TV On DVD
By: Kevin Filipski |
Sunday May 01, 2005 |
| Now you can watch re-runs of your favorite programs whenever you want! The television series lives, for better or worse, on DVD for our convenience. Browse through the infamous, famous, and easily forgotten. |
| The Simpsons: Fifth Season (Fox) - Real fans already have this set, as well as the previous four, so if you don't have it yet, then what are you waiting for? Twenty-two episodes, including the all-time classic Beatles take-off, "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" (including guest voice George Harrison) and "Treehouse of Horror IV"... plus audio commentaries on every episode, deleted scenes, commercials, outtakes, even appearances by creators Matt Groening and James L. Brooks. Fox is doing this right - now if they can start churning them out at a faster rate than a mere two seasons per year, we'll all be much happier!
Hermitage Masterpieces (Koch Lorber) - The Hermitage is among the world's greatest art museums, and no TV special can hope to do justice to its voluminous riches in a mere - eight-1/2 hours?!? Even that amount of time doesn't allow viewers to see everything, but this 1992 series, finally on DVD, takes a terrific stab at it. On three discs, the history of the Hermitage and its awe-inspiring collection of art from ancient Egypt to 20th century Europe is shown. Also included is a glimpse at the buildings themselves - these majestic, even ornate palaces of the czars that now house one of the world's most indispensable collections. If you never think that you'll get to visit St. Petersburg, this set is no substitute, but it's a start. Taxi: First & Second Season (Paramount) - When Taxi debuted in 1978, it seemed too witty, too "New York" to succeed in prime time. But it did, and now its first two seasons are available on DVD: Season One introduces the lovable cast of misfits led by Danny DeVito, Tony Danza, Marilu Henner and the irrepressible (and irreplaceable) Andy Kaufman. Season Two brought Christopher Lloyd, Carol Kane and Rhea Perlman on board in recurring parts; the result was, if anything, even funnier than the first season. There are no extras on either set, which is no big deal - but why can 22 episodes of Season One make it onto three discs while 24 episodes in Season Two need to be spread out over four discs? Just asking. Cheers: Fourth & Fifth Seasons (Paramount) - When Cheers was in its prime during its fourth and fifth seasons, it was hitting on all cylinders: the late, lovable barkeep Coach was ably replaced by the amiably dopey Woody; Carla, Cliff and Norm were now permanently ensconced in their chairs; and Sam and Diane's relationship was reaching an hilarious point of no return. These, then, are essential sets for any self-respecting Cheers fan. Season Four was Woody Harrelson's first season, along with the glorious Bebe Neuwirth's introduction as Fraser Crane's love, Lilith; Season Five was Shelley Long's last as Diane; after her departure and Kirstie Alley's arrival as her replacement, the series lost a lot of that necessary romantic, sexual and comedic tension. Cheers continued to be popular for several more years, but Seasons Four and Five were a classic comedy at its peak. Chris Rock: Never Scared (HBO) - His high-profile stumble on the Oscars notwithstanding, Chris Rock is on any short list of funniest standup comics. Although Never Scared is strident - his jabs at Bush-era politics, while well-taken, are shot through with a too-righteous anger - Rock is in near-peak form throughout, especially during his unblinking take on black and white America's shortcomings. HBO has includes 15 minutes cut from its original broadcast (isn't Rock a big enough star to have his entire act shown on HBO?), along with Rock's first solo special, the funny 30-minute Big Ass Jokes. Lewis Black on Broadway (HBO) - If there's one man funnier than Chris Rock, it's Lewis Black. Best known for his rants on "The Daily Show," Black goes even further in his standup act: his ranting reaches the boiling point again and again, and lest you think that such an act gets tired fast, it doesn't. Black turns blue over Bush, among other topics. At his best, Black dissects the absurdities of modern living with a jaundiced (and most welcome) eye. Lewis Black on Broadway presents one of America's most volatile comic minds at the top of his form. Punk'd: Second Season (Paramount) and The Simple Life: Second Season (Fox) - These shows wore out their welcome in their first seasons. With Punk'd, one would have assumed that most celebrities would have caught on whenever a patently absurd situation was taking shape so that Ashton Kutcher and friends wouldn't have found enough Hollywood patsies to continue making the show. And with The Simple Life...well, the fact that neither Nicole nor Paris have any talent or charm should have killed off the show. You'd be wrong on all counts. There's good material in Punk'd's second season - involving Halle Barry unable to get into her own movie premiere and Katie Holmes unwittingly coming between a director and his jealous girlfriend - but much of it feels faked, as if it were scripted. The second season of The Simple Life panders to an even lower common denominator than the first season did. (Season Three won't be far behind on DVD, for those who care.) Paramount's Punk'd discs include Kutcher and buddies' commentary and a couple of unaired segments; Fox's Life DVD includes 30 minutes (!!) of outtakes and a so-called "lost" episode. South Park: Fifth Season (Paramount) - Always fitfully funny - moments of sheer lunatic comic brilliance sit side by side with groaning stretches of embarrassing flailing about - South Park is never better than when taking on sacred cows, and the fifth-season set contains two gems: "It Hits the Fan" is the infamous episode when the word "shit" was uttered 162 times by the boys and others, making for a sidesplittingly obvious shot at the hypocrisy of censorship; and "Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants," the first South Park episode after Sept. 11, brings our happy cartoon quartet into direct confrontation with The Evildoer himself. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone continue their tradition of briefly commenting on each episode, and again, like the show, truly lunatic heights are paralleled by dreadfully unfunny lows. Unforgettable Blackness (Paramount) - Ken Burns' documentaries have been so often imitated and lampooned that they almost seem like self-parodies. But, as Unforgivable Blackness (first shown on PBS) shows, there's still life in Burns' "film clips, photo montages and voices intoning the words of the participants" approach. This exhaustive biography of legendary boxer Jack Johnson is often, at over 3-1/2 hours, heavy going, but Burns' ability at finding the right piece of music, the right visual, the right narrated quote, remains unequalled. There's a lot of food for thought here, and a lot of vivid history - often obscure - is brought to life, which is par for the course from the maker of The Civil War, Baseball and Jazz. Paramount's two-disc set includes a behind-the-scenes featurette, deleted scenes and a video featuring Wynton Marsalis. |
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