Storm, Howard

Perfect Strangers - The Complete First and Second Seasons

Welcome to Chicago Balki Bartokomous! The professional sheepherder from the tiny island of Mypos won't find many woolly quadrupeds in the Windy City but he will find pop-top soda cans. Singles bars. Color TV. Mobsters. Game shows. Pink lemonade (how'd they get pink lemons?). And many more modern oddities sure to amaze the man from Mypos. Bronson Pinchot portrays Balki and Mark Linn-Baker plays his stateside cousin and long-suffering roommate in Perfect Strangers the hilarious culture-clash comedy that delighted fans for eight hit seasons with its mix of slapstick and insight. Should you miss a single laugh in this complete 28-episode 4-disc Season One/Two collection? Don't be ridikalus!Running Time: 700 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 085391201380 Manufacturer No: 1000027496

Relying on the tried-but-true odd-couple set up, Perfect Strangers focuses on the comical lives of Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) and Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot). Larry is an uptight American who has moved away from his family's Wisconsin home for his own apartment in Chicago. His life is changed forever when his childlike cousin Balki--a sheepherder from the fictional island of Mypos--shows up on his doorstep with the goal of becoming a U.S. citizen. A hit sitcom for ABC that ran from 1986 to 1993, Perfect Strangers offers some heartwarming storylines, a few laughs, and some genuine chemistry between the two leads. The first few years of the comedy are among the show's best, as Larry and Balki get accustomed to each other's ways. Linn-Baker plays the straight man who sets Pinchot up to deliver the best lines. While Pinchot definitely has the showier "fish out of water" part--and "Don't be ridiculous!" tag line that became a catchphrase for a year or two--Linn-Baker creates the more relatable character. He's working in a small shop, but his dream is to become a photojournalist. The show actually does a nice job of making sure Larry never loses sight of his goals, even as Balki is dragging him from one adventure to another. The four-disc DVD set includes all six episodes from the first mini season, as well as 22 episodes from the show's second full season. Other than a "Dance of Joy" extra--which includes a montage of dance clips from the first two seasons--there are no special featurettes. Fans of high definition may be disappointed by the video transfer, which clearly dates the series. At its worst, Perfect Strangers is an outdated show that isn't as funny as it thinks it is. But at its best, it projects giddy innocence and is easy viewing. Flash-forward to 2005 when Pinchot is throwing himself at Janice Dickinson on the reality series The Surreal Life: Now that's not easy to watch. --Jae-Ha Kim

Once Bitten

A horny vampiress goes on the prowl for young virgin males. Since she has to find them in modern-day Los Angeles she has quite a problem.System Requirements:Starring: Lauren Hutton Jim Carrey Cleavon Little Karen Kopins Directed By: Howard Storm Running Time: 93 Min. Color Copyright 2003 MGM Studios.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 027616888556 Manufacturer No: 1004828

This is the movie that was supposed to make Jim Carrey a star--in 1985, no less. Perhaps it's no wonder that it took him until the 1990s (and In Living Color): this bloodless vampire comedy almost sank his movie career before it began. Carrey plays an innocent L.A. teen, the unlikely object of the affections of slinky Lauren Hutton, a long-lived vampire who needs the blood of a virgin to stay young. So, she woos the unsuspecting, naive young Valley guy. But most of the jokes fall flat, and only when Carrey cuts loose briefly and lets his wild side show do we get a glimpse of the future Ace Ventura. --Marshall Fine

Taxi - The Complete First Season

Hail, Taxi. It's great to finally have one of the defining sitcoms of the 1970s available on DVD to take out for a spin. This character-driven humane comedy from the creators of The Mary Tyler Moore Show rolled out of the garage with a full tank of gas: a lightning-in-a-bottle ensemble, smart, witty, and compassionate writing, and extraordinary characters. The Sunshine Cab Company was a much grittier workplace than the sunny WJM newsroom. Its down, but never out employees--single mother Elaine (Marilu Henner), aspiring actor Bobby (Jeff Conaway), hapless boxer Tony (Tony Danza), reptilian dispatcher Louis (Danny DeVito), naive rube John (Randall Carver), and indeterminately foreign mechanic Latka (comic iconoclast Andy Kaufman)--struggled to keep rolling along. Judd Hirsch's salt-of-the-earth cabbie Alex Rieger solved everyone's problems but his own. Half hours don't get more moving than the Humanitas Prize-winning episode, "Blind Date," in which Alex tries to befriend an embittered overweight woman, or funnier than "High School Reunion," in which Bobby impersonates Louie at Louie's reunion to impress his mean former classmates.

