Perry Como 1974 Christmas special with the Carpenters coming to DVD

JAZZ4JEFF

Active Member
The entire special, including K&R's Christmas recordings. And, the Carpenters/Como hits medley.

Here is the press release. Ships on November 5th.


  • PERRY COMO'S CHRISTMAS SHOW from 1974 represents the beloved crooner's decades-long association with holiday television specials that entertained tens of millions of viewers from the 1950s through the 1990s. Unseen anywhere since its one and only CBS-TV broadcast on December 17, 1974, PERRY COMO'S CHRISTMAS SHOW presents the host with special musical guests THE CARPENTERS along with Olympics skating star PEGGY FLEMMING and comedy great RICH LITTLE.

    Both PERRY COMO and THE CARPENTERS are embraced for their top-selling Christmas music and among the popular favorites featured on this colorful spectacular are "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" (Como), "Toyland" (Como), "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" (The Carpenters), "Sleep Well Little Children" (Como & Karen Carpenter) and "Carol Of The Bells" (Richard Carpenter). Additionally, Perry and The Carpenters team for a medley of each others' million-selling hits, including "Close To You," "It's Impossible," "Yesterday Once More," "And I Love You So" and "We've Only Just Begun."

    Peggy Fleming performs a beautifully choreographed ice skating production of "The Christmas Waltz" and the entire cast join together for "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas" in a scene that recreates the Currier & Ives style Christmases of old. Perry closes the show with his elaborate "Story of Christmas" presentation, singing traditional carols "The First Noel," "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Silent Night," followed by an encore with "O Holy Night." PERRY COMO'S CHRISTMAS SHOW is the type of old-fashioned, star-studded and lavishly-produced family TV special that gives viewers a warm, nostalgic glow at the holidays.
 
Just saw this announcement and came here immediately to share but looks like you beat me to it, Jazz4Jeff. :)

So excited about this!
 
how exciting. Xmas '13 suddenly got very interesting. I've actually never seen the segments other than those with the duo, so to watch the whole xmas special (most likely every morning the week before xmas) will be a real festive treat.

And agree with Stephen. . .never more beautiful (Karen that is. . .not Stephen)

Neil
 
Wow, what a suprise...never saw this coming...thanks Jeff for the info!!! I just placed my pre-order.
I can't believe it's only $15.00 little do they know I'd pay much more.
I was in Barnes & Noble the other day and saw a DVD of the Hardy Boys...I laughed and said wow they have this but we can't even get a Carpenters tv special on DVD. :confused:
This really opens up alot of questions for me though...how is this being released but none of the others...past releases of BBC have been blocked and we always sighted royalties as to why we have never seen releases like Music Music Music. So what is the real issue?
It's interesting to note that MPI Home Video is releasing this and they also released the Close to You Remembering the Carpenters.
It looks like Amazon has a photo of the cover.

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Happy Holidays! This will be a welcomed treasure. Karen's SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN' TO TOWN is sultry on this show. Gotta go pre-order. Thanks for the heads up. That's what we're here for after all!
 
This is surely a welcome release, but I need to throw a little technical water on the situation.

This show is from the '70s, so there are some things you should be aware of.
- The show could only possibly have mono sound, regardless of the technical wizardry that Richard may have pulled off on AS TIME GOES BY.
- It was made on videotape, and can only have a low, standard definition resolution, so viewing on today's high-def displays might be disappointing, but no more so that watching the other official Carpenters videos.
- Television was only 4:3 aspect ratio in those days, so it should not be considered "widescreen" (not that anyone said it was).

That said, MPI is a fairly good video company and might surprise us with a good transfer. We'll have to wait and see.

Harry
 
If MPI does anything on the Perry Como special like they did on Close to You Remembering the Carpenters, it will be amazing. I still to this day think they did an awesome job on the Close to You DVD, even though there are edits throughout...the edits have an amazing picture quality. When I saw MCD (even though it was short) I was breathless finally seeing this in high quality, the same with the excerpts from Music Music Music, terrific quality and then they blew me away when they gave us the full length of Ave Maria and then the bonus promo stuff...all in all I feel it turned out to be a much welcome release. I think it even made it to Laserdisc as well. Then they included these nice photos inside the DVD of which we get the un-touched photo of Karen from her solo pose(looking quite opposite of the touched up photo on the net) All these things make up for a nice little DVD package in my opinion. Then here we have proof that great quality video exists from the Carpenters specials, if snips exist in this great quality where are the full specials and music clips?

