DVD review: JOHN, PAUL, TOM & RINGO

I figger just about anything related to the Beatles is worth watching, so this week I Netflixed the two-disc DVD John, Paul, Tom & Ringo: The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. The set includes a program aired the evening after John Lennon’s murder in December 1980, which rebroadcast a 1975 interview with John (perhaps his last for TV), a 1979 interview with Paul and Linda McCartney, and an interview with Ringo Starr and spouse Barbara Bach from 1981. Almost three decades later, none of these shows reveal anything we Beatlemaniacs haven’t heard before. But it’s good to see the boys from back then and, naturally, the Lennon interview is especially bittersweet. The biggest problem with this set, of course, is the late Tom Snyder himself. His questions were usually vacuous and embarrassing, and it’s hard to watch these shows without thinking about Dan Aykroyd’s sidesplitting Snyder bits on SNL many years ago. Ah well. The set is only worth renting. On the other hand, the DVD sets of The Dick Cavett Show (from the early 1970s) that include an interview with George Harrison and extensive interviews with John and Yoko are worth adding to your home video library, if you love the Beatles as much as I do.