TV on DVD: The Best of Whose Line Is It Anyway? [Uncensored!]

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The thing that producers and creators of twenty-first century American reality television haven't quite gotten into their heads is that it's much more enjoyable to watch talented people pretend to do extreme things than to watch fame hungry everyday cattle call contestants make complete and utter fools of themselves. And while it's not the participants' fault since they're contributing for the sake of what they hope is their fifteen minutes of fame... sadly, the sorry state of reality TV really just amounts to exploitation of the very people the network hopes to manipulate for ratings and ad revenue.

Similarly, I'd rather watch a comedian pretend to eat something disgusting than actually see someone on Survivor urinate on a total stranger's leg or eat an insect any day of the week. Likewise, sign me up as I relish watching improvisational performers spoof pop music in lieu of getting caught up in a meaningless popularity contest like American Idol that just results in unleashing another synthetic musician on the masses.

And as we learned with the incredible popularity of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's fake news programs on Comedy Central-- news delivered for humor wherein anchors make us laugh instead of real news that has turned into infotainment (consisting of network blogs, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other social networking platforms) is far more fascinating to the viewer.

In the same token, I prefer spoofs of dating games or weight loss schemes actually that result in genuine smiles rather than a sense of melancholy of the depressing lows people will sink to on shows such as The Bachelor and The Biggest Loser.

Yet long before the boom of reality television shows sent scripted ones packing-- the United States sought creative inspiration from the U.K. for this amusing hybrid of reality shows, variety shows, game shows, and SNL skit based humor that ran for eight successful seasons on ABC.

Hosted by Drew Carrey-- this cheerful five-time Emmy nominated comedy series generated 6.5 million viewers tuning in every single week. Although most fans would no doubt prefer the continuation of DVD releases of the full seasons of the titles and/or more "best of" discs for every single year, Warner Brothers manages to keep the laughs coming nonstop with this dynamite 2-disc, 216 minute compilation.

The set is filled with free-wheeling and inspired moments from the second through the sixth seasons of the show spanning 2000 to 2004 via 10 regular episodes plus a scarcely aired hour long bonus show.

For those unfamiliar with the program, Line starred three regular contestants including the ultimate entertaining-threat Wayne Brady (note to the Oscars-- sign this guy up to host), the risk-taking Colin Mochrie, and quick-thinking Ryan Stiles and one additional always changing guest comic in a faux game show where the points didn't matter, the rules were easily pliable, and the main goal was the most admirable one of all in its endless pursuit to make audiences laugh faster and more frequently than ever before with each successive show.

Featuring a guest round-up that included Jeff Davis, Charles Esten, Kathryn Greenwood, Kathy Griffin, Greg Proops, and Brad Sherwood as well as surprise bonus appearances by Jerry Springer, David Hasselhoff, Florence Henderson, and Richard Simmons (many of whom get in on the action and are great sports whether in the skits or as the source of the humor)-- Carrey and his infamous buzzer, cue cards, and wild games comprised the show's loose structure. So admirably creative and inspiring to comedy geeks-- sometimes the descriptions for the characters make viewers laugh even harder than the performer trying to put those words into action.

Often the show's casting for the games played directly to the main trio's strengths as mostly it was Wayne Brady who was chosen to create impromptu musical numbers in a variety of styles from gospel to Britney Spears with topics ranging from the celebrity guests to taxidermy whereas Colin was usually cast as women in skits and/or in some of the greatest games as a clueless news correspondent standing in front of a green screen trying to explain the scene behind him which he can't see himself. Coupling this with Ryan's command of physical gags-- the show was always the most successful when they put the three leads together in a scene for maximum enjoyment.

And routinely the producers provided all involved with highly complicated backstories such as Ryan playing the weatherman who thinks he's Indiana Jones, Wayne Brady as an ugly hillbilly desperate to get someone to marry him, Colin giving a press conference as Santa Claus facing retirement, or having them a;; take turns moving from impressions of Scooby Doo, Richard Simmons, and Elvis Presley stuck on a desert island.

While some of the audience participation scenes fail abysmally and the show seems to get way too big of a kick out of forcing the men to make out with one another (sometimes to hysterical effect and sometimes when it seems like bad outtakes from The Birdcage minus the costumes)-- luckily the comedians are able to spot the funny and run with it when it crops up in the most unusual of places such as the oddly dirty sounding "fluff my Garfield" line becomes a new catch-phrase and so on.

Overall, the show is a delightful mixture of creativity and chaos that surprisingly bombs far less often than SNL and luckily when a skit is going south, the comedians are allowed to acknowledge it or make jokes right away such as when the fully leather clad David Hasselhoff doesn't quite grasp the rules of singing one word at a time as the "3-Headed Broadway Singing Star" game.

For an uncensored collection, it isn't terribly offensive despite the warning of "mature themes, adult language or sexual content," and in fact one wherein guests like Richard Simmons and (especially) David Hasselhoff are the ones who remind you why the show could never have been live and minus the censors when it aired on ABC.

A really fun DVD collection that reminds us what's missing from the shows in the genres it blends together including reality, comedy, variety, musical, and game shows-- The Best of Whose Line Is It Anyway? [Uncensored!] hits DVD shelves this month from Warner Brothers Home Video.

The Grand

Director:
Zak Penn

In The Grand, Woody Harrelson’s character Jack Faro is proof that for addicts, sometimes admitting you have a problem is not the first step. In fact, in his case, it seems to have been the gateway that perhaps just having only one, two, or eight addictions weren’t enough as—cheaper by the dozen—it’s Jack’s policy to “bring ‘em on” becoming addicted to every possible drug known to man. And while we’re at it, he threw marriage into the mix, making Elizabeth Taylor look like a blushing amateur, having walked down the aisle exactly 74 times and although he tells the camera in Zak Penn’s hilarious Christopher Guest-like mockumentary that he loved each and every one of his wives, within minutes we realize that he can’t exactly place them all.

