Father Knows Best Season One (1954) (Shout! Factory-2008) A fresh look at Father Knows Best does nothing to answer that chicken-or-the-egg dilemma which has haunted us for over a half century: was family life in the 1950s really this stable, or did television devise a set of standards for happy living so impossible to attain that it could … Continue reading
Get Smart The Complete Series (1965-1970) (HBO/Time-Life-2007) Okay, I have to admit it. I cheated a little. Whenever I review DVD box sets, I make it a rule to watch every single episode in the package. Usually I try to sit through all of the extras as well. Unfortunately, as much as I have been … Continue reading
St. Elsewhere Season One (1982-1983) (20th Century Fox Home Video-2006) If for any other reason, screen this St. Elsewhere DVD to see how far we’ve come in defining the term “good television.” For those of you old enough to remember how good this show was, you’ll be amazed, disappointed – and heartbroken – at how badly it has aged. It’s the … Continue reading
The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries Season One (1977) (Universal Home Video-2005) The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries was a short-lived ABC series about three chicks solving crimes in a world that resembles a studio back lot and there is nothing to Google. Despite their feather-haired cuteness, trouble just seems to find them. In almost every … Continue reading
Kitchen Confidential The Complete Series (2005) (20th Century Fox Home Video-2007) Kitchen Confidential came and went as fast as standing in line at McDonald’s Express. In it, superstar chef Anthony Bourdain (rechristened Jack for the series), as played by the underappreciated Bradley Cooper, talks about how your restaurant meal should “dazzle, amaze and delight.” Check, check … Continue reading
NYPD Blue Season 01 (1993-1994) (20th Century Fox-2003) In the dawn of the last decade of the twentieth century, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was putting a dazzling new sparkle on the formerly graffiti-laden and dingy New York City; meanwhile, on the West Coast, the beating of a law-defying Rodney King by enraged cops (and captured on videotape) … Continue reading
All-American Girl The Complete Series (1994) (Shout! Factory-2006) Not even a guest appearance by Oprah Winfrey – playing no less than herself – could save this sitcom from biting the dust. Nor an appearance by Quentin Tarentino, at the peak of his white-hotness from Pulp Fiction– could pump this turkey’s chest back to life. Even a pre-famous Jack Black, as an … Continue reading
My Name Is Earl The Complete First Season (2005-2006) (20th Century Fox Home Video-2006) The darkly cheerful My Name Is Earl, a tale of obsession and redemption, is told through the narration of a newly minted Dudley Do-Right who used to be a backwoods badass. His actions are an exercise in how everything in the universe … Continue reading
How I Met Your Mother Season One (2005-2006) (Fox Home Video-2006) Those charmingly misguided TV sitcom writers seem to have four general rules: One: all twenty-somethings, regardless of financial obligation and career path, must live in Manhattan, in cool apartments with HUGE bathrooms. Two: all Manhattan-dwelling twenty-somethings are magically blessed with lots of free time, … Continue reading
Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party Premiere Episode 12/18/78 The Time & Make-Up Show 8/19/79 The Halloween Show 10/31/79 (Brinkfilm/MVD-2006) The question isn’t this: how much can you endure of artsy New York hipsters who think they are smarter, cooler and more detached than you? The question is this: how do all the Lower East Side struggling … Continue reading
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