I haven’t posted a DVD review-story-recommendation since July due to inertia [*cough!* laziness], other stories were more pressing as they were more timely in nature and probably a touch of my ongoing anxiety [which subside a few notches with the end of the election]. This hasn’t meant I stopped watching and buying DVDs. Heck no! I’m an American to the end; consuming is in my DNA. Besides, we don’t have cable-satellite anymore so we watch our collection instead. This leads to purchasing more to build a library to loan out to friends, relatives and co-workers. 
 
Sadly, I was finally motivated to get off my butt to cover a trio of animated comedies I have always enjoyed because Fox officially cancelled King of the Hill to make room for more of Seth McFarlane's mediocre crap. The following are three shows to consider when [Adult Swim] isn't available. 
 

I’ll kick off with the long awaited Duckman set covering the first two seasons. Back in the mid-Nineties, this obscure cartoon on USA never developed much of a following despite Jason Alexander as the lead character's voice. It did have a brief rerun stint on Comedy Central but this network never pushed it like their current support of Futurama. Klasky-Csupo used to produce The Simpsons before this, so my guess is they acquired the rights to Everett Peck’s comic strip to keep something adult in their portfolio to counter all the kiddie fare they did on Nickelodeon: Rugrats, Rocket Power and As Told by Ginger. The premise revolves around the misadventures of Duckman, an incompetent private detective who spends his free time hanging around topless joints. His wife Beatrice died a year earlier and left the house to her twin sister in the will; the mean-spirited, exercise-obsessed Bernice who continuously denigrates everything about Duckman. Living with the bickering duo are Duckman’s three sons: Ajax [a complete idiot], Charles and Mambo [the two-headed one]; and the flatulent mute Grandma-ma. He fares better at work because he takes out his frustrations on the receptionists; the sickeningly sweet stuffed bears Fluffy and Uranus; and can get away with bullying his business partner Cornfed, a pig with Joe Friday mannerisms. 
 
Duckman’s antics vary. Some cover as very obvious social commentaries on America’s character, celebrity rehab resorts and the nature of comedy. Others are escapades involving him in a reality show, dating a very ugly woman, overcoming his guilt in Beatrice's death and meeting his reincarnated mother. Filling out the cast were spectacular guest voices, something a cable-only cartoon didn’t have normally until Duckman. This list included Michael McKean, Ed Asner, Ed Begley Jr., Ben Stiller, Katey Sagal, Bobcat Goldthwait, Gilbert Godfrey, Heather Locklear and Tim Curry [Duckman’s recurring nemesis, King Chicken]. Watching the set in a couple evenings did reveal one element I grew tired of quickly, his predictable lectures disguised as rants. These must have been less noticeable when he was only on once a week. Still the bulk of Duckman was a treat to revisit because much of survived the passing of time, few jokes were caught up in current events which keeps its re-viewing capability high. I'm sure I'll see things I missed the first time. 
 
In the extras department, Duckman is pretty thin. Only the pilot has a commentary from creator Everett Peck and star Jason Alexander. There is an explanation of how the show was developed and brief interviews with the primary cast EG Daily, Nancy Travis, Greg Berger, Pat Musick and Jason Alexander. The "making of"featurette surprised me the most: I figured Peck was a political cartoonist or underground comic guy, not an instructor and consultant for other animated shows. If you’ve seen his original Duckman strips, you’d think Peck was a self-trained doodler who got a group of talented animators to clean up the characters to make this show possible. Thankfully, his creation got to keep its mean-spirited humor through the transition and it did better a hundred times better than Family Guy or in a less-preachy manner than South Park. 
 
Another series I thought was great, had a much shorter life span on two networks which didn’t “get it.” Everyone has seen the majority of The Critic thanks to Comedy Central playing it to death which made its complete boxed set less compelling in 2004. I bought it more recently since I got enough “distance” from its stint on cable. Much like Duckman, this show was developed by another set of people involved with The Simpsons but these were the hit show’s key writers: Mike Reiss, Al Jean and the legendary James Brooks. If you watch the DVD extras, you’ll find out the original plan for The Critic. It was going to be a live sitcom for ABC about the characters of a daily morning show; a cross between Broadcast News and Larry Sanders. Jon Lovitz would be a minor character, the faux program’s movie critic. Due to the logistics and Lovitz’s availability, the live series was scrapped so the trio revamped it as a cartoon revolving around the film critic. It worked out pretty well. This allowed Lovitz the opportunity to keep shooting movies while he would lay down his voice tracks between gigs. 
 
