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Weird Al Show (The): The Complete Series
R1 - America - Shout! Factory Review written by and copyright: Roger Nicholl & Noor Razzak (1st September 2006). |
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The Film
 The Weird Al Show played on Saturday mornings from September to December 1997, and this 3-disc DVD set contains all 13 episodes. It was a kids show which Al hosted from the cave he lived in with his best friend Harvey the Wonder Hamster. There were numerous guest stars and a cast of recurring characters which included the Hooded Avenger, the guy boarded up in the wall, a psychic, a spy, and Al's Cousin Corky. Despite being ostensibly for kids, the show is good fun for anyone who likes wacky variety shows along the lines of Pee Wees Playhouse (1986-1991). For adult "Weird Al" fans, the show isn't pitched too low to be unwatchable, but there is an overabundance of hammered home moral lessons. To meet FCC requirements the show had to be educational. So Al has to learn a moral lesson in each episode. Unfortunately, that means he has to do something wrong, which means he acts like a bit of a crazy, unreasonable jerk in most of the episodes. I'll give you an example of a moral Al had to learn. In the episode Promises, Promises Al, trying to impress his John Tesh fanatic friends, lies to them by saying that he personally knows ˜The Tesh. They don't believe him so Al foolishly tells them that he'll get John Tesh to come to his cave to prove that he knows him. But to pay Tesh's $82,000 appearance fee he has to star in an infomercial (egged on by Tony Little and Ron Popeil, who believe he is the chosen one of infomercials). Afterwards Al feels lousy because he's become a big sell out. And worse, just when he's earned the $82,000 he has to give it all back as refunds because the merchandise was such junk. Oh, if only he'd just admitted to his friends that he didn't know John Tesh! If he hadn't let his need for pride cloud his judgment! While the need to have a moral message means that this isn't the all-out crazy show it probably would have been with no restrictions, I found the restrictions did kind of add to the fun. The show has the structure of a kid's TV show, but the humor is for adults (or maybe kidults). It almost has a theatre sport feel to it; they have to try and keep everything in the kid's show structure. Beyond the dubious education value of these moral lessons you don't get any facts shoved down your throat; there's even a character called Bobby the Inquisitive Boy who shows up every episode and demands to know about some random topic. But all Al does is show him a completely useless home movie and then shove him back out the door. The rest of the show is filled with random asides and segments; Al goes and watches TV every episode, which means things like fake movie trailers and even odder kid's shows. There are also fake commercials, and the occasional stunt by Harvey. Amongst all this are guest stars that would appeal to "Weird Al" fans; Michael McKean, Dr. Demento, Fabio, Dweezil Zappa, Fred Willard, Dick Clark (an executive producer on the show), Randy "Macho Man" Savage, and Tesh, who does appear in Promises, Promises. And one of the other fun bonuses of watching old variety shows is the forgotten musical guests (Immature, Radish, All 4 One). Being a segment-based show, not all the segments are of the same quality. The worst parts are the (fortunately very few) cartoons. There's theFatman series that features in about half of the episodes. It's a lame superhero spoof about Al transforming into a superhero who grows fat by eating a donut. It seems targeted at a much lower age group than the rest of the show. And then there's a one-off of Al as an actor in The Flinstones (1960-1966) who keeps flubbing his line. It doesn't work. The people who just like wacky TV shows that are aimed at kids in theory only, you might dig it too. Anyone else is probably not reading this any more.
Video
Presented in the show's original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1 fullscreen, this transfer was created off the original tape masters and are slightly better than broadcast quality, I found that the image was generally sharp and that colors were vibrant and well rendered, overall these isn't much to praise or even complain about, it is as good as we're likely to get.
Audio
Only one audio track is included for these episodes and that is the original broadcast English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track which holds up quite well, the dialogue is clear and distortion free the crazy sound effects and music all make use of the limited stereo range. This is a track that doesn’t blow one away but is more than suitable for this show. Unfortunately there are no subtitles featured on these episodes.
