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There´s A TV In My Dvd Player!
CL's picks of the best television on DVD
By Matt Brunson @moviematt1, Sam Boykin, John Schacht, Ann Wicker, Timothy C. Davis, Samir Shukla, Linda Vespa and Maggi Grooms
Page 8 of 11
BEST SEASON: A close call, but Season 2 gets the edge, largely because it includes the now poignant episode "Siskel & Ebert & Jay & Alice" (with Gene and Roger providing their own voices).
EXTRAS: Audio commentaries by the show's creators; "Webisodes" (short online episodes created in 2000, years after the original series went off the air); a compilation of parody trailers such as Smokey and the Spartacus and Dennis the Menace II Society.
- Matt Brunson
TOP CAT
WHO AND WHEN: Starring Top Cat, Benny the Ball, Choo-Choo, Spook, Fancy-Fancy, The Brain, and Officer Dibble. Originally debuted on ABC in 1961 and lasted only one season (30 episodes).
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ON DVD: A 4-disc set contains all episodes.
WHAT'S SO GREAT?: Like other Hanna-Barbera animated shows, this one was loosely based on a sitcom. While The Flintstones borrowed heavily from The Honeymooners, Top Cat resembled The Phil Silvers Show, with a "gang" cast instead of a "couples" cast. Top Cat's get-rich-quick schemes involved duping Officer Dibble (TC called him Officer Dribble) and enlisting the aid of his crew: affable Benny the Ball, inquisitive Choo-Choo, hipster Spook, ladies' cat Fancy-Fancy, and dimwitted Brain. None of the "humans" in the show ever seemed to notice that TC and company were upright-walking, clothes-wearing cats.
EXTRAS: Interviews with surviving cast members (or voices) Arnold Stang, Marvin Kaplan, and Leo de Lyon (think that's a stage name?); commentary tracks for three episodes; some Top Cat commercials for Kellogg's cereals; artwork from the show; and a sing-along to the Top Cat theme with the music and lyrics running below the opening sequence.
- Linda Vespa
BRITCOMS
RED DWARF
WHO AND WHEN: Starring Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn, created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. Originally broadcast on BBC 1988-1999.
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ON DVD: Seasons 1-6, out of eight (36 episodes).
WHAT'S SO GREAT?: Surreal and silly comedy onboard the intergalactic mining ship Red Dwarf. After a radiation leak kills the crew, Dave Lister is the only human left, transported three million years into the future. His only companions are a hologram of his biggest annoyance, Arnold Rimmer, and Cat, who evolved from Lister's cat. "Note the difference in capitalization, as it denotes sentience." Later, they pick up an android, Kryten, as they roam around the universe, looking for Earth in all the wrong places. Along the way are various aliens, robots, and alternate dimensions, more often harmful than not.
BEST SEASON: Season 4 includes alter egos, android romances, and a killer curry. Who could ask for more?
EXTRAS: Deleted scenes, outtakes, and photo galleries, and in the Season 1 set, the pilot entirely in Japanese.
LOOK FOR: The International Emmy Award winning Wild Western parody, "Gunmen of the Apocalypse," in the Season 6 set.
- Maggi Grooms
MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS
WHO AND WHEN: Starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin. Originally broadcast on BBC 1969-1974.
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ON DVD: Everything, in small doses or, if you want, the "Monty Python Megaset" includes all 45 episodes in chronological order on 14 discs.
WHAT'S SO GREAT?: This troupe introduced the world to British sketch comedy at its finest and funniest. The Pythons' skits owe as much to Shakespeare as they do the British music hall tradition — and their own comic (and often surreal) interpretation of events. Palin stood out as the befuddled "Everyman," with Cleese falling over everything as the master of the pratfall. Chapman, who died in 1989, was often more of a straight man, while Idle excelled at the naughty boy persona. Gilliam's animation fueled many a fevered dream and no one could do a screaming shrew as well as Jones in drag.
CLASSIC SKETCHES: "The Dead Parrot" ("He's stone dead."), "The Ministry of Silly Walks," "Spam" and "The Lumberjack Song."
EXTRAS: A "Pythonisms Glossary" and "Useless Tidbits." Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
SAY NO MORE: Hormel Foods does have a sense of humor: To honor the production of Monty Python's Spamalot (a stage musical based on their Holy Grail film), the company issued a limited edition gold collector's can.
- Ann Wicker
DA ALI G SHOW
WHO AND WHEN: Starring, who else, Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen). This series is ongoing.
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE ON DVD: The first and only season.
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