Sales Rank:691 List Price: $59.98 Lowest New Price: $19.75 Lowest Used Price: $17.81 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Director(s):
Andre Belgrader
Anthony R. Palmieri
Anton Cropper
Chris Long
Daniel Dratch
Actor(s):
Tony Shalhoub
Jason Gray-Stanford
Ted Levine
Traylor Howard
Stanley Kamel
It's time to tidy up for another season with Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe winner Tony Shalhoub in all 16 Season Five episodes of Monk, television's most fresh and funny series. Gumshoe Adrian Monk would never actually have gum on his well-polished shoes: in addition to intellect and instinct, he also has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Though his eccentric traits bewilder his colleagues Natalie Teeger (Traylor Howard), Captain Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine) and Lieutenant Disher (Jason Gray-Stanford), Monk's attention to detail keeps crime—and grime—off the streets. Included in this highly collectible, 4-disc set are both the black & white and color versions of the noir-style episode "Mr. Monk and the Leper," obsessively good bonus features and the pilot episode of the hit comedy-drama Psych. Follow the clues to Season Five of Monk, the quirky and original show TV Guide hails as "alternatively hilarious and touching."
Sales Rank:266 List Price: $64.98 Lowest New Price: $18.99 Lowest Used Price: $21.00 MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)
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Director(s):
Howard Swift
Joseph Barbera
William Hanna
Actor(s):
Don Messick
Casey Kasem
Nicole Jaffe
Frank Welker
Stefanianna Christopherson
Chuck Jones and other great studio animators sneered at the cheap look and lazy craftsmanship of Hanna Barbera's television cartoons in the 1960s, but there's no question HB's original, 35-year-old Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is enduringly beloved. The Complete First and Second Seasons includes all 25 stories first broadcast from September '69 to October '71, a growth period in which canine hero Scooby's voice (by Don Messick, who also voiced The Jetsons's pup, Astro) was gradually refined from murky garble to Scoob's more familiar, "Rrroowwrr"-inflected, human-like speech. This set also represents the pre-frills Scooby-Doo: no guest appearances by Don Knotts or Batman, no Scrappy-Doo--just adventure and occasional bubblegum pop tunes by Danny Janssen and sundry co-writers (e.g., "Pretty Mary Sunlite" in the episode "Don't Fool with a Phantom").
Watching all the shows back-to-back reveals evolving complexity in the scripts. Over time, Scooby-Doo's creators added multiple bad guys in cahoots with major villains, and developed sub-plots, backstories, and even appealing allies and friends of Mystery, Inc., a traveling band of young debunkers of supernatural phenomena. Riding around in their psychedelic Mystery Van, preppie leader Fred and his friends--haughty Daphne, brainy Velma, quasi-hippie Shaggy, and Shaggy's best pal, Scooby, an excitable Great Dane--chase down and are chased by alleged ghouls who generally turn out to be venal humans running various scams.
Included here is Scooby-Doo's premiere, "What a Night for a Knight," in which the gang looks into the disappearance of a noted archaeologist and end up in a "haunted" museum. The fun "Go Away Ghost Ship" finds our heroes helping a shipping company daunted by the apparent ghost of pirate Red Beard, while the silly classic "A Tiki Scare Is No Fair" concerns a Hawaiian vacation for Mystery, Inc. disrupted by a witch doctor. --Tom Keogh
Sales Rank:447 List Price: $59.98 Lowest New Price: $27.89 Lowest Used Price: $27.00 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Beginning with the death of a senator and ending with a marriage, the second season of Bones builds on the momentum created during the Fox drama's debut year. Bones' sophomore season (which includes all 21 episodes that originally aired during 2006-2007) centers on the collaborations between FBI special agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), whom Booth has nicknamed "Bones." While Booth doesn't completely believe in Bones' method, he can't argue with her success rate at solving crimes. As for Bones, she is meticulous at what she does and is a borderline genius, but she has issues. Seemingly oblivious to her own good looks, she is all but socially inept. Booth may be blunt, but he's comfortable dealing with the public. Bones, on the other hand, would rather be sequestered away with the dead, trying to figure out what happened before their uncertain deaths. Of course, while viewers can see that Bones and Booth would be a perfect couple, the characters aren't quite there yet. Their friendship becomes a little more complicated this season when it turns out that Bones' new demanding boss, Dr. Camille Saroyan (Tamara Taylor), is a former girlfriend of Booth's. And the two women aren't getting along.
