All A&E Titles

Pride and Prejudice - The Special Edition (A&E, 1996)

The timeless themes of love and marriage in Jane Austen's superb romantic comedy Pride and Prejudice have captured readers for generations - the novel has sold more than 20 million copies and has never been out of print. Now A&E and the BBC have brought this beloved classic to life in a compelling production directed by Upstairs Downstairs' Simon Langton. This stunning production captures the celebrated beauty of the English countryside and its glorious stately manors. It features lavish costumes and an exquisite soundtrack from noted composer Carl Davis.Pride and Prejudice is the story of the lively and rebellious Elizabeth Bennet one of five unmarried daughters living in the countryside of 19th Century England. IN a world where obtaining an advantageous marriage is a woman's sole occupation Elizabeth's independent manner threatens her family's future. Will her romantic sparring with the mysterious and arrogant Darcy end in misfortune - or will love's true nature prevail?System Requirements:Starring: Jennifer Ehle Colin Firth David Bamber Crispin Bonham-Carter Anthony Calf Anna Chancellor Susannah Harker Julia Sawalha Alison Steadman Benjamin Whitrow. Directed By: Simon Langton. Running Time: 310 Minutes Color. This Film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2001 A&E Television Networks. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 733961702545 Manufacturer No: AAE-70254

Jane Austen's classic novel of 1813, Pride and Prejudice, still wins the hearts of countless schoolgirls with its romantic story of Elizabeth Bennet and her Mr. Darcy. Now, the 1996 BBC miniseries is winning over adults, with its faithful adaptation, gorgeous scenery, and superb acting.

The essence of the story is the antagonism between Mr. Darcy, a wealthy single man who believes Elizabeth to be beneath him, and Elizabeth, who upon being insulted at a dance by the aloof Darcy refuses to associate with him in any manner. Austen evokes incredible tension with the wit and flirtation of the two characters, and director Simon Langton (who also directed Upstairs Downstairs) successfully translates the repartee and conflict in this six-hour miniseries. Dialogue, for the most part, is painstakingly replicated, except when fleshing out and smoothing for modern sensibilities was necessary. Darcy, for instance, is drawn out, giving his personality significantly more depth. The acting sweeps you away to Regency England: Jennifer Ehle (of Wilde) is convincing as the obstinate Elizabeth, who, despite her mother's attempts to marry her off, spurs the attentions of Darcy. And Colin Firth (of The English Patient) will have women everywhere longing for a Mr. Darcy of their own.

For those who have been on an Austen binge--enjoying such excellent adaptations as Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion--this miniseries will round out the ultimate Austen video library. For those new to these romantic period pieces, this version of Pride and Prejudice will have you hooked and longing for more. One caveat, however: plan to watch it in an entire day, because very few have the self-control to not watch all six hours in a single sitting. --Jenny Brown

The Universe - The Complete Season One (History Channel)

This documentary miniseries which first aired on the History Channel combines astronomy and history as it presents man's continual quest to explore the outermost reaches of the universe. Satisfyingly realistic computer reconstructions allow viewers to go inside our sun skirt the event horizon of a black hole and travel to the deepest reaches of space all while giving considered attention to the age-old question: are we alone in the universe or is there life on other planets?Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/A&E UPC: 733961776058 Manufacturer No: AAAE77605

