“Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season One” (Universal, 39 episodes, three discs, $39.98) shows just how funny murder and mayhem can be.
The anthology series, which ran on NBC from 1955 to 1965 (and was revived briefly in the 1980s), was most famous for Hitchcock himself, who introduced and ended episodes with witty monologues renowned for their mockery of the show’s sponsors. The vignettes — written by James Allardice — made Hitchcock one of the most amusing (and imitated) TV personalities of the 50s and 60s.
But the show itself was often very good, as this collection shows. The half-hour, black-and-white tales here are creepy but often funny, especially when schemes go awry. Sometimes — including in the twist at the end of the first show — it’s funny and creepy at the same time.
DVD extras include a 15-minute segment on the making of the series. Sorting through the episodes themselves is a little unwieldy, since the only printed guide is a list of episode titles for each disc, and that’s not much information for Hitchcock newcomers.
Each episode does come with an onscreen, text description — but you may want to ignore them, since they can give away plot twists.
Night Stalker’
Also finding laughs in horror is “Kolchak: The Night Stalker” (Universal, 20 episodes, three discs, $39.98), the 1974-75 series about Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin), a reporter investigating spooky doings.
The DVD release this week aims to take advantage of ABC’s new “Night Stalker” series, which premiered this month and stars Stuart Townsend as Kolchak. The old series is better than the new one, but that’s not saying much.
(You’re far better off looking for the DVD of two TV-movies, “The Night Stalker” and “The Night Strangler,” which preceded the series.)
Drawn Together’
More deliberate humor is available in “Drawn Together Uncensored!: Season One” (Paramount, six episodes, two discs, $26.98).
The Comedy Central series parodied animation and reality shows by purporting to be a reality series in which animated characters in different styles have to live together.
It’s tasteless, offensive, racy and often bizarre — and more so in almost every way in this unbleeped, nudity-strewn version.
(Believe that parental advisory on the box.) It grossed me out more than once, and the grossness outweighed the occasional giggles.
DVD extras include commentaries on four episodes, deleted scenes and a game that asks you to guess whether lines had been censored.
The box notes that “some music in the original broadcast versions of the show have been replaced for this DVD set.”
Regular readers know how I love to look at the notes on the DVD boxes, and I found a good one on “The Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus 16 Ton Megaset” (A&E, 16 discs, $199.95, in stores now).
The set has a lot to go through — all 45 episodes of the series, three live performances and a show made for German and Australian television, in German with English subtitles. Of course, it’s also all been released before in different packages.
But you can get a grin — and save $200 — just from this note on the box: “Now in glorious digital format so that you, the digital aficionado, can enjoy the original scratches, pops and hisses with crystal clarity.”
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AP-NY-10-05-05 1608EDT
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