TV shows continue to make inroads in the world of DVD; here are several of the latest:
— "Gilmore Girls: The Complete First Season" (Warner, 2000-2001, not rated, $59.98, six discs). TV critic Scott Pierce has been telling me since this show premiered that I'd like it, but I've resisted watching because, well OK, I watch too many shows as it is. There I said it. So here comes the first-season box set, and now my wife and I are hooked.
As with most good shows, it's not just the perfomers here (though they're all great), or the "Ed"/"Northern Exposure"-style ambience and setting (a quirky small town near Hartford, Conn.) — it's primarily the writing. This is a witty, bright show about witty, bright people who are easy to like, and nearly every episode has something that is laugh-out-loud funny.
The focus is on the relationship between 32-year-old Lorelei (Lauren Graham) and her 16-year-old daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel), who are more like pals or sisters than mother-daughter. When Rory is accepted to snooty Chilton private school, Lorelei swallows her pride and makes peace with her wealthy parents (wonderfully played by Kelly Bishop and Edward Herrmann) to get help with the tuition. This opens the door for interference from her mother, from whom she's been estranged since she was 16 and pregnant with Rory.
There are also plenty of offbeat supporting characters, all played with charm, grace and humor. A great show . . . and just one more we'll have to add to our weekly list. (Curse you Scott Pierce!)
Extras: Full frame, 21 episodes, deleted scenes, making-of featurettes, pop-up trivia, etc.
— "Law & Order: The Second Year" (Universal, 1991-92, not rated, $59.98, three double-sided discs). This show's format, with law officers making an investigation and arrest in the show's first half, and then the lawyers taking over for prosecution in the second half, has led to so many spinoffs that I wouldn't be surprised to see the "Law & Order" cable network show up soon.
Season 2 is filled with solid episodes, and the show's cast turnovers had already begun. George Dzundza (whose character was killed off) left the show after one season as Christopher Noth's senior partner, replaced by Paul Sorvino, who also would last only one year. Jerry Orbach, who is still with the show, would begin his tenure in the third season, but shows up in this set's second episode as a defense attorney.
Other guest stars include Maura Tierney ("ER"), Allison Janney ("The West Wing"), Nancy Marchand ("The Sopranos"), William H. Macy, Jerry Stiller and Eli Wallach, and the subjects range from illegal immigration to racism to ethnic gangs.
If you can't get enough on NBC and TNT, here's a nice unexpurgated way to watch the show in chronological order.
Extras: Full frame, 22 episodes, making-of featurette, etc.
— "Samurai Jack: Season 1" (Warner, 2001, not rated, $29.98, two discs). Never having seen this show before, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I found it to be quite invigorating and often very funny. The art work is stylistic, and the stories are a combination of Japanse samurai films and B-movie outer-space sagas — primarily "Star Wars" (that film's famous cantina sequence is frequently referenced).
The title character does battle with the evil spirit Aku (voiced by veteran actor Mako) in the three-part pilot, then finds himself banished to futuristic worlds ruled by Aku, where Jack has various adventures in subsequent episodes with everything from a planet of talking dogs to a really zany episodic spoof of familiar fairy tales.
Inventive and wild, with imaginative use of color and split-screen work. Some episodes are better than others, but let's give this points for breaking new ground. Or, more correctly, for reinventing old ground.
Extras: Full frame, audio commentary, making-of featurette, animation test, original artwork, etc.
— "Bobby's World: The Scratch 'n' Sniff Episodes" (Anchor Bay, 1990, not rated, $9.98). Howie Mandel, who voices several characters, created this fast-paced Saturday-morning cartoon series about the title 4-year-old. The Show ran for eight seasons on the Fox network. Mandel hand-picked the five episodes here: "Uncle Ted's Excellent Adventure," "Bobby's Tooth or Dare," "Swim By Me," "Fish Tales" and "Jets, Choo Choos and Cars."
Extras: Full frame, scratch 'n' sniff card, five episodes, etc.
— "John Wayne: American Legend" (Image, 1998, not rated, $19.99). This 90-minute A&E biography, narrated by Richard Kiley, is a good, solid portrait that shows Wayne's rise from poverty to icon status — a station that transcends his legendary cinematic persona. As well as the expected film clips, his private life is explored, with interviews that include his widow Pilar Wayne, his son Patrick (who acted in many of his father's films), Wayne's co-stars Ron Howard, Angie Dickinson and Red Buttons, and many others.
Included as bonus features are 10-minute featurettes narrated by Robert Culp about four films Wayne made for 20th Century Fox, each narrated by Robert Culp.
Great fun for fans of the Duke.
Extras: Full frame, making-of featurettes on "The Big Trail," "North to Alaska," "The Comancheros" and "The Undefeated"; etc.
E-mail: hicks@desnews.com