Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 28, 2024

Abbott and Costello had such notable careers on stage, radio and in films that the fact that they were also pioneers in the then nascent medium of television is somehow overlooked a lot of the time. The 3-D Archive and ClassicFlix came to the rescue in that regard last year by providing The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 1, a reminder that the team had starred in a kinda sorta sitcom that ran for two syndicated seasons from 1952 to 1954. While it's at least arguable that their movie career may have cooled from its heyday, when the team were reportedly the highest paid entertainers during the World War II era, they were still making films, including Jack and the Beanstalk, which the 3-D Film Archive and ClassicFlix also released a couple of years ago in a nicely restored version. The fact that Jack and the Beanstalk, as goofily enjoyable as it may be, didn't quite reach the lunatic heights of some of the boys' better remembered efforts from the forties may indicate in passing, though, that maybe even Abbott and Costello were starting to wonder about the "shelf life" of their big screen careers. As I mentioned in our The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 1 Blu-ray review, while Lou was often the "dimwit" of the pair, he was nonetheless smart enough to be the producing entity behind the series, and in fact he evidently hired Bud to be on salary for the effort. This second season makes a few adjustments to the first year, and it may suffer just slightly in consistent writing quality when stacked up to that season, but it's still hugely enjoyable and offers another showcase for one of the most legendary comedy teamings of all time.

The first season of The Abbott and Costello Show featured the boys in introductory vignettes filmed before the curtain of a proscenium stage, echoing similar television work from every one from Burns and Allen to Jack Benny, but this season jettisons that approach and sticks more or less to the more traditional "sitcom" format, with the pair still living in an apartment house owned by Sidney Fields. Hillary Brooke must have found other lodging, as she's only on hand in one episode from this season. It's perhaps interesting to note that the discs offer the episodes in a different order than listed in some online data sources, and in fact the keepcase insert's inside print offers the following information in that regard:

Because the series was syndicated, there is no official broadcast order. Episodes are presented in production order allowing the series to be viewed and unfold as it was filmed.

The season is full of tried and true shenanigans that frequently have Lou either the victim of Bud's scheming, or in fact the victim of his own scheming, as in $1,000 TV Prize, where Lou answers Fields' phone while working in Fields' apartment, wins a quiz prize, and then has to figure out how to keep Fields out of his own place until the money is delivered. There are a number of recurring tropes utilized throughout this season, including a number of episodes focusing on Lou's love life and even potential marriage. Sometimes, though, as in The Pigeon, romantic entanglements come with ostensible danger (there's a different kind of danger in another "love affair" episode, Amnesia.

As with the first season, watching each and every episode one after the other may lead to a bit of overload, especially with regard to some of Lou's more manic activities, but that said, the series has some geniunely funny bits in virtually each and every outing. While Stu Fink's commentary gives a list of supposedly notable guest stars, my hunch is only the most diehard trivia fans will recognize many of the names, but the supporting cast is full of great performers offerings some really nicely done bits.

The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the 3-D Film Archive, ClassicFlix and (just for good measure) the Library of Congress with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.37:1. This is another really gorgeous looking set of episodes that follows in the excellent footsteps of the first season of the show. While, yes, there are some very minor signs of age related wear and tear that have made it through the restoration guantlet, on the whole these are beautiful looking episodes, with excellent fine detail on things like the herringbone patterned jackets Lou tends to wear, or other textural elements like some of the costumes that women in particular wear. The show obviously didn't have a huge budget, so often sets are minimally dressed, but detail on things like furniture and props is also commendable. Contrast is solid for the most part (there are a few passing variances not tied to things like opticals), and gray scale is very nicely modulated throughout. Grain looks natural and is very tightly resolved.

The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Much as with the release of the series' first season on Blu-ray, The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 2 features surprisingly spry sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks. Some of the show's audio attributes, namely its perhaps puzzling (to music historians) second season theme, are covered in the supplemental grab bag offered on Disc Two of this set. The show's relatively low budget means there's not a lot of nuance to the sound design of the episodes, but dialogue is always presented cleanly and clearly. As is mentioned in our The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 1 Blu-ray review, the episodes were filmed without an audience, but then were screened to invitees, whose guffaws were then recorded and added as a veritable "laugh track".

The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Audio Commentary by Stu Fink on Amnesia

Disc Two

• Assorted Bonus Content (HD; 34:06) is a veritable grab bag of interesting curios, including:

  A recently discovered snippet of a so-called "non audience" track for Episode 4, Reel 1 from the first season.

  
  

  A kind of hilarious peek at how the production would film routines and then split them between episodes. In this case, the first half of a routine aired in the first season's 24th episode, and the second half aired in episode 59 of the second season. The complete routine is "recombined" here.

  
  

  A Campbell's Soup commercial featuring the pair. Campbell's sponsored the series when, after its original syndicated run, it was broadcast nationally on CBS beginning in June 1954 as part of the network's Saturday morning "kiddie" fare.

  
  

  E-Z Pop Popcorn ads featuring the pair from 1954 that ran during reruns.

  
  

  A "lost episode" called Star Reporters gets some attention, first with some really interesting background information about writer Clyde Bruckman and his tendency to "recycle" material, and then with a look at Bruckman's own shooting script for the never produced episode. This comes with a perhaps hilarious on screen reminder to use the pause button on your remote to be able to read individual pages, since they scroll by rather rapidly.

  
  

  The Season 2 theme is explored.

  
  

  The Mystery Theme offers more archaeology surrounding how a piece from the Mutel stock library (which also provided the Season 2 theme) somehow ended up on two episodes during the 1970s.

  
  

  Credits for the series

• Audio Commentary by Ron Palumbo on The Pigeon

Additionally, the keepcase insert features an inner print offering episode synopses.

The Abbott and Costello Show: Season 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Any Abbott and Costello fan will probably want to jump at the chance to own this enjoyable collection, even if some may feel, as I do, that some of the writing in this second season is a bit too repetitive and maybe not quite as consistently funny as in the first season. Once again the 3-D Film Archive and ClassicFlix offer some really secure technical merits, especially considering the vintage of the series, and while the supplements included for this season aren't quite as numerous as those offered in the first season, they're also very enjoyable and at times really informative. Recommended.