Myerson, Alan

Picket Fences - Season 1

While Ally McBeal garnered more attention, Picket Fences garnered more acclaim. It was justified. Set in Wisconsin, the Emmy-winning drama plays like The Andy Griffith Show by way of The Commish. The focus is on small-town life from a law and order perspective. The action revolves around Sheriff Jimmy Brock (Tom Skerritt), his physician wife Jill (Kathy Baker), and their children, Kimberly (Holly Marie Combs), Matthew (Justin Shenkarow), and Zack (Adam Wylie). Storylines alternate between personal issues, like puberty and pre-marital sex, and criminal cases. As Matthew quips, "Things happen around here." At city hall, Jimmy works with officers Kenny (Costas Mandylor) and Max (Lauren Holly), dispatcher Ginny (Zelda Rubinstein), and coroner Carter Pike (Kelly Connell), who likes to exclaim, "Let me exhume the body!" Judge Henry Bone (Ray Walston) and attorney Douglas Wambaugh (Fyvush Finkel) dominate the courthouse. Cases include such tragi-comic crimes as a serial bather ("Frank, the Potato Man") and a cupid killer ("Be My Valentine"), but serious issues also come into play, such as assisted suicide ("Sacred Hearts") and incest ("Nuclear Meltdowns"). Unlike Twin Peaks, to which it was sometimes compared, Picket Fences could be heavy-handed, but piety never trumped entertainment, and Baker, Skerritt, Walston, and Finkel all won Emmys for their work.

Notable guests are a hallmark of every David E. Kelley production, from Chicago Hope to Boston Legal (and beyond). The first season attracted Carnivále's Michael J. Anderson ("Mr. Dreeb Comes to Town"), Evening Shade's Michael Jeter ("Frog Man"), and Man of La Mancha's Richard Kiley ("Thanksgiving"). The series also features one of the last of the old-fashioned orchestral scores, Stewart Levin's distinctive piano theme. Picket Fences ran for four seasons on CBS (when Kelley left between seasons three and four, ratings took a nosedive). Afterwards, Combs joined Charmed, Baker joined Kelley's Boston Public, and Holly joined NCIS. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 09/30/2008 Run time: 989 minutes Rating: Pg13

Joan of Arcadia - The First Season

An average 16 year old joan is going through the growing pains typical to any teenager after she & her family relocates to arcadia. Escept for one thing: joan has been getting visits from god. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 04/10/2007 Starring: Amber Tamblyn Joe Montegna Rating: Nr

Once in awhile a show comes along that breaks the mold. Most such programs fail, but Joan of Arcadia set out to do something new, beat the odds, and found an audience. Created by Barbara Hall (Judging Amy), it's a unique hybrid of My So-Called Life, The Commish, and--well, something different. Unlike CBS predecessor Touched by an Angel, faith creates more questions than answers (and God even has a sense of humor).

Joan (Amber Tamblyn) is an ordinary 16-year-old. Father Will (Joe Mantegna) is the local Arcadia police chief, mother Helen (Mary Steenburgen) is a teacher/administrator, younger brother Luke (Michael Welch) is a fellow student, and older brother Kevin (Jason Ritter, son of John Ritter) is a high school graduate who was paralyzed the year before. He used to be popular and athletic. Now he watches TV and builds models. In the pilot, God speaks to Joan for the first time, as a cute boy, and asks her to get a job. Once she's convinced He's really God, she does. Her action inspires Kevin to get one, too, and his process of rejoining the world begins.

