DVD Review: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series

One year after dazzling DVD fans with the release of Get Smart: The Complete Series (see review here), Time Life has done it again with another '60s spy series with similar elements of adventure, humor and style: The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

At a time when U.S. aggression has made it very unpopular around the world, U.N.C.L.E. resonates, as its characters aren't trying to make the world safe for just American interests, but rather for those of the world. (The "U.N." in the title is no mistake.) The main characters are an American and a Russian - backgrounds that should have made for bitter enemies during the Cold War of 1964 (when the show premiered), but instead made for great working partners and friendship. The message then, as now, is that if these men can work together, anyone can, and everyone has interests that are greater than those of nationalism.

The United Network Command for Law & Enforcement is the organization that employs Napolean Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Ilya Kuryakin (David McCallum), and sends them to all corners of the globe in matters of espionage and intrigue. Vaughn and McCallum bring a lot to the series, and they were among the first on television to have cult followings. Watching these episodes, it's easy to see why. Both men have a charm and a sophisication that's evident. But their characters aren't flawless: Solo gets tripped up on occasion by emotional attachments, and Kuryakin is sometimes overconfident.

Much has been made of the fact that the show's best episodes were in the first and second seasons, and that the third season descended into camp. While it is true that the third season has weaker moments and made more attempts at humor, it is fun in its own way. The fourth, shortened season does its best to return the show to its roots. Whatever shortfalls it may have had, U.N.C.L.E. can sit proudly among its '60s spy counterparts: The Avengers, Secret Agent/Danger Man, I Spy, Get Smart and The Prisoner.

Time Life's set contains just about everything a fan of the show could ask for: clean, crisp transfers, hours and hours of bonus materials, and a cool - if not very convenient - package that puts all four season sets inside a briefcase. With complete series sets of U.N.C.L.E. and Get Smart under its belt, Time Life is going to have to work extra hard to impress fans with their offering for 2008. (Perhaps the long-missing-on-DVD Batman, with Adam West, could fit the bill; getting it out of rights hell alone would be a heroic feat.)

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.- The Complete Series is highly recommended.

More info: The Fans From U.N.C.L.E.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Episode Guide

'60s Spy-Jinks In U.N.C.L.E.

DVD Review: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Runnin' Down A Dream

There are few rock musicians whose careers have had the vitality of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. There are even fewer that have withstood the pitfalls of life in the music business for more than 30 years and stayed on top of it.

In Peter Bogdanovich's new film Runnin' Down a Dream, the story of Petty and the Heartbreakers is laid out over four hours, from very humble beginnings in Gainesville, Florida, in the mid-1970s, to superstardom by the early 1980s, to changing the way the record industry does business, to battles with drugs and alcohol, becoming contemporaries with their heroes, to being one of the last bands standing that still remain true to the mission they set out for themselves all those years ago.

Runnin' Down a Dream is both exhaustive and exhilarating. Unlike many rock and roll stories, much of the drama and changes in Petty's keeps coming up to the present day. Which is not to suggest they ever had it easy - battles with the record company started as soon as the band was hitting it big, and twice Petty held his ground and changed the way business was done. The first time, he was seeking independence for himself and his songwriting, not unlike Bruce Springsteen's fabled battles with his former manager, and the second time, he held ground on increases in record prices. Petty wouldn't allow his label to institute an industry-wide price increase on the back of his band's latest highly anticipated release, a battle he won in 1981.

Petty and his bandmates - most notably Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Stan Lynch - are forthcoming in this documentary. While the purpose of the film is to celebrate their achievements, it's no puff piece; all the warts and scars are here in plain view, such as Petty and Lynch's disagreements which led to Lynch being fired from the band, the hurt feelings and bitterness over Petty's solo work, and various members' use of drugs, including the death of longtime bassist Howie Epstein in 2003.

The film contains interviews with music industry pros, such as Rick Rubin and Jimmy Iovine (two of the most important players in the business, both of whom produced records for Petty), and other Hall of Fame artists, like George Harrison, Roger McGuinn, Stevie Nicks and Jackson Browne. The band's growth is seen in their collaborations with legends like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. Each time the band goes through a period of working with their heroes, you can see them come out different. The film tracks them going from one phase to the next, throughout their career, and the evolution is evident.

One of the most amazing surprises in the movie is the amount of previously unseen footage, very often in the most unlikely of places. The interrogation room in a German airport where the band is questioned on their first tour of Europe? It's here. In the studio with Stevie Nicks recording "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"? Yup. Recording with Johnny Cash? Check. Fly-on-the-wall stuff at the famed sessions for the Traveling Wilburys? You got it. There's even footage from a meeting with a pissed-off Petty, McGuinn and the A&R man from his record label, who is trying to get them to record a song Petty thinks is a stinker.

The picture that is presented is one of a band - not a group of musicians who have simply played together for a long time, but rather a unified band. There are several times as their story unfolds that you realize the band wouldn't have made it but for Petty's foresight, Campbell's skill, or Tench's tenacity. Credit also goes to original bassist Ron Blair, who (perhaps unknowingly) prevents the band's undoing after Epstein's death by rejoining after 20 years out of the music business. Throughout it all, the music is a constant, as is the band's dedication to it.

Strangely, the distribution for this film is at odds with its subject matter. How is it that the man who held the line against corporate greed when it wanted to increase his album prices by $1 can have the DVD of this film sold exclusively at Best Buy? That action is plainly inconsistent with what we come away from the film knowing about Petty.

That aside, the film itself is one of the great rock and roll documentaries. It may be in excess of four hours, but you'll find yourself not wanting it to end, just to see Petty and his bandmates triumph over adversity and play those great songs from their legendary songbook.

More info: Mudcrutch Farm

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Official Web Site

Interview With Peter Bogdonavich About The Film

DVD Review: Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip - The Complete Series

In the opening segment of the pilot for Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Judd Hirsch plays a producer of a late-night live comedy sketch show who is arguing with a standards and practices guy (a censor) over a skit; he's ordered to pull a sketch that the censor says might be offensive to some people. Enraged, he bursts on to the set when the show goes live and gives a Network-style diatribe over what's wrong with television in general. "This show used to be cutting edge social and political satire!" he says, and the point is made: Studio 60, from the outset, was to be just that, and wanted to be smart, relevant television - the kind we rarely see anymore.

And it was.

For 22 episodes, Studio 60 was among the very best things on television. No, it wasn't always funny - it wasn't supposed to be. But audience expectations are vital to how the show is perceived, and when viewers saw a show about a late-night comedy sketch show that wasn't a comedy, the fix was in. Nevermind that NBC never gave the show its due: It was burdened with a crappy timeslot from the beginning (Mondays at 10pm, opposite Monday Night Football) and followed a show that - while popular - didn't appeal to the same audience (Heroes). By the time NBC pulled the series and brought it back to burn off the rest of its episodes on Thursdays, the decision had already been made to kill it.

As a result, the smartest show on TV since The West Wing went away, and signaled the rest of the studios that smart TV - that is, TV that doesn't flinch from controversial topics and which keeps social and political satire alive - wasn't viable. Aaron Sorkin, who created both Studio 60 and The West Wing, fought the good battle.

Like NBC's 30 Rock (see below), Studio 60 was an outstanding show that just happened to be about a late-night comedy program. But where 30 Rock brings the audience that satire in 21 minutes of nonstop comedy brillance, Studio 60 presented a complex set of characters through which viewers could see their own culture. Any show about TV producers that can present meaningful commentary about the war in Iraq, the religious right's culture wars and other timely topics is one that can turn any issue on its head and make it fresh.

In what some will see as another sign of the show's doomed-from-the-start bad luck, it starred Matthew Perry, who was excellent in his role as the show's executive producer and head writer, but who brought with him the baggage of Friends. That this show didn't get renewed is sure to bring up the "Friends curse," which is the same as the "Seinfeld curse," referring to stars of former sitcoms starting new projects that fail. But anyone who saw half an episode would know that Perry leaves Chandler in the dust. The guy is capable of so much more than Friends (which was a good sitcom) would ever allow.

The rest of the cast was also great. Bradley Whitford, just off of The West Wing, played Perry's partner and co-executive producer. He also brought a dimension to his character that wasn't present in Josh Lyman, the White House aide he played for seven years. Amanda Peet, Steven Weber, D.L. Hughley, Timothy Busfield and Nathan Corddry all had moments to shine in the series, but it was Sarah Paulson, playing Perry's ex-girlfriend and the show's lone Christian player, who really jumped off the screen and stole every scene she was in. Her character and Perry's fought constantly, were on opposite sides of most issues and had a history of hurt between them, but the actors made their relationship credible and honest.

Back in the 1970s, when his show Star Trek was flourishing in syndication, creator Gene Roddenberry was asked about the competition from another show that was seen as similiar, Space: 1999. Rather than play to the horse race that the press loves to generate, Roddenberry said he thought the fans were lucky, because they got to watch two good shows, if they wanted.

Sadly, fans of 30 Rock and Studio 60 no longer have that option.

More info: Studio 60 Titles and Airdates Guide

Studio 60 Doesn't Take Comedy Seriously

Welcome To Studio 60

DVD Review: 30 Rock - Season One

Much has been made of the fact that NBC launched two series last year that dealt with fictitious Saturday Night Live-type programs, Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, and Tina Fey's 30 Rock. Both were excellent programs that deserved to survive. Sorkin's didn't, but fortunately for audiences, Fey's did and went on to win the Emmy for Best Comedy Series last month.

