Want a great gift idea for the music lover in your life? Well if there is someone that enjoys Streisand, I may have something for that person. Just released on Nov. 22 was a 5-disc DVD set titled, Barbra Streisand: The Television Specials, which comprises five hours and a 65 page booklet that’ll knock you off your feet! The DVD set covers her first five television specials between 1965 and 1973.
Her first television special (winning five Emmy Awards and the prestigious Peabody Award for Distinguished Achievement in Television), My Name Is Barbra (1965), is a classic and was praised by critics coast to coast. UPI called the show, "A pinnacle moment of American show business, in any form, in any period... She is so great, it is shocking… she may well be the most supremely talented and complete popular entertainer this country has ever produced.” If record buyers weren’t aware of Streisand’s stunning talents by the time this special aired on April 28, 1965 (only four days after her 23rd birthday), this television special was just a taste of what was to come over the next 40 plus years. The special is lively and entertaining. I think my favorite scene is when Barbra sings "A Kid Again / I'm Five," in which she starts off by sitting in a giant rocker.
The second television special is titled, Color Me Barbra, aired eleven months later and was her first special in color. As she explains, at the beginning of the DVD, color TV was something new at the time and, well, two of the cameras (which were brand new and never used) broke down. Since there were no spare parts to repair them they had to shoot the entire special with only one camera. To make matters worse, they only had one weekend to shoot, as this time they were on location at the Philadelphia Museum with Barbra recreating the famous paintings and becoming the subjects of works that included Picasso, Modigliani and Renoir.
Again the show consisted of three acts, which included such songs as “The Minute Waltz,” “Yesterdays,” “It Had To Be You,” “Animal Crackers In My Soup” and “Starting Here, Starting Now.”
The third special, The Belle Of 14th Street (aired in 1967), did not have a coinciding album release and until this DVD was unavailable to the public. Upon seeing it, one has to wonder why it was shelved for the past 38 years.
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