As in Joan Osborne's theme song, "One of Us" (featured on two episodes), God will continue to appear to Joan in a variety of guises--even as a dog walker who looks like Russ Tamblyn (Amber's father). He'll often ask her to do things that make her uncomfortable, but she'll always learn from the experience and some good will always come from it. Unfortunately, she isn't able to talk to anyone about this or they'd think she was crazy, not even friends Grace (Becky Hahlstrom) or Adam (Christopher Marquette). By the season finale, faith will be replaced by doubt, setting the scene for the second season, in which Joan's faith will be restored. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Joan of Arcadia - The Second Season

For two years, CBS's Joan of Arcadia managed the neat trick of warming the heart, while keeping the gag reflex at bay. And for a family drama based around faith--and the lack thereof--preachiness was always in short supply. At the end of the first season, Joan (Amber Tamblyn) decides it's all in her head: God isn't really speaking to her. Over the summer, she attends a camp for troubled kids, and now she makes lamps. Her boyfriend, Adam (Christopher Marquette), is as confused as ever; he was just starting to believe her. While Joan questions God's existence, her mother, Helen (Mary Steenburgen), plans a return to the Catholic Church. To that end, she starts meeting with chain-smoking former nun Lilly (Constance Zimmer, Boston Legal) to help with her confirmation. Joan's father, Will (Joe Mantegna), older brother Kevin (Jason Ritter), and Helen must also contend with the lawsuit filed by the boy who caused Kevin's accident, while Joan's younger brother, Luke (Michael Welch), continues to see the surly Grace (Becky Wahlstrom) in secret.

New Arcadia arrivals include Will's controlling boss, Lucy (Annie Potts), Joan's "crazy camp" friend, Judith (Sprague Grayden), and enigmatic do-gooder Ryan (Wentworth Miller, Prison Break), who shares Joan's gift. Despite critical kudos and respectable ratings, Joan of Arcadia wasn't picked up for a third season, but its spirit lives on in such disparate shows as Medium, in which a woman communicates with the dead, and My Name Is Earl, in which a man goes around doing good deeds. This six-disc set features commentary by creator Barbara Hall, producer James Hayman, and writer Stephen Nathan. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Millions of people speak to God. What if God spoke back? Life just got a hell of a lot more confusing for teenage Joan Girardi who already deals with feeling out of place in her family : her police chief father her somewhat overbearing mother her geeky younger brother and former football star older brother now paralyzed. They'd never believe her if she told them that God is talking to her. Does Joan have a higher purpose on earth or are these strange conversations just in her head?Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097368889644 Manufacturer No: 888964

Knight Rider - Season Two

Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 05/23/2006 Run time: 1173 minutes

No one in the 1980s had his finger on the pulse of gizmo-crazy adolescent boys like producer Glen Larson, creator of Battlestar Galactica and Manimal. But the peak of Larson's particular genius has to be Knight Rider, the love story of an absurdly handsome man and his absurdly indestructible car. Former detective Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff, later to achieve worldwide media dominance with Baywatch) zooms across the U.S. in K.I.T.T., a supercharged talking Trans Am with an impenetrable shell and the catty voice of William Daniels (St. Elsewhere). From the Las Vegas desert to the Louisiana bayou, Michael and K.I.T.T. solve crimes and help the downtrodden with the aid of a multi-million-dollar corporation run by dapper Devon Myles (Edward Mulhare) and mechanic/secretary/nanny April Curtis (Rebecca Holden, who took over from Patricia McPherson for the second season only).

The first season was goofy camp from the start, but the second turned even more giddily ridiculous: K.I.T.T. developed supersensors, telekinesis, and the ability to drive on water; plots included amnesia, super attack helicopters, a desperately needed transplant for a sick girl, and a supremely cheesy evil-twin storyline featuring Garthe Knight, son of the multimillionaire who gave Michael his identity-changing facial surgery, played by Hasselhoff with a mustache, soul patch, and even more luxuriant hair. In one episode, Michael goes "undercover" as the lead singer of a rock band, allowing Hasselhoff to flaunt his beloved-in-Germany vocal stylings. Of special note is an episode featuring Geena Davis (future Oscar-winner for The Accidental Tourist) as the daughter of a cat burglar, perhaps the only episode with a love interest as cartoonishly good-looking as Hasselhoff himself. This is definitive trash television, the kind of empty calories that, for some viewers, are irresistibly tasty. For Knight Rider fans, Season Two is a feast. --Bret Fetzer

