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Fresh off its second Emmy win for Best Comedy comes the second
season of the most inspired sitcom on television. Creator Tina Fey plays Liz
Lemon, head writer of the fictional "The Girlie Show," a formerly femme-centric
skit comedy show transformed by its blissfully unhinged new star, Tracy Jordan
(Tracy Morgan). Alec Baldwin is pitch-perfect as her boss, Jack Donaghy, who
makes his play for corporate promotion and grooms Liz to be his successor, only
to tangle with an unprincipled rival (guest star Will Arnett), fall into an
affair with a (gasp!) Democratic politician (guest star Edie Falco), and take a
position with Homeland Security. Both Fey and Baldwin took home Emmys for their
performances this year. Not to slight the supporting cast; the show co-stars
Jane Krakowski as Jordan's neurotic, self-absorbed co-star; Scott Adsit; Judah
Friedlander; and Jack McBrayer, who almost steals every scene as the perpetually
sunny NBC page Kenneth.
The DVD set of the short season fills out the
two-disc collection with some substantial supplements. The 23-minute "The
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Presents: An Evening With 30 Rock" is a
stage Q&A with the cast and crew (beware of the bad PA system and fuzzy
sound). Even more fun is "30 Rock Live at the UCB Theater," a live
stage-reading/performance of the episode "Secrets and Lies" featuring the
regular cast (and a few friends standing in for guest cast) having a grand time
playing with the show and playing to the crowd. Also features the
behind-the-scenes featurette "Tina Hosts SNL," a table read of the season finale
(in which you can follow the script along with the actors), six deleted scenes
from various episodes throughout the season, and commentary on 10 episodes by
members of the cast and crew and even some guest stars.
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| The Munsters: The Complete Series |
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It was never quite as cool as "The Addams Family" (which hit the
airwaves the same season and also lasted two seasons), but this monster mash
comedy of a Transylvanian family turned all-American oddballs was often funnier.
Fred Gwynne was the towering patriarch of the weirdly functional nuclear family
with gothic trappings, a big, flat-headed teddy bear of a creature with a
bellowing laugh and childlike sweetness; and Yvonne De Carlo was his glamorous
ghoul of a wife, with Al Lewis (as Grandpa), Butch Patrick (as werewolf boy
Eddie) and Beverley Owen and Pat Priest (as their "black sheep" niece Marilyn)
filling out the cast. In addition to all 70 episodes of the series, the six-disc
box set includes the unaired color version of the episode "Family Portrait," the
feature film "Munster, Go Home!" (1966), the made-for-TV "The Munsters' Revenge"
(1981), the documentary "The Munsters: America's First Family of Fright," and
documentaries on each of the three stars.
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| The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Complete First Season |
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Having spun off the decidedly more grown-up "Torchwood" (a
quasi-"X-Files" with TV's first out-and-proud bisexual action hero) from his
reboot of "Doctor Who," Russell T. Davies goes for a younger crowd with this
second spin-off. Elisabeth Sladen, who played Doctor's companion Sarah Jane in
the original run of the series, revives the character as a hero in her own
right, facing interstellar beings and interdimensional threats with a team of
teenage sidekicks (Tommy Knight, Daniel Anthony and Yasmin Paige). The four-disc
set covers six complete stories in 11 episodes, along with interviews, outtakes
and archival footage of Sladen from the original "Doctor Who" series and other
appearances in the multimedia "Sarah Jane Smith: From Journalist to Time
Traveller and Beyond."
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| Classic Christmas Favorites |
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The holiday season seems to start up earlier every year. The
original, animated 1966 "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," narrated by Boris
Karloff and directed by the great Chuck Jones, and the 1974 "The Year Without a
Santa Claus," the stop-motion classic featuring the Heat Miser and the Snow
Miser and the voice of Mickey Rooney as Santa, highlight this four-disc box set
of 10 animated holiday specials. Also features "Rudolph's Shiny New Year,"
"Frosty's Winter Wonderland, "Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July," "'Twas
the Night Before Christmas," "Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey," "The
Leprechauns' Christmas Gold," "Pinocchio's Christmas" and "The Stingiest Man in
Town," as well as commentary on "The Grinch," and bonus featurettes. Don't see
your favorite TV Christmas special? Don't fret, there's another set due out next
week.
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| The Simpsons: The Complete Eleventh Season |
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Ay carumba! It's 22 more episodes with America's favorite
orange-skinned family in Matt Groening's animated family sitcom of surreal
social satire. The season opens with "Beyond Blunderdome," in which Homer
becomes Mel Gibson's pal, and ends with the Emmy Award winning "Behind the
Laughter," a "Behind the Music" spoof with guest voices Gary Coleman, Stephen
Hawking, Willie Nelson and Buzz Aldrin. The four-disc set features commentaries
on every episode, deleted scenes (with commentary), two featurettes, multiangle
animation showcases, original sketches and other supplements. Available in two
separate packaging options: a classic gatefold digipak or a limited-edition
accordion disc-holder in a slip sleeve in the shape of Krusty the Klown's head.
D'oh!
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Sean Axmaker is a film critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a
DVD columnist for MSN Entertainment, and a contributing writer to GreenCine.com,
Turner Classic Movies Online, Parallax View and Asian Cult Cinema, among other
publications. You can find links to all of this and more on his shamelessly self-promoting blog.
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Get Smart! Please!In honor of bumbling Maxwell
Smart, a brief history of our favorite clueless detectives On the RocksWith 'Iron Man' and 'Hancock' featuring
heavy-drinking protagonists, we reflect on the most memorable drunks in movie
history UnclassicsThough they may be listed among the
greatest films of all time, these 10 movies deserve to be
downgraded | |
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