Arriving in movie theaters 32 years ago, That’s Entertainment! was a glorious documentary celebrating Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s domination of the movie musical during Hollywood’s golden age. By the time it premiered in movie theaters across the country, Hollywood movie musicals had become a thing of the past, forsaken for grittier fare.

Nevertheless, That’s Entertainment! hit movie screens at a time when people needed something to get their minds off of the troubles facing the country. The oil crisis, Watergate and the Vietnam War were just a few calamities Americans were dealing with on a daily basis. In a sense, a movie paying homage to movie musicals did what movie musicals themselves did, and that is to distract the viewer from the world outside and provide a safe and entertaining environment in which to drown one’s sorrow.

The first That’s Entertainment! was so successful that it spawned two sequels. The comprehensive six-disc box set That’s Entertainment!: The Ultimate Anthology of M-G-M Musicals (Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino Movie Music) is comprised of the companion soundtracks to all three movies on five CDs, as well as a sixth disc of bonus “buried treasures” material.

If I have one minor quibble with the package, it’s that the inclusion of the long out-of-print soundtrack to 1985’s That’s Dancing!, another spoke in the That’s Entertainment! wheel, featuring the Kim Carnes club hit “Invitation To Dance,” would have made this box set as complete as possible.

Liza Minnelli narrated a segment about her mother in the movie That’s Entertainment! and later appeared in That’s Dancing!. A couple of years prior to appearing in That’s Entertainment!, Minnelli made her own significant musical splashes in the movie Cabaret (for which she received an Oscar) and on TV in “Liza With A ‘Z’” (for which she received an Emmy).

To coincide with its airing on Showtime, the soundtrack Liza With A ‘Z’ (Columbia/Legacy) has been reissued in a digitally remastered edition. This straightforward reissue, unfettered by bonus material and the like, does get Minnelli’s point across. With a majority of the tunes written by Kander and Ebb (with whom she worked on Cabaret and future musicals such as The Rink and The Act), one can hear what a natural working relationship they had. In fact, Kander and Ebb can be credited with creating Minnelli’s signature numbers, including “Ring Them Bells” and, of course, the show’s title song, “Liza With A ‘Z.’”

Even when she wasn’t singing Kander and Ebb, Minnelli effortlessly took possession of songs such as “It Was A Good Time,” “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “God Bless The Child.” Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for her reading of Joe Tex’s “I Gotcha,” which is an outright embarrassment. Thankfully there is enough good material here to allow us to overlook it.

Although South Pacific wasn’t an MGM musical (it was a 20th Century Fox production), it can still be considered a part of Hollywood’s love affair with the genre. Based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical (which was based on a story by James Michener), South Pacific premiered on Broadway in 1949, and less than 10 years later made its way into movie theaters. South Pacific: Live Concert Recording (Decca Broadway), a one-night-only event recorded at Carnegie Hall in June 2005, features Reba McEntire as Nellie Forbush, Brian Stokes Mitchell as Emile de Becque, Alec Baldwin as Luther Billis and Lillias White as Bloody Mary. Whether or not the characters’ names are familiar to you, South Pacific’s beloved songs – including “A Cockeyed Optimist,” “This Nearly Was Mine,” “A Wonderful Guy,” “Happy Talk,” “Bali Hai,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” “Some Enchanted Evening” and the especially timely “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” – are sure to be.

If you’re entertaining the thought of perusing more musicals and soundtracks in reissued editions, check out The Boys from Syracuse – New York Cast (DRG Theater) recording of the Rodgers and Hart musical that begs the musical question “What Can You Do With A Man”; Lady and the Tramp and Friends (Walt Disney Records), the companion soundtrack to the recently reissued DVD; Sweet Charity: 1986 Broadway Cast Recording (DRG Theater), which boasted Debbie Allen in the titular role; and Dimitri Tiomkin’s music from the soundtrack Giant (DRG Movies), the gusher starring Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor and James Dean.