Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Bozo on DVD

A 30 episode Bozo DVD is now out and available. It features the original syndicated Bozo, Frank Avruch, with shows from the 60's and early 70's. Each show also has a five minute Larry Harmon (the originator of Bozo) animated cartoon.

On the Amazon.com message boards, there's some grumblings from customers about the fact that the DVD does not feature Bob Bell(The Chicago-land Bozo) This is volume 1, and presumably the next volumes will feature Mr. Bell and other regional Bozos.

Also notable is that the originator of Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird, Carol Spinney, is featured on this DVD set.

Thanks to Pat Cashin over at ClownAlley.net for pointing this release out.

2 comments:

Pat Cashin said...

Hi!

The actor playing Bozo on these DVDs is FRANK Avruch, not LARRY Avruch. Mr. Avruch is alive and well and still active in Boston area media.

The Bozo character is owned by Larry HARMON, which is where the confusion might come from.

Don't view these thinking that they are going to be wall-to-wall gut bustingly funny. They're not. But they are a valuable document of a time where TV provided children with unfailingly positive role models; TV "uncles" who taught right from wrong, fair play and the value of friendship, community and being very silly.

Noggin, Sprout, Playhouse Disney and PBS Kids are sorely lacking in silly.

Edu-tainment is great and all but shouldn't have to come at the expense of all those TV clubhouses filled with superheroes, clowns, spacemen, ballerinas, fairy princesses, decoder rings, secret handshakes, Tom & Jerry, Heckle & Jeckle, the Three Stooges and the Little Rascals.

~Pat Cashin

Adam said...

Thanks Pat-- I've edited the original post to make sure that Larry Avruch (whoever he might be!) doesn't get Frank's credit. That was most certainly my transcription error.

I'm hoping to get these soon and watch them.

Keep well!

Adam