The Seinfeld box set. Kitchen sink, not included.
When DVD was first envisioned, it was primarily as a medium to play back movies. But then the studios discovered something unexpected: people really wanted to relive their favorite TV shows on disc. Today, some of the most memorable moments in television are now nicely packaged in box form. Here’s a very idiosyncratic list of some of the author’s favorites in his collection:
The Prisoner: James Bond, Double-Oh Kafka. Patrick McGoohan’s spy-without-a-name was one of the most adventurous TV shows of the 1960s, an allegory for both the Cold War, and the coming onslaught of political correctness and other forms of Frankfurt School-style reeducation. Killer theme song and brilliant production design to boot.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus: Things began to fall apart in the show’s third and fourth seasons, but for a time, there wasn’t a better working comedy ensemble. Their early episodes, in which sketches ended without punchlines, merged into other sketches, and made references to Kant, Nietzsche, and Descartes (at a time when Norman Lear was slapping himself on the back for getting Archie Bunker’s toilet flush on the air at CBS) were the Citizen Kane of comedic TV. They rewrote the rules, made new ones, and made superstars out of an unlikely assemblage of British television writer-performers, and in the process dynamited postwar British culture (that last item was truly a mixed blessing for England, of course). The 14-disc box set includes its rarely seen episode produced for German television (which took Basil Fawlty’s later advice to not mention the war seriously), along with the Steve Martin-hosted 20 year retrospective, produced shortly before Graham Chapman died, but the real meat of the show are the Pythons’ classic episodes.
The World At War: The great Thames TV documentary, which like Python, became a popular mid-1970s British export to American airwaves, was, in retrospect, made at precisely the right time. There were still enough men alive who had fought on the front lines, along with a fair number of the older generation of generals and politicians on all sides who had prosecuted the war. Film and animation techniques were by the early 1970s sufficiently developed to tell the story graphically. But perhaps most importantly, there was still confidence that the Allies were good guys; moral equivalence, multiculturalism, punitive liberalism, the “black armband school of history,” and all of the other soul-destroying elements of Frankfurt School-style political correctness were not yet standard issue features at the academy, and by extension, the television studio. Oh, and Sir Laurence Olivier is of course pitch-perfect in his stentorian world-weariness. And be on the lookout in later episodes and particularly the bonus features for commentary from a very young, mullet-wearing Stephen Ambrose, 20 years before he became a one-man publishing industry.
Saturday Night Live: Original writer Anne Beatts summed up this show’s arc when she said, “You can only be avant-garde for so long before you become garde.” And SNL, a show that once celebrated youth culture before becoming a corporate institution, is at 35 years old, the very definition of garde. But when SNL first debuted in 1975, it was the logical extension of earlier comedic experiments such as Laugh-In, the leftwing, network-defying Smothers Brothers Show, and the aforementioned Monty Python. Creator/producer Lorne Michaels waged a daily war with NBC’s censors, and for better or worse, imprinted a permanent stamp on the television overculture. The Jimmy Fallon Show’s recent premeditated hit-job on Michele Bachmann would be inconceivable without SNL’s original effort to submarine Gerry Ford via Ron Nessen, his press secretary, and of course, the Daily Show is simply Chevy Chase’s original recurring Weekend Update sketch on steroids.
To get a sense of where network television was in 1975, just rifle through YouTube and watch a clip of The Johnny Carson Show, or one of Dean Martin’s interminable roasts from the period, and you’ll immediately see how exhausted postwar show business culture had become. Saturday Night Live was the Woodstock and Watergate-era counterculture finally getting network exposure, and in the process emerging as the dominant culture in Hollywood, which it arguably remains today. But a curious thing happened along the way: during the original lineup’s run from 1975 to 1980, the politics became toned down, making the show accessible to just about any teenager or young adult in the American heartland who wanted to see a mix of comedy and often deliberately eclectic rock and roll in a single package. The resulting show was the perfect conduit to transmit the products of Big Hollywood, Big Music, and plenty of advertisers’ wares to America’s youth market in the late 1970s. David Brooks’ generation of bourgeois bohemians began here.