Admittedly, the show appears centered around poking fun at movies [many of the jokes were rather dated too] which is probably what killed it in the ratings. Such a pity, the writers did a terrific job going beyond the superficial premise. Half of the episodes really cover Jay’s relationships with his family, co-workers, boss, friends and the women he dates. Jean even admits, the whole point of having the main character be a film critic was to stick in brief clips poking fun at contemporary films. Strip away those jokes and the bulk of the show is not terribly different than The Simpsons as it tried to recapture the emotional resonance Jean & Reiss nailed in the legendary first season on Fox. 
 
The DVDs' extras include commentaries on several key episodes, an explanation of the program’s evolution with Jean, Reiss, Brooks, Lovitz and LaMarche; and the entire collection of The Critic’s brief run on the Internet as a web cartoon circa 1999-2000. I think many detractors of this program might reconsider watching it again because of its legacy. What legacy? Many of the writers went on to produce episodes for The Simpsons and Futurama: Ken Keeler, Patric Verrone [WGA president during the recent strike] and Tom Gammill; Larry Sanders: Jon Vitti; Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Nell Scovell; and Hollywood’s current golden boy, Judd Apatow. 
 
Closing out is King of the Hill Season One, a show I feel will have a key spot in TV and animation history. I broke down and scored it around my birthday because I hadn’t seen much of it in syndication. It’s still as funny as I remember when it debuted in 1997. Maybe my perspective is colored by 14 years of living in Central TX since I am familiar with the common stereotypes it features, but you’d have to seek them out in the nearby towns around Austin. Many long-term residents such as my wife, have always found this cartoon annoying; it probably hits too close to home like Office Space does for me. 
 
Mike Judge and Greg Daniels did an incredible job creating another animated show about a family without resorting to making it into a poor, carbon copy of The Simpsons, aka Seth McFarlane's over reliance on flashbacks, “what if” jokes and absurdity. A huge part of its longevity was how it remained anchored “reality,” never allowing the writers to cop out with the creative license animation can take, namely physical humor, exaggerations or continuity violations like “Treehouse of Horror.” King is really just a sitcom using animation to get around casting restrictions [Stephen Root and Toby Huss each play at least two recurring characters] and sometimes, cartoon characters can get away with saying certain things live actors wouldn't dare on TV. 
 
King shines in the extras through numerous deleted scenes-alternate endings [I prefer the one aired in “The Company Man”] and the “Making of” featurette. There are commentaries but I skipped them because they’re narrated in the voices of the characters. Maybe I’ll go back, check out the ones done by Greg Daniels though. My only hope is that Fox allows King’s writers time to wrap up everything and give one of their longest running programs some closure. Not a cheap, tacked on ending Married with Children had foisted on it by Fox. Something conclusive and classy like M*A*S*H or Newhart. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ November 4, 2008 4:56:35 PM CST ( 0 comments )

It’s only a coincidence that I posted my two cents about the latest Futurama DVD on David X Cohen’s birthday. Huh? David is the original show’s co-creator [he developed enough of it to share credit with Groening in my opinion] and the writer behind the cancelled program’s key episodes. I took David’s birthday as an omen or reminder to get moving too. 
 
Beast picks up a month after the last DVD which had ended on a “cliff hanger” [for a comedy]; Bender caused a rip in the fabric of the universe through his actions under Nudar’s control. Since nothing horrible has happened yet, everyone on Earth, namely New New Yorkers have grown rather blase over the tear. Cue the joke poking fun at people taking a short break between their screams of terror. Professor Farnsworth then decides to investigate with his smell-o-scope and when he gets a whiff of it, he summons all the Earth’s scientists to a conference, led by the head of Dr. Stephen Hawking. There Farnsworth tries to make the case for an expedition to the edge of Bender’s handiwork. 
 
I’ve probably spoiled enough of the premise by now but it quickly shifts over to being a Fry-centric story without much of Bender’s involvement. All during the crisis, Fry has started dating a sweet woman named Colleen [Brittany Murphy who most know as Luanne on King of the Hill]. The show established long ago that Fry tends to have frequent lapses in judgment despite how much he pines for Leela. Just when their relationship gets serious, Fry discovers Colleen’s four other live-in boyfriends. Two of them were minor/incidental characters from the past which shows you what a fanatic of the show I am if I recognized them pretty quickly. See if you can identify them, one was pretty difficult yet he appeared in the first season. Dejected, Fry jumps into the rift to overcome his depression only to discover another universe. The trailers let you know what follows. 
 
