George Carlin was HBO Comedy. He was the comic we knew was extremely edgy and yet when he appeared on TV even on The Jackie Gleason Show, he was able to dial it back to be presentable to your uptight parents. But there was so much beneath the surface if you listened to his records. This could all be summed up with his 1972 album Class Clown with “”Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television.” Luckily for him in 1977 he found a place where he can say those words, but it wasn’t TV. It was HBO. Carlin’s specials became the kind of event where your friend with HBO would invite everyone over to absorb the genius. Now all 14 of his HBO specials are finally coming out on home video thanks to MPI’s George Carlin Commemorative Collection. They also uncovered a few rare video treats from the star of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Here’s the press release from MPI Home Video:
GEORGE CARLIN
COMMEMORATIVE COLLECTION
CLASSIC TV CONCERTS AND RARE AND NEVER-RELEASED MATERIAL ARE BROUGHT TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME
All 14 HBO Specials Plus Much More From the Stand-Up Genius
Come to DVD on June 12, 2018
MPI Home Video and The George Carlin Estate are proud to announce the GEORGE CARLIN COMMEMORATIVE COLLECTION, a 10-disc must-have DVD, CD and Blu-Ray boxed set which features more than five hours of previously unreleased bonus material including rare performance footage from Carlin’s personal archive. The GEORGE CARLIN COMMEMORATIVE COLLECTION will be released on Tuesday, June 12th.
George Carlin’s daughter, Kelly, who helped compile material for the Box Set commented, “While digging around in dad’s stuff, we found a few gems that we just couldn’t keep for ourselves. It’s amazing to think that ten years after his death, we keep finding stuff I’d never seen before!”
George Carlin was not only one of America’s greatest comedians whose albums topped the charts, he was a pioneer of cable TV’s concert format that has become a benchmark of success for all humorists ever since.
And now, all of Carlin’s pointed, often controversial but always hilarious specials originally shown on HBO have been gathered for the first time in the GEORGE CARLIN COMMEMORATIVE COLLECTION. Encompassing over five decades of George Carlin’s groundbreaking career, all 14 of the legendary funnyman’s Emmy nominated HBO specials are now available in one package – a remarkable set that also contains a previously unreleased HBO special entitled 40 Years of Comedy hosted by Jon Stewart plus Carlin’s posthumous audio release, I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die.
One of the key bonus pieces of material is Carlin’s first stand-up special from 1973, The Real George Carlin which has not been seen since it first aired. Additional bonus material includes APT 2C (a never-aired HBO pilot from the ’80s) plus two one-hour stand-up comedy club performances that features material performed by Carlin for the first time. There is also never-before-released material from the 1960s – when Carlin was a clean-cut, suit-wearing guest on the variety shows such as Talent Scouts, The Jackie Gleason Show and Hollywood Palace.
The box set features also includes both DVD and Blu-ray discs of the HBO specials Life Is Worth Losing and It’s Bad for Ya plus liner notes written by comedian Patton Oswalt.
George Carlin, a fearless commentator on society and a champion of free speech, now finally gets the boxed set he and fans of great, enduring comedy deserve and the GEORGE CARLIN COMMEMORATIVE COLLECTION represents the most complete collection of Carlin performances to date.
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About George Carlin
George Carlin was a Grammy-winning American stand-up comedian, actor and New York Times best-selling author whose career spanned more than five decades and literally changed the face of stand-up comedian. His most famous routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” sparked a free speech controversy that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2008, Carlin was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and in 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him the “Second Best Stand-up Comic of All Time.” To date, Carlin is also the only comedian to have a dedicated SiriusXM radio channel solely to his work. Carlin passed away at the age of 71 in June of 2008.
About MPI and Dark Sky Films
The MPI Media Group is a leading producer, distributor and licensor of films. Founded in 1976, Chicago-based MPI Media Group remains one of the largest independent entertainment companies producing and distributing a compelling slate of the world’s most respected cinema, documentaries, performances and television programs. MPI’s wholly owned subsidiary, Dark Sky Films is an independent film production and distribution label founded in 2008, working with emerging talent as well as established veterans to develop, package, produce and finance feature films and episodic television projects. Representing films from some of most talented directors working today, such as Ti West’s The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers, and Jim Mickle’s Stake Land, Dark Sky continues to identify original talent and projects to bring a vibrant slate of films to the world market, with original productions and releases such as We Are Still Here, Deathgasm, Emelie, Catfight and, most recently, Bitch and M.F.A. | Follow us on twitter: @darkskyfilms @mpimediagroup
GEORGE CARLIN COMMEMORATIVE COLLECTION
Street date: June 12.2018
DVD SRP: $99.98
Running time: 22 Hours (10 discs)
Not rated