The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus 16-Ton Megaset

This unassuming case is packed with 16 tons of funny: 14 discs of THE COMPLETE MONTY PYTHON S FLYING CIRCUS packed with every madcap moment from the programme s four year run plus 2 MONTY PYTHON LIVE! discs featuring--well you figure it out.While to the uninitiated they may look like ordinary .65 oz. digital video discs due to the unique physics of comedy (it s like quantum but with fewer dead cats) each disc actually weighs a full metaphoric ton! Please remember to lift with your knees.This 16-Ton Megaset contains every single episode of MONTY PYTHONG S FLYING CIRCUS--four years of blood sweat and blancmange--jammed into slivers of plastic the size of a tea plate and MONTY PYTHON LIVE!--Legendary live performances the 20-year celebration of Monty Python Parrot Sketch Not Included and the all-German Monty Python s Fligender Zirkus episode #1 squashed like pancakes. Sad really.Want to find the funny fast? Jump right to your favorite sketches in The Flying Circus with this index!Disc 1: The Funniest Joke in the World The Wrestling Episode and Nudge NudgeDisc 2: Art Critic Silly Job Interview and Crunchy FrogDisc 3: Dead Parrot Lumberjack Song and Vocational Guidance CounselorDisc 4: Undertaker s Film Upperclass Twit of the Year and AlbatrossDisc 5: The Ministry of Silly Walks The Spanish Inquisition and ComplaintsDisc 6: The Bishop Blackmail and DungDisc 7: Attila the Nun Silly Vicar and Exploding Penguin on the TV SetDisc 8: Scott of the Antarctic Dirty Hungarian Phrase-book and Exploding Blue DanubeDisc 9: Icelandic Saga Fish-Slapping Dance and Argument ClinicDisc 10: Blood Devastation War and Horror Mount Everest - Hairdresser Expedition and Gumby Brain SpecialistsDisc 11: Cheese Shop A Naked Man and The Olympic Hide and Seek FinalDisc 12: Elizabethan Pornography Smugglers Kamikaze Scotsman and PenguinsDisc 13: Montgolfier Brothers Department Store and RAF BanterDisc 14: Hamlet and Ophelia Mr. Neutron and Most Awful Family in BritainDisc 15: Live at the Holl

New for 2005, The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus 16-Ton Megaset packs together the original 14-DVD megaset with the two-disc Monty Python Live in space-saving Thinpaks. While more cautious fans may want to pick and choose among the previously released individual volumes of Monty Python for their collection, true Pythonites will want to own this definitive megaset that contains all 45 episodes (in chronological order) of Monty Python's Flying Circus. This "persistently silly" collection encompasses three-and-a-half seasons of dead parrots, cross-dressing lumberjacks, loonies, upper class twits, and spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, and spam. Click past the occasional clunker and go directly to such signature sketches as the Ministry of Silly Walks, the Spanish Inquisition, the Fish-Slapping Dance, the Dead Parrot Sketch, the Lumberjack Song, the Cheese Shop, the Argument Clinic, and Nudge, Nudge. Taken as a whole, one marvels at how Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam thoroughly subverted television convention with "something completely different," like sketches with no punch lines ("Your average TV viewer isn't going to understand this"). A warning to the uninitiated: there is much "material that some may find offensive, but which is really smashing." Violations of something called the "Strange Sketch Act" are the least of the troupe's offenses, as witness the Oscar Wilde Sketch, the Dirty Vicar Sketch, and the Most Awful Family in Britain Sketch, all of which achieve "the really gross awfulness" all Python fans are looking for. Say no more.

Monty Python TV shows, movies, records, and books are a time capsule of their anarchic lunacy. But more precious is an audience with Python, and as close as we can get is Live at the Hollywood Bowl, the long-sought-after 1982 concert film in which the Fab Six perform their greatest hits before a wildly enthusiastic crowd. Robert Klein moderates Live at Aspen, the irreverent 1998 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival tribute that reunited John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, and Terry Jones onstage for the first time in 18 years on the occasion of the troupe's 30th anniversary. Highlights include a shockingly funny moment involving Graham Chapman's ashes, and a joyous "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" sing-along. Less essential is 1989's clip show Parrot Sketch Not Included: 20 Years of Python, which also does not include "The Oscar Wilde Sketch," "Cheese Shop," "Nudge-Nudge," and many other signature sketches. --Donald Liebenson

Emma (A&E, 1997)

Emma Woodhouse imagines that she dominates those around her in the small town of Highbury, but her matchmaking creates problems for herself and others.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 26-OCT-1999
Media Type: DVD

Similar to the equally excellent Valmont, this version of Jane Austen's classic novel had the misfortune of following a sumptuous big-star version with Gwyneth Paltrow, which was released the summer before. And, just as 1989's Valmont suffered comparisons with Dangerous Liaisons, inevitably these Emmas were held up next to one another.

This delicious Emma concerns a young woman of financial substance (Kate Beckinsale), who fancies herself a matchmaker, especially with shy Miss Harriet Smith (Samantha Morton, who also appears in A&E's Jane Eyre). In Emma's swirling world of social activity and social consciousness, one's position and stature is a constant preoccupation. But to her credit, Emma, albeit a busybody, has compassion for all classes, and for her kindly but hypochondriacal father (Bernard Hepton).

