An incredible disappointment.

Just watched it tonight on my local PBS station, and it was an exercise in frustration. Frustration not only for what was shown (I'll get to that in a moment), but for what wasn't shown.

It did start off promising, I'll say that much.

First off, remember when the PBS Beg-A-Thons (yes, I've used that term for years) would show a complete concert or documentary, even though it was broken up with tons of whining and pleading? At least they showed the entire show. Now, we get roughly half of a show, but if you send them a couple of hundred dollars, you get the super-colossal-expanded version that runs twice as long as what your local station just aired. Yep. That's what we got tonight. A truncated half-a-show. I think that without all the begging, it ran around 45-50 minutes.

In addition, it appeared to me that several musical numbers were not really "complete" at all; they seemed to have been edited: I noticed this in Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing On My Mind," Judy Collins's "My Father," and John Denver's "Leaving On A Jet Plane." There may have been others, but these were the glaring ones, at least to my eyes and ears.

They should have interviewed Richie Havens. They should have interviewed Judy Collins. They should have interviewed Dylan. They should have interviewed... well, I could go on and on - and I won't - but you get the picture.

Why in the hell did they include Neil Diamond singing "Solitary Man," but absolutely no mention whatsoever of Dave Van Ronk?

A real disappointment, considering who put this together (Jim Brown - who did "The Weavers: Wasn't That A Time"). Maybe the "expanded" version is a little better, but I truly doubt it. And I sure ain't a-sendin' my local PBS station any money after viewing this show-that-could've-been.

Jay