[78-L] Fabulous Feinstein PBS series

[Michael Biel]

I just got a chance to watch a re-run of this week's first installment
of three episodes of Michael Feinstein's American Songbook and it was
FANTASTIC.  He is a collector like us -- I think he said he has 15,000
records -- and we see him in his collection, library, transfer studio,
warehouse, buying expositions, visiting families of departed musicians
to gather their collections into his, etc.  He also had some pointed
things to say about Mitch Miller that would strike a chord with many in
this group.  This episode was about the classic American standards and
how they were performed in the 40s and then in the 50s.  He had been
close to Rosemary Clooney -- performing with her in over 200 concerts --
and when he started showing a Sing Along With Mitch he said some nice
things about him but explained that Miller's concept was to make an
interesting sounding record rather than make a record of the song.  And
then he discussed that many songs in the 50s were sub-standard anyway.  


The other thing I loved about the program was that not only did I not
spot any factual errors, the production was done precisely as I would
have wanted.  While the program was widescreen 16 x 9, ALL of the film
clips were played windowboxed, not cropped.  We saw the full image, and
widescreen TVs that would be showing the program to fill their screen
would also see the full image of the clips -- with black stripes at the
sides like it should be.  The closing credits were also properly done. 
The changes of the credit screens came with the rhythm of the song. 
Each screen was arranged to not block essential picture elements and be
easily readable -- including the screen of the archival sources.  The
voice-over for the DVD sale notice was also done to fit into the song's
rhythm and construction.  I had expected to see that Feinstein was the
producer but there was one person who was listed as producer, director,
and editor.  I suppose he was selected by Feinstein because he had good
production taste and/or followed the rules that Feinstein must have
made.  I am sure now that he probably got as pissed off as I did with
the production of the Vaudeville and Broadway PBS series and other such
mishmoshes and knew how to make sure it was done PROPERLY.    


Next week's episode is about the war years and you'll recognize some of
the clips, such as the Command Performance and Jubilee promotional
films.  


Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com