Saturday, July 17, 2010
Digital Digest: Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 3 DVD Review (8/3)
Welcome to another edition of Digital Digest! Our normal Digital Digest blogger (skees53) as you know is off for the summer and is missed. As always, we have the latest news, upcoming releases for Tuesday, and our DVD review this week is of Universal Home Entertainment's Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 3. So, grab your sports vest and enjoy this week's Digital Digest!
DIGITAL NEWS
We have quite a bit of news this week. Lionsgate has announced that Spike TV's original comedy Blue Mountain State will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 5 a 2-disc set. Pre-ordering for both versions will be available shortly. For now, read info and sexy packaging on the sets. Meanwhile, Comedy Central has announced a best-of South Park release coming out on Sept. 28 titled South Park - A Little Box of Butters, a two-disc set featuring the character Butters. Pre-ordering for this set is also not available yet. Last week we gave you an update on Rules of Engagement - The Complete Third Season, now Sony has revised the packaging. View the new packaging. And don't forget to pre-order Rules of Engagement - The Complete Third Season. The set streets on September 14. Last week we had an update on Ally McBeal - The Complete Third Season, that it was originally supposed to be released by 20th Century Fox this week (July 13) and no new date has been announced. But now we have a date for that and also seasons four and five! All three sets will be out on October 5. View the sexy packaging (especially for season five)! Pre-order Ally McBeal - The Complete Fourth Season and Ally McBeal - The Complete Fifth Season.
20th Century Fox has officially announced Modern Family - The Complete First Season coming out on Blu-ray and DVD on Sept. 21. View the press release that we posted first. Pre-order the DVD and Blu-ray. Warner Home Video has similarly officially announced Two and a Half Men - The Complete Seventh Season. View the press release. The set also streets Sept. 21. Pre-order Two and a Half Men - The Complete Seventh Season today.
CBS Home Entertainment is celebrating the 50th anniversary for The Andy Griffith Show! The series is already complete on DVD, but fans will get a 50th anniversary edition best-of set on Sept. 28. The Andy Griffith Show - 50th Anniversary: The Best of Mayberry has an MSRP of $24.99. It hasn't been officially announced yet, so stay tuned for details and packaging.
For more information on titles that we won't cover with full or blog DVD reviews, you can head on over to the news section of TVShowsOnDVD.com for all of the latest details.
UPCOMING WEEK PREVIEW
Tuesday (July 20) will only a few sitcom releases. Canada's VEI is releasing Gimme A Break! - The Complete Series and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing My Boys - The Complete Second and Third Seasons. Look for our reviews of both in the next couple of days. Also of note, Matlock - The Fifth Season is out. A few weeks ago we did a blog review for that, so check it out.
BLOG FEATURE REVIEW
This week's review is Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 3. The set is not out until Tuesday, Aug. 3, but we thought you might want to know about the laughs ahead of time. Get ready for Will Ferrell's funniest and best sketches from Saturday Night Live, including the fan-favorite skits Inside the Actors Studio, Celebrity Jeopardy, and Cheerleader-Chess.
DVD Review: Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 3
by Seth Thrasher
Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 3 (Universal, $19.98) arrives on DVD on August 3, 2010, and features 61 minutes of admittedly funny skits, commercials, and segments from the classic late night series Saturday Night Live. Normally I would begin this review by talking about the (admittedly hysterical) segments included in this DVD, but something right at the beginning really, REALLY grinds my gears. You see, you did indeed read the first sentence correctly. This DVD set is a mere 61 minutes in length yet if you pay the MSRP - that's right, it is 61 minutes and the SRP is $20. That's $20 for the equivalent of ONE FULL EPISODE of the show. I could understand if perhaps they were including a small compilation of episodes for that price, or even a significantly higher number of episodes for that price, but Universal honestly expects people to shell out anywhere from $10 to $20 for what amounts to essentially one (funnier than usual) episode? Are you kidding me?
For that price range you could buy a full season of some series on DVD (M*A*S*H and Perfect Strangers jump immediately to mind), or alternately you could do up to two months of subscriptions to Netflix which currently offers seasons 1-5 and 31-35 online for full streaming. Several of the sketches from this DVD set come from his hosting stints in recent years, so you'd be getting to see a large portion of the same content anyway, plus you'd get access to a wide array of OTHER content (not the least of which are the complete series of a plethora of quality sitcoms and dramas, including Coach, Murder She Wrote, Dragnet, Miami Vice, Leave it to Beaver, and much MUCH more). Also keep in mind that if you search around on sites such as NBC.com and Hulu.com you're likely to find many of these same clips for free.