The first season DVD box set of SNL, which highlights a show still finding itself, includes the debut episode hosted by George Carlin, the aforementioned appearance by Ron Nessen (and a cameo from Gerry Ford, who never knew what hit him), classic Michael O’Donohue-penned parodies of Citizen Kane and Star Trek, along with the screen tests performed by the cast. Whatever X-factor that John Belushi had that made him an electric performer when the red tally light on the video camera switched on was immediately apparent in his screen test.
Categories: Television
I have to add the Grenada BBC series “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” starring Jeremy Brett. . . . .this is Holmes as he was meant to be. . . .Also “the Good Life” starring Felicity Kendall, and ” The Young Ones”. We could also throw in “The Avengers” (with Patrick Macnee), “UFO”, and the Creepy(for it’s time) Sci-fi series “The Invaders”.
dittos, but where is the 6 million dollar man/bionic woman set with action figures (sorry, just the one Oscar Goldman please)?
And don’t forget the first season boxed set of “The Walking Dead.” Zombies, shotguns, and a post-apocalyptic world where the zombies look like the Occupy Wall Street people and take over Georgia. What could be more frightening, except Debbie Wasserman Schultz making a cameo as a zombie leader? Oh wait, she already leads a bunch of zombies. Never mind.
Shows like “Cheers”, “Seinfeld” and “Friends” got me out of the television-watching habit; they were shows about slightly evil people doing nothing at best, and being slightly evil people at other times. The best thing I could say for “Cheers” is that it led to “Frasier”; I did wander by a TV when that was on occasionally. But now I have a real life and it’s much more satisfying. Thanks, Seinfeld.
I have the Seinfeld box sets, in addition to the complete X-Files, Sopranos, and Deadwood. However, in the age of streaming video and Netflix, box sets of DVDs are going the way of the dinosaurs. Over the summer, I watched the entire Lost series on my internet-capable TV without having to shell out $50 a season for DVDs hogging space in my entertainment center. Right now, I’m watching Deep Space Nine from beginning to end.
The Led Zep box set might be nice for a huge fan, though. I liked them, but not enough to buy a box set.
get the box sets. keep a portable DVD player or 2 with solar chargers in a Faraday cage and be prepared for pert near any apocalypse worthy of the name
too old not to believe the object is worth having if you want it later
I would honestly be very happy to purchase the entire Peanuts ouevre, the ones made while Charles Schultz was alive- not the odd pastel whiney ones- if it were on one or two discs, and had that continuous replay, like Disney movies. That would be a perfect disc, for the whole household’s enjoyment.
Frasier.
I have the The Avengers box set, as well as the entire I Love Lucy in one set, with lots of extras.
I lust after the Upstairs, Downstairs set, the I, Caligua set, and the First Churchills set.
I wait impatiently for all of Alfred Hitchcock Presents to be made available in one set.
That’s the I Claudius series.
I’m a big fan of Judd Apatow’s boz sets for his two cancelled shows, “Undeclared” and “Freaks and Geeks,” both which were done (I believe) through ShoutFactory.
There was also a a show that came out after Saturday Night Live called “Friday’s” that only aired for a couple of seasons, I believe that’s where Michael Richards got his start, that was hilarious. Recall the order of monks that hummed between words and who could match Martin Mull and Jerry Hubbard in the spoof of Johnny Carson on Fernwood Tonight which was a byproduct of Mary Hartman Mary Hartman. What an era for humor.
I would add the following to your list, Ed:
The Wire – my all-time favorite drama series.
Homicide: Life on the Streets – my all-time second-favorite drama series.
Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister – my all-time favorite comedy series.
Cheers – my all-time second-favorite comedy series.
Band of Brothers – my all-time favorite miniseries.
From the Earth to the Moon – my all-time second-favorite miniseries.