I bet even though the sound was mono, they could work some magic to make it appear close to digital but like you said I will depend on their source of the master tapes being used and who can work the magic. I don't mind the 4:3 as that was the standard then, it's the transfer I'm more concerned with, I'd hate it to be some snowy vhs transfer but I highly doubt they would do that and tarnish the Como name and his guests. So I wonder if there will be any bonus info?
 
It will CERTAINLY be better than anything we've seen since the show first aired in 1974 (and I was one of those watching that night). It's the best Carpenters news we've had since the SACD came out! And that was 9 years ago.
 
It will CERTAINLY be better than anything we've seen since the show first aired in 1974 (and I was one of those watching that night). It's the best Carpenters news we've had since the SACD came out! And that was 9 years ago.

Exactly...and I would have thought we would have HAD something new from Richard in all these years and to find out it's a DVD from a special they guested on...it's a crazy thing. I'm so tempted to go & watch those old grainy videos on you tube of this Como special to refresh my memory especially the "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" but I've decided NOT to do it....I want it to be even more special once I pop that DVD into the machine...am I crazy?...yes...about Carpenters...always!! :)
 
The reason Perry Como's special is being released on DVD and K&R's specials haven't is because Richard co-owns the Carpenters specials(along with ABC).Richard doesn't particularly like the specials(although he's more fond of MMM than the others)-and he won't authorize their release.

Richard doesn't co-own Perry Como's special-he has no control over it's release.

I can understand Richard's perspective about this-there's a lot of silliness,"schtick",and just plain bad acting on the first four specials.They're probably a source of embarrassment for him-now.(consider Karen & Suzanne Somers singing "Man Smart,Woman Smarter" on "Space Encounters"-not good!)

Many of the musical clips from the specials were included on the "Gold" & "Interpretations" DVD,anyway.
 
Actually, there's a lot of good stuff that was never released on DVD:

Carpenters '76 'hits' medley
John Denver '76 duet
Dancing in the Street '78
Karen drum solo '76
Almost ALL of 'Music Music Music' remains in the vault except for 'Without a Song' and 'When I Fall In Love', '80
Superstar/Rainy Days and Mondays '76
Sweet Sweet Smile '78
Goofus '78
In The Old Fashioned Way/Boogie Nights/I Could Have Danced All Night '78

Then, there's ALL the stuff from 'Make Your Own Kind Of Music'........
Plus, ALL the Christmas stuff.
 
The reason Perry Como's special is being released on DVD and K&R's specials haven't is because Richard co-owns the Carpenters specials(along with ABC).Richard doesn't particularly like the specials(although he's more fond of MMM than the others)-and he won't authorize their release.

Richard doesn't co-own Perry Como's special-he has no control over it's release.

I can understand Richard's perspective about this-there's a lot of silliness,"schtick",and just plain bad acting on the first four specials.They're probably a source of embarrassment for him-now.(consider Karen & Suzanne Somers singing "Man Smart,Woman Smarter" on "Space Encounters"-not good!)

Many of the musical clips from the specials were included on the "Gold" & "Interpretations" DVD,anyway.

We know he doesn't like the specials, he has clearly stated that in interviews. However as the years go on....the more I hear that over and over and over...the more I can't help feel that it's being a bit selfish at this point. Do I want to feel that way...No. That silliness is what those shows back then were all about, look at the Donny & Marie shows, it was the same silliness...we laughed then but do we think any less of Marie & Donny today because of it? Of course not!!

Karen was never afraid to act silly and goofy on camera and off. I can't help but think she would look back and laugh at these programs and wouldn't care about them being released. I mean really how much of an embarrassment can they be at this point in their career? There is no active career any longer and these specials are hardly worthly of ruining their past careers at this point. Will there record sales suddenly decline if these specials are released? Will the audience who watches these shows (if they were to make it to DVD) later say...of wow I'll never buy a Carpenters album again after watching that corny show. Of course not!!

