Saturday Night Live - 25 Years of Music

Saturday Night Live - 25 Years of Music Review

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 12/21/2004 Rating: Nr

The Travolta Collection (Saturday Night Fever / Grease / Urban Cowboy)

The Travolta Collection (Saturday Night Fever / Grease / Urban Cowboy) Review

The Travolta DVD Collection collects three films from the beginning of John Travolta's career after he was plucked from the cast of the TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. In Saturday Night Fever (1977), Travolta plays Tony Manero, a 19-year-old Italian American from Brooklyn who works in a humble paint store and lives with his family. After dark, he becomes the polyester-clad stallion of the local nightclub. Director John Badham captures the electric connection between music and dance, and also the desperation that lies beneath Tony's ambitions to break out of his limited world. The soundtrack, which spawned a massively successful album, is dominated by the disco classics of the Bee Gees, including "Staying Alive" and "Night Fever." The Oscar^®-nominated Travolta, in his first starring role, is incandescent and unbelievably confident, and his dancing is terrific. Oh, and the white suit rules.

In 1978, Travolta went on to Grease, an adaptation of the Broadway musical. With vibrant colors, unforgettably campy and catchy tunes (like "Greased Lightning," "Summer Nights," and "You're the One That I Want"), and fabulously choreographed musical numbers, the '50s-nostalgia story about the romantic dilemmas experienced by a group of graduating high school seniors remains fresh, fun, and incredibly imaginative. Travolta struts, swaggers, sings, and dances appropriately, while Olivia Newton-John's portrayal of virgin innocence is the only decent acting she's ever done.

Travolta traded in disco duds for a cowboy hat in Urban Cowboy (1980), a corny love story about a workingman who breaks up with his girlfriend (Debra Winger), then plays out their relationship's turmoil inside a huge honky-tonk called Gilley's. The story essentially parallels Saturday Night Fever in its blend of ordinary life, incomplete relationships, and personal pride channeled into niche stardom at a neighborhood club, and the film is really a time capsule on a lot of levels--notably Travolta's career and late-'70s Western kitsch.

Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season, 1975-1976

Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season, 1975-1976 Review

Nicknamed the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players," the original cast of Saturday Night Live ignited a comedy revolution with their mix of irreverent characters and satirical impressions of political figures and pop culture icons. From the premiere of this groundbreaking sketch comedy show on October 11, 1975, live from historic Studio 8H in New York City's Rockefeller Center, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner launched themselves into instant stardom and were often referred to as "The Beatles of Comedy." Created by Lorne Michaels over three decades ago, Saturday Night Live has had the cultural impact and relevance that few shows can claim. Nowhere else can you see the complete first season of SNL, featuring hosts George Carlin, Rob Reiner, Lily Tomlin, Richard Pryor, Elliott Gould, Candice Bergen, or original musical performances by Simon & Garfunkel, ABBA, Patti Smith, Jimmy Cliff, and Carly Simon. And if you're curious as to how the original cast was hired, check out the DVD bonus features, which include the screen tests of each performer.