For the minor characters, the lesser stories involve Amy and Kif’s relationship; Farnsworth and Wernstrom’s ongoing rivalry; and Bender’s knack for aggravating Calcutron. If Kif’s around, his bumbling commander Captain Zapp Branigan has more screen time to make any potential disaster a catastrophe too. Recurring characters this outing are Morbo, Amy’s parents, the Grand Midwife of Kif’s home world, Nixon’s head, Hedionismbot, Judge Whitey, Pazuzu and Scruffy. Dan Castellaneta returns briefly as the Robot Devil and comedian David Cross’s part is the surprise. 
 
Is it funny? Yes, but its timing feels a tad off. As if this DVD contains easier break points for Comedy Central to divide it into four half-hour episodes; which is the deal the network has with the current syndication contract. It wasn’t enough to ruin it for me though, it just seemed more noticeable. I could be imagining it. Casual viewers will find this story easier to follow though: the plot is linear and doesn’t require much knowledge of the principal characters’ backgrounds. Beasts satisfies fans like myself because a mediocre Futurama story tends to be funnier, more clever and entertaining than the majority of dreck the networks claim is comedy. 
 
The extra features are also scaled back on this DVD. A trailer for the next release Bender’s Game which was already on YouTube a week earlier, some deleted scenes which were amusing yet most did slow down the movie and design notes on the 3-D techniques. Two others stand out to compensate. The first is a little show of the major voice actors doing their job in a studio with bloopers. It was nice to finally put a face to Tress MacNeille and Maurice LaMarche. The other great extra probably took up the rest of the DVD’s space, it’s the entire “missing” episode from the video game one could only watch when the game was completed. Actually, it was all the cinematics joined together to flow like a 22-minute show. This extra bridges the pieces together with some sequences of game play. 
 
Now to wait another four to five months until either an 11th season of The Simpsons or the D&D-influenced Bender’s Game. Beast’s shortcomings are slight but I am satisfied that the direct-to-DVD distribution model works. I can only Fox agrees and will give the OK for more to be made, same with other studios regarding cancelled shows which have strong fan bases. This includes those I don’t like. I won’t watch any of Joss Whedon’s crap yet I don’t want friends who enjoy his stuff to suffer. I’m hoping JMS of Babylon 5 fame takes some lessons from Groening, Cohen and Company to revive his franchise, last year’s Lost Tales probably killed B5 permanently. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ July 13, 2008 6:18:43 PM CDT ( 0 comments )

It’s pretty surprising any major or minor network would pursue another TV adaptation of a John Hughes’ movie after Uncle Buck and Ferris Bueller were cancelled within half a season. Why basic-cable channel USA tried was another mystery since Weird Science would require a larger budget due to its special effects. The other problem was the timely nature of Hughes’ work. His great run tapped into the common themes of adolescence, teen angst and awkwardness yet he became anchored to the mid-Eighties. By 1994, Hughes was remembered as the guy behind Dennis the Menace not the better teen comedies of an earlier decade. Somehow John Landis put together a clever team of producers to make Weird Science’s initial premise into an amusing, funny and enjoyable series that lasted five or six seasons. For better or worse, some of these people went on to create bigger shows such as Desperate Housewives, Baby Blues, Dexter, Reaper and Sliders. 
 
The pilot begins much like the movie, Gary [Asher] and Wyatt [Manasseri] are two unpopular high school freshmen dweebs. They live in sunny Southern California, instead the Chicago ‘burbs to explain the backdrops. One Friday night they build Lisa with Wyatt’s computer except in this version, she doesn’t boost their confidence, turn their lives around and leaves. No this Lisa [Angel] sticks around. She is a genie/life coach who teaches them lessons by granting them their temporary wishes. The big drawback is that her magic is unpredictable, namely in its duration, side effects and possible loopholes. It’s not a one-way relationship neither. Lisa is their friend first, not an antagonizing mentor. Sometimes she learns from the wish too. 
 
When I first heard the announcement of this show, I was obviously skeptical. I have always been a huge fan of the movie. It’s right up there with other cultural touchstones of my generation such as Better Off Dead, Revenge of the Nerds and The Breakfast Club. I really didn’t want it to receive the same treatment as The Odd Couple, MASH and Private Benjamin because I didn’t think there was much to fuel many weekly misadventures. Thankfully, those writers, producers and directors proved me wrong once I finally watched it on a slow Saturday evening. The plots weren’t very original yet it was the impressive executions which converted me into a fan. The guest stars in this DVD set are equally pleasing: an unknown Seth Green as a classmate, Dwight Schultz as a supercomputer and Ryan Stiles as the president of a record label. The downside was the supporting cast of parents never gelled because they had at least two different actors play Wyatt’s father. When it comes to Chet, the main antagonist from the original, Lee Tergesen does a great job for what was allowed on basic cable. [Bill Paxton will remain a hard act to follow in everything he does.] The show introduced a second foe, Principal Scampi [Jarchow]. Foe is a tad strong, he is really the authority figure who has a knack for getting caught up in the wishes with funny results in place of the parents; see the episode “Sex Ed.” 
 