Knight Rider--Season Two Trivia
• Although David Hasselhoff plays both Michael and Garthe Knight in one of the episodes in this season, he is only credited on-screen for playing Michael.
• For this season, Rebecca Holden plays April Curtis, KITT's new technician. She was brought in after Patricia McPherson (Bonnie) pushed the show's writers and producers to give her character more to do, possibly including a romance with Michael. Although April was not unpopular, many fans missed Bonnie and wrote in to ask for the character to return, which she eventually did at the start of the third season.
• The writers were torn between two songs to use for Garthe Knight's theme - "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Gimme Shelter," both by the Rolling Stones. The episode uses "Gimme Shelter".
• When avoiding pursuers, K.I.T.T. rotates its license plate, James Bond style, from KNIGHT to KNI 667.
• The producers toyed with the idea of making K.I.T.T.'s water-driving ability a reoccurring function, but it was dropped due to it proving to costly.

Crime Story - Season Two

When the first season of Crime Story ended spectacularly in the Nevada desert, it was anyone's guess what season 2 would do for an encore. With low first-season ratings and conservative watchdogs complaining about its violence, the show received a surprise renewal that necessitated the "miraculous" return of mob-boss Ray Luca (Anthony Denison) and his dimwit sidekick Pauli Taglia (played by former Chicago burglar John Santucci). Moving from 10:00 p.m. Fridays to a new 10:00 p.m. Tuesday-night timeslot on NBC, the Michael Mann-produced series continued its ratings decline, and this lent the series a giddy, go-for-broke quality that held plenty of surprises. The year is 1966, and Chicago Police Lt. Mike Torello (Dennis Farina) and his close-knit Major Crimes Unit continues to track Luca's criminal activities in Las Vegas, where additional complications fueled a number of dynamic, stand-alone episodes, beginning with season opener "The Senator, the Movie Star and the Mob," guest-starring Kevin Spacey (in his first major TV role) and Jenny Wright (Near Dark) in a sordid, mob-connected plot with obvious parallels to Bobby Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. This established the neon-lit, casino-and-nightclub milieu of the season, and Luca's reappearance set the season in volatile motion.

The series' daring, pulp-fictional style attracted an impressive array of guests stars and newcomers, some of whom (like 24's Dennis Haysbert) would later appear in Michael Mann's films. Ted Levine (The Silence of the Lambs) reprises his role as burglar-turned-rocker Frank Holman; Margaret Avery (The Color Purple) and NYPD Blue's James McDaniel are superb in the racial-tension plot of "Seize the Time"; Laura San Giacomo (sex, lies, and videotape) aces her role as Luca's former flame in "Protected Witness"; and Elias Koteas delivers a fine performance in "Roadrunner," an exciting road-thriller episode that showcases Farina's skill with hardboiled comedy. (For the record, other noteworthy guest stars include Pam Grier, David Hyde Pierce, Billy Zane, David Soul, Steven Weber, Michael Jeter, and recurring performances by Andrew Dice Clay and Rolling Stone editor Jann S. Wenner.) "Pauli Taglia's Dream" is an outrageous experiment in all-out delirium, focusing on Santucci's scene-stealing character and providing a wacky lead-up to the season's climactic story arc, which leads Luca and Torello to their ultimate showdown in an unspecified Latin American country full of corruptible drug-trade politicians.

Of course, any innovative series has a few drawbacks: The violent shootouts turn somewhat redundant as the season progresses, and while Torello's gun-toting crew is brought to life by a perfect supporting cast (Bill Smitrovich, Ray Butler, Steve Ryan, and a young Bill Campbell), there was never enough time (or episodes) to properly develop their characters. The turncoat betrayal of lawyer David Abrams (superbly played by Stephen Lang) is never fully convincing (you just know he's not a bad guy), and when Crime Story's cancellation inevitably came to pass, the final-episode cliffhanger of "Going Home" (broadcast May 10, 1988) left frustrated fans with unanswered questions and nowhere else to go. It's especially regrettable, then, that this four-DVD set offers no extras whatsoever. The fact that Farina, Denison, Mann, and series cocreators Chuck Adamson and Gustave Reininger were not invited to do audio commentaries represents a missed opportunity of epic proportions. We can be grateful, however, that the series' pop-music soundtrack (chosen by the great Al Kooper, credited as "Guy Who Picks Music for the Show") remains intact and unchanged as an essential ingredient to one of the best TV shows of the 1980s. --Jeff Shannon