Since we're at Volume Three, clearly SOME sucker is buying these sets, so let's do a quick rundown of what's included on this single disc (61 minutes in length):
* George W. Bush Endorsement (Cold Open) (Weekend Update Thursday: 10/23/2008)
* Will Ferrell Monologue: Theater (SNL: 05/16/2009)
* Goulet Ring Tones (SNL: 05/14/2005)
* Celebrity Jeopardy #13 (Sean Connery/Sharon Osbourne/Bill Cosby) (SNL: 05/14/2005)
* The Lawrence Welk Show #2 (SNL: 05/16/2009)
* Spartans Cheerleaders: Chess Tournament (SNL: 01/20/1996)
* Dysfunctional Family Dinner (SNL: 01/17/1998)
* Inside the NBA (SNL: 05/16/2009)
* Inside the Actors Studio (Kate Hudson as Drew Barrymore) (SNL: 10/14/2000)
* Oracle Conclave 2005 (SNL: 05/14/2005)
* Luxury (SNL: 05/14/2005)
* Get off the Shed #1 (SNL: 09/30/1995)
Three quarters of the sketches are from after Ferrell left the show. Admittedly, all of the bits included are quality bits. Celebrity Jeopardy never disappoints, and I could listen to Ferrell scream to GET OFF THE SHED! all day. The only sketch that really disappoints is the Luxury sketch, which has that familiar stench that most end-of-show filler has. Given the limited nature of this set surely they could have found SOMETHING else for that slot.
Package art, disc art, and slimcase all follow a consistent design scheme. The random paint splatters have been used before – for example, the design scheme also appeared on the Best of Amy Poehler set I reviewed a while back. The disc comes boxed in a single black case. Sketch list is included on the rear. Front cover, the disc, and the main menu all use virtually identical designs. The ability to select the main feature, individual skits, or the bonus features is available from the main menu. A full version of the current main theme plays in the background, start-to-finish, uninterrupted. People interested in possessing a clean copy of the current theme would be well advised to track down this DVD somewhere and do a quick pull of the menu music on the DVD. Given the availability of nearly everything else on this DVD elsewhere, the presence of a clean, full copy of the current instrumentation of the theme may be one of the most interesting aspects of this DVD. Various transitional music used on the show plays in the background of the sub-menus and this also is nice to have.
Video quality varies *wildly* depending on the age of the clips. The newest clips, ca. 2009, appear absolutely amazing as they were originally filmed in HD. The 2005 clips aren't widescreen but are otherwise nice. The stuff from the mid-late 90s looks to have aged somewhat poorly, and while not overtly bad clearly shows its age in comparison to other material on the set. Audio is a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, but except for when the modern-era clips are playing it's wasted...a Spartan Cheerleaders sketch from early '96 just isn't going to make the use of 5.1 that a sketch from 2009 would make of it. Stops are available between each sketch.
There ARE bonus features, which is amazing given the much larger and expansive sets that DON'T have them. In addition to an animated minute-long photo gallery featuring various Will-related snapshots, there's three very interesting sketches also included – two unaired spots from dress rehearsal and an off-air performance by Green Day featuring Mr. Ferrell. The Dress sketch is from the mid-2000 and is a version of the familiar "Lovers" sketch that never made it to air – featuring the familiar couple out camping with another such couple. The other dress sketch is also from the mid-2000s and features Will Ferrell supposedly haunting a creepy old house. Both sketches run about five minutes. The Green Day performance is them playing their song East Jesus Nowhere from 2009 with Will providing the song with some much needed cowbell and this is also five minutes. Total runtime of special features is approx. 16 minutes.
