Our Take:
Let’s start with Robot Chicken: Season Three. I absolutely love this show. The only reason I didn’t give it it’s own review is because, after reviewing the first two seasons plus the Star Wars Special, I’ve simply run out of different ways to describe how freaking funny this show is! Seriously, if you haven’t caught on to it by now, I don’t know what else I can say to pique your interest. It’s subversive, politically incorrect, disturbing, and downright hysterical. Sure, old fashioned ultra-right wing conservatives should probably stay away from it, but anyone with a sense of humor that leans towards the slightly skewed should absolutely love this show.

As with all of the previous releases, Robot Chicken: Season Three comes absolutely packed with special features, including:

* Christmas Special

* Deleted Scenes

* Alternate Audio

* Commentaries

* Gag Reel

* Studio Tour

* Video Blogs

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Official Synopsis:

30 Rock: Season 2 (October 7) –

Relive the second season of the Primetime Emmy® Award-winning comedy 30 Rock, the show that the guy who writes stuff on DVD boxes calls “my current assignment” and that Gillian Flynn of Entertainment Weekly has named “simply the best TV.” Created by Golden Globe® and SAG Award winner Tina Fey, 30 Rock features Fey (as TV writer Liz Lemon), Golden Globe® and SAG Award winner Alec Baldwin (as corporate executive Jack Donaghy), Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski (as Lemon’s unpredictable stars, Tracy Jordan and Jenna Maroney) and Jack McBrayer (as the naive NBC page Kenneth Parcell). Co-workers and friends, they are all trying to balance work and life, with the inevitable result of failed relationships, disastrous parties, at-work drunkenness, hard-core coffee addiction, world-class sandwich eating and occasional attempts to chop down Christmas trees. Join in the behind-the-scenes fun with lots of exclusive content and all fifteen episodes of the acclaimed second season of 30 Rock from executive producer Lorne Michaels.

Our Take:
It took me a while to get into 30 Rock, but now that I’ve sat down and watched the show, I really enjoy it. I don’t know that this is the kind of show that you can fully appreciate after watching a single episode, but I don’t think it’s like Arrested Development, either, where you have to invest three years of your life into it in order to get the humor. This show is funny on so many different levels, and I think people with varied senses of humor can easily find different things to laugh at. The performances alone make the show worth watching; Tina Fey is a terrific lead, but Alec Baldwin and Jack McBrayer steal every scene they’re in.

Similar to the first DVD collection, 30 Rock: The Complete Second Season comes with an excellent array of special features. There’s some really top-notch stuff to be found here, making this one of the better extra feature collections I’ve seen on a TV show release in quite some time.

* Deleted Scenes.

* “Cooter” Table Read - The 30 Rock cast takes fans behind-the-scenes to watch and read along with their table read in preparation for the season finale episode.

* Tina Fey Hosts SNL! - A rare, behind-the-scenes look at Tina Fey as she prepares to host Saturday Night Live. This feature showcases the writing process, rehearsals and includes clips from the live broadcast.

* 30 Rock Live At The UCB Theater - The entire cast gathers at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City to do a live performance of the 30 Rock episode “Secrets and Lies.”

* The Academy Of Television Arts And Sciences Presents: An Evening With 30 Rock - Hear the cast discuss their characters and the show in this in-depth Q&A.

* Audio Commentaries - With Tina Fey, Jack McBrayer, Jane Krakowski, Scott Adsit, Judah Friedlander, producers John Riggi And Robert Carlock, producer/composer Jeff Richmond and Guest Stars Tim Conway, Will Arnett And Fred Armisen.

RECOMMENDED!

Official Synopsis:

My Name Is Earl: Season Three –

Life behind bars is a real pain in the butt. Just ask Earl, whose commitment to good karma has landed him in the Big House. His shackled hands are full - there's a gang war to stifle and a gala prison prom to plan. Even conjugal visit day is one big headache! With a pregnant ex-wife and a hilariously inept prison guard for a brother, Earl suffers a karmic crisis and finally goes over the top! Come visit Inmate 28301-016 and the rest of Camden County's losers, users and boozers in the outrageous, uproarious and always inappropriate Season Three of My Name Is Earl.