Much like the source movie, the show does appear dated: flannel shirts, those boot-like shoes girls used to wear with “Holly Hobbie” dresses and references to obsolete technologies [VCRs and floppies]. Is it still funny? I think so. Several years ago, reruns of Weird Science made the rounds on WAM [an odd movie channel through Dish]. They didn’t disappoint me and Somara found them amusing; she may have seen one or two during its initial run. Most people never knew the show existed anyway because USA isn’t a cable channel which stands out easily; it tends to be taken for granted with WGN or TBS and it was known as the resting place for reruns of Wings during the Nineties. Now through the beauty of TV shows being recycled via DVDs, I was able to score this and share it with friends making it another key piece in Picayune’s Library of Obscurity. Next pieces to add, Bosom Buddies the sitcom Tom Hanks starred in before movies and Square Pegs. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ May 15, 2008 11:11:15 PM CDT ( 0 comments )

Time-Warner finally gives the Cartoon Network's first major hit the proper DVD treatment! Yes, I know this came out last Summer but I only watched it all the way through recently and 2008 is the tenth anniversary of the show’s debut; the two shorts in the Mid-Nineties don’t count because it wasn’t an ongoing series yet. On the two-disc set [painted to look like Blossom’s eyes] are all 13 episodes, the two shorts I mentioned earlier, all the promos CN did at the time and a good trove of extras [more on these later]. I guess Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends hasn’t been around long enough for Craig McCracken’s other creation to accumulate such stuff. It was great to see this show again after CN ended it a few years back and then stopped showing it ad nauseum which they and Nickelodeon do. I had forgotten how funny the girls’ recurring enemies were, other than the redundant, can’t-be-succinct, verbose, prone-to-digressing, Mojo Jojo. Who else? The Gangrene Gang, Sedusa, the Amoeba Boys, Fuzzy Lumpkins and creepy…Him, a cross between the Devil and Dr. Frankenfurter. One-shot foes were in the first season too: the Roach King, some manipulative telepathic cat [Mark Hamill], the Boogie Man [my personal favorite] and their male counterparts, the Rowdy Rough Boys. The show’s humor and pop-culture references range from the obvious [the Star Wars Death Star sequences] to the obscure [mostly from Japanese monster movies/shows]. It was also the most action-packed, violent superhero cartoon on the air in its day. This was something I didn’t realize until I read an Onion interview of McCracken. In it he commented on how the [then] current Batman cartoon was mainly talking. When I watched and compared the two shows, he was right. Batman usually jawed his foes into submissions like the old, lame Superfriends show while three little girls beat the snot out of their foes. So maybe it’s best not to share this program with children with imitative tendencies. 
 
When it comes to extras, a real make-or-break factor, this one was given more thought. The original student films McCracken made are here, Whoopass Stew or what most people refer to as the Whoopass Girls. These originally made the rounds through the annual Mike & Spike festivals [oddly, I’ve never been to one] and then the Internet so I had seen these. I didn’t pay attention to the credits until now though; a classmate named Lou Romano helped-the voice of Linguini from Ratatouille and other Pixar movies. The best extra is the special contest episode of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast with McCracken being interviewed by the fictional host along with four other directors pitching their shows. Afterwards, you can watch how the writers recorded his original responses before writing SG’s lines around them, it was hilarious, especially his last reply. 
 
This is a highly recommended set. It’s not quite on par with The Simpsons which is the standard of a good DVD seasonal package, but it’s pretty close. Besides, there’s a whole new bunch of kids such as my nieces and nephews who are under 10 and can speak. Now I’m wondering when there will be a second season set; which better include the Legion of Doom rescue mission gag; and the new, made-for-TV movie as Tara Strong [the voice of Bubbles] stated earlier this year. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ March 28, 2008 10:01:31 PM CDT ( 0 comments )

Other than the first season, this is all Sony is providing of The Larry Sanders Show to DVD which is very frustrating. In addition to repeating a three of the first season episodes, it’s also heavy on the last season. Rumors abound on it being Sony’s fault because the past sets’ sales were poor or Garry Shandling’s reluctance to release the rest. 
 