Along for the ride in this Emmy-winning first season are a pre-MagnumTom Selleck and Mandy Patinkin ("Memories of Cab 804") and life force Ruth Gordon, who was honored with an Emmy for her performance as one of Alex's most memorable fares ("Sugar Mama"). The poignant episode "Paper Marriage" features Christopher Lloyd as burn-out Reverend Jim, who would join the ensemble in season 2. Regrettably, this three-disc set is a stripped down model, with no commentary or interviews. But there is nothing hack about Taxi itself. This is "must-own" television fare. --Donald Liebenson

Set in New York City, TAXI follows a group of cab drivers of the Sunshine Cab Company through the daily but far from ordinary routine as cabbies. The sitcom features a multitude of extroverted persons such as a frustrated actor, strained boxer, ex-hippie and cynical dispatcher.

Taxi - Seasons 1-3

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: TAXI
Title: SEASONS 1-3
Street Release Date: 09/13/2005
Domestic
Genre: TELEVISION

Taxi - The Complete Second Season

Set in New York City, TAXI follows a group of cab drivers of the Sunshine Cab Company through the daily but far from ordinary routine as cabbies. The sitcom features a multitude of extroverted persons such as a frustrated actor, strained boxer, ex-hippie and cynical dispatcher.

Taxi - The Complete Third Season

From the melancholy opening notes of the theme song, Taxi promised to be a different kind of sitcom, epitomized by the show's central character, Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsch, Ordinary People): down to earth and compassionate, with neuroses that smacked of real life and not the forced zaniness of too many television shows. Alex was the conscience and emotional caretaker of a makeshift family of cab drivers working out of a grungy garage in New York City, run by the domineering Louis De Palma (Danny DeVito, who would go on to be a bigger star than the rest of the cast in movies like Get Shorty and Batman Returns). Taxi didn't always maintain a degree of realism--if you haven't seen it in a long time, you may be surprised by some of the cornier jokes and bits of slapstick--but at its best, the show managed to merge sadness and humor into rich and satisfying stories.

The third season has many standout episodes. Alex learns that his daughter is getting married but hasn't invited him to the wedding, which leads to a surprisingly sparky confrontation with his ex-wife (guest start Louise Lasser, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman). When single mom Elaine (Marilu Henner) is embarrassed by meeting a more successful high-school friend in her cab, she lies to save face and Alex steps in to back her up. Aspiring boxer Tony (Tony Danza, Who's the Boss?) can't decide how to tell Elaine that her new boyfriend made a pass at him. Tony's sister (guest star Julie Kavner, the voice of Marge on The Simpsons) falls in love with the addled but affable Jim (Christopher Lloyd, Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit), much to Tony's dismay. Also crucial to the show's success was the oddball presence of Andy Kaufman, whose quirky, unspecifically-Eastern-European mechanic Latka Gravas sometimes made an awkward fit with the rest of the ensemble. But even at his most eccentric, Kaufman was always weirdly watchable, especially in his bizarre, season-closing transformation into the loungy Vic Ferrari. All in all, the third season is an excellent sampling of this sterling sitcom. Sadly, there are no commentaries or other extras. --Bret Fetzer

Set in New York City, TAXI follows a group of cab drivers of the Sunshine Cab Company through the daily but far from ordinary routine as cabbies. The sitcom features a multitude of extroverted persons such as a frustrated actor, strained boxer, ex-hippie and cynical dispatcher.

Once Bitten (1985) / Vampire's Kiss (1989) (Totally Awesome 80s Double Feature)

Once BittenThe Countess has a problem. She is a 400 year old vampire who will cease to look young unless she is able to feed on a virgin three times before Holloween a week away. She sends Sebastian her servant and all of her lesser vampires out to find one. Finding a virgin is difficult in Los Angeles. Mark has a problem. He wants to 'do it' with Robin in the worst way but she wants to wait. Jamie and Russ Mark's goofy friends convince him to go to a Hollywood pick up spot where Mark meets the Countess on the prowl. Robin's not going to understand.Vampire's KissA publishing executive is visited and bitten by a vampire and starts exhibiting erratic behavior. He pushes his secretary to extremes as he tries to come to terms with his affliction. The vampire continues to visit and drink his blood and as his madness deepens it begins to look as if some of the events he's experiencing may be hallucinations.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR UPC: 027616081681 Manufacturer No: M108168

Too Close for Comfort - The Complete First Season

Following the everyday exploits of a couple whose grown daughters lie directly downstairs, Too Close For Comfort marked the triumphant series television return of Ted Knight (Mary Tyler Moore Show) as father and cartoonist Henry Rush. The popular series also stars Nancy Dussult, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Lydia Cornell, J.M. J. Bullock, and Audrey Meadows.

Pilot Episode
It Didn't Happen One Night
The Bag Lady
Sara's Monroe Doctrine
Que Sara, Sara
Tenants Anyone?
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolfe?
Mr. Big
The Location
A Friend in Need
A Fine Romance
The Boy in the Band
Deadline for Henry
Huey
Centerfold
What's Wrong with Mr. Right?
Up Your Easter Bonnet
Cosmic Cow vs. The Oval Office
The Return of Rafkin

Rhoda

Mr. Belvedere