Our Take:

After the second season, I found My Name Is Earl growing a bit stale. And while the third season doesn’t live up to the sheer joy and zaniness that the first year brought us, I still found it a pretty fun ride. Two longer, more involved storylines shape the season: Earl’s imprisonment and Earl in a coma, wherein he creates a fantasy-sitcom world within his mind. Both storylines offer up a chance for us to see something different out of the show, sometimes working more than others. Where the show suffers a bit is when Randy takes over Earl’s list while Earl’s in the coma. While there are funny moments, Randy works best as a second fiddle, and not so much as a lead character. Still, overall the season was a lot of fun.

My Name Is Earl: Season Three includes the following extra features:

* Those Guys From Those Episodes: Creating the Characters.
* Under the Shell: The Mr. Turtle Commentary.
* Deleted Scenes.
* Gag Reel.

Official Synopsis:

Wings: The Seventh Season –

The outrageous sitcom Wings is back for Season Seven, with brothers Joe (Tim Daly) and Brian Hackett (Steven Weber) of Sandpiper Air, and their friends and co-workers of Tom Nevers Field. This season, Joe and Helen (Crystal Bernard) enjoy wedded bliss, but not for long, as Brian and Casey (Amy Yasbeck) burn down Helen's house, and the two couples have to live together. Plus, Roy (David Schramm) meets his son's new boyfriend, Fay (Rebecca Schull) announces she's getting hitched, and cab driver Antonio (Tony Shalhoub) looks for love in all the wrong places when he unknowingly dates a hooker! This 4-disc set includes all 26 Season Seven episodes, on DVD for the very first time. The little airport with the big laughs, Wings is back and funnier than ever.

Our Take:
I thought for sure that Wings: The Seventh Season was the final year of the show, but it turns out I was wrong. The show ran for eight seasons, which is a pretty amazing feat considering today’s television landscape. In this season, Thomas Haden Church left the show early on, but for the most part it’s business as usual. Joe and Helen got married at the end of last season, so that storyline is wrapped up in terms of the “Will they or won’t they” aspect of things. Of course, seeing the couple in married life does provide for some good laughs. This season, the show still manages to find some humor, but it’s clear that it was starting to wane. Haden Church’s departure left the show down a good dose of quirk, and while it’s still enjoyable, it’s easy to see why the eighth season was the last. There are no special features in this DVD set.

Official Synopsis:

The Munsters: The Complete Series (October 7) –

Reunite with the wacky and weird Munster clan: Herman, devoted dad and “working stiff”; Lily, the

homemaker with sass; Grandpa, a former Count who still loves to take a bite out of life; Marilyn, the “black sheep” of the family; and Eddie, a little boy who always loves to have a howling good time. It's spooky fun that everyone will be screaming about in the Golden Globe®-nominated adventures of the frighteningly funny family from Mockingbird Lane.

 
Our Take:

Finally, Universal has compiled a monstrous (sorry, I couldn’t help myself) collection with The Munsters: The Complete Series. This uber-box set includes all the contents of the first two season collections of the show, plus the two TV movies that were released separately, as well as the rare Family Portrait episode (which is also available as a separate disc for fans that already purchased all the other sets individually.) There’s really nothing in this set that hasn’t been available before (except for Family Portrait), so there’s not a lot to review, but the whole shebang is available for a pretty affordable price. It’s funny to me to think that The Munsters only lasted for two seasons, yet it’s so indelibly a part of the early television landscape, and it’s way more memorable than many shows that lasted a lot longer than it did. I always loved the show personally, and it seems that a lot of other people feel the same way as I do.

The bonus material included in the set consists solely of the movies and the extra episode, so technically there aren’t any great extra features in terms of making-of or commentaries, but it is cool to have everything in one place.

* Bonus Movies - Watch the full-length movies Munster, Go Home and The Munsters Revenge.

* Bonus Episode - Watch the television show “Family Portrait” – available for the first time in full color!

While Robot Chicken and 30 Rock shine the brightest in terms of both quality of show and top-notch extra features, every show reviewed here is a lot of fun, and every set is worth picking up. Wings: The Seventh Season is probably best reserved for fans of the show, but I think any of the other four sets can be enjoyed by just about anyone.

Overall Picture:
Show (Robot Chicken/30 Rock): A

Show: (Earl/Munsters): B

Show (Wings): C+
DVD (Robot Chicken/30 Rock): A

DVD (Earl/Munsters): B+

DVD (Wings): C

- Mike Spring

Editor