Still, everyone is able to work together to solve a series of crimes, such as identifying the remains of an all but unidentifiable teenage boy and dealing with a serial killer who is emulating the crimes depicted in Bones' latest mystery novel. (Yes, she's not only a brilliant scientist but also an ace author.) Like many television dramas where forensic evidence is a driving force in the plots, Bones offers up the gross-out autopsies. But it also serves up a lot of humanity in the way the characters interact with one another. It is giving nothing away to reveal that Bones and Booth are not the couple getting married in the season finale. But the episode does reveal that beneath their tough exteriors, marriage and all that it implies is something they wouldn't mind... perhaps even with each other. --Jae-Ha Kim
Sales Rank:257 List Price: $39.98 Lowest New Price: $20.96 Lowest Used Price: $14.14 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Seth MacFarlane
Alex Borstein
Seth Green
Mila Kunis
Mike Henry
To the ranks of shows too brilliant and outrageous for prime time (The Ben Stiller Show, Andy Richter Controls the Universe), add Seth McFarlane's Family Guy. This animated series, which debuted after the 1999 Super Bowl, simply sparked too much controversy and offended too many sensibilities to survive (Entertainment Weekly dubbed it "the Awful Show They Just Keep Putting on the Air"). That the Fox network also played hackysack with its schedule, ensuring viewers would not be able to find it, sealed its fate (it was cancelled in 2002). This boxed set containing all 28 episodes from the first two seasons is payback for the show's devoted cult following, who may be moved to echo the words of infant Stewie Griffin, the megalomaniacal 1-year-old bent on matricide and world domination: "Victory is mine!"
The dysfunctional Griffins of Quahog, Rhode Island, invite comparisons to The Simpsons. The testicular-chinned father, Peter Griffin, is a clueless oaf in the Homer mold. "Peter, what did you promise me last night?" asks his long-suffering wife Lois in one episode. "That I wouldn't drink at the stag party," he replies. "And what did you do?" she asks. "Drank at the stag part--oh ho ho, I almost walked into that one," he cackles. Other family members include teenage daughter Meg, a desperate high school social pariah; 13-year-old son Chris, a chip off his father's blockhead; and Brian, the family's sarcastic talking dog. But this series' true inspiration is football-pated Stewie (voiced by McFarlane, who earned an Emmy), who was born to be a Bond villain once he escaped his mother's "ovarian bastille." Family Guy recklessly ventured where The Simpsons feared to tread. In one episode, Meg's one and only friend turns out to be the member of a suicidal cult. In another, Death (voiced by Norm McDonald) becomes an unwanted houseguest. Each episode plays fast and furious with surreal flashes (in one episode, Peter turns his house into a puppet) and pop-culture references and TV, movie, and commercial parodies that invite repeated viewings. Freed from its own family-hour bastille and the whims of dim network executives, Family Guy can be appreciated at last on its own profane, sacrilegious, and irreverent terms. Welcome to the DVD family, Griffins. --Donald Liebenson
Sales Rank:1041 List Price: $39.98 Lowest New Price: $21.87 Lowest Used Price: $13.57 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Director(s):
Bob Anderson
Dominic Polcino
Jim Reardon
Klay Hall
Mark Ervin
Actor(s):
Dan Castellaneta
Nancy Cartwright
Doris Grau
Julie Kavner
Yeardley Smith
Season 9 is an important one in The Simpsons' run because, to many fans, it represents the top of the rainbow. At this point, the show is still at the top of its game, flinging clever jokes and social satire with such ease, especially compared to later seasons, that it's hard not to see this as the peak of its run, leaving open the question of whether or not subsequent seasons measure up. Be that as it may, there's hardly any question that the writing this season is among the series' best. This is the season that brought us "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson," where Homer illegally parks his car in front of the World Trade Center, and heralds the introduction of Duff Man ("Oh Yeah!), "The Treehouse of Horror VIII," where Bart's body gets switched with that of a fly and Marge turns into a witch, and "The Trouble with Trillions," which finds Mr. Burns hiding a trillion dollar bill from the federal government. Apu gets plenty of face time in an excellent episode where he meets his bride ("The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons"), and the town's kids get their chance at some screen time when they all get stranded on an island together a la Lord of the Flies in "Das Bus" ("We'll be like Swiss Family Robinson, only with more cursing," proclaims Bart). Definitely the show is still going strong by this point, and the 25 episodes of this season should still delight fans who've stayed with it through the years, in addition to the hours of commentaries and special features that come standard with every season of The Simpsons. --Daniel Vancini
Sales Rank:211 List Price: $39.99 Lowest New Price: $26.99 Lowest Used Price: $28.99 MPAA Rating: Unrated
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Get ready to rock out the show with Disney Channel's Hannah Montana! Now, for the first time ever, you can bring home the Complete First Season on Disney DVD. Plus, this 4-Disc Collector s Set is loaded with ultimate must-see bonus features, a visit to Miley's hometown, and totally cool guest stars including Corbin Bleu, Ashley Tisdale, Cody Linley and more! When Miley Stewart moves to a new city, it seems she's just an ordinary teen who wants to make new friends and fit into her new school. But she's got a huge secret: She s also the glamorous pop-star Hannah Montana, who s living the celebrity dream with awesome concerts, limos and a huge closet full of the latest styles. Y'all won t believe the hilarious things she does to keep her double identity a secret. It all works out, though, because this girl totally rocks!
