The Story So Far...
In their super-successful first season, Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carrolla's crank-calling puppets brought back from the dead the art of harassing people over the phone. With a team of fellow comedians, including Comedy Central stars Dave Chappelle, Wanda Sykes and Dave Attell, they pulled out the old phone favorites and added some new classics like the Special Ed calls. Then, the calls are illustrated as part of the fictional town of Yankerville, using some of the most impressive puppetry this side of Avenue Q, ading another layer of visual comedy on top of the calls themselves.

The 10-episode first season was released, uncensored, on DVD by Paramount in September of 2004. You can find DVDTalk's review of that release here.

The Show
"Crank Yankers" came flying out of the gate in its first go-round, which could have doomed the series. Set the bar too high, and the following episodes will pale in comparison if they don't rise above. Fortunately, there are ways around this, with one of the best being the addition of new voices. With success, "Crank Yankers" could attract some of the funniest people in the business, adding stars like Jeff Goldblum, Seth McFarlane and Snoop Dogg to the established stable of characters, as well as some terrific stand-ups like David Cross, Robert Schimmel and Gilbert Gottfried.

The old stand-bys tend to be the real winners, like Tony Barbieri's "Nile Standish," an upper-crusty perv, Sykes' "Gladys Murphy," a woman without much in the way of impulse control, and Lisa Kushell's "Cammie," who is simply a whore. Previous stars of the show, like Jim Florentine's belching "Bobby Fletcher," Kimmel's elderly "Elmer" and Sarah Silverman's overbearing "Haddassah," seem to wear out their welcome, maybe just because they appear so often. Bobby Fletcher alone is in seven of the 15 episodes, which is a case of overkill for such a one-dimensional joke.

Of the new characters, the best come from David Alan Grier, who stretches outside of his vomiting character to create some new ideas, Kimmel's kids, who bring the "South Park" concept to crank calling, and Gottfried, who somehow can fool people, despite an extremely distinctive voice. Probably the best of the bunch is Goldberg, who plays an inappropriate professor surveying his students. The reason why it works is Goldberg, an underrated comic actor, who is just fantastic, giving his voice authority, then perversity, in a manner of seconds.

While the voices are the key to the show, without the fantastic efforts of the production team, this show wouldn't be nearly as good. Often, the side of the conversation that's unknown, the receiving end, is the lynchpin, as it's entirely up to the creators. They imagine what might be happening on the other end of the phone, and that kind of free reign adds even more hilarity to the show. From top to bottom, this is a well-made, and consistently funny season.

The DVDs
As this is just Volume One, the first 15 episodes of the second season of "Crank Yankers" are spread over two DVDs, with eight on Disc One and seven on Disc Two. Why they didn't just make this a three-disc set, when there are only five more episodes in the season, is a question that will have to eventually be answered in Volume Two.

There's just one menu screen, which follows a short bit of animation based on the series' opening credits. The menu includes episode choices and a play-all option, and access to bonus features. There are no language or subtitle options, but the episodes do have closed captioning.

The Quality
The video for these episodes is full-frame and crisp, without any signs of dirt, damage or grain. Color is bright and vivid, and the level of fine detail is rather high. There are some occasional compression artifacts, but nothing that will lessen the overall look. The image is improved over the original broadcast.

The audio, a Dolby 2.0 track, is standard-issue TV comedy, but it's crystal clear. There are no complaints about the center channel-powered soundtracks, as it performs exactly as one would hope it would.

The Extras
The bonus features are mainly found on the second disc, and consist of a couple of unaired clips and a slideshow. The only full-realized unaired clip is of the late Mitch Hedberg, which is some odd timing to be certain. The call, in which Hedberg responds to an ad looking for a lead singer, is not that funny, and not even done in Mitch's signature style. It's definitely a disappointment in more ways than one.

Two audio calls, sans puppets, are also included, but neither is very good. In one, Corrolla calls Andy Dick, who was supposed to be on the show, but didn't make it to the taping. There's no real "crank yanking," so the point is lost on me. In the other, Snoop Dogg calls a record shop. Some of this audio was actually used in a scene that made it to air, so it's not exactly the exclusive it's listed as. The only redeeming value of these clips is their on-screen presentation, which calls back to a first-season bit.

A rather lengthy gallery shows many of the posters, signs and products that the inhabitants of Yankerville see or use each day. Mostly consisting of scatalogical one-liners, they are nonetheless an interesting part of the show, and give an idea of how much work and thought goes into "Crank Yankers." There are also some DVD promos and two Comedy Central quickies, for "Reno 911" and "Drawn Together."

The Bottom Line
Season Two brought more star power to Yankerville, and incredibly, the quality of the calls and the puppetry only improved. With the increased amount of guest callers, there wasn't the same focus on developing characters, but the originals still worked fine, and the addition of Kimmel's kids added another disturbing yet funny angle. The DVD set is a bit incomplete without all of Season Two's episodes, and there are only a few extras, but the quality of the presentation is nice. For fans of the series, having these episodes without the bleeps and blurring and looking this good, this is an easy purchase. Casual viewers would probably be happy with just a rental though.

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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.