This three-disc set is oddly organized, scattershot and repetitive. It is also composed almost entirely of clips from The Jack Paar Program, the 1962-65 series Paar did after Tonight. (There is at least one short excerpt from Paar's first Tonight, however, in which he's introduced by none other than Franklin Pangborn!) The first disc kicks off with an hour-long PBS documentary, Jack Paar: Smart Television, which features new interviews with, among others, Hugh Downs (Paar's sidekick on Tonight), Regis Philbin, former NBC page Richard Kennedy, Dick Cavett, and director Hal Gurnee. They discuss Paar's impact and refer to specific interviews that are shown in long excerpts. What is billed as Bonus Material on this disc consists of 11 short bits that play like leftovers -- good material that couldn't be worked into the documentary. The first five clips are raw interviews without corresponding footage from the show; the last six are undated excerpts from the show but unsupported by new interviews.

The second disc is divided into two parts: interviews and monologues (including Paar's June 25, 1965 farewell). The third DVD offers three complete shows. However, roughly 15% of this material is also used in the documentary so you'll want to keep the fast-forward button on your remote handy.

Despite the general quirkiness of this presentation, The Jack Paar Collection overall is a phenomenal batch of material. There are two overriding impressions one gets wading through these three discs. The first is the realization that The Jack Paar Program aired at a historical crossroads of American life, international politics, and in the midst of a pop culture revolution. Paar, significantly, was right there in the midst of it.

He interviews President Kennedy shortly before his assassination and brother Bobby less than five months after that great tragedy. He has The Beatles on his show, Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) days before his fight with Sonny Liston, and goes to Cuba to interview Fidel Castro. Paar references Beatlemania constantly, and the notorious love affair of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra.

The second impression one gets is a great sadness at the degree in which talk shows have been dumbed-down and homogenized in the years since. Paar's interviews had more depth and reality during any given minute that a month's worth of Larry Kings, and play closer to something one might find on Nightline rather than The Late Show or the current incarnation of Tonight. Paar is often referred to as an intellectual, but he doesn't come off that way at all. He has an almost boyish giddiness about him. His soft voice and constant fidgeting (interviewing Robert Kennedy, he nervously plays with the hem of his slacks) adds a beguiling intimacy to his interviews. He respects his guests, regardless of their political persuasion, is unfailingly polite, and always comes across as genuinely interested in his interviewees. Most importantly, he asks the kinds of common sense questions anyone might ask.

More than anything else, what made Paar's show unique was that it was intensely personal. Though Paar was a fine monologist and a naturally funny man, people watched The Tonight Show and, later, The Jack Paar Program for Paar's genuineness. He was almost defiantly himself. Jay Leno has been criticized recently by some for expressing a right-of-center political view on his show, but watching Paar one wishes modern talk shows weren't so antiseptic and rigidly superficial and apolitical. Paar and his guests weren't afraid to be serious. Less than two weeks after the Kennedy assassination, Paar and guest Billy Graham discuss the "national guilt" felt by many Americans in the wake of Kennedy's violent end. Paar and Robert Kennedy reflect upon the Cuban Missile Crisis, while guest Richard Burton performs a reading of Winston Churchill's famous "Sinews of Peace" / Iron Curtain speech. Hard to imagine these sorts of things worked in between gHeadlinesh and gStupid Pet Tricks.h

Beyond its considerable value as a document of the American scene 40 years ago, it's also interesting to compare Paar's conversations with people like Nixon with today's political climate. Listening to a March 1963 interview with post-VP/pre-Watergate Nixon, one can't help but admire his eloquence talking about the 1964 presidential race and the Bay of Pigs, even if you don't agree with him. (Hey, a president that can actually speak!) Listen to Nixon discuss the spread of Communism and, in one's mind, replace "communism" with the word "terrorism." It's quite uncanny how little the rhetoric has changed.

This is not to suggest The Jack Paar Program was all doom and Cold War gloom. Nixon plays the piano (hilariously, like an elaborately programmed robot) and he and Paar have the famous exchange:

Paar -- "Can Kennedy be defeated in '64?"

Nixon -- "Well, which one?"

More directly, The Jack Paar Collection gives equal time to the great comic talent that found early success on this show, including Jim Henson (performing with what looks like Kermit in drag), Bill Cosby and Woody Allen. Jonathan Winters was a frequent guest, as was the acerbic, unpredictable Oscar Levant. Unlike the very private Johnny Carson, Paar actively worked himself and his private life into his conversations. Unlike most talk show hosts, however, Paar was usually justified when he did so. One of the best examples of this comes during the Nixon interview, when Paar interrupts Nixon to tell a long story concerning their daughters. This amusing anecdote showcases Paar's great skill as a raconteur, and this DVD set matches him with equals like Levant, Judy Garland, Richard Burton, and others.

It's also almost startling to watch a deeply offended Paar sharply criticize newspaper ads for a cheesy JFK memorial license plate. Or to imagine an environment when a talk show host could digress into a long, deeply personal segment about visiting a Hawaiian leper colony. Unfortunately, Paar's famous, principled departure from Tonight isn't included, though Hugh Downs and especially Richard Kennedy offer fascinating accounts of that infamous day. (Offended that one of his jokes was censored, the following evening Paar delivered a heartfelt monologue about the controversy, announced he was quitting, and walked off 10 minutes into the live show.)

On a national level, only Cavett (who once wrote for Paar and booked talent) and, oddly enough, Oprah and her syndicated program, have come anywhere close to the intimacy and depth (and, in Cavett's case, the wit) of Jack Paar. Could a show like The Jack Paar Program compete with Leno and Letterman? Maybe not, but this DVD set is a great tribute to Paar's talent, and proof of TV talk's long untapped potential.

Video & Audio

The Jack Paar Collection is, unsurprisingly, a 4:3 presentation with mono sound. The shows were apparently shot on video in New York, and then kinescoped (using the "Kinephoto" process) for broadcast on the West Coast. These shows then all have that second-generation look about them, though they're always perfectly watchable.

Extras

In addition to the supplements interspersed throughout the three discs and discussed above, The Jack Paar Collection occasionally offers the option to skip to referenced material within a given interview. For instance, when Richard Burton discusses how he played a scene in his popular modern dress Hamlet, DVD viewers are given the option to access that particular scene from the theatrically released videotaped version.

Parting Thoughts

Those unfamiliar with Jack Paar will be charmed by this funny and provocative man, and by the incredible legacy of his one-of-a-kind interviews. Flawed only in its organization, The Jack Paar Collection is a fine tribute, and with an SRP of just $29.95, a real bargain that comes Highly Recommended.

Stuart Galbraith IV is a Los Angeles and Kyoto-based film historian whose work includes The Emperor and the Wolf -- The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. He is presently writing a new book on Japanese cinema for Taschen.