The third season of the CBC's finest gift to the world, The Kids In The Hall ran from 1991 through 1992 and produced twenty episodes in total. A&E in conjunction with Broadway Video continues with the standards of excellence that they brought to the table with their complete releases of the first two seasons, and now the third (and possibly the funniest) finally hits DVD, uncut and uncensored.

Dave Foley, Mark McKinney (before he went onto Saturday Night Live), Bruce McCulluch, Scott Thompson and Kevin McDonald are all in fine form here. The writing is more refined, the satire is edgier, and some of the jabs are near brilliant. While the Kids' sense of humor won't appeal to everyone and some of the jokes definitely go over better in Canada than in the United States simply because of minor cultural differences, the humor here is clever, funny, and at times just plain odd.

In the first season, they were all over the place, trying to find their groove and having to adjust a lot of the material that they'd brought to life on stage to the small screen for home viewing. The second season proved to be a vast improvement over the first, with better acting, much better writing, and considerably improved comedic timing. The third season, however, is where it all works. Some recurring characters come back this time out – the Chicken Lady is here, as are the cops and even good old Mr. Heavyfoot – but it's the one off skits that really work. Such classic moments as Bruce McCulloch's brilliant turn as a man obsessed in The Pen or Dave Foley's performance as a man who just can't handle his booze in Girl Drink Drunk stand out as some of the finest bits in the history of a show that is consistently filled with fine bits all around.

Scott Thompson as Queen Elizabeth II addressing Canada in order to convince them to take back the monarchy is absolutely hysterical (though this is one that probably plays better to Canadian audiences), as is the random appearances of that strange red headed 'Fact Girl.' Simon and Hecubus always make for an evil good time, and they show up here a few times as they proved to be a very popular bit, and Bruce McCulluch first appears as Tammy in this season as well.

While not ever skit is gold, the fact is that most of them are and there are very few misfires in this selection of episodes. This material serves as a record of when the troupe was completely at the top of their game and it's many of the skits in this set that made so many people fans of the show in the first place. Plenty of instantly quotable lines such as 'I'm just not good at small talk, you price!' or 'I've got a spike through my head' ought to bring back plenty of fond memories of the show, and that's just barely scratching the surface of the material.

The skits on this set are contained in the following order in the appropriate episodes as they were originally broadcast and are presented here uncut with all the naughty words intact.

DISC ONE:

Episode 1:

Plane/Body Conscious/Cabbie – Bigot/Chicken Lady Show/Cabbies – Pris/Cops – Abuse/Small C/The Pen/Cops – Movie/Touch Me There

Episode 2:

Clothes Make The Man/Can't Sleep 2/Tiggy/I Can Live With That/ Excellent TV/Can't Sleep 3/Girl Drink Drunk

Episode 3:

Asleep on the Job/Measure/Nervous Break(fast) Down/Raise 1/Gimmel 100/Raise 2/Tammy

Episode 4:

Golf/Earring/Flying Pig 1/Queen's Address/Flying Pig 2/Academy Awards/Cops - Flying Pig/Chop Chop/Flying Pig 3

Episode 5:

Presentation/Tanya's Goodbye/Open Letter 1/Tucker/Open Letter 2/ Until Proven Guilty/Underage

Episode 6:

Cops - Night 1/Accents/Original Bat/Bingo/Drag Revolution/Cops - Night 2/Teamwork/Cops - Night 3

DISC TWO:

Episode 7:

Mom or Dad/Evol/Same as Bruce/Mocking/Sacking All Admirals/ Waiting Room/Kidnapped

Episode 8:

Genius/Gut/Wedding Virgin/Terrier/Wedding Toast/Freedom of Speech/Wedding Objection/Excellent Patio

Episode 9:

Old Lady/The Gift/Babysitter/M. Piedlourde Puts His Pants On/Paris/Street Singers/M. Piedlourde - Deteste Le Film/Macaroni

Episode 10:

Fact – Stone/After The Film/Replaced 1/Grandpa Geralds/Wages/ Replaced 2/Haggle/Fact – Uncle/Captain Calm/Fact – Strike/Replaced 3

Episode 11:

Girls/Mr. Right/He's Hip 1/Extreme/He's Hip 2/Harassment/He's Hip 3/Stay Down

Episode 12:

Cops – Opera/Back On The Horse/Ed/Cops – Shift/Buddy's Date/Tea Factory/Cops – Asleep/Pickle

Episode 13:

Boxing/Pizzeria/On The Subject of Me – Cow/Bartending School/On The Subject of Me – Caricature/The Sudelmans/On The Subject of Me – Moustache/My Horrible Secret

DISC THREE:

Episode 14:

Poem - 99 Bottles/Funeral Home/Poem - The Fall/The King/Advice/Scar/Poem - The Empress/Emergency Troupe Meeting

Episode 15:

Cops – Potato/Serial/Gross 1/Cops – Thinking/Home Alone/Opened Up/Gross 2/Shirlers

Episode 16:

Resemble/Treatment/Fact – Ears/Night Train/Garbage Man/Fact - Vanilla Ice/Bauer

Episode 17:

Father Figure 1/God/Darcy & Francesca/Father Figure 2/Letters From A Sick Bed/Joint/Father Figure 3/Joint Tag

Episode 18:

Old Yeller 1/Skeletons/Ugly Situation/Vicky/Old Yeller 2/Armada/ Horsey

Episode 19:

What/Cattle Call/Clock Radio/Excellent Mom Frame/Cattle Call 2/ Long Story/Celebration

Episode 20:

On The Subject Of Me – Spleen/Chicken Wedding/Whatever/Regrets/ Check-up/On The Subject of Me – Caesarian/Spy Models

Video:

Seeing as this material was all made for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and shown on television, it should surprise no one to find that the image is presented 1.33.1 fullframe, which is how it should be. The video quality is pretty good overall. There is some evidence of mild damage to the materials used for the transfer that shows up in the form of the odd speck here and there. Some mild edge enhancement is also present as are a few instances of compression artifacts but everything is quite clean and watchable throughout despite these small problems. For a TV show fast approaching fifteen years old, this set does do justice to the visuals with nice color representation and accurate looking skin tones. The odd small flaw in the presentation is easy to overlook as they don't really distract from the material much at all and each and every one of the episodes looks just as good if not better than they did on broadcast television.