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Ever since his 1983 self titled breakthrough
album, “Weird Al” Yankovic has been unsurpassed as a proven
purveyor of parody. We've all seen a Weird Al film clip played at some
point (remember the Star Wars Prequel
parody a few years back?) and he has recieved a string of Grammy awards
(do they give them out on entry?) so, unfortunately, his 1997
television series was a cosmic inevitability.
The Weird Al Show - The Complete Series
pulls together all 13 episodes in one expansive 3-DVD box set. It
includes all of Yankovic’s signature warped comedy, originally
ripped off songs, TV and movie spoofs, some clever animation and a
cavalcade of guest stars including Michael McKean (This Is Spinal Tap), Drew Carey and the always hilarious Fred Willard from Best In Show.
First things first when sitting down to watch this
DVD is realising that - it is - a kid's program. A Saturday morning
kid's program, aimed squarely at Saturday morning kids. So the jokes
are fairly forced and overtly colourful and there's a healthy dose of
'educational information' mixed in for good measure.
Now, I don't know about you - but I was always a
"Calafornia Dreams", "Hang Time", and "Saved By The Bell" Saturday
morning child. So even as a kid, this may have all been a bit to much,
for no other reason than the whole idea of a rather creepy looking
Weird Al living by himself in a cave. The last time I ever saw anything
like that on TV was when they were arresting the child molester Mr.
Baldy.
But just as I was prepared to give up on the show
and 'it's high sugar - low value', I thankfully decided to switch over
to the audio commentary. Never in my many years of watching DVD's
inside and out have I ever seen a Commentary - that not only goes for
the entire 13 episode run - but openly shit cans their own show. It's
utterly bizzare - from their disgust with their US network fiddling
with every aspect of the show, to thier general dislike of the jokes -
not even the look of the Cave set is safe from a verbal bashing. It
bewilders me as to why they would bother putting in so many hours of
commentary work on something they hate. Most artist tend to shy away
from their disasters (Kylie Minouge and "Lucky", John Farham and
"Sadie", Hotdogs from Big Brother and his entire career..) but good ol'
Weird Al is happy to leave nothing out.
There are a few redeaming aspects of the show
including the "Fatman" cartoon, random guest appearance from Fabio,
John Tesh, Jeopardy host Alex Trebek and the teeny bopper king's of the
late 90's - Hanson.
It was meant to be a new "Pee Wee's Playhouse",
but instead turned into a self confessed "Weird Al's Shit House" - but
thankfully, that's where all the fun begins!
EXTRAS
Mr. Weird has really gone into overdrive on this
DVD package. With 13 commentaries from Al and the Cast & Crew, an
intrguing "Evoloution of Fatman" featurette, Animated storyboards from
"Fatman" and of course a few Karaoke tracks. If the show was a little
bit better, this would no doubt be a superb DVD package - but as it
stands - it's best for the Weird Al fans and those under the age of
three.
Conclusion:
Movie 60% Extras: 50%
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