The Norman Gunston Show-Volume 2 (1975) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Comedy |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Unedited Shirley MacLaine Interview Notes-Guarantee Of Excellence Trailer-Segment from Volume 1; Segment from Volume 3 Trailer-Malcolm; Secret Policeman's Ball Trailer-What's Up, Tiger Lily?; The Natural History Of The Chicken DVD Credits |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1975 | ||
Running Time | 87:04 (Case: 75) | ||
RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | Simon Francis |
Studio
Distributor |
Umbrella Entertainment |
Starring | Garry McDonald |
Case | Click | ||
RPI | $29.95 | Music | None Given |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Full Frame | English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) | |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | ||
16x9 Enhancement | No | ||
Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles | None | Smoking | No |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
Following on from Volume 1 of this The Best Of The Last Norman Gunston Show, this time Norman meets with the likes of Shirley MacLaine, Paul Mercurio, Julian Clary and Rod Steiger, and features musical numbers from Sonia Dada and The Dukes.
Norman’s, and McDonald’s, comedy is hit and miss for me. He can be clever and laugh-out-loud funny one minute, average the next, and even embarrassingly unfunny at times. This collection is no exception to the way I feel about McDonald, with the MacLaine interview being the real highlight, and Gunston’s rendition of “Achy Breaky Heart” the low point.
The total running time including extras of 75 minutes or so does seem a bit short for each disc, and all of this footage could perhaps have been put onto a single disc, or even a 2 disc set.
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.
Being produced for Australian commercial television, The Norman Gunston Show didn’t feature top production values. The transfer cannot improve on the source material, and the fairly low-budget production comes up quite well. The sharpness is only ever adequate, and the shadow detail fares no better. The fact that the show features multiple shooting locations results in differing lighting qualities for different segments. A constant, but never distracting, low level of noise and grain keeps this transfer from becoming anything more than expected.
Colours seemed consistently decent throughout the entire collection of clips, never bleeding or oversaturating.
MPEG and film artefacts were quite rare, and barely noticeable.
Being a single-layered, single-sided disc, there is no layer change.
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Overall |
There is only one soundtrack, English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.
The dialogue was always clear and never experienced any dropouts. The soundtrack is clear of any distinct background noise or hiss. There were no problems with audio sync, either.
The few minutes of music contained within these clips came across very well, and was always clear.
Being a mono soundtrack, the surround and LFE channels were never required.
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Overall |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Hit and miss entertainment from Norman Gunston, spread across three discs when it all could have possibly fit on one. The video quality is decent for a television show, without becoming anything more than that. The audio quality is adequate for this release, without any problems. The extras are better than expected, with one stand-out feature.
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Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-525, using Component output |
Display | Teac 82cm 16x9. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Sony STR DE-545 |
Speakers | 5 Sony speakers; Sherwood 12" 100w Powered Subwoofer |