So, should you buy this set? If you're slavishly collecting every last bit of Will Ferrell or SNL memorabilia? Sure, why not. Otherwise? Are you kidding me?! It's $10-$20 for a glorified clip show lasting as long as one single episode normally runs (61 minutes). Most of the sketches in the set are viewable online, and while the bonus bits are certainly neat they don't come anywhere near justifying spending very real money on a set like this. If you want to pick it up for a quickie rental it's certainly an entertaining way to spend an hour, but it only has a moderate amount of replay value, and by-and-large these aren't the A-tier Ferrell sketches of the late 90s but their slightly downgraded 2000s-knockoffs. At the end of the day, much as I enjoy Will's crazy antics there's no way I could actually recommend buying this. No way. I'll give it a half star more than I have the similar Amy Poehler set, but only because Will Ferrell IS quite a bit funnier. Otherwise, the reasons I had for hating THAT set apply here too.
(3/5 stars)
To purchase the DVD, click below and help support SitcomsOnline.com:
Amazon.com
Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
SNL TV.com Page
LOOKING AHEAD
Come on back right here next week for more news and reviews. We will have a DVD review of Heroes - Season 4 up next week. And don't forget to read our full DVD reviews, as we will put up reviews for Gimme A Break! - The Complete Series and My Boys - The Complete Second and Third Seasons hopefully this week. And you know what we say at the end of each Digital Digest - until next time, keep it digital!
DIGITAL NEWS
We have quite a bit of news this week. Lionsgate has announced that Spike TV's original comedy Blue Mountain State will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 5 a 2-disc set. Pre-ordering for both versions will be available shortly. For now, read info and sexy packaging on the sets. Meanwhile, Comedy Central has announced a best-of South Park release coming out on Sept. 28 titled South Park - A Little Box of Butters, a two-disc set featuring the character Butters. Pre-ordering for this set is also not available yet. Last week we gave you an update on Rules of Engagement - The Complete Third Season, now Sony has revised the packaging. View the new packaging. And don't forget to pre-order Rules of Engagement - The Complete Third Season. The set streets on September 14. Last week we had an update on Ally McBeal - The Complete Third Season, that it was originally supposed to be released by 20th Century Fox this week (July 13) and no new date has been announced. But now we have a date for that and also seasons four and five! All three sets will be out on October 5. View the sexy packaging (especially for season five)! Pre-order Ally McBeal - The Complete Fourth Season and Ally McBeal - The Complete Fifth Season.
20th Century Fox has officially announced Modern Family - The Complete First Season coming out on Blu-ray and DVD on Sept. 21. View the press release that we posted first. Pre-order the DVD and Blu-ray. Warner Home Video has similarly officially announced Two and a Half Men - The Complete Seventh Season. View the press release. The set also streets Sept. 21. Pre-order Two and a Half Men - The Complete Seventh Season today.
CBS Home Entertainment is celebrating the 50th anniversary for The Andy Griffith Show! The series is already complete on DVD, but fans will get a 50th anniversary edition best-of set on Sept. 28. The Andy Griffith Show - 50th Anniversary: The Best of Mayberry has an MSRP of $24.99. It hasn't been officially announced yet, so stay tuned for details and packaging.
For more information on titles that we won't cover with full or blog DVD reviews, you can head on over to the news section of TVShowsOnDVD.com for all of the latest details.
UPCOMING WEEK PREVIEW
Tuesday (July 20) will only a few sitcom releases. Canada's VEI is releasing Gimme A Break! - The Complete Series and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is releasing My Boys - The Complete Second and Third Seasons. Look for our reviews of both in the next couple of days. Also of note, Matlock - The Fifth Season is out. A few weeks ago we did a blog review for that, so check it out.
BLOG FEATURE REVIEW
This week's review is Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 3. The set is not out until Tuesday, Aug. 3, but we thought you might want to know about the laughs ahead of time. Get ready for Will Ferrell's funniest and best sketches from Saturday Night Live, including the fan-favorite skits Inside the Actors Studio, Celebrity Jeopardy, and Cheerleader-Chess.
DVD Review: Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 3
by Seth Thrasher
Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell, Volume 3 (Universal, $19.98) arrives on DVD on August 3, 2010, and features 61 minutes of admittedly funny skits, commercials, and segments from the classic late night series Saturday Night Live. Normally I would begin this review by talking about the (admittedly hysterical) segments included in this DVD, but something right at the beginning really, REALLY grinds my gears. You see, you did indeed read the first sentence correctly. This DVD set is a mere 61 minutes in length yet if you pay the MSRP - that's right, it is 61 minutes and the SRP is $20. That's $20 for the equivalent of ONE FULL EPISODE of the show. I could understand if perhaps they were including a small compilation of episodes for that price, or even a significantly higher number of episodes for that price, but Universal honestly expects people to shell out anywhere from $10 to $20 for what amounts to essentially one (funnier than usual) episode? Are you kidding me?
