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Mork & Mindy - The Complete First Season

Actors: Elizabeth Kerr, Robin Williams, Pam Dawber, Conrad Janis
ASIN : B0002I837M
Sales Rank : 3107
Director : Jeff Chambers, Joel Zwick, Bob Claver, Frank Buxton, Garry Marshall
Brand : Paramount
Studio : Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781415700808
ISBN : 141570080X
UPC : 097360537949
Release Date : December 07, 2004
Publisher : Paramount
Manufacturer : Paramount
Label : Paramount
Running Time : 635

Description

A spin-off from the hit show "Happy Days," MORK & MINDY stars Robin Williams as the lovable alien from the planet Ork. Sent to Earth by his fellow Orkans who see him as a misfit, Mork is assigned to observe the customs of the crazy Earthlings. Landing in a giant eggshell in Boulder, Colorado, Mork is soon befriended by Mindy McConnell (Dawber) a music store clerk, and allowed to stay in the attic of her apartment.

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Children who love Robin Williams as the voice of Aladdin or as Mrs. Doubtfire will get a blast out of the show that blasted him into the stratosphere, and made "Nanoo, Nanoo" a national catch-phrase. Mork & Mindy, a spin-off of a season 5 Happy Days episode, was a tailor-made star vehicle for Williams, who won a Golden Globe for this inaugural 1978 season. The role of extraterrestrial Mork from Ork gave free reign to Williams's stream-of-consciousness riffing as Mork observed life on Earth and reported back to his leader, Orson, on all that he learned about friendship, love, family, and emotions. As Mindy, the down-to-Earth Boulder, Colorado, girl who takes the stranded alien under her roof, fresh-faced Pam Dawber does her best to keep up. When Williams is really in the (Twilight?) zone, it's not acting: she does seem like she's dealing with someone from another planet.

The highlight of this first season is "Mork's Mixed Emotions," a tour-de-force that TV Guide ranked among the top 100 TV episodes of all time (#94, to be exact). Mork believes that emotions are bad, and tries to lock them inside himself, but they are unleashed in a lusty, happy, weepy, angry, envious torrent. Helping to launch Williams as a primetime player in the series pilot are Henry Winkler and Penny Marshall in their iconic roles as the Fonz and Laverne. Another notable guest star in season 1 is David Letterman as an abusive EST-like guru in "Mork Goes Erk." Mork & Mindy rapidly jumped the shark, and much of the '70s sitcom trappings have not aged well, but this first season is a giddy time capsule record of Williams at his most spontaneous and out of this world. Shazbot--the set contains no extras. --Donald Liebenson.

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Weeds - Season One

Actor: Mary-Louise Parker
ASIN : B000FFJYE8
Sales Rank : 581
Director : Burr Steers, Lee Rose
Brand : Lions Gate
Studio : Lionsgate
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0031398188056
UPC : 031398188056
Release Date : December 11, 2006
Publisher : Lionsgate
Manufacturer : Lionsgate
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Lionsgate
Running Time : 283

Product Description

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 02/06/2007 Run time: 283 minutes Rating: Nr

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With its fantastic comedy series Weeds, cable network Showtime finally gave up its also-ran status to HBO and found itself with a controversial, buzz-worthy show that was as hilarious as it was dark, one about a truly desperate housewife. A recent widow with two growing sons, Nancy Botwin (Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker) looks like a typical resident of the affluent Southern California suburb of Agrestic. She keeps a clean, upscale house (with the help of a live-in maid), attends PTA meetings, goes to her kids' soccer games, makes frequent stops at the local coffee franchise.... and sells marijuana in order to make it all possible. Left with no way to support herself after her beloved husband's fatal heart attack, Nancy turns herself into the "suburban baroness of bud," dealing to her neighbors in the area, with the help of her supplier Heylia (Tonye Patano) and point man Conrad (Romany Malco). Nancy's clients run from the local councilman (Kevin Nealon) to the just-barely-legal students at the local community college, but many in Agrestic are still in the dark as to how she keeps her family afloat, including her best friend, the sardonic Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), a wife and mother whose blistering, withering put-downs could make Dorothy Parker cringe in fear. But like many small-business owners, Nancy yearns for more success and cash, and like her workaholic neighbors, finds keeping a balance between work life and home life to be extremely precarious at best.

