In 1987, an anthology series on cable called "The Cinemax Comedy Experiment" featured two different episodes created by Chris Elliott: "Action Family" and "FDR: A One Man Show." Creators of these "comedy experiments" were given creative control with no executive intervention. Chris Elliott rose to the occasion - "FDR: A One-Man Show" is an all-time favorite of mine.
The premise, see, is that Chris plays FDR in a one man show, except instead of being boring, it's funny.
Maybe once a year since I first discovered it, I remember this show exists, get excited to watch it, and look to see if an HD version has been released since the last time I looked. It's appeared and then vanished from YT at least twice over the years. Right now an SD version is heroically offered by mrmagoo312, but I thought if I cared so much about seeing this in HD, maybe it was time for me to do something about it.
Five or six years ago, I was able to snag "FDR" in two parts before it vanished - act one and act two, which were originally uploaded in different resolutions for some reason. My version of act one is missing the opening credits, so I borrowed that from mrmagoo312's version. And I tacked on a "post-credits scene" you might enjoy, sourced from an AVI of unknown provenance found outside of YT. These pieces were run through Topaz Video Enhance AI and then assembled in VSDC. Considering they all potentially started as VHS rips, the result is not too shabby. (I know some folks are skeptical of AI upscaling, but the placebo effect is real, my friends.)
Of course, you can get "FDR: A One Man Show" (as a double feature with "Action Family") on VHS as of yesterday on Ebay for about $15 if you prefer an old school viewing experience. I'm sure you saved a tube TV set for the occasion.
15 сен 2024
