My review was written in June 1984 after watching the program on Paramount video cassette.
Paramount's "The Solid Gold 5 Day Workout" is a superior exercise video tape which looks to have good returns in the proliferating celebrity workout home video market.
Routine combines elements familiar from earlier entries: de rigeur stretching and aerobics moves; attractive women for voyeurs; men on screen for "equal time", bouncy music track and celebrity tie-in, in this case the chance to see the dancers from the popular "Solid Gold" syndicated tv series in extended action.
What makes this program work far better than competing entries is director Louis Horvitz's excellent pacing, top-notch production values and camerawork, and division into five separate segments (with costume changes for variety) which solves the problem of too long or too short a workout endemic to several earlier video cassettes. Cast of dancers is very enthusiastic and gives the tape an entertainment dimension beyond the basic "how-to" necessity. Use of an overhead top-shot craning camera is particularly noteworthy in avoiding the static logic of this highly regimented genre.