The first season of 30 Rock recalls the great HBO series The Larry Sanders Show in the way it presents a behind-the-scenes view of a variety program, as well as NBC's sitcom classic Seinfeld in the way it presents a variety of eccentric characters who may work in television but act like normal folks going to work everyday. You'd never know Fey's Liz Lemon was running a live comedy show every week by the way she dresses, the food she eats, the movies she enjoys and the men she dates. Fey is hilariously uncomfortable in her own skin, and her conflict between the creative and corporate aspects of her life are at the heart of the show.

Alec Baldwin, long an SNL host, won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of the corporate executive that has taken a liking to Lemon and her staff but who also wants to mold the show with his corporate vision, which includes GE ovens. Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy is exactly the type to showcase how corporations have seeped into every surface of our lives.

Tracy Morgan, another SNL vet who is memorable even from small parts, such as in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, gives his character of Tracy Jordan his raging best. Jordan is certifiably crazy, but Lemon has had him forced onto her show by Jack, in an effort to boost ratings. In one episode, Lemon's white guilt brings her to ask Jordan if he can read. Seeing an opportunity to cut out of work early every day to get "tutoring," Jordan asserts "I can't read, Liz Lemon!" In another episode, he invites his co-workers to a party on board a yacht -- one he doesn't own.

The rest of the cast is outstanding as well. Jane Krakowski's Jenna is vain and clueless. Her attempt to convince her boss she's only 29, and her ploys to get what she wants by using her "sexuality," make for a number of embarrassing - and very funny - moments. Jack McBrayer's Kenneth is an innocent farmboy working in the big city, and through him, we see everyone else's faults. Baldwin's Jack becomes fascinated by Kenneth, someone so pure that it upsets the balance at the top of the corporate ladder.

There have been plenty of great guest-stars as well, adding to the show's fun. (The second season opener featured Jerry Seinfeld.) Isabella Rossellini did a couple of great guest spots in season one, much better (and more substantial) than her appearance on Friends all those years ago.

The show's writing has been as consistent and as funny as the best sitcoms - and you could hardly expect less from Fey, one of SNL's best writers in its 30-year history. It's also a very smart show - listen to the references that are thrown in (Jack tells Liz he's busy one night, attending "Ann Coulter's 60th birthday party").

The show's longevity is not assured however, and this second year will establish it or not. But as the Season One DVD collection demonstrates, this is a show as good as anything that has come before it, and which deserves to finish out in style - say, maybe seven or eight years from now.

More info: 30 Rock: Official Network Site

Variety: 30 Rock Review

30 Rock Lives, and Tina Fey Laughs

DVD Review: The Fugitive - Season 1, Vol. 1

Decades before Harrison Ford was exciting audiences as Dr. Richard Kimble, The Fugitive was a thoughtful, adventurous and very different dramatic series on television. Starring David Janssen in the title role, the show broke new ground on TV by not presenting a sanitized version of life in America - only The Twilight Zone (with which it shares some music) did the same.

Janssen looked part Sean Connery and part John Kennedy as he moved from town to town, trying to escape the lawman intent on tracking him down (Barry Morse, later of Space: 1999 fame) and trying to find the one-armed man whom he believes killed his wife, a crime for which the innocent Dr. Kimble has been sentenced to die. The show visited different places and characters every week, making it nearly as much of an anthology show as The Twilight Zone.

This first volume of the series covers 15 episodes from the initial 1963-1964 season. Many fans dislike these piecemeal releases of their favorite shows, but with so many shows abandoned by studios due to poor sales, whatever works. And as long as the episodes continue to look as good as they do in this set, fans should be pleased. The Fugitive was filmed in glorious black and white (until its fourth season when it switched to color), and the mood it sets helps the storyline. The images are crisp and clear, especially for a program that is nearly 45 years old.

The show had wonderful guest stars, such as Brian Keith and Vera Miles in the first episode and Robert Duvall and Susan Oliver in the two-part "Never Wave Goodbye." Janssen himself won a Golden Globe for his role in the series, and was nominated three times for an Emmy.

The show, with its JFK-inspired hero, premiered a short time before Kennedy's assassination. It was appropriate, however, that The Fugitive showed us the dark side of America, of a place where innocent, good men were kept away from their families, their callings and from the lives they should have been able to lead. In many ways, America is still running to return to that time. For those that haven't forgotten and who hold the promise of what could have been, The Fugitive is a landmark, and a document of the journey.

More info: Homepage of the Hunted: The Unofficial Website of The Fugitive
The David Janssen Archive

High-Definition War Gets Nasty

Today's announcement by Paramount and DreamWorks that they will support the HD-DVD format in the high-def wars means a longer wait for fans who want to adopt one format without another in the market. The superiority of Blu-Ray in the marketplace (and in most critics' opinions) didn't stop Microsoft from throwing around $150 million to Paramount and DreamWorks for "promotional considerations" -- which is just doubletalk for a bribe.

