The Buster Keaton Show Blu-ray Review

By the time Buster Keaton arrived on TV airwaves in 1950, the silent star had long since lost his “star” status. Like so many others, sound cost him his career, no matter how grand his soundless stunt work was.

The result was The Buster Keaton Show, where each week, Buster found himself in trouble, and mix-and-matched his best gags/routines to get out of them. Sometimes they worked, like a nearly totally silent episode with Buster and crew trying to put up a billboard ad. Other times, as when he discovers the missing link, the joke never seems to know when to quit.

Understand this was early television. It didn’t necessarily have a distinct style or form. When Keaton began his silent career, cinema was near its infancy as well. Had it carried on past seven episodes, maybe The Buster Keaton Show would carry a legacy. But it didn’t. Shot for a live studio audience, no one laughed. Tastes changed. So did audiences, who in most cases, likely didn’t know who Keaton even was.

There’s no footage of Keaton performing vaudeville, where he started his entertainment career as a young child at around three-years-old. The Buster Keaton Show is the closest we’ll even come to seeing Keaton live on stage, falling, stumbling, and reacting in a way only Keaton could. That’s special, even if the end result is unlikely to achieve even a quarter of his Vaudeville greatness. To be honest, The Buster Keaton Show barely captures a quarter of his silent screen greatness either.

It’s easy to be harsh about The Buster Keaton show, doubly so for this modern era where TV content is so numerous, it’s impossible to ever see it all. In 1950, this is all people had, and Keaton, even when flailing to get any laughs, puts on a performance few could match. Meanwhile, his cast mates lack the same energy or enthusiasm, giving Keaton little play with. Keaton was a man hoping for a career spark, and while flashes of that energy remain, it’s only mere fragments.

Two of these episodes were never available prior to this Blu-ray. They were recorded on Kinescope, and look as such.

The other episodes were restored from a film-based source. To stay positive for the moment, the near total lack of damage, scratches, or other marks on the source is unbelievable. It’s one thing for a major network show from the era to look dazzling in the modern day, but this small Los Angeles production appears startling considering the origins.

Unfortunately, this comes at a cost. Noise reduction is aggressively applied to the image, wiping it of grain and therefore, its texture. The Buster Keaton Show’s smoothness is unfortunate. While miles ahead of any previous presentation (produced from public domain and tape-based sources), this was likely the only chance to preserve this Keaton work in HD, and it robs the show of its detail.

Gray scale is consistent. There’s enough nuance and brightness to impress, even if the DNR causes a loss of some finer gradients.

PCM 2.0 mono functions fine, picking up on the live quality of the show. Dialog has an inherent echo, but a natural one preserved well here. There’s no static, and the only dropouts (or popping) happen during scene transitions. The opening music maintains this clarity.

Two of Keaton’s silent shorts are included, but only in SD and there are far better means to watch them now. A few TV shows from the era featuring Keaton pump up the bonus menu, although these were not difficult clips/shows to find prior to this set.

Full disclosure: This Blu-ray was provided by the label for review. This has not materially affected DoBlu’s editorial process. For information on how we handle all review material, please visit DoBlu’s about us page.

The following six screen shots serve as samples for our subscription-exclusive set of 40 full resolution, uncompressed HD screen shots ripped directly from the Blu-ray: