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TV on DVD: 'The Odd Couple: The First Season,' 'WKRP in Cincinnati: Season One,' 'The Drew Carey Show: First Season'
TV on DVD: 'The Odd Couple: The First Season,' 'WKRP in Cincinnati: Season One,' 'The Drew Carey Show: First Season'

'The Odd Couple: The First Season'

The special features in "The Odd Couple: The First Season" make the five-disc DVD set a sheer delight. They do extras the way extras should be done.

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The '70s smash sitcom posed the question, "Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?" and starred Tony Randall as the persnickety and hypochondriacal Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as the sportswriting slob Oscar Madison. The series was based on Neil Simon's play and award-winning film of the same name.

In addition to 24 first-season episodes, the set ($42.99, CBS Home Entertainment) includes quirky and obscure special features sure to thrill hard-core fans.

One extra is footage from Tony Randall's appearance on "The Mike Douglas Show" prior to "The Odd Couple's" Sept. 24, 1970, debut that included a push-up competition among Randall, Douglas and a dapper Pat Boone in a white pin-striped suit with torch singer Roberta Sherwood cheering them on.

Other fun special features include: an appearance by Randall and Klugman together on "The Mike Douglas Show" shortly after the series premiered; poignant conversation from a modern-day Klugman on his "Tony and Me" book tour and how important Randall's friendship was to him; footage from Klugman's 1971 Emmy win and Emmy speech; and footage from Klugman and Randall doing the stage play of "The Odd Couple" in 1993.

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The DVD set also includes audio introductions to each episode from television legend and series producer Garry Marshall, a gag reel, cast and crew commentary on select episodes, original network promos, and Klugman and Randall's four favorite episodes from the series' five-year run.

"The Odd Couple: The First Season" is simply a joy and sure to please true fans of the classic sitcom.

-- L.A. Johnson, Post-Gazette staff writer

'WKRP in Cincinnati: Season One'

If you've ever wondered whether the Thanksgiving episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati" holds up nearly 30 years after it first aired, the answer is yes, with a caveat.

Series creator Hugh Wilson has said that humor comes out of story, not out of jokes, and he demonstrated it here with a zany plot based on real-life happenings and punctuated with lines like "Why, those fools!" and "Oh, the humanity! The turkeys are hitting the ground like wet cement!"

The caveat: Whatever became of the great music? When the "Turkeys Away" episode aired, Pink Floyd's "Dogs" played in a scene between Arthur Carlson and Johnny Fever. But due to pricey licensing fees, that song doesn't remain the same and, because it was mentioned in the dialogue, much of the scene vanishes, too.

Even Jennifer Marlowe's doorbell chimes were too expensive -- "Fly Me to the Moon" is now "Beautiful Dreamer," and somehow less funny. Cheaper substitutes are scattered through the three-DVD set of WKRP's 22-episode first season ($39.98, Fox Home Entertainment). The set includes two audio commentaries and two featurettes.

If the tune changes could ruin the show for you, you might be better off borrowing the DVDs from a less discriminating friend next Thanksgiving. More into the words than the music? You still get Mr. Carlson's pitch-perfect kicker, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

-- Anita Srikameswaran,

Post-Gazette staff writer

'The Drew Carey Show: First Season'

Much as it pains a Pittsburgher to say it, Cleveland does in fact rock in the "Drew Carey Show Complete First Season" DVD set ($39.98, Warner Home Video).

First airing in the mid-1990s during the golden age of sitcoms that starred stand-up comedians, "The Drew Carey Show" was never as cerebral as "Seinfeld," as domestic as "Everybody Loves Raymond" or as dumb as "Home Improvement," but it was simply funny. Carey anchors the office-cubicle-set comedy as sort of a Rust Belt "Dilbert," centering a great ensemble cast of characters, most memorably the hilariously caustic Mimi Bobek (Kathy Kinney) and her garish dresses.

The four-disc set features 22 episodes and a pair of DVD extras -- a quick spoof called "1-900-MIMI" featuring Drew's office nemesis with the makeup-by-Earl Scheib as a late-night adult-phone-line mistress; and "Life Inside a Cubicle" a funny look at the genesis of the show and the casting, featuring Carey and co-stars Kinney, Diedrich Bader, Ryan Stiles and Christa Miller.

-- Dan Gigler, Post-Gazette staff writer

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