Soon, true to form, Jack completely forgets the fact that he’d once wed the lovely, Shannon Elizabeth who works as an employee of the casino he’d inherited from his grandfather. Incidentally, it's the same place he’s darn near run into the ground with disastrous theme choices for its reconstruction including renovating the classic old school Rabbit’s Foot Casino so that it resembles a nuclear reactor or pays homage to the great Chicago Fire. Obviously, the drugs have affected his mental state and rock bottom for Jack came when he was kicked out of his own casino and-- although he can’t honestly remember-- he believes he’d given the order himself.

Needless to say he’s got a lot of work to do and fittingly we first encounter Jack where he’s resided for two years at rehab where he’s up to his Casanova like old ways, wooing his doctor with a song about the twelve steps, although he’s only on the first one. Promising his lovesick doctor that he’ll write, he’s convinced to leave rehab to try and save his family’s Rabbit’s Foot Casino by playing for a place in the final round of the six person North American Indoor Poker League winner take all tournament, complete with a ten million dollar prize.

Harrelson’s hilarious performance serves as the film’s anchor and coming off the heels of his impressive work in the somber No Country for Old Men and The Walker, it's a nice stepping stone to an even funnier ensemble piece than his work alongside Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro. In order to give Harrelson more to work with, Zak Penn invites numerous veteran comedians to the cinematic party as well. Although IMDb reports the script was a mere twenty-nine pages, in the hands of improvisational pros and versatile entertainers like Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Ray Romano, Jason Alexander, Richard Kind, Judy Greer, and countless others, they elevate what should have been a lackluster forgettable rental into one of the most surprisingly entertaining DVD sleepers of 2008.

One of the first and incidentally least likable competitors we meet is Chris Parnell’s angry, anal-retentive, mathematically obsessed Harold who not only lives with his mother but makes her life a living hell ensuring she’s always preparing his nutritious brain food, complete with supplements. Moving the action to Massapequa, we meet one of the competition’s likeliest frontrunners, Lainie (Cheryl Hines), who given the rarity of her gender in the finals is merely dubbed “The Woman” instead of being served up one of the memorable, alternately cheesy, and hip nicknames. Having been raised by a hyper masculine, challenge hungry, dysfunctional father (Gabe Kaplan) alongside her fellow aggressive and obnoxious player and brother Larry (David Cross), Lainie is used to dealing with difficult men. However, her main preoccupation away from cards seems to be tirelessly supporting her husband Ray Romano who hasn’t been the same since he survived a lightning strike. Now filling his time by inventing new ideas such as “the round beach towel,” nonsensical sayings, and odd handshakes, Romano’s biggest concern seems to be in negotiating with his wife over who has to look after their children if her shot at the championship conflicts with his Yahoo Fantasy Football draft time slot.

Of course, Vegas isn’t Vegas without veteran old-timers and they arrive in the form of an odd turn from legendary director Werner Herzog as a surprisingly hilarious and frightening man simply dubbed “The German” who shares that he feels most alive and ensures maximum human energy by killing an animal everyday. We also meet Dennis Farina’s cowboy-hat-and-boot-wearing Deuce Fairbanks who, when he isn’t threatening to whack those who annoy him, bemoans the downfall of Sin City when they began letting people wearing culottes into the casinos.

Ordinarily with that many players, one would think they’d have their work cut out for them already, but the biggest question mark arrives later on. The players don't know exactly what to think when the laughably amateurish and earnestly friendly, successful online party poker winner Andy Andrews (Richard Kind) abandons the icy temperatures of Wisconsin, complete with his supportive wife (Judy Greer) in tow, hoping they’ll be the ones to capture the ten million dollar booty in order to flee the cold weather and Greer’s self-owned Ribbon Store to move somewhere warm.

One of the perils of releasing a mockumentary after Spinal Tap performer turned director Christopher Guest has basically perfected the art and turned it into a science with his brilliant classics Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, is that one will never be able to reach the astronomically high bar set by those films. However, as mock-docs go, I’ve seen far worse, and I was quite surprised by the freewheeling, rapid-fire humor of The Grand which seemed to belong to the vintage Woody Allen and Steve Martin school of a gag-a-minute approach (with only half being successful). I’d even go as far as to say I’d watch this one again in a heartbeat before I popped Guest’s sharp but largely melancholy A Mighty Wind back into my disc player.

Predictably most critics employed a “party” analogy to utilize in their critiques in describing The Grand’s overwhelmingly large cast that’s nearly bursting at the seams, thus pointing out that with that many “attendees” it’s hard for viewers to become attentive hosts, giving each an adequate amount of attention. This being said, Penn knows which individuals are worth spending more time with and which cameos are best left trimmed for by the editors (for example: only a few moments of Brett Ratner and much more Jason Alexander). And with the one exception of wanting to see more of the scene stealing Herzog as we’ve never seen him before—amazed that this tyrannical, mad Dr. Strangelove like character is embodied by the same person who brought us the masterful Rescue Dawn-- when our attention is largely directed at veteran performers like Harrelson and Hines, we know we’re in good hands.

So when Incredible Hulk writer Zak Penn is the one holding The Grand’s deck of cards, the audience can lean back and say, as Shirley MacLaine famously quipped at the end of The Apartment, “shut up and deal.”