Show. That's fair, except when you crack open the case and browse through the booklet, they lead you to believe that you're watching hand selected COMPLETE episodes. These are not. They are heavily edited :20 minute versions of the original shows which were 50 minutes or so in length. Most of these episodes (spanning 1965-73) are available in their entirety on YouTube, which makes this collection even more frustrating. Gone are most of Dean's musical numbers, most of his musical parodies with Ken Lane, his bottom of the hour "couch" songs. Instead, we're "treated" to full length performances by acts like Juliet Prowse and Joel Grey??? The picture quality is marginal as well (comparable to the first generation DVD Sinatra specials from the 1960's) Producers! If you're going to give us only 20 episodes, fine. But give us the COMPLETE episodes. Give us all the monologues, all the songs and throw in the DMS bumpers and the NBC peacock at the beginning. This is a SAD effort. Now granted, the DMS was like most variety shows of its era. 60% was filled with crap (bad comedians, singers that never made the charts, animal acts, acrobats), but let me the viewer decide when to hit the fast forward button please. I would save your money & wait for NBC to release this show in season sets. COMPLETE season sets that is!