Sights and Sounds

James Agee's "Mr. Lincoln and the Civil War"

The Archive of American Television has just released a 2 DVD set of Omnibus: James Agee's Mr. Lincoln and the Civil War, an ambitious five-part biographical drama by renowned author, screenwriter and film critic James Agee that revealed the early life of America's foremost political icon. Omnibus was a joint experiment of CBS and the Ford Foundation to create exceptional television programming and to define a higher standard for this new communication medium. William Hughes wrote a book chronicling the ambitious project, James Agee, Omnibus, and Mr. Lincoln : the culture of liberalism and the challenge of television, 1952-1953.

Our collection also includes the following Omnibus programs:

King Lear is a recording of the October 11, 1953 live televsion broadcast of the play starring Orson Welles.

Leonard Bernstein, Omnibus is a 4 DVD set hosted by Alistair Cooke that includes seven episodes featuring lectures, performances, and master classes from the legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein.

Omnibus: American Profiles visits Dr. Seuss, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Sugar Ray Robinson, among others.

You can find all of these and much more in your Sights & Sounds Department. Just visit or give us a call for more information.

 

 

Check out Sights & Sounds!

Did you know that Sights & Sounds is home to over 8000 feature films, 4600
documentaries, how-to's and TV Shows, 11,600 Music CDs, and 12,000 audiobooks? We add new items every week and all are free to check out. The collection is maintained on the second floor of the Lawson McGhee Library and any item can be sent to any library location to be checked out. All you need is a library card to take advantage of our collection, so give us a call at 215-8714, visit our website, or make us a part of your trip downtown.

New Heartland Series DVDs

Sights & Sounds has just added some new DVDs in the Heartland Series, a popular show broadcast on local station WBIR highlighting the history and culture of East Tennessee.

Creatures Large looks at the work of large animal veterinarians Dr. Hugh McCampbell and Dr. Gretchen Laws, a disappearing breed of veterinarians.

In Search of: 1939 follows trips 5a and 5b (Norris, TN to Tennga, GA) from the 1939 Works Projects Administration's book "The Guide to the state of Tennessee" to rediscover what the book's writers found.

A Place by the River relates the story of the Ijams family and the creation of the Ijams Nature Center, an important sanctuary and environmental learning center for the area.

Reelfoot covers the history, wildlife, sport hunting and fishing, tourism, and environmental issues affecting Reelfoot Lake.

In Memory of Andy Griffith and Ernest Borgnine

We lost two American icons in the past week: Andy Griffith passed on July 3rd at the age of 86, while Ernest Borgnine died July 8th at the age of 95. Both men enjoyed long careers and continued their work throughout their lives. Andy Griffith played a variety of roles in film and television and was best known for his series the Andy Griffith Show. Ernest Borgnine appeared in films ranging from The Wild Bunch to Marty, for which he earned the Best Actor Academy Award in 1955. Check out our collection for more DVDs and Videos:

 

Videos and DVDs with Andy Griffith

 

 

 

Videos and DVDs with Ernest Borgnine

 

For fans of Downton Abbey

If you're waiting on your hold for Downton Abbey to become available, why not check out some of the following English TV dramas?:

Berkeley Square: The friendship between three young nannies working, living & loving in Edwardian London's fashionable Berkeley Square. The young women get involved in romance, trials & tribulations as they go through life with each other.

The Duchess of Duke Street: A maid becomes a well-known chef and owner of a respected London hotel and attracts powerful men along the way, including the Prince of Wales, during Edwardian England. Bonus features include cast filmographies, period background, and more.

Forsyte Saga: A drama of the family life and loves of an upper-middle-class Victorian family.

The Grand: The Grand symbolizes a tradition of luxury and elegance begun by his father. For Marcus Bannerman, it becomes a risky investment and a way to entice his brother's wife into bed. And for the maids and porters, it's an endless source of backstairs gossip.

