Eagle Vision presents

The Man Show: Season One Volume Two (1999)

"Quit your job and light a fart,
Yank your favorite private part.
It's The Man Show!"- theme song

Stars: Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Carolla
Other Stars: Bill "The Fox" Foster, Za' Kari Ashor, Angelique Gorges, Paula Harrison, Vanessa Kay, Patti Kim, Nicole Rodriquez, Jennifer Strovas, Suzanne Talhouk, Jenna Jameson, Nikki Tyler, Brittany Andrews
Director: various

MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (sexual humor)
Run Time: 04h:40m
Release Date: 2003-11-04
Genre: television

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
B	B	B+	A-	B-

 

DVD Review

The Man Show, launched in 1999, was intended to be Comedy Central's fairly brave foray into creating a half-hour show designed exclusively for males, a ploy that the Spike Channel would attempt to exploit years later. Dispensing with any modicum of political correctness, the show featured two very guy-friendly hosts in Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel, beer drinking (courtesy of the late Bill Foster, the world's fastest beer drinker), scantily clad dancers (The Juggys), and their trademark slow-motion "girls jumping on trampolines" segment that closed each episode. The humor was obviously low-brow, not to mention that it was often very funny, and The Man Show has even survived the eventual departure of Carolla and Kimmel as hosts, though in my mind it seems that it really can never be the same show without them.

This three-disc set captures the twelve episodes that made up the second half of season one (the first half set was released in June 2003), and Carolla and Kimmel work the show's familiar formula with an extremely watchable ease. The pair open each show with their "man-o-logue", five minutes or so of themed standup humor that ties in with the loosely organized subject of that particular episode. Once the opening was out of the way, then it was time for a couple of skits, The Juggys jiggly dancing, Bill Foster slamming glass after glass of beer, then maybe time for a porn star to offer some sexy household hints (like Jenna Jameson slowly polishing a candle stick), a few questions from the audience, and then it was time to wrap things up with some girls jumping on trampolines over the closing credits. Formulaic it was, but it admittedly worked rather well.

The success of the show was always the chemistry between Carolla and Kimmel as hosts, and their laid back approach served and aided the delivery of the typical frat boy humor of The Man Show. Carolla, who in my estimation is by far the funnier of the two, absolutely kills on a regular basis with his dry, deadpan delivery, and most of the more memorable comedic moments come from him. Kimmel, on the other hand, is less like Carolla's crazy friend and more like the balanced normal guy, something that no doubt helped him land his own talk show, minus Carolla. The two did have a great rapport together, and even when some of the gags never solidified, their approach could almost save it.

Falling back on touting the attractive Juggy dancers is never more than a few moments away in any episode, something that is really done to the extreme during the Christmas Shopping With The Juggys segment from the Holiday show, which culminates with a free form lingerie fashion show. Like I said, this isn't high brow stuff by any means; it's nearly naked women, cold beer, and dumb jokes.

The episodes on this three-disc set are:
Jobs
Mysteries of Women
Underwear
Thanks Man Show
The Woman Show
Veal
Practical Jokes
Holiday Show
Millennium
New Year's Resolution Show
Compilation 2
Super Bowl Show


Rating for Style: B
Rating for Substance: B

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	no

Image Transfer Review: The 1.33:1 transfer of The Man Show on this set is a consistently good one, with each episode looking far better than I had anticipated. Colors are pleasing and bright (the Juggys do look fabulous), and there is no evident print flaws or imperfections to be found across the twelve episodes.

Certainly not a title that would benefit from the hi-def treatment, this presentation of a comedy show manages to look better than my cable company has ever managed to convey.

Image Transfer Grade: B+
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
DS 2.0	English	no

Audio Transfer Review: Audio is presented in a noticeably robust 2.0 surround track, with rear channels coming alive once in a while, for mostly musical cues or audience applause. Dialogue is clean and distortion-free, and certain segments (particularly the girls jumping on trampolines) have a dramatically fuller, more expansive feel to them.

Well done, indeed.

Audio Transfer Grade: A- 

Disc Extras

Animated menu with music
Scene Access with 96 cues and remote access
5 Featurette(s)
Packaging: Scanavo variant
Picture Disc
3 Discs
3-Sided disc(s)
Layers: dual

Extras Review: The extras on this set consists of some hit-or-miss bonus footage on the third disc, broken down into five categories:
Charlton Heston's Penis (03m:09s)
Oprah Jimfrey (02m:15s)
Karl Malone On...(02m:55s)
Man Show Miracles (02m:21s)
Girls Jumping on Trampolines (05m:21s).

The best of the lot, aside from the always appreciated additional trampoline segment, is the hilariously disturbing Heston penis puppet bit, here spouting pseudo-public service announcements. The Karl Malone stuff (with Kimmel in black face) borders on the stupid, as does the one-joke Kimmel-as-Oprah gags.

Each episode is cut into 8 chapters, with no available subtitles or closed captioning.

Extras Grade: B-
 

Final Comments

The humor is a little uneven in spots, but there is plenty of what the backcover touts: "Girls! Beer! Monkeys!" Over the course of twelve episodes I found more moments of genuine laugh-out-loud comedy balanced against a few "boy, that was dumb" segments.

I'm not sure if this merits a permanent place in your library, but if you like non-politically correct jokes, girls on trampolines, and a place where it's okay to exploit the pleasures of being a simple-minded guy, then you've found an ideal place to hang out for a while.

Rich Rosell 2003-12-01