The Show
A longtime fan of "Saturday Night Live," I gave "MADtv" a chance when it hit the air, mainly because it came on a half-hour earlier. I didn't stick with it long, and have only seen a few episodes from its entire run, thanks to syndication. Now, with commercial-free DVDs of the first season in my hands, I get to give the show another chance in the best way possible.

Sharing more in common with "The Kids in the Hall" than "SNL", with more filmed segments and monologues, "MADtv" is edgier and darker than "SNL" and just an hour in length. The content is very similar to the magazine the show is named after. Very involved, but barely funny movie and TV parodies make up the bulk of the show, clocking in at three to four times the length of the rest of the sketches. No matter how good they could have been, they would still be too long in comparison to the rest of the show. Don Martin and Spy vs. Spy cartoons and fake commercials fill in the blanks, along with the usual sketches and monologues delivered two to three times per episode.

The monologues, done by the actor, not a character, must have been inspired by similar bits by The Kids in the Hall. In fact, two of the Kids (Dave Foley and Bruce McCulloch) perform their own monologues in the first season, and another (Kevin McDonald) joins in on the second season. If they were going to crib ideas, they could have done much worse, so at least they got that right.

The show had some decent guest stars and bands to perform, though they eschewed the SNL standards like a regular host and musical guest. This may have been a mistake, since people tune in to see these guests, but the regular cast was talented enough to hold their own. Well, at least some of them were. Orlando Jones (Evolution, Drumline) was the biggest breakout star, but Dave Herman (Office Space), Artie Lange (Dirty Work, "The Howard Stern Show") and Phil LaMarr ("Futurama", "Samurai Jack") have all had success outside of "MADtv." Not surprisingly, they did the best work on the show.

"MADtv"'s never comes close to "SNL" in the ratings, but after 9 years on Fox, it's earned a strong foothold among younger viewers and urban audiences. The question has to be asked...Why? Some have said the low-brow comedy and gross-out bits speak to an audience that doesn't "get" "SNL." Apparently that means the youth of America is looking for comedy about breastfeeding and drinking pee. If so, there's certainly enough of it on "MADtv." Each episode packs between 14 and 21 sketches into a tight 42-minutes. As a result, scenes including recurring characters tend to be the best-known sketches. Because of the familiarity of the characters, they aren't as easily forgotten as the dozens of other scenes that become background noise. The Vancome Lady and LaMarr's UBS delivery guy are funny, but they don't hold a candle to "SNL"'s characters, mainly because they aren't developed the same way, and are instead just recycled into new situations to repeat the same lines and actions that the audience responded to.

That the show is entering its 10th year is more of a testament to how far "SNL" has fallen, than how good "MADtv" is. And it's really disappointing because it seems like so much effort went into making "MADtv" and the interesting concepts they came up with went to waste. The strange thing was, I couldn't figure out why it didn't work, because it really should have. Perhaps its the lack of a live energy and the sitcom look and feel of the studio pieces. Either way, my wife is a big fan of the show, but she didn't start watching until the fourth season, so perhaps the show gets better (see "The Extras" for more on that.) The first season definitely didn't impress me.

(Note: Normally, I would break down the season by episode and scene, but in just the first three episodes there were approximately 60 scenes. Instead, head over to the "MADtv" website for a list of the sketches. There's plenty that didn't age well (like the Calvin Klein ad ideas), which is a danger of doing parody, but they would have been quite funny in the right context. Below are some recommended season-one highlights.

• P.C. Cops - (Ep.2) L.A.'s finest do their jobs the politically-correct way.

• Crimes, Misdemeanors and Payback - (Ep.4) Woody Allen does an action movie and Dave Herman does a fantastic imitation of the Wood-man.

• Lowered Expectations - (several episodes) Videos from a dating service that deals with the less-than-desirable. Quick and funny.

• Vague - (Ep.6) A word-play sketch about a game show.

• The XXX Files - (Ep. 13) - A damn good parody of "The X-Files". Mary Scheer's Scully is dead-on.

• That's My White Mama (Ep.115) - Lange's politically-incorrect sitcom is comedy on the basest level. But it's still funny.

The DVDs
Packaged in a informative gatefold digipack inside a holographic-foil slipcase, the 19 42-minute episodes from "MADtv"'s first season are presented on three DVDs (a 20th "best of" episode aired, but is not included in this set.) Do the math, and you realize that's 798-minutes of TV, plus special features, on just three discs. So there are only two explanations for this: either the discs look and sound terrible, or they are flippers. The answer, sadly, is B) three two-sided discs. (I guess we should be happy that they episodes look good.) There are eight episodes on each of the first two DVDs, four per side (viewable in one group or separately), while the remaining three shows and the special features are on the third disc. English is the only language option, but you can get subtitles in English, French and Spanish. Menus are done in anamorphic widescreen, and are animated with the theme songs playing in the background.

Annoyingly, each side of the first two discs has a special features menu option, but in selecting it, you are told the special features are found elsewhere. There's no need for the DVD producers to play these games.

The Quality
With a variety of different looks, shot full-screen on video and film, the show looks very good across the board. Occasionally, the in-studio video looks a bit soft, but the colors and shadows look fine. There's no sign of any compression or encoding problems. The audio is equally solid, and is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. When visiting musical guests play, it sounds quite good, while the dialogue in each scene is heard clearly.

The Extras
In this department, Warner Brothers did a much better job with their DVDs than NBC did with their "SNL" discs. There are several extras available, with nearly all of them worth checking out. A Season Two DVD promo includes plenty of footage from the next season of discs, which looks better than this one. Look around and you'll find an easter egg as well with even more clips.

A nine-minute blooper reel is heavily censored, but is cute to watch, while nine unaired sketches give you even more "MADtv" to watch. It's understandable why they didn't make it to the final shows, but they aren't terrible. On the flip side of the third disc are two extensive extras. Over 30 minutes of the Best of MADtv are presented in five categories (Commercials, Movies, TV, Music Videos and Animation.) Noticeably, the scenes selected as the best sketches are from the later seasons. Also included is the show's 200th episode, which included guest appearances from the first cast members. It's much better than anything in the first 19 episodes, giving hope for later collections.

The Bottom Line
This one is truly a matter of taste. If you've seen MADtv and like it, you'll enjoy this DVD set. If you didn't like the show, there's nothing here that will convince you otherwise. For the uninitiated, a quick look at Comedy Central, where the show airs nearly 12 times a day (or so it seems) will help you make up your mind. Ignoring the show itself, the DVD set has an excellent presentation (outside of the actual discs themselves), with quality video and sound and a decent selection of extras. This is a recommended collection for MADtv fans, and a rental for the rest of you.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.