This miniseries is more subtle than the grand theatrical release, is truer to the novel, and gives a richer explanation of the relationship between Emma associates Jane Fairfax (beautiful Olivia Williams of Rushmore) and the duplicitous Frank Churchill (Raymond Coulthard). Of course, at the center, as in all Austen stories, is the romance between the unsuspecting leading lady and an unlikely, but wholly suitable gentleman. In this case, it's Emma and her brother-in-law, the righteous (as played here) Mr. Knightley (Mark Strong). Strong's Mr. Knightley is more reserved, less coy than Jeremy Northam's; he plays Knightley more like Mr. Darcy (the leading man in Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which A&E also offers in a wonderful miniseries). Beckinsale proves to be utterly delightful and in no way should this excellent adaptation be ignored. --N.F. Mendoza

Dogfights -The Complete Season 2 (History Channel)

System Requirements:Running Time: 799 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 733961114195 Manufacturer No: AAAE114190

The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition)

Sir Jeremy Isaacs highly deserves the numerous awards for documentaries he has earned: the Royal Television Society's Desmond Davis Award, l'Ordre National du Mérit, an Emmy, and a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. His epic The World at War remains unsurpassed as the definitive visual history of World War II.

The Second World War was different from other wars in thousands of ways, one of which was the unparalleled scope of visual documents kept by the Axis and Allies of all their activities. As a result, this war is understood as much through written histories as it is through its powerful images. The Nazis were particularly thorough in documenting even the most abhorrent of the atrocities they were committing--in a surprising amount of color footage. The World at War was one of the first television documentaries that exploited these resources so completely, giving viewers an unbelievable visual guide to the greatest event in the 20th century. This is to say nothing of the excellent, comprehensible narrative. Some highlights:

• A New Germany 1933-39: early German and Nazi documentation of Hitler's rise to power through the impending attack on Poland
• Whirlwind: the early British losses in the blitz in the skies over Britain and in North Africa
• Stalingrad: the turning point of the war and Germany's first defeat
• Inside the Reich--Germany 1940-44: one of the most fascinating documentaries that exists on life inside Nazi Germany, from Lebensborn to the Hitler Youth
• Morning: prior to Saving Private Ryan, one of the only unromanticized views of the Normandy invasion
• Genocide: this film is one of the most widely shown introductions to the Holocaust
• Japan 1941-45: although The World at War is decidedly focused more on the European theater, this is an important look into wartime Japan and its expansion--early 20th-century history that lead to Japan's role in World War II is superficial
• The bomb: another widely shown documentary of the Manhattan Project, the Enola Gay, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki

The World at War will remain the definitive visual history of World War II, analogous to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. No serious historian should be missing The World at War in a collection, and no student should leave school without having seen at least some of its salient episodes. Rarely is film so essential. --Erik J. Macki

Mr. Bean - The Whole Bean (Complete Set)

Starring the incomparable Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder Four Weddings and a Funeral) Mr. Bean has won a tin full of international awards and built a cult following around the globe that's well frankly a little frightening.Volume 1:Episode 1 - Mr. Bean The Exam On The Beach The ChurchEpisode 2 - The Return Of Mr. Bean The Department Store Restaurant Royal FilmEpisode 3 - The Curse of Mr. Bean The Carpark The Swimming Pool The Park Bench Horror MovieEpisode 4 - Mr. Bean Goes To Town Television The Park Identity Parade Club Phut The DiscoEpisode 5 - The Trouble With Mr. Bean The Dentist Dressing In Car The ParkVolume 2:Episode 6 - Mr. Bean Rides Again Heart Attack Post Box Packing Suitcase On The PlaneEpisode 7 - Merry Christmas Mr. Bean Christmas Shopping (Harrods) Carol Singing TurkeyEpisode 8 - Mr. Bean In Room 426 Hotel - Checking In Food Poisoning Locked OutEpisode 9 - Mind The Baby Mr. Bean Funfair With Baby Bumper Cars Nappy Change BalloonsEpisode 10 - Do It Yourself Mr. Bean New Year's Eve Party Armchair On Car Do It YourselfVolume 3:Episode 11 - Back To School Mr. Bean School Science Lab Art Lesson Judo Wrong Trousers TankEpisode 12 - Tee Off Mr. Bean Launderette Crazy GolfEpisode 13 - Good Night Mr. Bean Hospital Guard InsommniaEpisode 14 - Hair By Mr. Bean Of London Hairdressers Village Fete Pet Show Mail BagPlus The Story Of Mr. Bean - A fourty minute documentary of Mr. BeanNever-Before-Seen-On-TV Sketches: Bus Stop and LibrarySystem Requirements:Running Time: (total) 6 hrs. 15 min. + Extras. Copyright 2003 A&E Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating:  UPC: 733961708301 Manufacturer No: AAAE70830

