Fractured Flickers: The Complete Collection
Picture: C
Sound: C- Extras: D Episodes: B+
Typically, when people think about Jay Ward, images of the
Rocky, Bullwinkle, Boris, Natasha, and George of the Jungle come to mind. And why wouldn’t they? After all, Jay Ward and his partner Bill
Scott were amongst the pioneering innovators in the world of cartoons. But there’s another little gem out there
that was conjured up by Ward and Scott that few people remember and even fewer
knew existed. This show was Fractured
Flickers, and in 1963, they brought the show into America’s living
room. The concept behind the show was
simple: take old-time films from the silent movie era and get talented voice
actors to proved a new and funny dialogue track to go along with the
images. Oh yeah, and get the immortal
Hans Conried to host the show. Ward got
his pals June Foray and Paul Frees from his Rocky and Bullwinkle shows to be the
voice actors. All these elements seemed
to be a formula for success. However,
when it debuted at the very first (and last) Coney Island Film Festival in
1963, aficionados were appalled at the irreverent treatment given to these
silent films. Luckily for Ward and
company, the show was enjoyed by the public and sparked a new interest in
people for silent films.
Now, thanks to the folks at VCI Entertainment, all 26
episodes are available for the first time ever on a 3-DVD set, after having
been pieced back together from various different sources. And each episode retains the interviews with
their guest stars, as the interviews were dropped from the show when the
episodes aired as reruns. The
interviews were with famous actors and actresses, such as Bob Denver, Rose
Marie, Rod Serling, and Paul Lynde. The
set comes in a large Amaray case similar to the type used for the Special
Collector’s Edition of Once Upon a Time in the West (reviewed elsewhere
on this site) and a small booklet included in the case detail the history of
Jay Ward Productions and contains the episode guide for the series. The best part is that each episode is broken
down into chapters. You can view each
episode separately or select a “play all” option.
The image is presented in its original black and white
1.33 to 1 aspect ratio. Unfortunately,
since the series is so old, the picture doesn’t look so spectacular, but these
sources are still on the cleaner side than they might be otherwise. Give credit to VCI, though, because they
didn’t do a bad job in restoring the picture—they just could have done a little
better. The footage containing Hans
Conried and all the animated segments looks pretty good. It’s cleaned up, but there are still lots of
scratch lines, debris, and spots to be found everywhere. The animated segments hold up well, as no
interlacing errors could be found and there are only a few instances where the
black lines don’t stay solid. The real
poor quality can be found in the footage of the silent movies, as there are
scratch marks and grain everywhere, and the images seem jumpy. Obviously, this was unavoidable and long
before film restoration became the norm.
Since the show is so off the cuff, this is typical.
The audio comes in Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, presented only
in the English language with no subtitles or closed captioning. The audio levels were all over the place at
times, where sometimes it was near impossible to hear some parts. Other times, the audio would be really low
and then it would be back to normal.
There is some scratchiness to the sound, but it’s minimal. Give credit to VCI again because they did a
lot to fix the audio. They had to do
the best with what they were given.
They do point out where there are times where they couldn’t fix some of
the material. For example, in the first
episode, they put up a title card before the episode begins to warn viewers
that the audio for the Rose Marie interview is extremely poor and choppy. Considering these episodes were pieced
together from various sources, it’s remarkable they got anything at all. The extras for this set are disappointing. All you get are biographies for Hans Conried
and Jay Ward, and you get them three times, once for each disc. The only other extra is a preview for other
mostly animated material available from VCI, and reviewed on this site, like
their Popeye set and the terrific Somewhere In Dreamland set.
The show is a true marvel of television history. Unfortunately, even though the series was
enjoyed by the public at the time and later in syndication, this just wasn’t
enough to keep the show going. The show
was light years ahead of its time, which is probably why it didn’t last long as
a lot of the humor was just out of the grasp of 1960’s audiences, but the show
paved the way for others who would borrow the show’s unique concept. Fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000,
Woody Allen’s What’s Up, Tiger Lily?, and Steve Oedekerk’s Kung Pow:
Enter the Fist owe thanks to Fractured Flickers for paving the way
for them.
- Antonio Lopez
