The fourth season of the CBC's finest gift to the world, The Kids In The Hall ran from 1992 through 1993 and produced twenty episodes in total (with two 'Best Of' episodes piggy backed on top of them in this set). 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 three seasons, and now the fourth finally hits DVD, uncut and uncensored.

Dave Foley, Mark McKinney (before he went onto Saturday Night Live), Bruce McCulloch, Scott Thompson and Kevin McDonald are once again all in fine form here, but one thing you'll notice in this season as opposed to the earlier ones is the inclusion of some outside players. The five original Kids are still definitely the stars, but this time out we do see some extras brought in for certain skits and bits, as well as the inclusion of Paul Bellini, who shows up clad in his towel for the truly off the wall Spot Paul Bellini Contest (which this reviewer actually tried to enter when the episode first aired, and I'm probably not the only one who took it at face value!). The inclusion of the extras doesn't hurt anything in the least, and the wit and wackiness that the series is known for is still razor sharp even four years into the series.

The most unusual episode in the set is Chalet 2000 in which Scott Thompson plays his two most famous roles, that of Buddy Cole and Queen Elizabeth II. In the skit, which lasts the entire episode, the Queen gets tired of photographers following her around and so she heads to Northern Canada to relax with her friend and confidant Buddy for a while. While she's there she has a torrid affair with Buddy's adopted son, a beaver played by Bruce McCulloch, and avoids a tabloid photographer named Lanky Dean (McKinney) who is still on the chase in hopes of capturing her in some rather unorthodox situations. This is a stellar episode full of all sorts of great little jokes but there's one big problem with it – if you're not Canadian, this isn't very funny. Having grown up in Canada, this one hit home and it really worked on a personal level but if you don't know of Canada's relationship with the Queen or of the Cour De Bois from the country's past, a lot of this might go over your head.

The rest of the material, however, is very friendly to international audiences and while sure there are references to certain oddities of Canadian culture throughout the show, none of them are impenetrable or difficult to figure out for those who didn't spend their formative years in the Great White North.

Regular viewers will be delighted to see a few familiar characters return to the screen in this season. Mark McKinney's Chicken Lady shows up at her ancestral home and takes an impromptu tour while Kevin McDonald's Bearded Lady waits for her in the car outside. Bruce McCulloch once again resumes his role of Gavin, the curious and strange little boy with a penchant for making up ridiculous stories, this time telling some door to door evangelists of a kid he knew at school who died after his blood was replaced with apple juice. The cops shows up in many of the episodes, as do the hookers played by Dave Foley and Scott Thompson in full on drag.

Another highlight and a fan favorite from this season is McCulloch as pop star Tammy, performing in her new video, I Don't Spread For No Roses, a completely raunchy song about how she won't sell out accompanied by an even raunchier video wherein McCulloch, in drag and in character, receives oral from a man and avoids various ejaculatory fluids. This is dirty and subversive humor at its finest and while maybe it isn't as poignant as it was when it was first made, what with Madonna having changed her image about seventy times since, it's still worthy of a serious belly laugh.

Francesca Fiore and Bruno Ponce Jones, Thompson and Foley respectively, also show up here when Francesca is taken to court for beating up her husband, played by a wormy McDonald. A skit where Scott Thompson playing a sales manager heads to a manly retreat to get in touch with his inner animal is also hysterical, particularly when he 'becomes the wolf.'

Overall it's a great selection of episodes featuring a lot of the classic characters we know and love from the show as well as a host of new 'one shot' bits and clever monologues as well. The Kids In The Hall got away with a lot more as the series got more popular and this fourth season is a notch or two dirtier than what came before it but the end result is still the same – it's funny stuff!

The episodes contained in the fourth season of the show are spread out across the first three discs in this four disc set as follows:

DISC ONE:

Episode 1:

Cameraman Memorial/Night I Connected With My Dog/Hookers Undercover/Repair/Hair Styles/Rude Awakening/Hookers - Tourist/Would You Do an Alien?/Work Pig

Episode 2:

Shwodown - Phonecall/Age/Showown - Good Looking/Darrill Dream/Showdown - Creature/Virtual Sex/Deer By the Water/The Escape Artist

Episode 3:

Fiore!/Hookers - Holdin' Out/Fantasy/Plastic Surgeon/Hookers - Ventalin/Can You Dig It?/The Big House/The Pains/John Wayne

Episode 4:

The Pardoning/No Contest/Showdown - Fish/Hookers - Phone Sex/Evil Patients/Showdown - Bruce And Dave/ Cheating/The Sandwich People/Mr. Wrong/Mrs. Ondaatje

Episode 5:

Newscasters/The Fun Never Stops/Perks/Neckbone/So Says You/Sex Girl Patrol

Episode 6:

Deer By The Water/Radio/Cathy/Apartment Games 1/Knife Sharpener/Food/Apartment Games 2/Forceful Friends/Maria/Apartment Games 3

DISC TWO:

Episode 7:

The Beatles/Chicken Lady Homecoming/He's Hip/Hiring 1/Patient-Doctor/Things To Do/ He's Hip/Hiring 2/He's Hip/Hiring 3/Judy, Fran & Gaugin

Episode 8:

Hookers - Rich Guy/Gavin - Religion/Try It Now!/Just Terrific/Hookers - Puppet/Coincidence/Listening In/Hookers - New Coke/Thanksgiving

Episode 9:

Chalet 2000 (Acts One, Two and Three)

Episode 10:

Receptionist/Walk A Mile In My Shoes/Cops - Rookie Trick Question/A Soulfulness They Never HAd/Cops - Rookie Coffee/Answering Machine/Celebrity/Cops - Rookie Puke/Divorce Court

Episode 11:

Alan Bouvier/Career Crisis/Nice Day For Work/Hookers - Plastic Surgery/Armada - Understudy/Hookers - Commitment/Lost And Found/Clothesline/Hookers - Too Easy/Comfortable High

Episode 12:

Luck/Fine Line/Tuck It In/Losing My Religion/Serpico/The Hangover/Wild Man

Episode 13:

Cops - Fridge/Third Time Lucky/Cops - Spring/Exposed/Hookers - Documentaries/Nudity/Cops - Europe/Business World/Katnapped

DISC THREE:

Episode 14:

Cannibal/Children/Bellini Contest/Wrong Number/Tammy - Roses/Borrowed Art

Episode 15:

New Guy/Dad And Son Phone Call/Cops - Puck/Clear The Air/Seat 12B/Cops - Hair/Rollerblades/Love And Sausages

Episode 16:

Guilt/The Kathies - Monday Meeting/The Voices/Steps - Hot/Becoming A Man/Steps - Drag/The Collector/Steps - Issues

Episode 17:

Pops/Poker Face/Cheers/Cops - Worms/The Nap/Cops - Hungover/Contest/Just One Bite

Episode 18:

Hookers - Transvestite/Excellent Composer/Hookers - Movie Star/Quarter Life Crisis/Cemetery/Drunk As A Crow/Advantage

Episode 19:

People - Bike Courier/Ricarda/Chargin' Ya/Atrium/People - Winnipeg Chick/Art Studio/People - Hopeless Romantic/Surrogate

Episode 20:

Cabbie/Seminar - Gezbo/Diploma/Cabbie Two/On Board/Scary Sandwich/Extreme Arguement

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 and these episodes look a little sharper and marginally more colorful than the first three seasons did. 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 but this doesn't show up often at all. 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.