Bean, Bean, maniacal nut / The more you watch, you bust a gut! First unleashed in 1989, this sketch series was embraced by PBS viewers in the United States. In the tradition of the great silent clowns, Rowan Atkinson created a character with universal and multi-generational appeal (the sketches have little dialogue and are driven by often ingenious physical comedy). Like Bart Simpson, the resourceful, mischievous, and sometimes malevolent Bean is the inner child incarnate who acts on the impulses polite society normally represses. Atkinson has described Bean as "a 9-year-old boy, with an apparent lack of worldly experience, but an ingenuity that is quite clever in dealing with problems presented to him." These problems include not knowing a single answer on an exam, tactfully disposing of a revolting restaurant meal, changing into his swimsuit at the beach without first removing his pants, and, most hilariously, getting a turkey stuck on his head (a classic bit reprised in the ill-conceived 1997 feature film).

Atkinson has enjoyed some mainstream success stateside. He was the nervous minister ("...your awfully wedded wife") in Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the voice of Zazu in The Lion King. But he mainly enjoys cult status among British comedy aficionados as a founding member of Not the Nine O'Clock News and the star of the Black Adder series. Bean is his crowning creation. In addition to all 14 episodes, this generous boxed set contains previously unaired sketches, Comic Relief appearances, and a segment about Bean's creation, which serves as a nifty introduction for the uninitiated. It also contains a preview for the new Mr. Bean animated series. This seems redundant. As this collection hilariously demonstrates, Bean is already animated enough. --Donald Liebenson

Life After People (History Channel)

THE HISTORY CHANNEL and Academy Award-winning special effects studio Industrial Light and Magic (Star Wars Harry Potter) join forces to imagine the state of planet Earth years after humans disappear. Stunning visual effects show how the environment will change as dams overflow buildings crumble and fires engulf once-mighty cities. Domestic animal life will die out and new species will claim their territory. Books and photographs will be reduced to faded scraps while other signs of our existence may remain for eternity standing as the tombstones of human civilization.Through striking movie-quality special effects coupled with interviews with experts in the fields of engineering botany ecology biology geology climatology and archeology LIFE AFTER PEOPLE sheds light on the state of the world days weeks and years after humans cease to exist.System Requirements:Running Time: 94 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 733961110906 Manufacturer No: AAAE110900

The very notion is deliciously ghoulish: What happens to earth if--or when--people suddenly vanished? The History Channel presents a dramatic, fascinating what-if scenario, part science fiction and part true natural science. "Welcome to Earth, Population: 0" is the catchy tagline, Life After People's 94 minutes are so gripping you nearly forget while you watch that you, yourself, will be gone too. It turns out that earth can go along very nicely without us. The hardest part of the special is probably in the first 15 minutes, when pet owners confront what likely will happen to their dogs (thankfully, the show follows those dogs who break out of their houses, and the prognosis for them to survive as scavengers is good). As the fictional days and weeks tick by, the process of nature's reclaiming the planet becomes less grim and more fascinating. The impact of the lack of people will be noticed right away, as most power grids shut down around the planet. The one holdout: Hoover Dam, whose hydro power lights up the American Southwest. Scientists say the dam can continue to operate on its own for months, maybe years, keeping the Vegas Strip alight. Only the eventual accumulation of quagga mussels, an invasive species, in the cooling pipes of the power plant--currently being cleaned by humans--will shut down the dam. Elsewhere, critters and plants will have their run of Manhattan and every other previously "civilized" spot. Inventive photography shows bears clambering out of subway stations, and vines pulling down brownstones, then skyscrapers. It may not be a surprise when the Eiffel Tower and Space Needle meet their eventual fates, but the scenes nonetheless provide a pleasant sting of shock. Life After People is humbling, yet exhilarating. -- A.T. Hurley

The Prisoner - Complete Series Megaset (40th Anniversary Edition)