It was hailed for its realism, condemned for its violence and ended with a climax that shocked millions. Though it lasted only two seasons, fans and critics still consider CRIME STORY to be one of the most uncompromising and influential action dramas in television history. In this stunning final season, obsessed lawman Mike Torello and his street tough strike force pursue mob kingpin Ray Luca from the neon battleground of Las Vegas to the corrupt killing fields of Latin America. Experience the explosive closing chapters of the acclaimed crime epic that New York Newsday calls "A genuine work of art... a masterpiece in a classic genre"

Ellen - The Complete Season Four

The first TV vehicle for the many talents of comedienne Ellen DeGeneres came in the form of the half-hour sitcom ELLEN. The show lasted for four years and firmly established DeGeneres in the hearts and minds of the American public. Ellen played a bookstore employee who regularly has to deal with her irritating parents her best friends Paige (Joely Fisher) and Adam (Arye Gross) and a variety of other colorful characters. This release contains the entire fourth season of the show.System Requirements:Running Time 540 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 733961758313 Manufacturer No: AAE-75831

Ellen: The Complete Season Four includes a significant moment in television history: the first time the central character in a situation comedy stepped out of the closet and announced she was gay. The widely-seen "The Puppy Episode Part 1" and "Part 2," closely followed by "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah," were among the final episodes that season. All dealt movingly and comically with the anxiety Ellen Morgan (Ellen DeGeneres) experiences as she tells her friends, parents, and the world she is gay, a distress quickly washed away by relief. Helping celebrate the event are a number of famous faces in co-starring or cameo roles, including Oprah Winfrey as Ellen's therapist, Laura Dern as a gay woman who helps Ellen come to terms with the truth, Billy Bob Thornton as a grocery clerk in a nutty dream, Bonnie Raitt, k.d. laing, Gina Gershon and others. Part of the fun of watching the 25 episodes on The Complete Season Four are discovering little signs along the way that DeGeneres is planning something big, including a sight gag where Ellen literally steps out of a closet. But there are other tumultuous (yet funny) storylines unfolding in Season Four, including Ellen's agonizing decision to sell her bookstore in order to raise money to buy a house. Ellen remains as manager, working for an executive (Bruce Campbell) who takes over her office with hunting trophies and a desire to cut dead weight—namely Joe (David Anthony Higgins), the attitude-impaired clerk whom Ellen considers a friend. Meanwhile, cousin Spence (Jeremy Piven) navigates a competitive medical residency while romancing Paige (Joely Fisher), and squeaky-voiced Audrey (Clea Lewis) becomes infatuated with a deaf actor who is more attracted to Ellen. Between these big strokes, however, is an endless stream of DeGeneres' hilarious takes on the simplest things: brushing teeth, waiting to get to the bathroom, drinking too much at a wine-tasting party. An heir to Lucille Ball, DeGeneres is also enough of an actress to convey real angst and sorrow when Ellen's parents announce a breakup, or when hopes for love fall through. One gets it all here: great comedy and emotional truth. --Tom Keogh

Hunter - The Complete First Season

NewsRadio - The Complete Fourth Season

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 06/20/2006 Run time: 480 minutes

