Let’s cut to the chase: If you’re a fan of late 1970’s and early 1980’s punk, post-punk and new wave, stop reading this review, log onto Amazon.com, and order this. Now. Quickly. Because I can’t imagine a punk and new wave fan in the world who would not be utterly delighted at this amazing dip back into the movement’s heyday.

If you’re in your 30s or 40s, you might remember The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder. Crammed into the late-night time slot following Johnny Carson throughout the 70s and into the early 80s, it was in many ways your typical late night, post-Carson fare. Offbeat guests and interviews, musical performances, and so on. What set The Tomorrow Show apart was Snyder’s easy interview style and his willingness to bring on cutting edge artists of the then exploding punk and new wave movement. This willingness did not come from Snyder’s love of the music and lifestyle – he quite clearly did not know what the hell was going on half the time - but simply because … well, I have no idea why. He was probably just along for the ride. But thank god for it, because this DVD collection is a treasure trove of timeless moments and great music.

Spanning two discs and roughly five hours, we’re greeted by engrossing interviews and standout performances from Elvis Costello & The Attractions, The Ramones, Patti Smith, Johnny Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), Iggy Pop, The Jam, and more. Even better, these aren’t clips pulled from the context of the show and presented on their own, a sort of highlight reel from the show. No, what we have here are the entire episodes in which these artists appeared, complete with other unrelated guests and interviews that are often just as interesting as the musical guests this set spotlights. The style, the topics, the pop culture, the news of the era, all on display. Even the chintzy opening title. The only thing missing is commercials from the period. Talk about a trip back to a time gone by! Opting to provide not just the highlight clips, but the entire episodes those clips came from, was a stroke of genius by the folks at Shout! Factory, elevating this set from a merely entertaining collection of punk and new wave interviews and performances to a kick ass time capsule just dying to be watched.

But obviously enough, the music-related highlights are the real draw, and wow are they excellent. The Ramones tear through a three-song set, The Jam offer snarling takes on Pretty Green and Funeral Pyre, Elvis Costello shows why he was one of the best in the business with New Lace Sleeves and Watch Your Step, Iggy Pop gyrates through an attitude-laden three song set (including an excellent performance of Dog Food), and The Plasmatics live up to the hype with two crazed tracks.

Even better than the music, though, are the interviews. The above mentioned artists all get some interview time in the eight episodes presented here, while other noteworthy artists get more lengthy, in-depth, multi-segment interviews. Disc two boasts the very best of these features, first in the amazingly engaging, intelligent, and thoughtful Patti Smith. I confess to not having been a huge Patti Smith fan prior to watching this set, but she was so charismatic and so wistfully open to embracing the world around here, I couldn’t help but be sucked in. Instant fan thanks to this wonderful interview.

The second highlight is by itself worth the price of admission. As any student of punk knows, when it comes to Johnny Lydon, you’re going to get attitude. Lots of it. And when he and fellow Public Image Ltd. mate Keith Levene appeared with Tom Snyder on June 25, 1980, goddamn was there a lot of attitude. I mean … he just … you can’t … yeah. What a shit he is. What an utter, utter shit. I loved it! Hilarious, mean-spirited, nasty, Lydon’s “go ahead and fuck with me, you dirty wanker” eyes are just begging for a chance to spit in Snyder’s face. Snyder can see it. He knows it. And he hates every moment of it. Lydon taunts the host. Mocks him. Snyder almost loses his patience and begins to be just as bitingly sarcastic to Lydon as Lydon is being to him. Just, wow. Wonderful. For making this available alone the folks at Shout! Factory deserve your everlasting gratitude.

They also deserve praise for doing a DVD release like this the right way. Yes, they offer not just clips, but full episodes so you can view these punk and new wave appearances in the context of their time. This is a tremendous plus. Yet they also don’t make you slog through the full episodes if you don’t want to. From the main menu you can select “Play All” which, yes, plays it all. Go to “Shows” and pick which show you want to see (eight full shows in all). Even better, select “Just The Punks” and see only the artist interviews without all the extra fluff. Finally, click “Songs” to view just the musical performances. Accessing the exact interview or segment or song you want is always a breeze. Snazzy as fuck.

This release is just class all the way, a total and complete surprise, and a damn good surprise at that.

Presentation
As just mentioned, the menu options are simply superb. Easy to navigate, not cluttered with extra bullshit, and with lots of ways to watch the robust 160 minutes of content on each disc, not only do I not have any complaints, I have nothing but praise. Surprising perfection I was not expecting.

As far as the image and audio quality is concerned, here’s one more for the surprise column. With releases like this, you can only ever expect quality that’s as good as the source material. When you’re collecting old TV shows, it’s going to look and sound, well, like old TV shows. That’s why this was surprisingly impressive. The original stock must have been stored really well, because the footage here looks and sounds far better than one could reasonably expect. You can tell the material is culled from an old late night TV show, sure, but you’d not expect such a show from the period to look this good. Very nice.

Extras
The Tomorrow Show With Tom Snyder: Punk & New Wave crams in some five hours worth of material, so it’s no great crime to say that there are no extras to speak of here. With all that content, plus wonderfully flexible menus to navigate that content, that’s hardly a flaw.

And I will happily note that there is no “Special Features” box on the back of the DVD packaging touting “Interactive Menus” and “Scene Selection” as special features. Yay for not treating your potential customers like mindless assholes!

And Now Some Parting Words…
There is simply no other way to say it: This two-disc release is a must own for any and all punk and new wave fans. Period. No question. Great performances, great interviews, great artists, great DVD release. All self-respecting fans ought to have this on their shelf.