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John Lithgow, Kristen Johnston, French Stewart, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jane Curtin, Simbi Khali, Elmarie Wendel, Wayne Knight, James Earl Jones (Narrator)

If ever there was a moment where I came dangerously close to actually liking sitcoms it was when I began watching 3rd Rock from the Sun, a hilarious sci-fi/comedy about a family of aliens who come to earth and masquerade as humans, only to become frustrated that they don’t function as a “normal” family, and being completely oblivious to the fact that their abnormality is practically what makes them normal! The show is unique for an American made comedy series.

Most of our sitcoms tend to be overly sappy, or overly risqué, and we seldom have a show which manages to be edgy, but inoffensive, over the top, but not off the deep end, and just downright fun for the entire family, regardless of age, race, nationality or gender. 3rd Rock is one of those few instances in our TV history that was genuinely and perfectly targeted at ever single demographic out there, and it was highly successful, not just on a national level, but on a global level for their efforts.

The show manages to maintain a delicate balance that most comedies in general fail to keep. The pacing of the show delivers laugh after laugh, but allows us to momentarily catch our breath between gags, many of which are both visual, and physical, the type of gags most sitcoms avoid. French Stewart in particular allows himself to take beating after beating in the name of a good laugh, and its amazing to know (thanks to supplementary features) that injuries were a regular occurrence on the set of this show, and yet the actors didn’t mind because they were so into the parts that they were playing.

There in lies another key to what made this show so great. Each actor allowed himself or herself to completely become the character with no regard to the effects on how their role may affect their personal life or image. There are quite a number of things that John Lithgow does as Dick that are over the top embarrassing, and poor French Stewart, forever immortalized as the idiot alien with the transmitter in his head. Yet despite that they all were more than into their parts in the show, which lent a great deal of believability to the characters, who were all so loveable despite their faults.

Season 2, like the first one, has a collection of episodes so great that it’s hard to pick any specific stand outs, but the classics include the episode where Sally confronts Mark Hammel over a table, and of course the infamous “3D” episodes. There are a couple of references to the jello running gag that began last season as well, but the packaging cannot emphasize enough that the two part “3D” episode is in this collection, so much so, that the set includes a pair of 3D glasses! Now don’t get excited, my wife and I did this together for the sake of this review. We watched the 3D episodes twice each, and passed the 3D glasses back and forth… we are dismayed to report that the 3D effects this show boasts about don’t appear to work with the 3D glasses we received. This pair, however, is not headache educing like the ones we used to wear in the 80s, however, but they simply don’t work. Nevertheless, it’s easy to see why the cast and crew love the 3D episodes as much as they do (as they have expressed in numerous interviews over the years) as they high production values, and craziness of the whole thing certainly does make for some of the best of a comedy I already consider to be the greatest sitcom of all time. ****

The picture is where this box set suffers. Being pre-high definition TV this season was not filmed for wide screen, nor was it filmed in a very high definition. The picture is by no means terrible, it’s certainly passing, but it’s not particularly sharp, and in fact possesses a great deal of grain particles on my TV screen. Sound is reasonable, and nothing spectacular, but being that this was, for all intense and purposes, and low budget, yet still high quality sitcom it didn’t rely on big explosions, or anything that would make good use of your sound system. Baring that in mind the overall volume was just right allowing me to have my TV right at the center with volume where I like it, and for most of the episodes the sound is very evenly mixed. Then again, most of the characters are so loud and over the top it would be difficult to not hear them even on lower volume settings ^-^ Quite a lot like my family actually… Anyway the sound options are pretty much limited to Dolby Digital 2.0, but in all honesty, simply because of what it is, it really wouldn’t benefit from anything more elaborate. ***

People who bought this anywhere other than Best Buy prepare to cry. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but that chain store managed to score a special “Exclusive” edition of this box set that includes more special features than what you’ll find elsewhere. While those special features are fun, I am kind of feeling sorry for other stores who carry this title for not being able to offer the exclusive blooper reels or the “best of Sally” feature. Following the tradition of last season Anchor Bay went all out with the extras, and really show us how to do a TV box set right… (too bad they did not do this for Dark Shadows Revival.) All new Interview with John Lithgow: The interview largely reiterates information he provided in his interview on the season 1 box set, though a couple of interesting new revelations are provided, such as how he ended up cutting his cheek open in the confrontation with “evil Dick” and that injuries were apparently pretty common on the set. It certainly does make one more appreciative that these actors cared enough about the project and the audience to endure it all. ***

Alternate Ending – There’s an alternate ending for the “3D” episodes, though it’s a great addition I do like the original ending best, as it certainly has me eager for the third season. ***

Bloopers-There are several blooper reels, but a couple are only available through the Best Buy edition. Sadly most of these bloopers are just the actors messing up a line and everyone cracking up, there’s very few physical mishaps highlighted here. In short, there’s a few bloopers that are gems, but most of them are kinda been there done that on every blooper reel I’ve ever seen… ***

Season 2 highlights: This one is a fun little feature which spotlights the most memorable moments of season 2, worth a quick laugh, and a quick look, especially if you’re looking to memorize Dick or Harry’s classic lines. *** Best Buy Exclusive the Best of Sally: Along the same lines as Season 2 highlights, only with focus on Sally, just a small compilation of some of her craziest antics. ***

Behind the Scenes-Highlights of the making of the 3D episodes, which are fun and informative, and also boastful of the 3D effects, which again don’t work with the 3D glasses provided. Still its very fun to lean that poor French had to do one major part of his dream sequence some 27 times before getting it right, among the other fun little tid bits featured. ***

Advertising Materials – There are previews of each episode available to watch. *** ---

I dislike most sitcoms, but I love 3rd Rock, and to be honest I love it so much I could not pick a favorite episode, each one is as clever as all the others. I cannot envision any household without this series in it’s DVD collection. Definitely a great buy whether or not you picked up the Best Buy edition. Now let’s hope that Anchor Bay hurries up and gets us Season 3!***