Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene

"Petey Greene was a purposely outrageous talk show host, comedian and community activist who used his knowledge of life on the streets of Washington D.C.'s ghettos as a springboard for biting but often hilarious street-smart commentaries addressing the distance between the haves and have-nots in the nation's capitol. While Petey Greene's story was dramatized in the film Talk To Me (which starred Don Cheadle as Greene), Adjust Your Color: The Truth Of Petey Greene is a documentary produced for PBS's Independent Lens series that offers a look at the man behind the legend and has now been made available on DVD. (Cheadle also participated in this project as narrator.) Adjust Your Color has been transferred to disc in its original full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and the image quality is quite good; the new footage looks strong, and while the archival videotapes from Greene's television show (including an inarguably memorable appearance by a young Howard Stern in blackface) don't fare quite as well (no surprise, as they were shot at low-budget local television studios in the 1970's), the lost footage has been restored as well as one could reasonably expect. The audio has been mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo, and sounds good though not exceptional. The interviews are in English, with no subtitles or multiple language options included (though the feature is closed captioned in English). No bonus materials have been included for this release, and it's a shame Adjust Your Color couldn't have been given an uncensored release on home video (certain expletives have been blanked out on the soundtrack, though Greene's politically incorrect racial terminology has been retained), but this documentary offers a funny and thought-provoking picture of the man behind the local legend, and those who've seen Talk To Me and want to know more about the real Petey Greene (as well as those who remember him from his heyday) will find this well worth their time."