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Love American Style - Season 1, Vol. 1
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List Price:
$31.99
Buy Office Products Price:
$24.99
Your Savings: $ 7.00 ( 22% )
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Video
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Paramount
EAN: 0097361226248
Format: Box set
Label: Paramount Home Video
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Video
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: Paramount Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-11-20
Studio: Paramount Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1969-09-29
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Editorial Reviews:
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Love, American Style was an hour-long television anthology which originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974. For the 1971 and 1972 seasons it was a part of an ABC Friday prime-time lineup that also included Brady Bunch, The Partridge Family, Room 222, and The Odd Couple. Each week, the show featured different stories of romance, usually with a comedic spin. All episodes were unrelated, featuring different characters, stories and locations. The show often featured the same actors playing different characters in many episodes. In addition a large and ornate brass bed was a recurring prop in many episodes. Charles Fox's delicate yet hip music score, featuring flutes, harp, and flugelhorn set to a contemporary pop beat, provided the "love" ambiance which tied the stories together as a multifaceted romantic comedy each week.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Most of the previous reviewers are going from nostalgia
Comment: Like many of the reviewers, I enjoy rehearing the deathlessly catchy theme song of this show -- it takes me back to seeing the credits as a tot. It's also fun to see old faves in guest shots -- Imogene Coca, Vivian Vance, Broderick Crawford, Paul Lynde, and so on, not to mention unheralded early appearances by people like Harrison Ford. Much of the value in watching this season (both DVD sets) is finding out which blasts from the past will be guesting in "This week's episode."
However, what actually happens in "This week's episode" is almost never for the ages. LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE is writers minted on the likes of I DREAM OF JEANNIE winking at the sexual revolution, but only that. Much of the goings on -- "How will we explain that something spilled on my pants and that's why I don't have them on???" (that one is with Tony Randall and Julie Newmar) -- could easily have happened on I LOVE LUCY. The problem is that its being in color and with the characters dropping references to divorce and "free love" makes such hijinks seem hopelessly fake. The writing is also generally flabby and paceless, as if everyone thought that the "risque" atmosphere would compensate for craft.
And then, dropped references is largely it. This show was tightly hemmed in by old-fashioned standards codes. Divorced couples always reunite. The young couple cohabitating (gasp!) turn out to have been secretly married all the time. Premarital sex is restricted to subsidiary characters just like in an old movie -- unmarried protagonists are chaste and often romantically frustrated (Wally Cox, Barry Gordon, etc.). Overall, the show is all about people saying "Let's go!" and then just sitting still.
So the season is two dozen 45-minute long episodes of broad pre-Norman Lear/MTM hokum. The superficial texture of it is fun if you recall the era -- the clothes, the furniture, the Bacharach-esque soundtrack music. And it's nice to get a look at Ann Sothern, Mel Torme, Dorothy Lamour and so on. But the problem is that these people don't have anything to do that's really worth the viewing time in our era.
I would Netflix a few episodes of this one but hold back on buying the whole season. Unless you watched this as an adult, if you are up for a whole season of this one you are likely a hard-core nostalgia buff.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Both Fun & Not-So-Fun Memories - And a Question.
Comment: I was in the U.S. Army when this show aired decades ago. I remember soldiers sitting around the barracks recreation room to watch during lunch at the MOS (job) school I was attending, then all rushing out to get back to class on time as the commercials came on at the end. Love, any style, is not what one generally thinks of when it comes to soldiers, but a room full of soldiers watching was the daily ritual. Sadly, many of those soldiers ended up in Vietnam after completing that training cycle and some did not make it back to ever see love again.
By the way, does anyone know the name of the song in the "Love and the Single Couple" segment of Episode 5 and who sang it? The lyrics go something like this...
To make love grow
out of that first hello
is not a simple thing to do.
You give your heart
and some kisses at the start
but there's more than just the art of holding onto.
Beyond romantic things
and childish sweetheart schemes
love waits for those who try.
You trust and you forgive
you work to make love live...
.... (and so on) ...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Love American Style
Comment: This was a favorite of mine already when it first came on TV. Short, funny vignettes, usually with cute, sexy ideas.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Used to like the Vignettes Now love the content! Great TV.
Comment: This is quality television. Period.
The main thing I remember about this show watching it as a child, were the small 30 second vignettes, in between episodes. They were very clever for a 6 y/o, but seem totally corny today.
But now, having the attention span to watch the 20 minute episodes, I appreciate the content and overall production of this series so much more. It's simply, well written, well produced and just fits together nicely.
Again, this show is such a time capsule for what was going on in the country and socially at the time. Women were asserting themselves, and men were still stuck in "their Father's world".
I said to my wife as we were watching this..."..see, this is how i got programmed..."
I think people who lived through the era will appreciate the content more...but I still think it's good for younger people to take a look at this show.
I think the basic underlying theme, that "relationships are a give and take proposition" translates so wonderfully. (without being too sappy)
I highly recommend this series over any other sit-com of the era.
I gave a positive review of the series "That Girl" a while back, and this simply blows something like that away.
I'm only giving it 4 stars, since I didn't even realize they split the full season into 2 different sets. And on this first volume, the episodes aren't in consecutive sequence. Anyone who ditches reality TV and settles in with this one night, will be glad they did.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Cowsills sang the title song on the FIRST season only
Comment: Some people are wondering about the title song on these episodes. It IS the original version sung by The Cowsills for the FIRST SEASON only. They're even credited on the closing credits so you know its the real thing. The Bahler brothers group (with Jackie Ward and Stab Farber), who sang on almost every commercial, promo or as backups (The Partidge Family is one example), sang the theme from the second season on (credited as the Charles Fox singers). LOVED watching this on Friday nights as a kid, even if it was over my head at the time...
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