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Classic TV Shows
on DVD reviews 3
Reviews by Billy Ingram,
as seen on VH1, Trio and Bravo.
CLASSIC TV DVD REVIEWS:
ALL NEW
RECENT
RELEASES:
TV shows on DVD Reviews - New & Classic TV Titles!
Lovers of classic television, you're in luck. The studios are releasing entire seasons of your fave shows on DVD - and doing it at a frantic rate.
How can you keep up with what's new? Afraid you're going to miss your favorite show when it FINALLY becomes available?
We'll feature the best collections right here!
(Click
on the titles to order - huge discounts
and free shipping through Amazon.com!
Growing
Pains
From the height of the 'new wave' era comes Growing Pains, The Complete
First Season to remind us just how much things have changed; this
series originally aired from 1985 to April 1992.
If you grew up watching the show - or merely want to show your kids what
life was like (highly idealized, of course) when you were younger, Growing
Pains jabs you directly in the nostalgia bone - and you may find
the ache lingers.
Growing Pains was a 'modern' reinterpretation of the standard
sitcom format that had fallen so out of favor by the early-eighties, sweeping
away the cornball nature of The Andy Griffith Show &
Leave it to Beaver - and the constant bickering of families in One
Day at a Time & The Jeffersons - to reinvent the family
sitcom.
Thanks to soaring ratings for programs like Growing Pains (and
Family Ties) it was OK to portray a loving, functional family
on TV again.
Warner Home Video always delivers juicy extras - on this set you get a
new documentary with the original cast reunited, a very funny gag reel,
and a peek at the unaired pilot episode (with Elizabeth Ward in Tracey
Gold's role).
The pain from Growing Pains, The Complete First Season comes
when watching the fashions - did we ever really dress that way?
The
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - The Complete Third Season
Another seminal family show, this one from the nineties, The Fresh
Prince of Bel-Air - The Complete Third Season delivers the laughs
from the 3rd year (1992-1993) of the this show's astonishing six-year
run.
This is the season Philip runs for Judge, Vivian has a baby, Hilary is
hired as a TV weather girl and the whole family appears on Oprah. You
get all 24 episodes of this preposterously broad sitcom on four discs
(that's nearly twelve hours of Will Smith actin' a fool) with
a fantastic price of $20.99 if you order online now. A cast reunion
featurette with a run of bloopers are included as extras. If you love
the show you'll want to own this one!
Dallas,
The Complete Fourth Season
The fourth season of Dallas roars to a start with the 'Who Shot
JR' story arc and jumps along from one tawdry storyline to another until
a body is found floating in the pool. Like a trashy novel you take on
vacation, TV's most popular drama was the first post-modern nighttime
soap opera that transcended the seventies to become a eighties sensation.
Dallas defined network drama in 1980-81 when theses programs
first aired: the stuck-in-the-'70's fashions, idealized apartments decorated
in brown toned furniture and foil wallpaper, drunken behavior elevated
to high art and infidelity presented as a valiant pursuit.
Besides JR's Machiavellian machinations (a joy to behold) season four
follows a sodden Sue Ellen chasing after her 'dead' lover Dusty, trashy
Afton sleeping her way to stardom, Lucy's luckless marriage to an uptight
med student, Pam's pathetic attempts to hold her marriage together, Cliff
Barnes' clownish attempts to upstage JR, and other assorted mayhem; its
comedia-del-art with laughs from start to finish, including episode four
- Who Done It? - which became the most-watched TV program of
all time when it aired.
Giving Dallas its heart were the incomparable Barbra Bel Geddes
and the legendary Jim Davis, who was dying of cancer at the time. Davis
grew more frail as the the season ambled along but still retained that
powerful presence that made him one of the western genre's finest actors;
he passed away shortly before the end of this season.
As an extra you get the 2-hour special 'Dallas Reunion: The Return to
Southfork', which aired in November 2004 and included most of the original
cast.
This is one fantastic trashy trip back to 1980 and its all $27.99
with free shipping if you order online now!
Miami
Vice Season Two
Journey back to those halcyon days of 1985 with the second year of the
'New Wave' decade's biggest crime drama, Miami Vice. The original
music tracks - the fashions - exotic Florida locales (many of which no
longer exist) - it's all here for the show's legion of fans. I never watched
the program before myself - and it's not as bad as I expected. In fact,
it plays better today than twenty years ago, I suspect. Now we're all
in on the joke - it's nothing if not mind-numbing fun.
In this, arguably the series' best year, you'll find an unusual array of guest stars - Frank Zappa, Ted Nugent, Edward James Olmos, Penn Jillette, Iman, Miles Davis, Leonard Cohen, The Fat Boys, Gene Simmons, Little Richard and too many others to mention - including up and coming actors like Nathan Lane and Michael Richards. There are no extras, just the 22 episodes that comprised the exiting second season.
A Miami Vice movie is due this summer (there's a trailer here) - so we can look for season three soon, I suspect.
Aqua
Teen Hunger Force Four
Season four
of the hit Cartoon Network Adult Swim entry is out on DVD, that means
laughter will be ringing along with the Christmas bells.
What is it about this weird animated farce that makes it so funny? The juvenile humor aims squarely for those of us who had our sense of humor frozen in Junior High school. Apparently there are more of us that I thought!
