Under the Radar DVD of the Week: "The Abbott & Costello Show"

“The Abbott & Costello Show: The Complete Series”

When they weren’t arguing over “Who’s on First?” or meeting Frankenstein, the Invisible Man or other monsters of the movies, the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello starred in a half-hour TV series starting in 1952 that incorporated many of their classic routines.

On Tuesday, a special collector’s set of all 52 series episodes, digitally restored and re-mastered, will be released in a nine-disk DVD package.

“The Abbott and Costello Show” aired in syndication on local stations around the country and drew heavily from the duo’s earlier radio series. It featured the pair as unemployed slackers who were forever scheming to find ways to pay their rent. The cast included Sidney Fields as their nagging landlord and Hillary Brooke as a friendly neighbor who often got looped into Bud and Lou’s wacky schemes.