Despite the non-confirmable gripes, what is on this four-disc set is comedy gold. This is the show Judd Apatow and Jon Stewart honed their current talents on and it rejuvenated the careers of Rip Torn and Jeffrey Tambor by remolding them into funny, supporting characters. I remember wanting to spend the money on HBO in the Nineties just to see this because it took the chances no network sitcom would, including the more risque Fox. HBO and Showtime had past attempts with Brothers and Dream On but those were annoying, especially the latter on how it relied on old TV clips and bare breasts to cover up its lameness. What Garry and his crew did instead was make a modern, cable version of he Dick Van Dyke Show and pushed it further, especially with the actual celebrities playing themselves. Well, probably not their true selves, more like caricatures and/or how we’d expect them to behave when interacting with the vain, insecure Larry, his scheming sidekick Hank Kingsley [Tambor], his gruff producer Artie [Torn] and neurotic staff. 
 
Several that I remember seeing on cable the first time [and laughed my butt off] are present: Alec Baldwin doing the show which starts an argument between Larry and his first wife/current girlfriend; Jon Stewart’s first attempt to host the show which never airs thanks to him not taking Artie’s advice; and David Letterman telling Larry he has hired Tom Snyder to follow his new show on CBS [truth can be stranger than fiction]. There were others I’d heard about from friends but I never saw until these DVDs: Hank’s sex tape, Larry dating Sharon Stone but gets jealous over her having a better table at a White House Dinner, Carol Burnett’s disastrous appearance involving tarantulas and David Duchovny’s possible homosexual advances on Larry. 
 
There are additional features, mainly low-tech interviews conducted by Garry with the key supporting players, many of whom thank this show for elevating their careers: Wallace Langham, Janeane Garofalo, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Scott Thompson, Sarah Silverman, Penny Johnson, Jeremy Piven and Bob Odenkirk. He even got Alec Baldwin to come back to box with him and discuss doing the show. This doesn’t work as well as expected yet I have to applaud Garry for trying something different. The bigger surprise was Linda Doucett being interviewed by Garry; they were a couple, broke up between the second and third season, then it turned nasty because she sued him along with the producers. I’ve read they’re on amiable terms now plus she appeared in the last episode with Jeremy Piven. The standard DVD-set elements are present too: deleted scenes, the making of the show [Garry’s career before then] and commentaries. 
 
Not Just is a good starter kit for those who missed out on Larry Sanders when it originally ran from 1992-1998 on HBO. It reveals where Judd Apatow’s directing, producing and writing style came from. It vindicated Jon Stewart enough to make him a worthy successor to Craig Kilbourn on The Daily Show; his past talk shows were awful until this. Lastly, the show’s sense of humor also borrowed from and contributed back to The Simpsons via the involvement of writer Jon Vitti and director David Mirkin. 
 
The negative side effects set in shortly after watching this four-disc set. If you were already a fan or it converts you into one, you really want to know what happened between these key episodes: Why did Larry’s second wife leave? When and how did Phil [Langham] become the head writer? When did the [fictional] network turn on Larry? When did Hank get married? When did Steve [Odenkirk] become Larry’s agent? Why did Paula [Garofalo] leave? So on. Sadly, these aren’t necessarily throwaway subplots, many are key elements vital to explaining how the events of the last two seasons came to fruition. 
 
The other detrimental factor is how dated this program appears: the fuss over Ellen DeGeneres publicly coming out, Jay Leno’s recent takeover of The Tonight Show, Brett Butler’s drug problems, Jim Carrey’s stardom, etc. Those references may take a bit of jogging your memory to recall why they were a big deal. 
 
Still, until Sony releases Seasons Two through Six, this is what everyone has to be satisfied with. Hopefully it won’t lead to some self-fulfilling prophecy of doom preventing further DVD Sets. I’m optimistic the rest will appear eventually. Why? If the short-lived Square Pegs and obscure Weird Science sitcoms have been digitized, Larry Sanders is inevitable in my opinion. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ March 9, 2008 11:58:23 PM CDT ( 0 comments )

By the second season, Sabrina the Teenage Witch was a hit and the network bumped it up to the 8/7 pm spot to kick off their Friday evenings while Clueless slunk off to UPN. I had only seen roughly a third of these before my part-time job with the movie theater nudged me drop cable and sell my TV. So this DVD set was a treat for me. I avoided any of the reruns on Nickelodeon/Family to keep these episodes new to my initial experience. 
 
