PR: MPI June 30: The IT Crowd, The Lucille Ball Specials, The Queens Of Country, Muhammad Al

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Release Date: May 23, 2009, 11:47 am
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The IT Crowd: The Complete Second Season * The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky & Three for Two * The Queens Of Country: Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline * Muhammad Ali: In His Own Words on DVD June 30

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The IT Crowd: The Complete Second Season
Street date: June 30, 2009
SRP: $24.98

The misadventures of Britain's geekiest, most inept information technology department continue in The IT Crowd: The Complete Second Season, to be released by MPI Home Video on June 30, 2009, complete with outtakes, audio commentary and other bonus features, with an SRP of $24.98.

Written and directed by Graham Linehan ("Father Ted," "Black Books") and produced by Ash Atalla ("The Office"), THE IT CROWD centers on the I.T. department in a glamorous London corporation. In the gleaming high-rise offices of Reynholm Industries, powerful executives oversee billion-dollar business deals, but down in the dark and shabby basement toils the technical support team – a confederacy of ineptitude, irresponsibility and general insanity. In Season Two, bitter slacker Roy (Chris O'Dowd), uber-nerd Moss (Richard Ayoade) and technically clueless Jen (Katharine Parkinson) befriend a German cannibal, disrupt their boss' funeral and design the ultimate bra, among other thoroughly unprofessional but completely hilarious antics.

Filmed on location and in front of a live studio audience, THE IT CROWD is a surreal look at the underclass of a company andhas been hailed as "kick-arse comedy" (Entertainment Weekly), "one of the lunatic joys of the comedy year... deliriously funny..." (LA Weekly) and "a direct descendant of 'Fawlty Towers' " (Wired magazine). The series won the 2008 International Emmy Award for Best Comedy and currently airs in prime time on the IFC Channel.

The IT Crowd: The Complete Second Season contains 6 episodes with a total running time of 144 minutes. The hours of bonus material include gut-busting bloopers; a featurette, "Recording The IT Crowd"; and audio commentary.

The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky & Three for Two
Street date: June 30, 2009
SRP: $19.98

Lucille Ball became a television icon in the 1950s and continued her sitcom supremacy throughout the 1960s, but two specials she made for CBS following the end of her successful "Here's Lucy" series have been virtually unseen since airing in 1975 and have been unavailable to fans – until now. On June 30, 2009, MPI Home Video will present The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky & Three for Two, in which the wacky redhead teams with entertainment legends Dean Martin and Jackie Gleason. The single DVD, with an SRP of $19.98, boasts a wealth of extras, including bloopers and interviews.

All-star specials – in which celebrities either stepped out of their usual setting or put a new spin on their enduring image – were common on television in the 1960s and '70s, and few were more anticipated than these two shows starring the era's greatest comedienne. In "Lucy Gets Lucky," Ball plays Lucy Collins, who heads to Las Vegas to see her favorite entertainer, Dean Martin (who plays himself). In an effort to get close to the sexy singer, Lucy gets a job at the MGM Grand casino and, needless to say, havoc is duly wreaked. The special also stars Jackie Coogan of "Addams Family" fame.

"Three for Two" marked a rare pairing of Ball and her 1950s sitcom rival, "Honeymooners" star Jackie Gleason. In three mini comedy-dramas, whose writers include the husband-and-wife team of Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor ("Lovers and Other Strangers"), Ball and Gleason depict various aspects of marriage.

Bonus material on THE LUCILLE BALL SPECIALS includes the invaluable documentary "Let's Talk to Lucy," long-lost radio interviews with Dean Martin, bloopers, a featurette with guest actor Gino Conforti (a familiar face to TV viewers for 40 years), and rare Lucy footage.

The Queens Of Country: Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline
Street date: June 30, 2009
SRP: $24.98

American music's legendary leading ladies are brought together in a unique and essential DVD collection,THE QUEENS OF COUNTRY, a set comprising three hours of definitive performances of hits by Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline. Including footage unseen in decades, the three-disc collection arrives on DVD from MPI Media Group on June 20, 2009, with an SRP of $24.98. Fans of country music will be thrilled to see and hear these performances from the 1960s and 1970s, many not seen since their original broadcast.

Each of the three DVDs is devoted to one artist and are available as a set for the first time:
DOLLY PARTON & FRIENDS -"Dolly Parton & Friends" features performances from the 1976 music-variety show "Dolly," and has the "9 to 5" composer singing many of her classic tunes, such as "I Will Always Love You." She also duets with a star-studded lineup that includes Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Rogers, Emmylou Harris and poet-singer Rod McKuen.

LORETTA LYNN: SONGS OF INSPIRATION -"Loretta Lynn: Songs of Inspiration" features the "Coal Miner's Daughter" performing more than 20 classic and contemporary gospel songs, taken from her appearances on TV's long-running "Wilburn Brothers Show."

PATSY CLINE -"Sweet Dreams Still" is the essential anthology of filmed musical performances by Patsy Cline, whose signature hits "Crazy" and "Walkin' After Midnight" continue to thrill listeners nearly five decades after her tragic death. The disc features full-length performances and rare performances, including Patsy's last televised appearance, filmed just days before her death in a plane crash.

RE-RELEASE (previously available as part of a box set):
Muhammad Ali: In His Own Words
Street date: June 30, 2009
SRP: $9.98

Muhammad Ali backed up his boast of being "The Greatest" with his mesmerizing performances in the boxing ring – no one had ever seen such a combination of fast feet, lighting-quick hands and stunning power, a style Ali himself famously described as, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." That eloquent description is just one of the memorable utterances from one of sport's most quotable figures, and his outspokenness is captured in all its glory inMuhammad Ali: In His Own Words, being re-released on DVD from MPI Home Video on June 30, 2009, with an SRP of $9.98.

Using a wealth of rare footage, much of it unseen in decades,Muhammad Ali: In His Own Words charts the life of Ali (born Cassius Clay) beginning with his childhood in Louisville, Kentucky, where, at age 12, he was taught basic boxing moves by a police officer to fend off bullies. It was the birth of a never-back-down attitude that would make him a hero to many but reviled by others, particularly when, during the Vietnam War, he refused induction into the Army on religious grounds, having converted to Islam and changing his name. Stripped of his heavyweight title, it would be three years before he would fight again and reclaim his title. By his retirement in 1981, he had compiled an amazing record of 56 wins and 5 losses; 37 of those wins were by knockout. But the story doesn't end there, asMuhammad Ali: In His Own Wordsbrings us up to date on Ali's humanitarian work and his personal battle with Parkinson's disease.

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News Editor May 23, 2009, 11:47 am