Before Will Ferrell made it big in movies like Talladega Nights and Old School he spent seven years on the stage of NBC's long running Saturday Night Live where he helped create a few memorable characters before going Hollywood. Hollywood Video, in conjunction with Lionsgate, gives Farrell's Saturday Night Live years its due with the aptly titled Saturday Night Live - The Best Of Will Ferrell. Like any 'greatest hits' package, not everyone is going to agree with the selection of material included on this disc, but the good does outweigh the bad. Here's a look at the sketches included on this DVD, which runs over two hours in length:

Bobbi & Marty / Behind The Music - Cowbell / Dissing Your Dog / Cheerleaders / Robert Goulet / Montage 1 / Jeopardy / Inside The Actors Studio / Devil Music / Montage 2 / Harry Carey: Space / Love's Hot Tub / Roxbury / Montage 3 / Sculpture Class / Family Dinner / Jacob Silk / Credits

If you're familiar with Ferrell's Saturday Night Live work, then it's a given that some of those sketches are going to sound familiar to you. The introductory sketch introduces us to the two awkward cheerleaders who would go on to make multiple appearances on Saturday Night Live over Ferrell's tenture on the show. While not personal favorites of this reviewer, they struck a chord with the audience. More amusing, particularly for music fans, is when Ferrell finds himself playing cowbell in the studio while Blue Oyster Cult records their classic 'Don't Fear The Reaper' for a producer named Bruce Dickinson played by none other than Christopher Walken. Farrell's portrayal of the frustrated cowbell player is great, and he's complimented by some great supporting players who all do just as well with the material. Of course, the Roxbury sketch, which pairs him with Chris Katan and none other than Jim Carey as a trio of bumping and grinding dance club lechers, is one of the best on the disc. Not only did it give birth to the feature film A Night At The Roxbury (with Carey replaced by Jim Brewer), but it became a part of American pop culture for far longer than it probably should have.

The best part of this set, however, is when Ferrell gets to do impressions. The Jeopardy sketch included on this disc isn't the best of the selections from that long running poke at Celebrity Jeopardy but anytime Ferrell's Trebeck matched wits with a hilarious Sean Connery or Burt Reynolds impersonation, laughs were pretty much guaranteed. Equally funny are Farrell's impersonations of Robert Goulet (here pimping an album of rap covers that he's recently record in his own inimitable style) and his spot-on-piss-your-pants-hilarious take on James Lipton, host of Inside The Actor's Studio, as he interviews Alec Baldwin impersonating Charles Nelson Reilly. Rarely has a Saturday Night Live impersonation been done with such side splittingly funny accuracy as it is in this bit.

Not every sketch is a winner, and as is always the case with comedy, your enjoyment will vary depending on what you think is funny. The Lovers sketch, which was quite well received and lead to a few follow ups, falls flat here and isn't really as funny as it is just annoying while a fake informercial in which Farrell's character, fresh out of state mandated anger management classes, teaches us to train our dogs by dissing them only half works. The bit in which Ferrell, as the devil, tries to teach Garth Brooks how to write a hit song is half-assed and predictable while a sketch in which he has a family dinner with Sarah Michelle Gellar as his daughter isn't really anything to write home about either.

The good does, however, outweigh the bad. There's enough genuinely funny material here to make it worth a watch. Granted, you'll probably have to be a Ferrell fan already to enjoy it, and God knows there are plenty of people out there who just don't find the man funny at all, but if you can appreciate his style and his sense of humor and haven't already checked out his early stuff, this is a good way to do it.

Video:

The material in here is shot on video though everything comes through looking pretty good. There's some video noise in a few spots but that's part and parcel with the format and the way that this series has been shot - sometimes the stage lighting can creep into the picture quality and mess with the colors a bit too. Overall there aren't any serious issues with the transfer in terms of mpeg compression artifacts, edge enhancement, or damage to the elements used for the presentation. It doesn't look perfect, nor will it ever, but it is definitely watchable.