The House of Eliott: In stylish 1920s London, two beautiful sisters struggle to the top of the fashion world. Louise Lombard (Hidalgo) and Stella Gonet (Nicholas Nickleby) are Evie and Beatrice Eliott: born into wealth, made penniless by their profligate father, left with nothing but a passion for fashion. Set in an era of flappers and suffragettes.

The Jewel in the Crown: The human and cultural entanglements of the men and women struggling to adjust to the drastic changes brought about by the end of British rule in India. Filmed on location in England, Wales, and India and rich in mid-twentieth century historical detail.

Mapp & Lucia: British humor at its finest! The tale of two formidable ladies as they vie for social supremacy in their provincial 1920s town, which overflows with snootiness, low cunning schemes, and a rivalry that won't end.

The Pallisers: Based on the six "political" novels of Anthony Trollope, it chronicles twenty years in the life of one aristocratic family, a political dynasty moving through high society in the heyday of Queen Victoria's reign.

Upstairs Downstairs: The saga of the aristocratic Bellamy family and their loyal and lively servants. Real-life events from 1903-1930 are incorporated into the stories of the Bellamy household.

More English TV drama

Finding Movies and TV by Genre

 

We're frequently asked about finding videos by genre in Sights & Sounds. Our DVDs and videotapes are catalogued with Library of Congress Genre Terms, and once you get used to it they can be quite helpful in narrowing down our large collection of films. You can use a genre term by typing one into the search box, selecting subject as the search type, then choosing Movies and TV as the item format. The search shown above yields these results. The item format Movies and TV searches our movies, documentaries, TV shows and children's videos, so you can select an item format below it to further refine the type of video you get in your search.

 

You can even narrow down your search by stringing together genre terms using the word and. For instance, using the phrase comedy and adventure brings our results down to these titles. Check out the list of genre terms from the Library of Congress website and try doing your own search, or try some of the links below that we've created.

Adventure    Biographical    Comedy    Crime    Espionage    Fantasy

Gangster    Historical    Horror    Melodrama    Musical    Political    Religious

Romance    Science Fiction    Sports    Thriller    War    Western

As always, please give us a call if you have any questions about finding a DVD or video and we'll be happy to assist you.

Secret Agent: The Complete Collection

 
Fans of Patrick McGoohan and the classic 1960's series The Prisoner will be interested in a new addition to our collection, Secret Agent (AKA Danger Man). The series aired from 1960-1968 and started out in the U.K. as Danger Man, but became known as Secret Agent internationally. Patrick McGoohan stars as John Drake, a spy who travels the globe performing dangerous missions. This 18-disc collection contains all 86 episodes of the series.

Stonewall Documentaries

 

June 28th marks the 42nd anniversary of the "Stonewall Riots" in New York City, a seminal moment in the history of the Gay Rights Movement. Sights and Sounds holds three documentaries about the time leading up to and after the event: Before Stonewall: the Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community, After Stonewall: From the Riots to the Millennium, and Stonewall Uprising. More DVDs.

RIP Peter Falk

 

Actor Peter Falk, who appeared in numerous films but was perhaps best known as the star of the long-running Columbo TV show, died last night in Los Angeles at the age of 83. Mr. Falk worked in a variety of films, including making Wings of Desire with director Wim Wenders and A Woman Under the Influence with director John Cassavettes. Just One More Thing is Mr. Falk's entertaining and often hilarious set of stories and anecdotes from his career. Sights & Sounds holds several

Ernie Kovacs Collection

 

We've just added a 6 DVD set of TV shows by comedian Ernie Kovacs, "television's original genius. In the infancy of any medium, there will be someone who realize its potential well before anyone else. Ernie Kovacs was such a visionary, and between 1951 and 1962 he broke rules that hadn't even been made yet, creating a television "language" that is now taken for granted. ... over 13 hours of programs that span the all-too-brief but brilliant television career of this hugely influential comic artist."-from the DVD package.