I look at it like this....yes we have some of the clips on DVD but not even close to all the great stuff still out there just collecting dust or waiting to slowly disintegrate. If Richard does co-own them...then take out the silliness and just give us the music, meet the fans half way. I am beating a dead horse but why am I still so passionate after all these years of yearning for the video from these specials in prestine quality? Why? I still want something that I will never have because I loved their career in music & tv.

I don't want to say this....but I'm actually grateful he doesn't own the Como special because this DVD will be the best video released in so many years of the duo performing their magic on tv.
 
I have never understood why he would not license the clips to PBS and create a "my music" Carpenters Christmas program. By creating a new program, Richard can pick & choose the clips to include. This way, we'll get Gene Kelly & K&R singing silent night, while Richard & Harvey Korman at the bowling alley gets left behind.

There are more than enough clips to fill an hour with tasteful holiday memories.
PBS seems to know how to make these clip shows profitable for their network.
 
I have never understood why he would not license the clips to PBS and create a "my music" Carpenters Christmas program. By creating a new program, Richard can pick & choose the clips to include. This way, we'll get Gene Kelly & K&R singing silent night, while Richard & Harvey Korman at the bowling alley gets left behind.

There are more than enough clips to fill an hour with tasteful holiday memories.
PBS seems to know how to make these clip shows profitable for their network.
...brilliant idea. Maybe couple the new DVD with the classic "Christmas Portrait" and sell a few more million copies. I like the way that you think JAZZ4JEFF.
 
There are more than enough Christmas performances from their's and other TV specials to make a nice companion DVD to the two Christmas albums. He's sitting on gold in this idea and I don't know why Richard doesn't release a "Yesterday Once More/Gold" type Christmas DVD.
 
Interesting idea about assembling the Christmas performances on a DVD-but to expound on what I said earlier,Richard doesn't like the specials and has no intention of ever releasing them.And,being that he co-owns them,it will never happen without his approval.

You also have to look at this situation in a "past-tense" perspective-If he had any desire to release those Christmas clips,he would have done it years ago.The Gold & Interpretations DVD have been out for 12/13 years now-respectively.And,the original VHS video for those titles came out in the 80's& 90's.

I can imagine Richard viewing the clip of Karen & Kristy Mcnichol (in those silly outfits) singing "Christmas Alphabet" & getting totally turned off to the TV specials. Not Karen's finest TV moment,to say the least..

I wouldn't mind having MMM on DVD.Very interesting special,especially with Ella.But,at the end of the day,K&R were studio musicians,not actors & entertainers.The really important thing is that we have the recordings on CD.
 
@%#& the critics, just give the fans what they want.......all five TV specials on DVD........ warts 'n' all.......It really is time to release these TV specials......it's what we're craving for. Regards. Carpenter Fans.
 
Well, Mr. J, I think the point is there's still some STELLAR stuff that would be most welcome should Richard ever decide to release another DVD....'Christmas Alphabet' not being one of the those moments.... :)
 
I have heard through a very reliable source that fan demand on RC and the record company have, for years, been incredible (for the TV specials.) And as far as the record company goes, there's no shame in their game...they would release it for the $$ tomorrow. RC has, for quite sometime, pondered on this and wondered how to release this and still do the CarpenterS legacy justice. Still a classy guy, he (RC) doesn't want to cement the bubble gum, toss aside, 70's novelty act image some people still regard them as. Releasing these specials they way they are may be what what we want but I can wait till RC finds the best way to present at least some of them. I just hope I don't die of old age before then. By the time they're released I won't remember how to work the DVD player
 
I think the point is there's still some STELLAR stuff that would be most welcome should Richard ever decide to release another DVD....'Christmas Alphabet' not being one of the those moments.... :)

I LOVE Christmas Alphabet!! Karen is having a jolly old time the same goes for Angel in the Christmas Play, love that one and besides these clips have nothing to do with Richard...so let's have them!! :laugh: :D
 
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