On Location with George Carlin

Amazon.com

George Carlin's first HBO special, taped in 1977, now looks like a fascinating piece of television history. Preceded by a cautionary statement about Carlin's penchant for using strong language (and a reminder that Chaucer and Shakespeare wrote bawdy material, too), On Location with George Carlin clearly draws a line between the then-fledgling cable channel and commercial networks. With that much drama in the background, one might expect Carlin's appearance before a young University of Southern California audience to sizzle with controversy, but that's hardly the case. A little tentative before the cameras (and hampered by a failing microphone that takes a while to replace), the comic leans on safe but genuinely funny conceptual material: "Did you ever clear your throat for another person?" "What if everybody came to your house?" There's a cute bit about playing Monopoly with no strategy for winning, and even a slice or two of good old head humor. (Try fasting for two days, Carlin advises, then smoke seven joints and take $500 to the grocery store.) An entertaining though modestly ambitious program, all around. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

The Prototype .......2006-11-15

This concert seems to lay the groundwork for much of the material that would become the recurring backbone of many of his subsequent HBO shows. It is very interesting from a historical standpoint as well as quite funny. These jokes would get much better as time went on and they were streamlined and perfected but are nonetheless presented here as a very significant portend of things to come. Also, I feel I would be remiss if I didn't mention that judging from Mr. Carlin's respritory rate during this performance he seems to be very strongly under the influence but it doesn't detract from his ability to be his usual hilarious self. What the hell, it was the 70's, right? Remember? Peace, Love, and Freedom? That was cool. Essential Carlin.

What A Difference! (Or, Who Knew . . . ).......2004-07-20

Having seen this show, it's evident that those who described Carlin's appearance here with adjectives like "cautionary" and "tentative" weren't kidding. While there's some good stuff here, his take on airplane travel (for example) paled in comparison to his razor-sharp routine about same in the 1992 "Jammin' in New York" special. It's also interesting that this and his 1978 "George Carlin Again" program each ran all of 90 min. (approx.), whereas after his act became more focused 60 minutes was the norm for his subsequent specials. Good as a piece of historical significance (dig Shana Alexander's intro), but better things were on the horizon.

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