Extras
Shout! Factory have included on excellent audio commentaries on all 13 episodes, plus a series of animated storyboards and several galleries to keep you entertained. Below is a closer look at these supplements broken down per disc. What makes the DVD set well worth the purchase for "Weird Al" fans are the audio commentaries on all 13 episodes by Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, and producer Thomas F. Frank among others. They’re a mixture of bitterness, humor, and in-the-trenches-together reminiscences that recount the crazy demands from the network, their dismay at the heavy-handed underlining of jokes and moral lessons that was ordered, and the insane hours they worked. The commentaries and participants are broken down per disc below among the other extras found on those discs: DISC ONE: audio commentary on episode 1 “Bad Influence� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, and producer Thomas F. Frank. audio commentary on episode 2 “Promises, Promises� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, producer Thomas F. Frank and Judy Tenuta. audio commentary on episode 3 “Mining Accident� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, producer Thomas F. Frank and Emo Philips. audio commentary on episode 4 “Back to School� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, and producer Thomas F. Frank. Also on this disc are a series of animated "Fatman" storyboards for: - "Long Arm of the Law" which runs for 3 minutes 54 seconds and includes optional audio commentary by animators Keith Alcorn and Paul Claerhout and production artist Tim Hatcher. These are rough boards laying out each of the episodes and provide an cool look into the production of this animated segment for the show. I found the commentary interesting but at the end of the clip the track is cut off, don't be alarmed this is a gag...that continues on all the other tracks for these animated segments. - "Ice Cream, You Scream" runs for 3 minutes 55 seconds and also includes optional audio commentary by animators Keith Alcorn and Paul Claerhout and production artist Tim Hatcher. This is much of the same as the previous storyboard clip and the commentary is much of the same although this one is allowed to finish and is not cut off. The disc also includes "The Evolution of Fatman" an original concept art gallery that includes 37 images of sketches for the main character and also the other characters featured in the segment. We also have a show theme karaoke feature that runs for 1 minutes 12 seconds, the opening title plays out as the words scroll up the screen for you to sing along to. There are two versions one with ‘training wheels’ this features Al singing along with you or one without ‘training wheels’ which is just the music and Al does not sing along with you, for those that are adventurous enough to try it on your own. Rounding out the extras on this disc are a collection of bonus trailers that play at the start of the menu and can be skipped, these are for: - "Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Series" which runs for 1 minute 6 seconds. - "The Electric Company" which runs for 1 minute 20 seconds. - "The Super Mario Brothers: Super Show" which runs for 59 seconds - “SCTV� which runs for 1 minute 9 seconds. DISC TWO: audio commentary on episode 5 “Time Machine� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, producer Thomas F. Frank and Judy Tenuta. audio commentary on episode 6 “One For The Record Books� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, and producer Thomas F. Frank. audio commentary on episode 7 “Because I Said So� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, and producer Thomas F. Frank. audio commentary on episode 8 “Talent Show� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, producer Thomas F. Frank and Judy Tenuta. Same as the previous disc we get some more animated "Fatman" storyboards for: - "Legume of Doom" which runs for 3 minutes 49 seconds with optional audio commentary by animators Keith Alcorn and Paul Claerhout and production artist Tim Hatcher. They talk about tight deadlines and problems they had in completing these segments. - "Hello my Name is...Evil" runs for 5 minutes 55 seconds and yet again also includes optional audio commentary by animators Keith Alcorn and Paul Claerhout and production artist Tim Hatcher. Like the other tracks we get more of the same comments here. Rounding out the extras on this disc is a collection of "Set Design" concept art gallery that includes 12 images, all are sketches for the various set pieces and props used in the show. DISC THREE: audio commentary on episode 9 “Al Plays Hooky� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, producer Thomas F. Frank and Danielle Weeks. audio commentary on episode 10 “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Hamster� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, producer Thomas F. Frank and Emo Philips. audio commentary on episode 11 “The Competition� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, producer Thomas F. Frank and Judy Tenuta. audio commentary on episode 12 “The Obligatory Holiday Episode� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, producer Thomas F. Frank and Judy Tenuta. audio commentary on episode 13 “Al Gets Robbed� by �Weird Al� Yankovic, director Peyton Reed, and producer Thomas F. Frank. More animated "Fatman" storyboards are included on this final disc for: - "Googookachoo To You, Too" which runs for 3 minutes 48 seconds and as per usual also includes optional audio commentary by animators Keith Alcorn and Paul Claerhout and production artist Tim Hatcher. The participants joke around a bit but also add insight into this episode among other things. - "Changing the Lox" runs for 3 minutes 50 seconds, with optional audio commentary by animators Keith Alcorn and Paul Claerhout and production artist Tim Hatcher. More insight is given in this track, and it end yet again with the same gag just when they are about to tell you something important that Al told them while making these clips the track cuts off. The disc also features "Show Logos" concept art gallery that includes 19 images of the various logos created for the show. Finally we have a photo gallery which includes 52 images of photos taken on the set during production of Al and the other cast members in costume plus we get some photos of the set and some drawings as well. There will always be clunkers in a show like this, so it's not a big deal. All up, for �Weird Al� Yankovic fans this DVD set is worth a purchase, particularly when the commentaries are factored in. One thing that I learned which was quite interesting while listening to the commentaries is that they would have liked to include more extra materials on this DVD release but Dick Clark Productions which produced the show threw away a lot of material that was unrecoverable, which is sad considering it would have been cool to see unaired sequences or deleted scenes and perhaps even bloopers? Alas we may never get that chance.
Packaging
This 3 disc set is packaged in a 3-panel digi-pack case with a cardboard slip-cover
Overall
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