The main advantage of owning a DVD, DBS satellite dish, digital-cable box or TiVo is never having to watch another bad television show ... ever. Plenty of shows sucked in the days when the Big Three networks ruled the airwaves, but most managed to stay on the air longer than two weeks. Sweeps periods were reserved for high-profile movies, mini-series and variety specials, not reruns of Law & Order and Friends.
Among the many new TV-to-DVD titles available for viewing during November sweeps are The Sid Caesar Collection: The Buried Treasures and The Honeymooners: Classic 39 Episodes. With a few exceptions, nothing currently on the air even comes close to what's contained on these generous multidisc sets. More than 50 years after it was introduced as part of Gleason's weekly variety program, The Honeymooners remains one of the most imitated shows in broadcast history, while Caesar's influence can be seen in every performer toiling in the vineyards of sketch comedy. The material has all been digitally remastered and is a delight to watch, especially with the passing of such great artists as Art Carney.
DVD gives those of us condemned to spend our prime-time hours working, instead of watching television, an opportunity to enjoy popular network shows from the beginning of their runs, instead of waiting for them to appear on TVLand. Purveyors of syndicated television shows can't be too happy about the fact that the inaugural seasons of many hit shows—including, this month, The West Wing, The King of Queens and Spongebob Squarepants—can be enjoyed now instead of later. Or that they come complete with commentary, deleted scenes and other bonus features.
Oddly enough, shows deemed unsuccessful can enjoy an afterlife in DVD, too. CBS' My Big Fat Greek Life didn't last long enough to go into syndication, but all seven episodes of the My Big Fat Greek Wedding spin-off now can be purchased for around $20. While the original, non-sucky version of Coupling already is available on DVD, NBC's verbatim rip-offs of the BBC series probably will never again see the light of day (unless they're included as a bonus feature in the upcoming set of shows from the original's third season).
The complete first season of ABC's sexy action-thriller Alias was released on video a mere two months ago, and already, a five-disc set containing the second season is scheduled for delivery December 2. Amazing. Among the bonus features are radio interviews, blooper reels, deleted scenes and a DVD-ROM that lets fans peruse scripts.
Taking aim at war documentaries
Before cable got into the business of original programming, many first-generation networks packaged war-time documentaries as if they had just been liberated from a vault at the Pentagon. A&E ran so many World War II documentaries that it was dubbed the Hitler Channel. Some of that same footage is included in Eagle Media's War Zone series, which includes Air Wars: Fighter Aircraft of World War II, War in the Desert, The American Civil War and Great Commanders of the Civil War. Aspiring buffs will enjoy having clean versions of this historical footage.
Surf's up for Lilo and Stitch
Disney has turned the success of its 2002 animated hit, Lilo & Stitch,
A miraculous release
Not that he cares, considering his track record at the box office, but Jim Carrey has inspired more critical vitriol than almost any other working actor since Jerry Lewis. That Bruce Almighty was banned in several Islamic countries probably surprised even him, however. The conceit here was that God, as played by Morgan Freeman, got so tired of hearing Carrey's disgruntled TV reporter whine, he lent him some divine powers. Bruce Almighty was a huge financial success in its theatrical run, which is more than can be said for the prequel to the Farrelly brothers' Dumb and Dumber, the ill-advised Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd. The marketing campaign played off the lead characters' resemblance to Carrey and Jeff Daniels, but the similarities ended there.