Jack Paar is remembered on DVD

Former Tonight Show Host Jack Paar left us last month, but now those who never saw him in action will see for the first time when The Jack Paar Collection comes to DVD in March from Shout! Factory.

Disc One from The Jack Paar Collection includes the documentary “Jack Paar: Smart Television” which debuted on PBS in 2003 and continues to air. The documentary contains the infamous Fidel Castro interview, the only such U.S. on-camera interview during which Castro speaks in English, and an interview with Senator John F. Kennedy, just prior to his bid for the Presidency. “Smart Television” also features Woody Allen’s “The Inferiority Complex” comedy sketch, a Judy Garland and Robert Goulet duet (during which Paar confuses the performers’ cue cards), the first Beatles footage aired on American television, an Oscar Levant montage, and of course, Paar’s touching farewell speech from his weekly series. Disc One also contains sketches, performances and new interviews with Paar contemporaries Dick Cavett, Rigis Philbin, Hugh Downs, The Smothers Brothers and others.

Disc Two from the set includes a selection of Paar’s complete interviews with Richard Nixon, Billy Graham, Barry Goldwater, Robert Kennedy, and Cassius Clay (Muhammed Ali) interestingly paired with Liberace. Six of Paar’s favorite monologues, with subjects as wide-ranging as the Cuban Missile Crisis to static cling, are on this disc as well.

Disc Three of the collection includes three complete, stand-out episodes of “The Jack Paar Program.” Guests on these selected programs include Bette Davis, Jonathan Winters, Gisele MacKenzie, Richard Burton, Bill Cosby, Arthur Godfrey, Judy Garland, Robert Morley and Randolph Churchill.

The three disc set will be available on March 30th with a suggested retail price of $29.98.

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