Blue Collar TV: Season One / Volume One
Warner Home Video
Cast: Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, Ron White
Extras: Featurettes
Rating:
If you crave the formulas of "Saturday Night Live" and "Mad TV", with sketch comedy performed in front of a live studio audience, then "Blue Collar TV: Season One / Volume One" might make a welcomed addition to you DVD collection. I actually had a real riot of a good time witnessing the on-stage silliness of Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engvall, with Ron White (the fourth member from the "Blue Collar" Comedy Tour) appearing as a guest. Turning their successful comedy tour shtick into a weekly television series was a good decision for these good old southern boys with a flare of redneck tradition thrown in for good measure. Each episode features Foxworthy hosting with an opening monologue, then introducing the "theme" of that night's comedy skit's, which offer anything from "Family" or "Getting Sick" to just plain "Naked". With a live band to keep the audience entertained between the comedy and the ever amusing Ron White, with lit cigarette in one hand and a glass of booze in the other, hosting his crowd pleasing "Hit or Hug" game, the laughs are sure to remain plentiful. Wrapping up each episode, Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engvall offer up their words of wisdom in the "I Believe…." segment.
I found the better feature of "Blue Collar TV" to be the "Hatfield-McCoy Redneck Dictionary" segments that appear every so often and feature a hilarious backwoods take on traditional English words. One hilarious example is the hillbilly version of the word "European" where two hunters relieving themselves in the woods bring a new meaning to the phrase "Eur-o-pean on my boots"! Sure it's silly and maybe a little off-color at times, but hey, this is Jeff Foxworthy-style humor we are talking about here and if you're in the mood for something a little out of the ordinary and are not easily offended, then this series might just be what you're after.
Warner Home Entertainment has decided to split the first full season of "Blue Collar TV" into two separate editions appropriately titled "Season One / Volume One", which is the release that pertains to this review, as well as "Season One / Volume Two" (to be released early in 2006).
Presentation wise, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment offers a great transfer of "Blue Collar TV: Season One / Volume One" for this DVD release. Image detail is sharp and presents deep rich black levels that remain consistent throughout all 13 episodes contained in this set. Color saturation is well reproduced to bring all of the sight gags to life, while keeping flesh tones natural and accurate through the varied styles of stage lighting utilized in the production. There is no noticeable compression elements or dust particles, just a clean and crisp exhibition to enjoy without distraction.
The audio portion comes available as a Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround presentation that exhibits good natural vocal reproduction, with good balance provided by the overall sound mix, matching the visual content quite nicely.
Included with this two disc set is a featurette titled "Live Comedy No Second Chances" that includes interviews with cast and produces with a behind-the-scenes perspective. The "Hatfield-McCoy Redneck Dictionary" segment groups all of the redneck translations of common English words, which are found throughout the various 13 episodes in the form of mini-skits, into one featurette to further satisfy your comedic appetite.
Having never caught this series on network television, I was pleasantly surprised by the well written and performed sketch style humor that makes up the "Blue Collar" comedic group.
