DVD Release Date: September 28, 2004 (A&E Home Video)
Color/299 min.
MSRP: $39.95
Number of discs: 2
Number of episodes: 13 (6 on Disc 1; 7 on Disc 2)
Languages and Subtitles: English Stereo / No Subtitles
(unsure of closed captioning)
Special Features: Commentary with Holly Fulger and
Arye Gross on the Pilot Episode.
Introduction:
This first season originally aired as THESE FRIENDS OF
MINE and stars Ellen DeGeneres as mildly neurotic Los
Angeles bookseller Ellen Morgan, whose nervous
motor-mouthing often gets her in trouble, especially
with her best friends Adam (Arye Gross), Anita (Maggie
Wheeler), and Holly (Holly Fulger).
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
All of the episodes, in their own way, are memorable,
but no standout hits. Although there are two episodes
that were not actually aired during the first season
run on ABC. They were held over until the THIRD season
of the series and they are "The Mugging" in which
Ellen gets mixed up in Adam's lies after he witnesses
his girlfriend being mugged and "The Tape" in which
Anita and her beau make a sexy vide, then have to hide
it in Ellen's apartment. They are included with season
one because they feature the Season 1 cast.
Packaging:
The packaging itself is very nice and quite good. The
cover features a large cutout picture of Ellen with a
smaller cutout picture of Ellen, Holly, Maggie and
Arye in a publicity shot from Season One. There is the
logo of course. The logo is in purple with teal
shadowing and white outline and the background is an
orange color with screenshots meshed in. It's nice. It
is a slip sleeve pack with two pull out cases that
hold the two discs. There are 13 episodes placed on
two discs. The discs have no pictures but it uses the
same background as the main cover with a list of the
episodes on that disc. The disc casing for each
individual disc has the same cover as the main
packaging and on the back there are episode
descriptions and titles with a small screenshot next
to it.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menus are nice. They are also basically the same
design as the main package cover but only Ellen's shot
is visible. The season one theme song plays in the
background but after it finishes, it doesn't loop. The
menus are easy to navigate. There is the favorite Play
All feature as well as being able to select Individual
Episodes. There is also a Bonus Feature section that
has commentary (just on the pilot episode and on disc
one) as well as Biographies for each of the cast
members. Disc 2 has no special features.
Video and Audio Quality:
The video and audio were great quality. Audio was
crisp and clear the video was good as well. No
problems that I saw.
Special Features:
There is just one real bonus feature and that is
commentary by Holly Fulger and Arye Gross on the
"Pilot" episode. Disc 1 also has Cast Bios. No other
special features are available.
Final Comments:
Finally, this set is great to own. Although Season 1
isn't very memorable, it has a ton of good, funny
episodes but I can't wait until Seasons 2 and up start
being released. I was pleased by A&E's release. The
packaging was nice, the disc faces were nice, the
menus were good and overall it was a great set, except
for the lack of bonus features, although the
commentary was a welcome addition. Overall, there
should be more commentary if A&E can't/won't do any
other special features. I'd definitely enjoy hearing
Ellen herself on the commentary tracks.
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):
Video Quality: 5/5
Audio Quality: 5/5
Special Features: 2/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 5/5
Overall: 4/5
-- Reviewed by TVJunkie101 (Shawn Eaton) on 09/16/04
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