For that price range you could buy a full season of some series on DVD (M*A*S*H and Perfect Strangers jump immediately to mind), or alternately you could do up to two months of subscriptions to Netflix which currently offers seasons 1-5 and 31-35 online for full streaming. Several of the sketches from this DVD set come from his hosting stints in recent years, so you'd be getting to see a large portion of the same content anyway, plus you'd get access to a wide array of OTHER content (not the least of which are the complete series of a plethora of quality sitcoms and dramas, including Coach, Murder She Wrote, Dragnet, Miami Vice, Leave it to Beaver, and much MUCH more). Also keep in mind that if you search around on sites such as NBC.com and Hulu.com you're likely to find many of these same clips for free.
Since we're at Volume Three, clearly SOME sucker is buying these sets, so let's do a quick rundown of what's included on this single disc (61 minutes in length):
* George W. Bush Endorsement (Cold Open) (Weekend Update Thursday: 10/23/2008)
* Will Ferrell Monologue: Theater (SNL: 05/16/2009)
* Goulet Ring Tones (SNL: 05/14/2005)
* Celebrity Jeopardy #13 (Sean Connery/Sharon Osbourne/Bill Cosby) (SNL: 05/14/2005)
* The Lawrence Welk Show #2 (SNL: 05/16/2009)
* Spartans Cheerleaders: Chess Tournament (SNL: 01/20/1996)
* Dysfunctional Family Dinner (SNL: 01/17/1998)
* Inside the NBA (SNL: 05/16/2009)
* Inside the Actors Studio (Kate Hudson as Drew Barrymore) (SNL: 10/14/2000)
* Oracle Conclave 2005 (SNL: 05/14/2005)
* Luxury (SNL: 05/14/2005)
* Get off the Shed #1 (SNL: 09/30/1995)
Three quarters of the sketches are from after Ferrell left the show. Admittedly, all of the bits included are quality bits. Celebrity Jeopardy never disappoints, and I could listen to Ferrell scream to GET OFF THE SHED! all day. The only sketch that really disappoints is the Luxury sketch, which has that familiar stench that most end-of-show filler has. Given the limited nature of this set surely they could have found SOMETHING else for that slot.
Package art, disc art, and slimcase all follow a consistent design scheme. The random paint splatters have been used before – for example, the design scheme also appeared on the Best of Amy Poehler set I reviewed a while back. The disc comes boxed in a single black case. Sketch list is included on the rear. Front cover, the disc, and the main menu all use virtually identical designs. The ability to select the main feature, individual skits, or the bonus features is available from the main menu. A full version of the current main theme plays in the background, start-to-finish, uninterrupted. People interested in possessing a clean copy of the current theme would be well advised to track down this DVD somewhere and do a quick pull of the menu music on the DVD. Given the availability of nearly everything else on this DVD elsewhere, the presence of a clean, full copy of the current instrumentation of the theme may be one of the most interesting aspects of this DVD. Various transitional music used on the show plays in the background of the sub-menus and this also is nice to have.
Video quality varies *wildly* depending on the age of the clips. The newest clips, ca. 2009, appear absolutely amazing as they were originally filmed in HD. The 2005 clips aren't widescreen but are otherwise nice. The stuff from the mid-late 90s looks to have aged somewhat poorly, and while not overtly bad clearly shows its age in comparison to other material on the set. Audio is a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, but except for when the modern-era clips are playing it's wasted...a Spartan Cheerleaders sketch from early '96 just isn't going to make the use of 5.1 that a sketch from 2009 would make of it. Stops are available between each sketch.