While Desperate Housewives yearned to be a suburban satire with bite, Weeds was the real deal, skewering upper-middle class mores with a sharp eye, a keen wit, and a mostly forgiving heart. In episode after episode, the show's creative team (led by creator Jenji Kohan) pulled back the layers of Agrestic's superficiality to show what lies beneath the squeaky-clean exteriors and smiling faces; it turns out that hunger, fear, desire, and, yes, desperation aren't that far down. However, Weeds forsakes pulpiness and florid drama for biting yet affectionate humor--its heroine is a woman with sliding morals, but one you'll root for to the very end. The effervescent Parker, the only actress who can mix perkiness with morbidity in just the right amounts, anchored the show with her amazing turn as Nancy, who by the end of the first season had become a kind of soccer-mom version of Michael Corleone, entering a corrupt world with both trepidation and fascination--and totally enamored of the power it brought her. Also perfectly cast, Perkins found the role of a lifetime as the bitterly hilarious Celia, and entering the show in its fourth episode, Justin Kirk (Parker's co-star in Angels in America) proved to be a potent secret weapon as Nancy's brother-in-law Andy, a slacker who wasn't above peddling t-shirts to elementary school kids. As icky as these characters might appear on the surface, Weeds made them all immensely appealing and great company to be around. Don't say we didn't warn you: one hit and you'll be hooked on this show. The DVDs feature six episode commentaries with cast and crew, outtakes, original featurettes, a music video, and most enjoyably, Agrestic Herbal Recipes (for entertainment value only, we assume) and the "Smoke and Mirrors" marijuana mockumentary. --Mark Englehart

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The Homecoming: A Christmas Story

Actors: Patricia Neal, Richard Thomas, Edgar Bergen, Ellen Corby, Cleavon Little
ASIN : B0000AQS5E
Sales Rank : 524
Director : Fielder Cook
Brand : Paramount
Studio : Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780792195405
ISBN : 079219540X
UPC : 097368433045
Release Date : December 23, 2003
Publisher : Paramount
Manufacturer : Paramount
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Paramount
Running Time : 100

Product Description

The Waltons' Love and Courage Face a Difficult Test.Patricia Neal, Richard Thomas, Edgar Bergen and Cleavon Little star in this award-winning drama that inspired the long-running, vastly popular TV series, "The Waltons."Set on a Depression Christmas Eve in 1933, this heart-tugging story centers around the Waltons. They're a rural American family preparing to celebrate Christmas together. Though times are tough, love and sharing are abundant in this family.An inspiring tale of love, hope and spirit, this deeply moving story goes far beyond the boundaries of time and place to reach out and touch everyone, everywhere.

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A true television classic, The Homecoming was the second movie (after 1963's Spencer's Mountain) based on Earl Hamner's autobiographical writings about love, pride, faith, and survival in rural America during the Great Depression. The Homecoming introduced the Walton family, a 1930s mountain clan living a hardscrabble existence that forces patriarch John Walton (Andrew Duggan) to seek work, far from home, in the city. When John fails to return home, as promised, on Christmas Eve, his iron-willed wife Olivia (Patricia Neal) keeps a lid on their children's worry. Oldest son John-Boy (Richard Thomas), who privately dreams of becoming a writer but worries about disappointing his parents, is dispatched to find his dad. Graceful yet harder-edged than the subsequent TV series The Waltons (which recast several characters and ran for nine years), The Homecoming reveals, albeit understatedly, much about the pain of poverty even as the family draws strength and closeness through endurance. --Tom Keogh

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Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Sixth Season

Actor: Larry David
ASIN : B000VXK6Z0
Sales Rank : 1244
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Hbo Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0883929001361
UPC : 883929001361
Release Date : December 29, 2008
Publisher : Hbo Home Video
Manufacturer : Hbo Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Hbo Home Video
Running Time : 300

Description

Deep inside, you know you're him. Curb Your Enthusiasm - it's the HBO hit comedy series starring Larry David as...Larry David! Each half-hour episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm features verité-style footage of David (playing himself) at home, at work and around town, as he gets into predicaments with fictional and real-life personalities.

DVD Features:
Gag Reel
Interviews

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Throughout Curb Your Enthusiasm's fifth season, HBO's master of passive-aggression went in search of his roots. In the sixth, Larry returns to his old tricks--to the relief of fans who felt the show was losing its way. As usual, most scenarios revolve around problems unique to neurotic millionaires. Larry's voice of reason, wife Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), continues to save him from himself (when she can). This time, the 10-episode arc turns to Roots when the Davids take in the Blacks, a family of African-American hurricane evacuees, including Loretta (Vivica A. Fox) and her brother, Leon (an uproariously profane J.B. Smoove). Naturally, "L.D." offends other groups along the way, like an Asian gentleman ("The Anonymous Donor"), a chemotherapy patient ("The Lefty Call"), a deaf woman ("The Rat Dog"), and tennis-player-turned-comedian John McEnroe, a group unto himself ("The Freak Book"). During the year, Larry also tangles with an X-rated dessert, an unsympathetic senator (Rep. Barbara Boxer as herself), an inebriated chauffeur (Toby Huss), the infinite superiority of Ted Danson, and the usual games of one-upmanship with Jeff Greene (Jeff Garlin), Richard Lewis (himself) and Marty Funkhouser (Bob "Super Dave" Einstein, brother of director Albert Brooks).