With the departure of Khandi Alexander in the seventh episode, the radio-station sitcom became looser and wackier as the season went on. No new costar was immediately brought in, allowing other actors to do more, especially Phil Hartman as WNYX's blowhard anchor, Bill McNeil. Hartman rises to the challenge in his last season; he tragically died before the start of season 5. Bill gets to be boss for a day, works on his lounge act, interviews a jumper (fellow SNL alum Jon Lovitz, his second go-around on the show), tries to prove he can tell jokes, seeks adoption, and invents interviews with celebrities. The penultimate 22-epoisode fourth season starts off with a goody-two-shoes efficiency expert played by future Gilmore Girl Lauren Graham raising havoc: Matthew (Andy Dick) is fired (but still hangs around the station), Lisa (Maura Tierney) takes over as manager, and Dave (Dave Foley) winds up as Bill's producer. When the expert leaves, things return to relatively normal with episodes on the new security system, owner Mr. James's (Stephen Root) ballooning adventure, Joe (Joe Rogan) showing his Ultimate Fighting persona, Beth (Vicki Lewis) going British for a charity auction, and the annual fantasy-episode placing the station on the Titanic. The show seemed ready to hit the mainstream by the end of the season, even introducing a new character, Mr. James's hunk nephew (Brad Rowe) who short circuits the office romances (Dave and Lisa are still apart, despite the "help" of others). Alexander certainly didn't have enough to do on the show, but her final episode is the season's best. When she quickly states she's leaving and runs out the door, everyone has a different version of what happened, played out with hilarious results. As before, the DVD set has commentary roundtables on a few key episodes and 20 minutes of knee-slapping bloopers. --Doug Thomas

Diagnosis Murder - The Third Season

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 12/04/2007

NewsRadio - The Complete First & Second Seasons

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 09/20/2005 Run time: 660 minutes Rating: Nr

With its shaky five-season tenure (1995-99) including a dozen different time slots and only one major Emmy nomination, the outstanding NewsRadio is the atypical sitcom of its age. While most of the '90s sitcoms were based around a single big name talent (Jerry Seinfeld, Candice Bergen, Drew Carrey), NewsRadio came from the same stock from earlier shows Taxi and Cheers: a relatively unknown cast that rarely ventured away from the place of business. These first 29 episodes (7 as a mid-season replacement the first year), deliver a consistently hilarious show about the day-to-day life with the eccentric staff of New York radio station WNYX. Creator Paul Simms (The Larry Sanders Show) built a talented cast relying on expert delivery and character traits instead of goofy situations. The most famous cast member, Saturday Night Live's Phil Hartman, went against the grain of most SNL veterans and gleefully took a supporting role, the pompous, silver-tongued anchor Bill McNeal. The lead--the glue--of the series is Kids in the Hall member Dave Foley as the earnest new station manager, Dave Nelson. Soft but eager, Nelson plays lion-tamer delicately maneuvering around staff to keep the station humming along. This is complicated from the get-go when he falls into a secret, but very cute affair with Lisa (Maura Tierney), the ace reporter.

The station, like Mary Tyler Moore's TV crew two decades earlier, has a good balance between funny folks and just plain whackos. The former includes Stephen Root as the rich yet time-crunched owner, Joe Rogan as the fix-it man, and Khandi Alexander as Bill's tart co-anchor. The latter is embodied in Andy Dick as the helpless Matthew, a sublime airhead whose comic highjinks are often the show's hardest laughs, and Vicki Lewis, continuing the famous TV tradition of the lovable ditzy secretary that knows all. But the legacy of the show belongs to Hartman who tragically died after the fourth season. His comic bravura is balanced with the ability to play the fool. In one perfect scene, Lisa walks by with only a bra on (don't ask) and Bill doesn't move, reading his newspaper. Lisa returns to slap him anyway, shocking him. "I didn't say anything." Lisa retorts, "You were thinking it" and walks away. Hartman eases into a juicy, soft smile and returns to reading, "Well, that's fair."

If you're not a fan of commentary tracks, you won't find the love and care that went into this DVD set. There are commentaries on 20 of the 27 episodes with the cast and crew rotating duties. The nice thing about a cast full of comics is that the commentaries are very funny and rewarding for fans. We hear about the casting of the show, Foley's uncanny ability to memorize a script, the art of the archaic reference, and how the fix-it man was--for the half the pilot--Ray Romano. But if you don't have time for the commentaries, watch and laugh hard at the 10-minute (!) gag reel. --Doug Thomas