Features:
- Color
- Closed-captioned
- Box set
Description:
Once upon a time, George Carlin was a closely cropped, dues-paying, Ed Sullivan-approved comedian popular for his fast-paced satire on any number of (mostly safe) topics. That was during the 1960s; by the start of the '70s, a restless Carlin had removed his tie, broadened the range of his trippy observations, and kicked up a freedom-of-speech challenge to laws governing obscene language. He drew a dedicated, young audience and later the attention of Home Box Office, a fledgling cable channel seeking ways to distinguish its programming from that of more restrictive, commercial networks. A relationship was born that lasted more than two decades and resulted in a dozen uncensored George Carlin comedy specials on HBO. The George Carlin Collection, a five-volume set, skims some of the best material from that hefty television legacy and puts us in touch again with Carlin's classic repertoire. On Location with George Carlin revives his slightly tentative 1977 debut on cable, taped at the University of Southern California and featuring superb bits about playing Monopoly and shopping while stoned. George Carlin Again! offers an in-the-round performance from 1978 and inspired pop philosophy on the nature of time. Carlin on Campus and Carlin at Carnegie are fine touchstones from the '80s, while Personal Favorites constitutes a worthy greatest-hits package culled from a number of Carlin/HBO specials. Carlin freaks will gobble it all up, while more casual observers will cherish such hall-of-fame material as "Baseball vs. Football" and "A Place for My Stuff." --Tom Keogh
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