Since Curb Your Enthusiasm takes its inspiration from David's real life, the big news arrives when Cheryl, a character based on environmental activist Laurie David, walks out on him. Then their friends pick sides. Thereafter, things really start to go downhill, resulting in some of Larry's funniest faux pas ever--until R&B vocalist John Legend steps in to save the day. Not literally, but his soulful singing sets the scene for the surprisingly sweet finale. Extra features include a live conversation between David and Susie Essman, a sixth year featurette ("On the Set"), and a gag reel. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Weeds - Season Two

Actor: Mary-Louise Parker
ASIN : B000Q6GUKW
Sales Rank : 707
Director : Burr Steers, Tucker Gates
Brand : Lions Gate
Studio : Lionsgate
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0012236215677
UPC : 012236215677
Release Date : December 24, 2007
Publisher : Lionsgate
Manufacturer : Lionsgate
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Lionsgate
Running Time : 283

Description

Funnier, darker and more daring, the second season of this acclaimed Showtime series reaches a higher ground. Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker stars as Nancy Botwin, the soccer mom who had to learn how to deal - pot, that is - after the death of her husband. Now, her business is a hit. But keeping up with the neighbors in this suburban utopia isn't easy. She's joined up with a few of her closest friends, and together they're facing life's highs and lows - because even in paradise, nobody's perfect. Don't miss WEEDS, an addictive comedy, the highest grade TV has to offer.

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The first season of Weeds ended with a shocker: Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker) found a dreamy new boyfriend, but he turned out to be a DEA agent (Martin Donovan). Luckily, she manages to find some pretty creative ways to "deal" with it. Despite that new obstacle, she decides it’s also time to "grow" the business to higher levels, and all these risky moves lead up to another fabulous season finale cliff-hanger. Elsewhere in suburban utopia, comic relieving brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk) tries to dodge his army commitments by joining Rabbi school, while the hilarious Doug (Kevin Nealon) battles it out with Celia (Elizabeth Perkins) to maintain power over the Agrestic City Council. Plot aside, Season 2 of Weeds took this potentially great show to the next level. No matter how hard they tried in the first season, the show’s makers had a heck of a time trying to shake the impression that they were mimicking the edginess of HBO’s original programming. (Some might have gone as far as to say they were trying a little too hard.) This time around, the characters and the story have grown into their own skins, and they offer something much more authentic and convincing. The second season also starts a great new tradition: Malvina Reynolds ‘s "Little Boxes" is still the opening theme song, but it is performed by a different artist for each episode (from Elvis Costello to The Shins). Just one more thing to keep us "addicted." --Jordan Thompson

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Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete First Season

Actors: Jason Alexander, Linda Bates (II), Mark Beltzman, Cynthia Caponera, Larry Charles
ASIN : B0000E2PVR
Sales Rank : 684
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Hbo Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780783121710
ISBN : 0783121717
UPC : 026359918025
Release Date : December 13, 2004
Publisher : Hbo Home Video
Manufacturer : Hbo Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Hbo Home Video
Running Time : 360

Description

He's got it all, a loving wife, good friends, a successful career, a good home... What could go wrong for Larry David? CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM stars "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David as himself in an unsparing, cinema verite depiction of his life. Featuring real life celebrities playing themselves, the episodes are improvised by the actors from storylines by David.

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Like its fellow HBO series Sex and the City, this half-hour comedy broke some TV rules and went from critics' darling to an award-winning series in three years. Curb Your Enthusiasm is the brainchild of star-creator Larry David who co-created Seinfeld and was the basis for the easily rattled George Costanza (who was played by Jason Alexander). Like George, David has a tendency to speak too much, blow things out of proportion, and, most often, fail in the end (and often liking it that way). David's new show is also like its predecessor: it's about "nothing" except following the day-to-day ramblings of a sometime writer and comic (this time in L.A.). Eternal questions stemming from universal daily dilemmas are honed to perfect comedic absurdity. A notable exception is the show is only scripted by plot; much of the action is improvised. The first season starts with a one-hour mockumentary following David's return to stand-up for the first time in years; the other 10 episodes follow a more traditional sit-com setup.

David plays "himself" (as does his friend, Richard Lewis) although his manager and wife are played by comedians Jeff Garlin and Cheryl Hines. Although this first season is a comedic gem, one can't take more than an episode or two at a time--it's acidic, biting comedy. The episodes are often built like a house of cards, which the irritable David will surely collapse by the end. Like another caustic TV character, Dabney Colman's Buffalo Bill (1983-84), Larry David is not for everybody. --Doug Thomas

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Reba - Season 5

Actor: Reba McEntire
ASIN : B001FSKE84
Sales Rank : 93
Studio : 20th Century Fox
Format : Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0024543541714
UPC : 024543541714
Release Date : December 13, 2009
Publisher : 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer : 20th Century Fox
Availability : Not yet released
Label : 20th Century Fox
Running Time : 484

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Beyond Reba - Season 5

Reba - Seasons 1-5
Reba - Season 4
Reba - Season 3

Stills from Reba - Season 5 (Click for larger image)

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Two and a Half Men - The Complete Fourth Season

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Mork & Mindy - The Complete First Season

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The Simpsons - The Complete Eleventh Season (Collectible Krusty Head Pack)

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Weeds - Season One

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The Simpsons - The Complete Tenth Season

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The Homecoming: A Christmas Story

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Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Sixth Season

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Weeds - Season Two

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Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete First Season

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Reba - Season 5

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