Plot: What’s it about?
Steve Martin is one of the finest comedic minds of this era. He’s been in some of the funniest movies, such as The Jerk, Bowfinger, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, as well as countless others. But before he was such a large and in charge comedic personality, he was a cast member on Saturday Night Live, back when the show was actually funny. It was here that Martin showed off both his sketch based comedy skills, as well as his stand up routine, which was his profession before SNL. While Martin can be a slapstick comic when he wants to be, with outrageous sight gags galore, he can also break out some high brow humor at times, which sets him a notch or two above most comedians.
Martin was able to use many approaches to making the audience laugh on SNL, using his smarter humor and stand up background to fuel his monologues, and then hitting the audience with his amazing silly stuff during skits. Even Martin’s skits were both smart and funny though, with historic jokes, like in King Tut or Theodoric of York, the medieval barber, especially his routines with Bill Murray, a couple of which are included on this disc. If you watched the show at the time, or have seen flashback episodes, you must have seen those wild and crazy swingers, the Festrunk brothers, who make me laugh every time I see the sketches, and I’ve seen them hundreds of times. You’ll see some of Martin’s finest work for SNL here, even the penis beauty cream skit is present here. Many of your favorites from SNL make appearances as well, such as the Coneheads, Father Guido Sarducci, Mr. Bill, and even The Blues Brothers.
This is another installment in Trimark’s best of Saturday Night Live series, and I for one am very pleased with the results. This disc captures Martin’s tenure on the show well, showing the funniest and most memorable sketches, as well as a couple incredible monologues with Bill Murray. What impresses me the most about this release is how extensive it is, running eighty minutes in duration, plus two bonus segments. This makes for a nice, feature length look at Martin’s brilliant work on the show, not just a short peek. I recommend this disc to fans of Martin and Saturday Night Live itself, as the sketches are excellent, and the disc itself is well crafted and presented.
Video: How does it look?
The Best of Steve Martin is presented in a full frame transfer, which keeps the original broadcast aspect ratio intact. You can’t expect much here, other than a clear and crisp looking visual presentation, which is what you get. The image is sharper than broadcast, with rich colors, high detail level, correct contrast levels, and natural flesh tones. No compression errors emerge, making for a very nice transfer.
Audio: How does it sound?
A stereo track is delivered, which supplies an adequate audio experience. With this type of subject matter, you don’t really need much more, and all elements are present and accounted for. Dialogue is the main concern, and it is clear throughout, with no issues at all.
Supplements: What are the extras?
With a release like this, the entire presentation seems like a bonus feature, but two extra skits are included, plus a guide to the sketches on the program itself.
