My Name is Barbra was produced before color television was standard, at least at CBS. It's possibly the most elegant of the bunch, with Streisand's songs (16 tunes, 2 medleys) portioned out in a curious 'plotline' half-inspired by Alice in Wonderland. The childhood theme is replaced in the second act by a 'poverty' theme stressing Streisand's modest background, before blending into a finale of songs from her current hit Broadway play Funny Girl.

Color Me Barbra is a thematic continuation of the first show, adding color and using it creatively - very creatively compared to the standards of 1966 broadcast Television. Large sections were shot in a Philadelphia museum -- none of these shows were taped at a studio in a conventional manner. The thematic premise he is that Barbra melds with paintings and artwork (including an Egyptian sculpture) to cue the changes of mood introducing each new song, and it works surprisingly well. The musical choices have a wider variety, including light comedy numbers (The Minute Waltz), and an extended circus-themed middle section. Barbra interacts with a number of zoo animals including a real tiger and an anteater with a snout that Barbra compares with her own.

The Belle of 14th Street is the oddest show in the bunch, a loving tribute to Vaudeville consisting mostly of authentic songs from 1900 to 1920 or so - some standards but few obvious crowd-pleasers. The attempt to capture the original millieu extends to assembling a bevy of fat chorines that were dubbed "The Beef Trust Chorus" -- guaranteeing that no shapely costar would attract attention away from La Barbra. Jason Robards Jr. and John Bubbles contribute believably stylized performances introduced by an emcee; Bubbles sings a song in a bizarre rooster costume that's apparently true to Vaudeville history. It's all very elaborate and detailed, almost like William Friedkin's later film The Night They Raided Minsky's, which also used Jason Robards Jr.

A Happening in Central Park was taped at a huge concert given in the summer of 1967, on a humid night when rain was expected. Barbra filled Sheep's meadow with 150,000 polite viewers and gave the first giant live performance of her career. It's all her at the mike, singing, telling jokes and dealing with little problems that came up; many Streisand fans prefer their diva this way, without all the technical studio trimmings. Some say she looked visibly concerned, and the expected rain indeed began to fall 45 minutes after she finished. Although she sang a lot more, the edited version shown almost a year later (to coincide with the debut of the film Funny Girl) has sixteen solid song entries.

At the tail end of the string of specials is 1973's Barbra Streisand ... and Other Musical Instruments, which returns Barbra to her original format framework using fantasy and whimsy as a buffer between musical performances. A lot has happened in six years and she shares the stage with an elaborate (frankly, overproduced) concept of a fantastic orchestra. A camel walks on-stage with the musicians, for instance. She sings her first selection accompanied by a man playing a saw we've just seen used to cut off the leg of a chair. Later on, video switcher special effects, audio tricks and image manipulation get to be more than a little distracting. Barbra still chooses an interesting lineup of ballads and other out of the ordinary tunes ... the only obvious 'career' selection being the title song from her film On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

All of the specials were originally mixed in monaural sound. The disc offers the original tracks plus two remixes in 2.0 and 5.1. The guideline was to retain the feel of the original mixes, which by and large still hold up. The audio restoration consisted of the repair of pops and crackle and the reduction of distortion. Of the five specials, the production audio on the live Central Park show is the weakest due to the one-shot recording conditions. For the other shows it is often difficult to determine whether the audio is live or done to playback; Ms. Streisand claims to be a very bad lip-synch performer but it's difficult to catch her making a mistake.

Great pains were taken to revive the best possible video images from the original tapes, all recorded on now-antiquated 2" video machines. The quality is particularly good on Color Me Barbra considering the state of broadcast color in 1966. The last special,...and Other Musical Instruments was produced in England and recorded in the PAL format, which thanks to modern video conversion now yields an exceptionally good image. We're informed that of the five shows, the tape elements for 14th Street had the most damage. Because of the outdoor lighting the 1967 Central Park special always looked sickly green, a flaw that has been largely corrected with new digital tools.

Savant is sometimes disappointed by DVD sets that come in elaborate card cases that self-destruct when one tries to get the discs out. Rhino's deluxe set of Barbra Streisand - The Television Specials comes in a ritzy crimson box that opens as if it held a bottle of expensive perfume. The five 1-hour shows are separately mastered, one to a disc. If this were a Universal disc, all five might possibly be crammed onto two sides of one disc but we'd like to be optimistic and think that the extra elbow room in the available data space was used to maximize quality. Two or three of the shows come with intros recorded by Streisand in either 1987 or 1990 (conflicting dates are given). The fat booklet is written in an all-worshipping style -- everything about Barbra is lathered in superlative qualifiers -- and repeatedly flatters the show's producers. Streisand's manager's every contribution and guest cameo appearance gets special mention. Just the same, the booklet is an informative read that provides needed historical context for the Belle of 14th Street show. The text covers the genesis and content of each special in exacting detail, and provides a quick road map when one gets lost in the five discs.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Barbra Streisand - The Television Specials rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: 60 page booklet
Packaging: Five discs in elaborate box case
Reviewed: December 5, 2005