Bill Hunt of The Digital Bits has summed up this development better than we can and we encourage everyone to read Bill's piece from today.

A few months ago, a friend asked me what the deal was with the high-def format war. I did my best to tell him and to explain why I thought Blu-Ray was the better of the two, and why market forces seemed to be favoring Blu-Ray, making HD-DVD the next BetaMax. But my friend said something interesting: He said "Which one does Microsoft support? Because whichever one Microsoft supports will win."

I don't think HD-DVD will end up winning, unless Microsoft can afford to buy off every movie studio in the world. Everyone is in this game to make money, but there's doubt that Microsoft is supporting HD-DVD because they believe in that product. Their interest is in the XBox Live download service, so it's logical that they want to keep the high-def market in flux as long as they can.

Tellingly, the announcement today from Paramount and DreamWorks does not include films by Steven Speilberg, whose film Close Encounters of the Third Kind was recently announced as coming to high-definition DVD -- on Blu-Ray. Perhaps Speilberg is just staying out of this ugly mess, or perhaps he doesn't believe in the format Paramount is adopting. It's entirely possible Paramount doesn't believe in it either, but $150 million is a lot of money to pass up when waved under your nose.

The losers in all this are the fans of movies and high-definition technology. As high-def widescreen televisions keep coming down in price, more and more people are able to enjoy them. But for the time being, it looks like they're going to get their high-def content from HD channels. Could this spell the eventual demise of the DVD format - high-def, standard or otherwise? Time will tell, of course, but killing the most popular consumer product ever is going to end up as blood on someone's shoes - and today Microsoft is holding the smoking gun.

More info: Paramount To Drop Blu-Ray
What is Blu-Ray?
HD-DVD

DVD Review: Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

Babylon 5 is one of the great science-fiction properties ever, right up there with Star Trek, Star Wars, (the new) Battlestar Galactica and others. The five-year run that Babylon 5 had on television is also a singular achievement in TV history - without its 110 episodes of a serialized novel for television, there might be no Lost or other must-tune-in-every-week shows.

A feature film seemed inevitable at some point, and one may yet be in the offing, but now comes what is likely the first in a series of "Lost Tales" DVD releases (in bonus features, reference is made to shooting "these DVDs"; this volume is subtitled "Voices in the Dark"). This one stars Bruce Boxleitner and Tracy Scoggins from the series and Peter Woodward from the spinoff Crusade. It's a mixed bag, really, with the first half of the program being a fairly generic supernatural possession story, and the second half a more satisfying adventure into the character of the show's lead.

Scoggins is back as Lochley, a character we never got to know very well in the show's fifth season, but who acquitted herself well into an already established series. She is thrust into determining a supernatural menace and calling for aid from the Catholic Church, which sends her a priest. Alan Scarfe has some nice moments as a skeptical, realistic man of the cloth. His commanding voice reminds us of appearances he made as a Romulan leader in Star Trek: The Next Generation. But there isn't enough of a personal stake in this part of the story, and Lochley simply shows herself to be the smart leader we already knew she was.

Boxleitner's return as John Sheridan comes off much better. Shown a vision of the future by Woodward's Galen, Sheridan confronts a question that has fascinated men for generations: If you could kill a genocidal maniac before he commits the terrible acts we know he will, would you? Boxleitner appears to relish the role and his time in it. He's the best thing about the entire program.

The show uses a lot of CGI effects, and technology has improved since the days of the show, which makes for some beautiful footage in space. Some of the interior shots fare less well, with the actors appearing to be standing or sitting in empty rooms, but that's a minor quibble and one as much due to a lack of camera movement as anything. But the station and the spacecraft have never looked better.

J. Michael Straczynski, creator of the show, wrote and directed, and his abilities are as strong as ever. Unlike Gene Roddenberry, who had less of a hands-on approach with Star Trek as the years went on, Straczynski has remained the driving force behind the show, and it remains very much his vision.

Hopefully, The Lost Tales will continue, and will explore the other great characters of the show - Londo, Lennier, Garibaldi, Marcus, Ivanova, Delenn and others, including the cast of Crusade, which was cancelled by TNT before it had a chance to develop. If The Lost Tales allows Crusade to wrap up in some fashion, it will make many fans happy. Of course, if a feature film ever happens and Straczynski can take advantage of a bigger budget and tell a more epic story, Babylon 5 may reach an even wider audience.

For now, though, this volume of The Lost Tales is a worthwhile effort, and a welcome visit to one of the great alternative universes of imagination.

More info: Babylon 5: Official Site
The Lurker's Guide To Babylon 5
Crusade: The TNT/JMS Saga