Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 6th, 2003
In the late 1950’s Westerns accounted for six of the top ten programs on TV. Only Gunsmoke had a longer run than Bonanza. From 1959 to 1973 Ben Cartwright and his boys rode across the small screen. Years later in syndication the series re-emerged as Ponderosa and a handful of TV movies continued the tale into the 90’s.We never have grown tired of the genre that gave us such heroes as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. While I am far more in favor of season sets, this best-of collection is a might heapin’ helping of tall tales.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 29th, 2003
Synopsis
The complete set of episodes from the second season, with our 20th-Century hero nowrelatively well adapted to life in the far-flung future. The characters by this point are wellestablished and a fairly broad ensemble. The series has never struck me as being quite as funnyas the The Simpsons in their prime, but there is still lots of choice material.
Audio
The audio is a 2.0 mix. This is pretty common for TV discs, though it is certainly notnecessary...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 23rd, 2003
The second season of the gritty cop show turned out to be an important test: could the seriessurvive the departure of important cast members? In particular, could it survive the departureof David Caruso? As it turned out, it survived without him much better than he without it. This season includes such turning points as the trial of Amy Brennerman and attendant consequences(i.e. bye-bye Caruso), the wedding of Dennis Franz, and the arrival (and his gradual acceptance of) his new partner (hello Jimmy Smits).
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2003
FX decided to jump on the cable bandwagon last year and come up with their very own original series, The Shield. The show stars Michael Chiklis, formerly of The Commish, as Vic Mackey, a hard-nosed Los Angeles detective that gives bad cops a good name – but in a bad way.
Mackey is head of a tactical Strike Team that is comprised of plainclothes officers working in one of the most crime-ridden areas of Los Angeles - the Farmingdale District. Mackey’s group shows impressive results however – s...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 15th, 2003
This disc is a compilation of the 5 highest rated episodes of the Steve Harvey Show. This TV series ran from 1996-2002 on the WB network and features Steve Harvey (The Original King’s of Comedy) as Steve Hightower ex-1970’s R&B star turned music teacher and assistant principal and Cedric “The Entertainer” (Barbershop) as coach Cedric Wilson and Steve’s best friend and roommate. It also featured your usual high school sitcom cast of characters. The five episodes presented here are:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 9th, 2003
On the heals of the release of Charlie Angels: Full Throttle we have a collection of the five best episodes from season one of the original television show. The five episodes are as follows:
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 30th, 2003
Synopsis
The Justice League is Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern,Martian Manhunter and the Flash. The first story, “In Blackest Night,” sees Green Lanternaccused of destroying an entire planet. “The Enemy Below” introduces Aquaman (a verydifferent one from the version older viewers might remember from their youth). The animation isa slight notch above the usual Saturday morning fare, and the look of the characters isinterestingly stylized, in the vein of the Ba...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 27th, 2003
Synopsis
I presume a synopsis of Cheers would be redundant, because if you’re not familiar with theshow, than this review would hold no interest. Anyway, this first season sets up the bar and thecharacters, in particular the feuding love-hate relationship between Sam (Ted Danson) and Diane(Shelley Long). In fact, in the pilot episode, we see how Diane gets hired in the first place.
Audio
The sound (in 2.0) breaks down pretty much into three categories. The mus...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 2nd, 2003
Synopsis
If you need a synopsis, why are you reading this review? The Bundys, for the uninitiated,are long-suffering boorish dad Al (Ed O’Neill), sex-deprived wife Peg (Katey Sagal), slut airheaddaughter Kelly (Christina Applegate) and cynical loser son Bud (David Faustino). Married withChildren definitely falls into the category into the category of acquired taste, and I’ll confess, Inever acquired the taste (I’ve always thought The Simpsons hit the same satiric targets -- andthen ...
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 19th, 2003
Synopsis
The protagonists are the members of the Gonzales family, who live in East LA. The serieschronicles their many ups and downs, some comical -- struggles between the father and hisfirebrand activist daughter, the drama queen aunt confronted by her daughter’s desire to be asingle mother -- and other are less so, as in the recently paroled son who finds the difficulties ofparenting compounded by legal entanglements. The makers of the series are proud that this is thefirst of its...
