Jay Raskin In the 1950's and 1960's, I believe these were run for an hour in the morning on WPIX in New York. This means I would watch ten episodes a week and after five weeks and one day, I saw every episode. Being born in 1953, I probably saw every episode ten times by the time I was five years old. I continued to watch them whenever I was home from school - sick, on holidays and during the Summer. I probably saw every episode 30-40 times by the time I was ten.In 2012, I bought the complete set DVD. Watching most of them for the first time in fifty years, I was amazed. They are as fantastically funny as they were back then for me. The only difference is that now I can appreciate the true brilliance of Lou Costello. This is the height of vaudeville comedy, an art-form developed and practiced from the 1860's to the 1940's in the United States. It was fast and witty and filled with slapstick kicks, slaps, punches and falls.Many films of the 1930's and 1940's was filled with this kind of material as was many television variety shows of the 1950's. The Three Stooges were perhaps the purest expression of it in movies, but Danny Kaye, Bob Hope and many others also put it in their movies.We get much of it in many Abbott and Costello films too, but it is generally mixed with songs, romance and many other plot elements. In the television series, the vaudeville elements dominate. We get about 20 minutes of straight vaudeville routines in many of the shows.Lou Costello produced the series, while Bud Abbott was just a hired hand on it. So the series really showcases Costello. Yet, he generally shows off all the other performers wonderfully. There are a half dozen other brilliant comedians like Sid Fields, Joe Besser, Joan Shawlee, Joe Kirk, Gordon Jones, and Hilary Brooke who are given a chance to shine. Even the chimpanzee, Bingo, the chimp, may be the funniest animal performer ever on television.The show creates a warm and beautiful world, where eccentricity is the norm. It is a place where violence is silly, not painful. The normality of this world breaks up swiftly into the absurd almost every minute.The only sad thing about this series is that there are only 52 episodes.

ctomvelu1 The beauty of the A&C Show was that it gave the classic comedy duo a chance to re-enact many of their best routines, most of which dated back to the days of burlesque. They brought these routines to a whole new generation and preserved them for posterity. The framing device of the show -- A&C as out-of-work actors, with a testy landlord, a slow-witted cop, Lou's buxom blonde gal pal and several others -- kept the show from being just one old routine after another. It was simply amazing. While the duo's best movies were their earlier ones (with the exception of 1948's "Frankenstein"), this 1950s TV show showed that they still had it. Interestingly enough, in keepijg with the burlesque +nature of their TV act, Lou dressed like a baggy-pants comedian of old with a silly bowler hat precariously perched on his head, which was completely unlike any of the suits or other outfits he wore in the movies.

John (opsbooks) Having not seen the A&C show for 40 years I recently picked up the 'Best of' DVD and was suitably amazed at just how good the boys were early on. LOU'S BIRTHDAY is a masterpiece of comic timing, brilliantly directed and edited. Here is the genesis of 'Seinfeld' and 'Who loves Raymond'. GETTING A JOB consists of an extended version of the Susquehanna hat routine and is as insane as any Marx Bros scene. The pace and action is non-stop. The ensemble gathered together for the original series worked like a finely tuned race car; fast and furious! Mike the cop and Fields in his many guises are worth a laugh a minute. In UNCLE BOZZO I found myself laughing non-stop as the three of them (the boys with Lou's newly arrived uncle) did the old double bed routine. An oldie, but never done better than here. Finally in STOLEN SKATES we have Bingo the Chimp. Normally I hate chimps in movies and even did as a kid (well, except in 'Bomba' movies!) but here the director makes full use of the ape's talents. The entire street is brought into the act as every cast member magically acquires roller skates. Then it's on for young and old.Given the choice of 10 DVDs to take to a desert island, I'd have no trouble in including this one. Brilliant!

frankfob Sitcoms had been around for a few years when this show premiered, but none of them were anywhere near as funny (Jerry Seinfeld is on record as saying this show was the inspiration for his creating "Seinfeld") as this one. The premise of the show lent itself to Bud & Lou's reprising many of their most famous routines, and it was good to see them back in action. The two of them--especially Costello--seemed to have regained the spark they once had before a string of movie failures and the team's personal and physical problems (Lou's infant son had fallen into their backyard pool and drowned several years previously, a tragedy Lou never got over; Bud--unknown to many at the time--had epilepsy and his seizures were becoming more serious) combined to send their career into a tailspin, and this show was their chance to revive it. Even though Costello was no longer a young man (he was in his mid-50s when the series debuted) he could still take the pratfalls he was famous for, and the team's exquisite sense of timing seemed to have resurfaced (in one episode they did their famous "Lemon" gag that was simply amazing to watch). A first-rate supporting cast and a somewhat more adult atmosphere (Costello had a major--and completely understandable--case of the hots for beautiful Hillary Brooke, and he and Joe Besser's wonderful Stinky had some quite nasty fights) elevated this show beyond just kid's fare.Although it lasted only two seasons, this is a very fondly remembered show. It holds up well and is just as funny today as it was back when it was first shown.