The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts: Stingers and Zingers

A roast is where a dais full of TV stars, writers, politicians and comedians pick a famous celebrity and they dig up all the bad moments of their life and career, explains Shirley Jones in one of the special features of "The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts: Stingers and Zingers." Then this panel of people "take all the bad moments of a person's life and tell a story about it." She goes on to say, "It's funny, but ... it's honesty too."

"The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts" began as a ratings booster for the final season of "The Dean Martin show and became eagerly awaited NBC television specials. Some of the great comic minds of the time like Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Red Buttons and many others join Dean Martin on the dais to mock and skewer a wide array of famous people to their faces, and the "victims" included some of the biggest name in entertainment, sports and politics. Comedians, Jones explains, "can do zingers like nobody else can. If anyone else did them they would be mean and terrible."

If you think television comedy didn't get lewd until cable, you're sorely mistaken. Though the language is certainly cleaned up from the nightclub acts of popular roasters like Don Rickles and Phyllis Diller, the raucous, racy and completely politically incorrect humor that inspires these festivities will make your jaw drop. The popular racial humor of shows like "All in the Family" and "Sanford and Son" is kicked up a notch, but the open acceptance and encouragement of a diverse culture underlies many of the jokes. For instance, "In Cold Blood" author Truman Capote was openly gay and yet he fits seamlessly into the gutsy, macho and "seemingly heterosexual" Hollywood culture of the time.

As the show progressed throughout its 9 seasons, it even moved from Hollywood to the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas to keep the cut-loose, party spirit abounding. This 8-disc collector's set contains 24 of the 54 raucous roasts recorded between 1974 and '84, including popular TV stars like Valerie Harper, Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, Michael Landon, Carroll O'Connor, Danny Thomas, Monty Hall, Peter Marshall, Ted Knight, Dan Haggerty, Ed McMahon, William Conrad, Redd Foxx and even Mr. T. Alongside of these are sports greats like Joe Garagiola, Leo Durocher, Bobby Riggs, Evel Knievel, Wilt Chamberlain, Hank Aaron and Joe Namath, as well as authors and politicians like Truman Capote and Sen. Hubert Humphrey.

In addition to over 20 hours of roasting, more than three hours of bonus features accompany these television specials, including comedy sketches from "The Dean Martin Show," two featurettes "Primetime Ribbing: Roasting Small-Screen Stars" and "Sports Stars: Hit 'Em Where It Hurts," as well as a slew of interviews with everyone from Carol Burnett and Ed Asner to Tony Danza and Rich Little.

"The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts: Stingers and Zingers"
DVD
20.5 hours / Not Rated
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