There ARE bonus features, which is amazing given the much larger and expansive sets that DON'T have them. In addition to an animated minute-long photo gallery featuring various Will-related snapshots, there's three very interesting sketches also included – two unaired spots from dress rehearsal and an off-air performance by Green Day featuring Mr. Ferrell. The Dress sketch is from the mid-2000 and is a version of the familiar "Lovers" sketch that never made it to air – featuring the familiar couple out camping with another such couple. The other dress sketch is also from the mid-2000s and features Will Ferrell supposedly haunting a creepy old house. Both sketches run about five minutes. The Green Day performance is them playing their song East Jesus Nowhere from 2009 with Will providing the song with some much needed cowbell and this is also five minutes. Total runtime of special features is approx. 16 minutes.
So, should you buy this set? If you're slavishly collecting every last bit of Will Ferrell or SNL memorabilia? Sure, why not. Otherwise? Are you kidding me?! It's $10-$20 for a glorified clip show lasting as long as one single episode normally runs (61 minutes). Most of the sketches in the set are viewable online, and while the bonus bits are certainly neat they don't come anywhere near justifying spending very real money on a set like this. If you want to pick it up for a quickie rental it's certainly an entertaining way to spend an hour, but it only has a moderate amount of replay value, and by-and-large these aren't the A-tier Ferrell sketches of the late 90s but their slightly downgraded 2000s-knockoffs. At the end of the day, much as I enjoy Will's crazy antics there's no way I could actually recommend buying this. No way. I'll give it a half star more than I have the similar Amy Poehler set, but only because Will Ferrell IS quite a bit funnier. Otherwise, the reasons I had for hating THAT set apply here too.
(3/5 stars)To purchase the DVD, click below and help support SitcomsOnline.com:
Amazon.com
Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
SNL TV.com Page
LOOKING AHEAD
Come on back right here next week for more news and reviews. We will have a DVD review of Heroes - Season 4 up next week. And don't forget to read our full DVD reviews, as we will put up reviews for Gimme A Break! - The Complete Series and My Boys - The Complete Second and Third Seasons hopefully this week. And you know what we say at the end of each Digital Digest - until next time, keep it digital!
Sitcoms Airing Tonight
Friday, December 8
CBS announced the new entertainment special Norman Lear: A Life on Television, to air tonight - Friday, Dec. 8 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs). Presented by Entertainment Tonight, this one-hour special features new interviews with stars of the long-running comedies Lear created, including Jimmie Walker from Good Times and Mackenzie Phillips from One Day at a Time, in addition to never-before-seen interviews from the ET vault. Also included with this new footage and interviews is an in-depth sit-down interview with Lear that ET host Kevin Frazier conducted when Lear celebrated his 100th birthday, in which he reflected on his lengthy, groundbreaking career.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 4)
Friday, December 8
- Eddie Murphy (The PJs) - Watch Eddie on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Da'Vine Joy Randolph (Only Murders in the Building/High Fidelity/People of Earth/Selfie) - Da'Vine appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- John Caponera (The Good Life) - John is a guest on a repeat of Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen on CBS between 12:37-1:37am.
- Robert Smigel (Let's Be Real) - Triumph the Insult Comic Dog aka Robert Smigel chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Noah Galvin (The Real O'Neals) and Molly Gordon (Ramy) - Noah and Molly talk about Theater Camp on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am.
- Eric Stonestreet (The Santa Clauses/Modern Family) - Eric talks about The Santa Clauses on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Kenan Thompson (Kenan/Kenan & Kel) - Kenan sits down with Sherri to talk about his new book, When I Was Your Age, on Sherri, so check your local listings.
- Sebastian Maniscalco (Bookie) - Sebastian appears on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
New on DVD/Blu-ray (September-December)
09/05 - Young Sheldon - The Complete Sixth Season
09/12 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Second Season
09/12 - Rick and Morty - The Complete Seasons 1-6 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
09/26 - Family Matters - The Complete Series
09/26 - Step by Step - The Complete Series
10/10 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Complete Season Thirteen / The Complete Season Fourteen
10/17 - ALF - The Complete Series (Deluxe Edition) (Shout! Factory Special Offers)
10/17 - Night Court (2023) - The Complete First Season
11/07 - South Park - The Complete Twenty-Sixth Season (Blu-ray) (DVD)
11/14 - Leave it to Beaver - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/05 - Father Knows Best - The Complete Series
12/05 - The Odd Couple - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/12 - The Dick Van Dyke Show - The Complete Series
12/12 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
12/12 - That Girl - The Complete Series
12/19 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Official Restored Complete Series
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