Sales Rank:250 List Price: $59.98 Lowest New Price: $30.99 Lowest Used Price: $30.30 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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A remarkably ambitious and engrossing project, this 1978 television miniseries ran 26-and-a-half hours, cost a then-enormous $25 million, and involved 4 directors, 5 cinematographers, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 speaking parts. Based on James Michener's panoramic bestseller about the settling of the American West--as reflected in the history of a fictional town called Centennial, Colorado--the story begins in the late 18th century and ends with a typical 20th century conflict over land usage. Centennial, however, largely concentrates on various memorable frontiersmen, trappers, Indians, ranchers, cowboys, and farmers from long ago. Richard Chamberlain shines as the pioneer Alexander McKeag, Robert Conrad does some of his best work as French-Canadian Pasquinel, and performances by Alex Karras, Chad Everett, Sally Kellerman, Raymond Burr, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, and Dennis Weaver effectively add to a tapestry of adventure, tragedy, violence, and dubious Western progress. Produced at a time when TV networks were in the throes of acknowledging America's history of racial injustice, the program paints a starkly villainous portrait of opportunists exploiting and destroying Indians in the name of manifest destiny. While the project's great length might make one wary of diving in, Centennial is the sort of carefully paced drama that makes one care about the intertwined destinies of unique characters and how they illuminate America's past. --Tom Keogh
Sales Rank:408 List Price: $49.95 Lowest New Price: $19.99 Lowest Used Price: $21.77 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Director(s):
Bob Hathcock
Dan Fausett
Seung Eun Kim
Actor(s):
Regina King
John Witherspoon
Cedric Yarbrough
Gary Anthony Williams
Jill Talley
Fans of Aaron MacGruder's The Boondocks (based on his popular daily comic strip) should take note that all 15 episodes of the fearless animated series are included on this second-season boxed set. While complete seasons should be a given for the DVD presentation of most television series, most programs didn't undergo the same level of scrutiny and negative press as The Boondocks, which saw two of its second season episodes pulled from its network run over allegedly offensive statements about the cable channel BET and its senior executives (including filmmaker Reginald Hudlin, who is also credited as executive producer on The Boondocks). Both episodes--"The Hunger Strike" (which sees Boondocks hero Huey Freeman protest BET's negative programming) and "The Uncle Ruckus Show" (BET airs a reality series built around the self-loathing title character) – are presented here in their entirety, and include fairly straightforward commentary by MacGruder and producers Rodney Barnes and Carl Jones which, while never going so far as to point fingers at individuals who may have caused the episodes to be banned, does provide a succinct history of the troubles they incurred for the show. It should also be noted that while both episodes are solid and ruthless pieces of satire, they're not the high points of the season--episodes that strike a stronger balance between humor and social commentary include "… Or Die Trying" (Granddad, Huey, Riley and Jazmine sneak into a screening of Soul Plane 2: The Blackjacking! and wrangle with Uncle Ruckus), "Invasion of the Katrinians" (Granddad learns to regret taking in his displaced New Orleans relative Jericho, voiced by Cedric the Entertainer), and "The Story of Catcher Freeman" (a Rashomon-like take on the history of the Freeman's saintly ancestor). These and others come closest to achieving the level of quality of "The Return of the King," the best episode of The Boondocks' first year, and do much to suggest that the show will continue to hit high-water marks in subsequent seasons.
In addition to the previously mentioned commentaries, MacGruder, Barnes and Jones are heard on two other episodes ("Stinkmeaner Strikes Back" and "The Story of Gangstalicious, Part 2"), and MacGruder is seen in video introductions for the banned episodes, as well as a making-of featurette which profiles the behind-the-scenes elements of the show in detail. "Trouble in Woodcrest" is a light-hearted look at a supposed feud between voice talent Cedric Yarbrough and Gary Anthony Williams, while "What N****s?" pokes fun at criticism of the show's use of the epithet by compiling footage of the voice-over artists repeating it in recording sessions. Five-minute interviews with the main cast and minisodes of "Spider-Man" and "Married… With Children" bring the extras to a close. -- Paul Gaita