One of the nicer Christmas gifts that I received this year was the first year of the show thirtysomething. And one of the best Christmas DVDs that I reviewed were the holiday episodes from the British comedy One Foot In the Grave. The complete series of One Foot In the Grave is now available and it's reviewed with season one of thirtysomething below.
thirtysomething! the complete first season (Shout! Factory, 6 discs)
One of my favourite television shows in the late eighties was thirtysomething. Produced by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick (and directed by many of the actors on the show) this TV show was about seven friends who, for the most part, were young, educated professionals living in Philadelphia.
While the cast, at the time, wasn't well known, the actors were all very good. Ken Olin was Michael Steadman, an advertising executive who started his own company with his good friend Elliot Weston (Timothy Busfield). Michael is married to Hope Murdoch Steadman who is a writer and stay-at-home mother. Elliot's wife, Nancy (Patricia Wettig) also stays home to look after their children and she has an arts background. Also in the group is Melissa Steadman (Melanie Mayron) - Michael's cousin and a very good photographer, Gary Sheperd (Peter Horton) who is Michael's best friend and a college English professor and Ellyn Warren (Polly Draper), who works for the city and who has been best friends with Hope since they were kids.
The hour-long drama focuses on life, both the good and bad times, for these people who are all in their thirties (hence the title of the show). The topics are common ones and are effectively dealt with on the show. In season one some of the subjects include anxiety over Hope's parents arriving and looks at the difficulties of a parent and child who don't get along, marital problems (Elliot and Nancy separate early in the show) including how the separation affects their children, coping with the death of a parent, Gary has an affair, lots of relationship issues as well as the day-to-day stresses and pleasures of raising a family, coping with work, paying the bills and generally living in society. There are even religious issues in the epsode "I'll Be Home For Christmas" when Michael and Hope can't agree on what their daughter's first holiday should be - Christmas or Hanukkah. All of these issues occur while Hope and Michael cope with renovating their beautiful old house while raising their young daughter.
I'm not sure why it took so long to release this show on DVD, but it was definitely worth the wait. Often you have good memories of a show but when you watch it many years later it isn't nearly as good as you remember. It's been close to 20 years since I had watched thirtysomething and it was every bit as good as I remembered. I have vague memories of some of the main storylines of the show's subsequent seasons and I'm looking forward to seeing if these years are as impressive as the first season of thirtysomething.
thirtysomething: the complete first season contains all 21 episodes "restored from the original film elements." The special features are excellent and include "A Conversation Between Herskovitz and Edward Zwick", the making of thirtysomething, "Cultural Impact", commentaries by the creators, cast and crew and recent interviews.
Fans of thirtysomething will enjoy season one.
One Foot in the Grave: The Complete Collection (Warner Home Video, 12 discs)
Recently released from Warner Home Video is One Foot in the Grave: The Complete Collection - a nice set featuring all six seasons of this exceptional BBC show as well as "The Christmas Specials" (12 discs and approximately 1200 minutes). I first learned about this brilliant comedy when I reviewed One Foot in the Grave: The Christmas Specials which was hilarious - one of the funniest shows I've seen.
The first episode was on January 4, 1990 and it ended on November 20, 2000. The show ran for six seasons between 1990 and 2000 and is one of the best comedies ever to grace the small screen.
Victor Meldrew (Richard Wilson) is a recently retired (made redundant by a machine no less) 60-year-old man who doesn't accept his forced retirement very well. Meldrew is a sarcastic, grumpy, curmudgeon at the best of times - and much worse when he's in a bad mood! To make matters worse, Victor is a magnet for bad luck. His wife Margaret (Annette Crosbie) continues to earn a living leaving Victor to find something meaningful to do in his life each day. Does Victor learn to embrace his golden years? Absolutely not! And it results in hilarious television. The writing is witty (written by David Renwick) and I enjoy watching a crotchety, difficult character stand up against time and society even if he doesn't stand a chance against either. Margaret also has many funny moments as she puts up with (but just barely) and loves her acidic, albeit well-meaning, husband.
This wonderful collection of BBC episodes begins with Victor being fired as his job is made redundant after it is taken over by a "box" and ends with Margaret dealing with her husband's death - oops, spoiler alert - don't read this sentence if you don't want to know what happens in the final episode :) In between there are numerous episodes pertaining to Victor Meldrew's dealing with life after work. Even the theme song is funny as it was written and performed by Eric Idle.
If you haven't had the opportunity of watching this British comedy you should definitely check it out.