Sabrina is now a year older, more comfortable with her witch status and has earned her learner’s permit. For the next year, she must diligently study magic and be prepared for random tests from her Quizmaster [Ballard]. The two-part season opener gets her sent to witch boot camp for failing miserably, thus, the Other Realm doesn’t take this lightly. Back in the real world, she still has her big crush on Harvey, Libby continues to be the primary tormentor and Aunts Hilda and Zelda remain the “unreasonable” parental surrogates. Her best friend Jenny is replaced with Valerie since the former disappears with no explanation and the latter is the new kid. [I’ve never found an explanation on the Internet why there was a change in actresses or characters.] The same goes for Science teacher Mr. Pool’s absence. In his place, two recurring teacher characters join the cast: Principal Kraft [Mull] and Mrs. Quick [Gross]. Yes, I know it’s only a TV show yet it would be nice to keep the continuity by making passing references to the fictional beings the audience grew attached to. The string of impressive cameos established in the first season continue: 10,000 Maniacs, Erik Estrada, Donna D’Erico, Davy Jones, Terri Garr, Richard Moll, Loni Anderson, Edie McClurg, Tom Poston, Alice Ghostly [Esmeralda from Bewitched], Drew Carey, Bob Goldthwait, Johnny Mathis, John Ratzenberger, Jane Carr, Shelly Long, Paul Dooley, Fred Willard and Buddy Hackett. Some of them take a while to recognize but I know I laughed my fool head off when I saw who Bob Goldthwait was supposed to be. Some characters from last season also return: Cupid, Roland and her mean, spoiled cousin, Amanda. 
 
On the surface this looks like the show is milking what happened last season while it recycles the plots of every other sitcom before it. Sure, but the larger story arc of Sabrina maturing as a witch, as an adult and her relationship with Harvey is there. In its second season, Sabrina continued to blossom into a great sitcom that also showed confident women being good at math, science or music; personally, I think they’re decent role models for my nieces. 
 
During this year, ABC did two gimmicks with their newfound hit, one rather lame and one excellent which could only happen once due to the syndication rights. The lame one was an episode set in Disneyworld under the weakest of premises. The excellent one was a cheesy tactic to get people to watch the three shows following Sabrina: Salem the cat eats a time ball and whatever era he dreams or thinks about manifests around him. In the Sabrina episode, he recreates the Sixties which our heroine thought was cool at first until she realizes opportunities for women were still pretty limited compared to 1997. When Sabrina, Hilda and Zelda try to cure Salem, he runs away at the end of the episode and the ending credits appeared after the commercial break. Initially, everybody is thinking, huh? Then the following program Boy Meets World starts but first, a black cat [Salem] runs across the opening scene with Melissa Joan Hart pursuing [Sabrina]. Afterwards, the surroundings shifted to another time period, in this case, the Forties. This was repeated twice more with ABC’s weaker sitcoms which only lasted a season. I couldn’t find any record of this on the Internet, you’ll have to take it on faith this happened. 
 
Lastly, there isn’t anything special on the DVDs, it’s just 26 uncut episodes of the show but under the same limitations as the syndicated versions: most of the original music you remembered from the original ABC airings were removed since it would raise the price considerably. Not a deal breaker for this show but I know I lost all interest in WKRP when I read up on this. The lack of those special features is a bummer yet my primary motivation for collecting Sabrina is to build a nice video library for my nieces, nephews and other kids I know. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ January 25, 2008 8:59:45 PM CST ( 0 comments )

I'm not going to rag on and on about the lack of good features, I'll just say that the people from the Simpsons have set the bar pretty high with their TV boxed sets of the show. When the movie DVD only came with a collection of trailers, five minutes of deleted scenes [which were already posted on YouTube a week earlier] and some minor extras mainly plugging Fox's annoying American Idol, it is a disappointment as a DVD. I have not listened to the two sets of commentaries yet so I have no opinion but I would lean toward liking them because of the past track record of the participants. 
 
If you want a copy of the movie and just the movie, then the DVD is fine. It delivers like every other DVD I've bought or rented. If you're a huge Simpsons fan, spoiled by the ten seasons on DVD which included animatics, commercials coinciding with the time, Matt Groening's introduction and other features; you get the feeling of Fox rushing this out for Christmas with little thought or planning. I caught several interviews with Al Jean, Matt Groening and James Brooks. Based upon what they said, there was much more material cut out during different stages while the movie was worked on over four years. Fox will probably hold out on this until the time is right to make the cynical decision to re-release a Special Edition. Being a chump for the show, Murdoch will end up getting my money too. 
 
I will end on a high note because I'm not outraged like Comic Book Guy in "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show," bitching that Groening and Co. owe me. It's still a decent, funny movie even if it's equal to an extra-long episode. I do plan to watch it multiple times and put alongside my collection of TV seasons. At least I didn't spend the higher amount of money on the Blu-ray edition to receive the same treatment from Fox who is to blame. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ December 19, 2007 9:27:20 AM CST ( 0 comments )

The four-year wait finally ended this week and I say it was worth it. The downside is it ending a cliff-hanger which I only figured out from the bonus DVD Best Buy threw in; it has a sneak preview of the next movie, The Beast with a Billion Backs. 
 