Rather than SNL, I’d choose the great SCTV folks, who really were far funnier, including Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis as the McKenzie Brothers (“Strange Brew”) and the incomparable John Candy (memorably in the oft-referred parody of Chinatown in the episode with Dr. John). What made SCTV funnier than SNL was that the performers were better mimics, and funnier writers. Count Floyd’s Monster Chiller Horror Theater, with “scary movies” like the … Ingmar Bergman parody “Whispers of the Wolf” (“Kids, you think being depressed is not scary?”) Classic. Throughout the run of SCTV, the characters (as a small town TV station airing schlock) would complain Candy’s character blew the budget with a crane shot doing a direct parody of the Chinatown movie. Also, unlike SNL, the SCTV folks worked the musical act into the comedy, with Dr. John to hilarious results.
I’d also add Patrick McGoohan’s series prior to the Prisoner, “Danger Man,” where you can see how he became a leading man and a star. Also, the early Avengers, particularly the ones with Honor Blackman rotating with other guest stars. Black and White, shot live, but you can see why Patrick McNee was a star as well. A time when Britishness and confident masculinity were not mutually exclusive. The Equalizer (sadly only the first season has been released) is worth your while, and so is Max Headroom.
What sadly has never been released, and should, is the early 1970′s NBC Mystery Movie “Hec Ramsey” which combined Old West gunfighter stuff (star Richard Boone’s role in Have Gun, Will Travel was heavily riffed upon) with the upcoming turn of the century forensics like fingerprints and ballistics. The lead character being dangerous because he was adaptable and intelligent. NBC famously could not get along with Boone, and only two seasons were produced. But it was quite original for its time, unlike all the other Westerns made prior.
When I need a little fix, I just check in on hulu.com and watch an old fave: “Taxi,” “Barney Miller,” “WKRP,” “Bob Newhart.”
Great comment, whiskey. Many fond memories watching Lola Heatherton, Bobby Bittner (How are ya?!), and Celebrity Blowup with Billy Sol Hurok and Big Jim McBob (yeah, he blowed up real good!). It was a pity it ran against Fridays on ABC in the days pre-VCR.) But wasn’t that Patrick McGoohan series called “Secret Agent Man” ?
Also, in his blog Ed mentions The World At War. I seem to remember it starred Sir Peter Ustinov rather than Sir Laurence Olivier. You can look it up! Distinct memory of him once saying the rather erudite word “redoubtable” in an episode sending my friend to the dictionary and the synonymn “formidable.”
Some more unmentioned favorites: Six Wives of Henry VIII
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Jack Palance
The Forsyte Saga (old and new?)
Rod Serling’s “Night Gallery” pilot and series. I especially enjoyed the skit with Roddy McDowell and Ossie Davis and that spooky painting, and the “Hell’s Bell’s” one where John Astin’s the hipster in Hades forced to endlessly watch family vacation home movies. Hey, on Thanksgiving Night an old Twilight Zone episode starring Leonard Nimoy came on at 4:30 AM but I was too tired and stuffed to watch it. C’est La vie.
Looking to get the complete set of The Outer Limits (the 1960s B&W version). Also possibly The Twilight Zone.
Also learned recently that the original (and remastered) Star Trek is now available on Blu-ray.
Does anyone know how to get the Best of Dave Allen DVD? Amazon only offers it for Region 2 format (not for US). Need help ASAP as it’s for a Christmas gift. HELP!!!
Admittedly, I went thru the posts rather quickly. I didn’t see “Rome” mentioned. Brilliant show for all the right reasons, in particular for historical accuracy…
“The Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection”. 28 DVDs comprising all 156 episodes of the original five seasons. I’ve seen most of them countless times on TV, but this set is a real treat. It’s like watching them in high-definition. It IS high-definition, because the episodes were recorded on film. The amount of detail is incredible. It’s ironic that I can see them with better quality than the original first-run viewers who watched them on a 1959 black-and-white TV set.
Case in point: The classic episode “The Invaders” where Agnes Moorehead gave a one-woman show without spoken dialogue, trying to repel tiny aliens who invaded her home. In one scene I noticed that she had long fingernails, which is incongruous with her character of a dirt-poor farm woman living alone in a rustic shack in the middle of nowhere.