Though it ran for a mere 17 episodes the British sci-fi spy drama THE PRISONER is one of television's biggest cult hits. The brainchild of star Patrick McGoohan the series followed the adventures of No. 6 (McGoohan) a former secret agent who is being held captive in a highly secured village the location of which remains a mystery throughout the series. This groundbreaking and innovative show reached an unfortunate end when British TV bosses got cold feet following low ratings and increasingly strange story lines. But McGoohan himself took control and steered the show to an ending that continues to cause great debate among THE PRISONER's faithful fans. This release includes the entire series of the show.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 733961758580 Manufacturer No: AAE-75858

If a top-level spy decided he didn't want to be a spy anymore, could he just walk into HQ and hand in his resignation? With all that classified knowledge in his head, would he be allowed to become a civilian again, free to go about his life? The answer, according to the stylish, brilliantly conceived 1960s British TV series The Prisoner, is a resounding no. In fact, instead of receiving a gold watch for his years of faithful service, our hero (played by Patrick McGoohan) is followed home to his London flat and knocked unconscious. When he awakens, he finds himself in a picturesque village where everyone is known by a number. Where is it? Why was he brought here? And, most important, how does he leave?

As we learn in Episode 1, Number 6 can't leave. The Village's "citizens" might dress colorfully and stroll around its manicured gardens while a band plays bouncy Strauss marches, but the place is actually a prison. Surveillance is near total, and if all else fails, there's always the large, mysterious white ball that subdues potential escapees by temporarily smothering them. Who runs the Village? An ever-changing Number 2, who wants to know why Number 6 resigned. If he'd only cooperate, he's told, life can be made very pleasant. "I've resigned," he fumes. "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. My life is my own." So sets the stage for the ultimate battle of wills: Number 6's struggle to retain his privacy, sanity, and individuality against the array of psychological and physical methods the Village uses to break him.

So does he ever escape? And does he ever find out who Number 1 is? "Questions are a burden to others," the Village saying goes. "Answers, a prison for oneself." Within this complete 17-episode set (which contains the entire series), all is revealed. Or is it? --Steve Landau

Ice Road Truckers - The Complete Season 1 (History Channel)

The mines of northern Canada contain billions of dollars worth of gold and diamonds but the only way to get supplies to those mines is a treacherous 350-mile-long road across frozen lakes--which don't always stay frozen. This electrifying documentary series dives into the dangerous sometimes glorious potentially fatal world of Ice Road Truckers--the men who each season drive their trucks across the temporary and tenuous ice roads that are constructed anew each year.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 733961776102 Manufacturer No: AAAE77610

Wages of Fear has nothing on Ice Road Truckers. Transporting unstable nitroglycerine is Driving Miss Daisy compared to the sanity and death-defying challenges facing these drivers who face great rewards but even greater dangers. Where these guys are going, there are no roads, except for about two months when the lakes freeze solid enough to allow the transport of literally tons of essential supplies to Canada's remote diamond mines as far as 350 miles away near the Arctic Circle. The goal is to deliver 10,000 loads in 60 days. The truckers call it the "dash for the cash." Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Ice Road Truckers is one of the most harrowing of the "dirty jobs" sub-genre of reality TV. This History Channel series mines a little extra drama by playing up the competition between the drivers to see who can make the most runs. The series' most compelling personality is Hugh, a 21-season veteran known as "the Polar Bear," who suffers what another driver calls "a bad luck year." Hugh is the kind of guy who will blow poisonous methyl hydrate into his own suspect transmission. Among those trucking for him are Alex, the 25-year "marathon man" with 11 kids), 21-year-old TJ, and Drew, a 35-year-old "newbie." But the conditions under which these "titans of the ice" operate is all the drama this series needs. Suffice to say, there are up to 800 drivers when the season begins. By the spring thaw, there are only about 125 remaining. Consider: Truck breakdowns and equipment failures can leave truckers stranded in the middle of nowhere in 40-below temperatures. Blinding snowstorms can reduce visibility to zero. Speeding can cause waves that blow out the ice. A shout-out to the camera crew who faced these dangers with the truckers and captured nerve-wracking footage of the trucks making their treacherous way over heaving, cracking ice, and behemoth 18-wheel rigs plummeting through the broken ice to the lake's bottom. --Donald Liebenson