Two years have passed for the characters when the story opens. Of course they're oblivious to it until Professor Farnsworth fires them explaining how the Box Network cancelled them a long time ago. Then he receives a phone call stating that Planet Express has been renewed so they can resume their adventures. Since this is a movie, Score takes the same approach as the recent Simpsons Movie, it's several episodes stitched together over more time and with bigger results. The number of subplots may overwhelm the casual viewer but as a fan, I had little difficulty keeping track of them. 
 
I don't want to spoil it so I will only mention the core story-premise: scamming alien nudists con the Professor out of his business and take control of Bender to further their information gathering operations. For them, information is intoxicating which explains their special gland called a sprunger. When they meet Fry, their sprungers go off the scale because of his recently discovered Bender tattoo. Fans who've followed all 72 episodes know why Fry is special already yet this expands upon it. Then there's the lesser stories involving Hermes losing his body, Leela's new boyfriend and another about Fry which I'll leave out due its spoiler nature. 
 
With this being the first movie, Cohen and Groening incorporated appearances of numerous minor characters from the show: Robot Santa, Morbo, Barbados Slim, Elzar, Hedonismbot, Leela's parents, Zapp, Kif, the Robot Mafia, the Globetrotters and Tinny Tim. Recurring voice actors appear too: Kath Soucie [Cubert], Frank Welker [Nibbler], Dawnn Lewis [LaBarbara] and Tom Kenny [Yancy]. They also scored several past guests: Al Gore [himself], Sarah Silverman [Michelle] and Coolio [Kwanzabot]. And Mark Hamill joins the fun as Chanukah Zombie. 
 
Is it funny? Yes, even when the comedy bits are subtle geek jokes referencing math, computer science, physics or astronomy. With it being a DVD and not broadcast jokes, the writers were able to get away with some riskier sexual jokes but they didn't lower the bar on profanity. The majority of Futurama's fans will be pleased with this. Casual viewers will chuckle yet I think they'll be confused over the need to know the back-story covered by the previous 72 shows. 
 
The extra features is this DVD's biggest strength. It included the table read from this year's San Diego Comic Con of the characters explaining where they've been for four years. You see the accompanying illustrations not the actors reading the script. There's the Al Gore promo for An Inconvenient Truth with commentary, actually Gore, Cohen and Groening shown in the studio. The three deleted scenes only made it to the animatic stage. The commentary on the movie itself is hosted by Cohen with DiMaggio, West, Lamar, Groening, co-writer Keeler, producer Claudia Katz and director Carey-Hill. They're amusing but commentaries are always better after a few years have passed when the commentators are watching the finished production. By popular demand, the DVD has a full episode of Everyone Loves Hypnotoad. Seriously. It's 22 minutes of the creature's sitcom. The final and perhaps oddest addition is the recorded lecture of Dr. Sarah Greenwald on all the math references from the show over its run. I found it helpful on how she explains the significance of the in-joke 1729 or geometric designs. My skill with numbers isn't too strong so I guess I don't appreciate such nerd humor. 
 
I think the reunited Futurama gang did a fantastic job with this first outing. So well, I cannot wait too long for the second chapter. This is a must have for the fans while the rest will probably be satisfied to see it piecemeal on Comedy Central next year. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ December 1, 2007 4:19:45 PM CST ( 0 comments )

It has been eight months since Fox released a DVD set of The Simpsons so my prediction was accurate. With the anticipation of the movie in July and the show reaching its 400th episode milestone, this latest collection definitely had a lot of hype to compete with. 
 
The Tenth season is the first one completely managed by show runner Mike Scully, Al Jean’s return as a permanent writer, the debut of the Simpsons doing three short stories in an episode a la “Treehouse of Horror”—“Simpsons Bible Stories”—and the family traveling to other cities or nations as a more frequent plot device: “Thirty Minutes over Tokyo,” remains one of the funniest observations of Japan, it’s small wonder that South Park and King of the Hill followed with their own takes. 
 
Fox really went crazy on the interaction animation. Not only are there funny sight gags in the episode or special feature menus, Bart does separate acts of a vandalism on the Twentieth Century Fox logo preceding the start of each disc. Fox also included the tenth season’s Butterfinger and Australian junk food commercials plus the odd Intel ad. Hearing Homer’s patented “D’oh!” at the end doesn’t really give me much faith in those processors, then again it was for the Pentium II’s which are ancient history now. Finally, there are some demonstrations of the animators in action. I watched how the animators draw and lay out the key poses for those interactive menus. As a huge animation fan, I was really impressed with their speed, accuracy and how they made it look relatively easy through their usage of simple circles and rectangles. 
 
