The Best of the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts

Everyone understands the premise of the roasts: Take a famous celebrity, the focus of the evening, and subject that celebrity to a barrage of insults, put downs, and/or satirical impersonations. It was all meant to be off-beat, unrehearsed comedy that honored the guest of the evening. However, there was a problem.

The company of Gunther-Renky put together a series of infomericals offering the best of these roasts. These roasts featured the classic entertainers and personalities of the their time dressed in exquisite formal wear: Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, Milton Berle, George Burns, Lucille Ball, Don Rickles, Jackie Gleason, Rich Little, Muhammed Ali, Rowan and Martin, Orson Welles, etc. These names are supposed to draw the public to purchase these cassettes or DVD's. The infomercials promote the roasts as being unrehearsed, spontaneous, and improvised. That is not true. These roasts were just as much scripted as a typical situation comedy. There was no randomness to it. However, the big name stars are supposed to make the public overlook that fact.

The secret came out in early 2001. This probably explains why the infomericals have not been on since. The company is guilty of false advertising.