Those who enjoy this program on cable may wonder why they should buy this package. Quite simply, the creators go all out on these DVD releases - for instance, select 'Play All' from the menu and all the episodes play at one time!
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Four sports a bizarrely designed fold-out package and the show commentaries were recorded at a party for the staff so you get to hear from people who work on every aspect of the production along with a lot of drunken chatter.
There's an ATHF movie coming in 2006 - oh joy! Highly recommended!
MacGyver
- The Complete Fourth Season
MacGyver was the surprise hit of the 1985 season, so popular the name
has become synonymous with improvising a fix, turning something useless
into something that saves the day. As in, "MacGyver it!"
Season four (episodes 65 through 83, 1988-89) represents some of the best storylines for this fondly remembered globe-spanning action series starring Richard Dean Anderson in the role of a lifetime.
During this year the series hit its peak of popularity with guest stars like Teri Hatcher, Cuba Gooding Jr., Michael Des Barres, Jason Priestly and G. Gordon Liddy. This collection is austere - you merely get the fourth season episodes with no extras - but then that's what you're paying for isn't it?
This
collection will make a great gift because it's brand new - just released
on December 6th. And the price is right, less
than $30 from Amazon with free shipping - you can even order
seasons 1-4 in one convenient package and save more $$$$.
Get MacGyver for that '80's TV fan now!
Two
dynamic series that are winding down in primetime are reliving their glory
years on DVD:
ER
- The Complete Fourth Season
Was 1998-99 the best season ever of ER? That's for you to decide. This
season opened with a stunning live documentary episode
that starts off this six disc set with all 22 episodes of the season included along with
a world of extras.
Relive all of the tension and drama that this multiple Emmy-Award winning series is known for (ER received 16 Emmy nominations for this season alone).
Extras include a documentary covering the historic live season opener, an intimate look at the cast after that program aired, deleted scenes and a very funny gag reel. This impressive set will be released in time for Christmas, on December 20, 2005, so it's possible to have it in your hands on the big day if you order now from Amazon. (I hear rumors it's in some stores already.)
West
Wing - The Complete Fifth Season
Season four bursts forth with the president's daughter's abduction and
ends with a bang (a terrorist's bomb explodes). In between, the administration
goes from liberal to conservative and John Goodman is featured more prominently.This
was the first season without series creator Aaron Sorkin at the helm (or
actor Rob Lowe in attendance); no question this was a turning point for
the production. Some say the quality dipped, others contend that this season
represents the best in television drama. One thing's for sure - your library
will be better for the addition of this handsome collection.
Besides the 22 episodes you'd expect on six discs, take a look at the wide array of extras: a commentary by John Wells and Alex Graves on '7A WF 83429'; commentary by John Wells and Christopher Misiano on 'The Dogs of War'; commentary by Alex Graves, Jessica Yu, and Debora Cahn on 'The Supremes'; a profile of President Bartlett and Martin Sheen; an in-depth look at the episode 'Gaza' and unaired scenes from three episodes. Both ER and West Wing are a great value
Barbra
Streisand - The Television Specials
Modern audiences may have forgotten what a truly remarkable artist Barbra
Streisand was when she burst forth on Broadway and television in the 1960s.
Her TV specials from the sixties and early-seventies (1965-1973) represent
some of the greatest achievements in the history of the medium. One of
the reasons - Streisand had full creative control over the shows, very
unusual for an up-and-coming performer.
This opulent
5-disc collection includes:
My Name Is Barbra - her first television special, featuring
a medley of her hit songs, such as "People," "Happy Days
Are Here Again" and "My Man" in a sublime, visually stunning
cinematic concert format.
Color Me Barbra - the second special, like the first, showcases Barbra solo, front and center but in a more relaxed, playful mood. This was her first choreographed by the legendary Joe Layton who went on to stage Barbra's next TV outings.
The Belle of 14th Street - while some of these specials were released on video in the 1980s, this one remained unseen since the first broadcast. Belle contains performances by Jason Robards and vaudeville's John Bubbles.
A Happening in Central Park - the famous live concert that spawned a hit album with "Cry Me a River," "Second Hand Rose," "People," "Happy Days Are Here Again," and others.
Barbra Streisand... and Other Musical Instruments - after a 5 year lull, Barbra returned to TV with this spectacular one-hour program with some wonderful duet and solo numbers with Ray Charles. Again, this is a first time release, unseen since 1973.
Also included are Streisand's original 1987 video introductions for My Name Is Barbra, Color Me Barbra, and A Happening in Central Park and a booklet with detailed liner notes, photos, and song lists (art directed by the Diva herself, of course).
Here
are some sample video
streams to whet your appetite:
"I'm
Five" (from My Name Is Barbra) - (Real player)
"I'm Five" (from My Name Is Barbra) - (Quicktime)
"I Stayed Too Long At The Fair/Look At That Face" (from Color Me Barbra) - (Real player)
"I Stayed Too Long At The Fair/Look At That Face" (from Color Me Barbra) - (Quicktime)
"Mother Macree" (from The Belle Of 14th Street) - (Real player)
"Mother Macree" (from The Belle Of 14th Street) - (Quicktime)
The only special missing from this era was the live concert Streisand did on CBS in 1974 for the opening of Funny Lady which the star considers one of her low points - but why quibble? This package is the bomb if you're a Streisand fan or just a fan of musical variety television at its finest. It doesn't get any better than this!
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