Commentaries continue to be worth the effort despite several having really long silent gaps and Groening’s reduced presence to a third of them. I highly recommend listening to two in particular. The first one is “Mayored to the Mob” with Mark Hamill. You learn that his son Nathan works at Bongo Comics [Groening’s “label”]; Scully was reluctant to let Hamill do the bodyguard trainer Leavelle; Hamill had been wanting to be on the show for years because he’s a huge fan and to him, The Simpsons is the pinnacle of voice acting. Dan Castellaneta joins in on the commentary with Hamill and they both tell their hilarious stories about the late Jonathan Harris. The other is “They Saved Lisa’s Brain” written by Matt Selman. The writer explains the consequences of insulting the city of East St. Louis in an interview he shortly did after it aired. Selman’s quote resulted in Fox’s publicity department deflecting the angry letters and calls [sounds like New Orleans II]. So Scully and Jean punished Selman through a practical joke in the writers’ room with hilarious results. 
 
Anything from the recent movie? Just an animatic of the town singing near the end. This was released too close to the film’s run so I’m sure they’re saving all the treats, deleted scenes, alternate takes, etc. for the DVD. Actually this article says they are. 
 
It was an automatic purchase for me since I hate watching the show in syndication. Thanks to Fox lowering the standard on prime time shows being only 21-22 minutes long, syndicated airings are probably 19. It feels about that brief with all the commercials and plugs for Channel 7’s inane news hour. I am also one of the most jaded TV viewers around. I greatly dislike most commercial network shows so when I had cable, I only watched the more specialized channels: Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, etc. However, I have never agreed with the “oh it was better back in season [insert number here]” or “the show is creatively bankrupt” crowds. If you’re in those camps, then borrow this DVD and watch them again. These episodes haven’t aired in their entirety for 10 years. You may see things you didn’t notice before and/or there are jokes you missed last time. If you still are in those critical crowds I ragged on earlier, then at least you didn’t waste any money. Now to await the movie DVD and season 11. With all the anecdotes from the writers, animators and actors colored by years of hindsight, I’ve concluded time helps them out as it does for wine or cheese. As anxious as I am for the remaining seasons due to my completist nature, I think it would be better if Fox waits eight to ten years after each season airs before releasing them to DVD. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ August 22, 2007 7:13:33 PM CDT ( 0 comments )

There hasn't been anything new on TV for Babylon 5 since the rather mediocre The Legend of the Rangers pilot from 2002. Now comes this direct-to-video release of B5: The Lost Tales. It rings of great promise because it has President Sheridan [Boxleitner], Colonel Lochley [Scoggins] and Technomage Galen [Woodard] coming together, ten years after the formation of the Interstellar Alliance [2271 AD] to face new challenges. 
 
After watching it, the new challenges would be complete and utter boredom along with better franchises that are readily available on cable. 
 
The first act involves Lochley dealing with something supernatural coming aboard the station. If the threat could be defeated through long, dull conversations, I'd say she succeeded. The remaining two-thirds has Sheridan being stuck in a moral dilemma involving the Centauri Prince Dius, who is third in line for the throne. According to the technomage Galen, when Dius becomes emperor, there might be a war between the Earth Alliance and the Centauri Republic. Sheridan must kill the young prince which may prevent the conflict and save billions of lives. Or he can do nothing. Either action may cause the desired or disastrous result. He can't count on any further guidance because the technomages are not allowed to intervene and Galen has probably told him more than what's allowed. Only time will tell if Sheridan makes the right decision when you see it. 
 
Lost Tales does have some impressive CG sequences: what NYC looks like in the 23rd century, the battle between the Earth Alliance and the Centauri Republic. Even the station and the ships seen on the 90s series are rendered better [on par with Enterprise]. The level of detail is tighter, the lighting, the shadows on the hulls and so on. There just isn't enough of it to rationalize buying this DVD and spending the 72 minutes to watch the equivalent of a play. If this were a throwaway episode in a larger series, it would be forgivable. Instead it's a low-budget, crappy attempt to perpetuate a franchise through the direct-to-video route. Short of a miracle or fuzzy accounting, I doubt Warner Brothers will finance another one of these. 

Posted by: Steve Maggi

@ August 13, 2007 7:41:06 PM CDT ( 0 comments )