Created by:
Mike Judge
Voices:
Mike Judge …. Beavis/ Butt-Head/ Tom Anderson/ David Van Driessen/ Bradley Buzzcut/ Principal McVicker/ Mr. Stevenson/ The Great Cornholio
Tracy Grandstaff …. Daria Morgendorffer/ Mrs. Stevenson/ Cassandra
Adam Welsh …. Stewart Stevenson
Studio: Paramount Home Video.
Release Date: August 1, 2006.
Number of Discs: 3.
Number of Episodes: 42.
Running Time: 256 minutes.
MSRP: $38.99.
Many people have their own little lists of films and TV series they want put out on the ever so convenient format of DVD. If you grew up in the 90’s there’s a very good chance that Beavis and Butt-head are on there somewhere. Who hasn’t sat around the house during the summer with friends watching music videos while providing their own commentary ripping apart all the bands they hated? That’s what this show was all about and in the process provided a few short cartoon clips that chronicled the life and times of two slackers from Highland Texas.
Beavis & Butt-head were two boys on their own with no parental supervision, didn’t attend school regularly and learned the facts of life from watching TV. Once out in the real world no matter what problems they got in to they seem to always walk away possibly dumber from the experiences. How is it that these two slackers who sit on their couch all day and watch music videos captured the nation by storm? Well, perhaps I answered my own question there. These were two characters that, for better of worse, were relatable (or at least enjoyable) to its target audience.
Mike Judge himself has stated that while he enjoyed working on Beavis & Butt-head there were still about a third of the shows that he was ashamed of making. Perhaps due to them being rushed to the final stage or near the end of the shows run where burn out was starting to settle in. Either way, Judge would rather them be forgotten. So with this series he has decided to hand pick the shows he personally enjoyed making and having only those ones available for fans. Even if they’re not happy with his decision, there’s no denying that it’s nice to now have the show available for purchase.
For the longest time, Time Life would advertise late at night allowing viewers the opportunity to purchase volumes of the series along with made for TV specials. But fans wanted something a little more legitimate, something with the Mike Judge seal of approval, and at long last they did. Only what they got didn’t make them happy. After the first volume of this three part collection was released fans were very distraught. First for the fact the series wasn’t being released in season sets, and then again when they found out that the music videos that made them fall in love with the show would not be included. The fact that skits themselves had been edited by Judge and the studio were just the topping on the cake for irate fans. Sadly those bits are now gone but as tough as it might be for some to not have them, the animation and stories for the most part still hold up. In volume two, Judge listened to the outcry by fans and released all of the episodes in the collection as they were originally broadcast completely unaltered.
Volume three is a bit of an odd collection, with the two previous sets out already and most of the good stuff in them, this sets acts more like a ‘catch all’ than an actual collection. Yes, there are some quality and memorable episodes found inside but overall it feels like a thrown together mess of sorts. A prime factor in that may be due to it mainly focusing on the 1995-1997 seasons where the show had evolved well past what made it so great to begin with. From holiday specials to episodes re-enacting old 1950’s sitcoms, the seasons in this time period were no longer that little hit show that grew a cult following. They’re in a time where Beavis & Butt-head have become icons, legends, and with that they took the only natural next step, they whored themselves out like there was no tomorrow.
The set starts out very lackluster with only a handful of titles that many would consider high on the replay/entertainment scale. On that short list includes “Vaya Con Cornholio” where Beavis finds himself sent across the boarder when INS mistakes his alter ego, The Great Cornholio, as a foreigner without a green card. “Nosebleed”, in which Beavis injures his nose one too many times and can’t stop it from bleeding, even 911 doesn’t care about these two enough to help. In “Ding-Dong-Ditch” the boys go around the neighborhood trying to play tricks on their neighbors, but are too dumb to understand the difficult rules of Ding-Dong-Ditch. Both boys are fascinated by the buzz saw in “Woodshop”, a memorable classic that even those who hadn’t ever seen the show probably know about. Other episodes you should check out first when viewing the set are; “Shopping Cart”, “Die Fly, Die!”, and “A Great Day”.
Everything else on the discs are mildly entertaining to just plain boring to watch, making some wonder how they made the cut to be included in the first place. Some episodes fail to deliver even one laugh, like “Substitute” where nothing happens at all, if something did, then I must have blinked and missed it. The short “Buy Beer” has the boys try to get drunk off of non-alcohocil beer, and succeeding! “Just for Girls” sees Beavis & Butt-head join in on a video about the female body and the magic of life, the only saving grace in this episode is the closing line. The two discover victoria’s Secret in “Underwear”, and then proceed to touch every piece of merchandise in the store. The boys have had enough of Burger World in “On Strike” and petition outside, for about an hours, then go back to doing nothing. Other episodes that just miss the mark include; “Dumbasses Anonymous”, “Impotence”, “Inventors”, “Work Is Death”, “Bride Of Butt-Head”, and “Drinking Butt-ies”.
Almost half of the collection is average episodes that are enjoyable to watch and help keep the set from getting too low a score, because as you can see in this volume, the really bad ones have the good outnumbered at least 2-1. The boys have a class assignment in “Sprout” where they have to grow a corn plant, their methods to do so are… interesting. In “Yard Sale” the boys take over for Mr. Anderson’s yard sale when he’s called away, they then sell everything he owns for 60 bucks, they walk away with 10% of the cut and a bushwhacker. When they boys get “Head Lice” they try to get rid of the bugs the only way they know how, with a bug zapper. When denied getting their ears “Pierced”, Beavis & Butt-head try to do it themselves with materials found in the home. With the episode “Graduation Day” the dynamic duo mistake a faux graduation with the real one and walk away from school thinking they’re all done. They celebrate as only they can, with nachos. Other mildly entertaining episodes are; “Follow Me”, “Citizens Arrest”, “T.V. Violence”, “Garage Band”, “Breakdown”, and “Speech Therapy”.
Also included here are “Huh-Huh-Humbug” and “It’s A Miserable Life”, two Christmas themed episodes that riff on A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life, respectively. And this wouldn’t be a complete final volume without the final episode of the series itself, with “Beavis and Butt-Head Are Dead” we’re given the half hour series finale that says goodbye to two of TV’s greatest characters.
The set is a decent close to what has been a fun three part anthology. Since this collection is restricted to mainly episodes from the final two season of the show, I guess they have a reasonable excuse for not including some episodes fans were begging for from prior seasons. Physical violence like that of the three stooges seems to be the best moments on this set as they’re the only times that harken back to when the boys were too busy screwing around to care what people were thinking about them.
The episode lineup is as follows:
Disc One: No Service, Sprout, Yard Sale, P.T.A, Substitute, Shopping List, Buy Beer, A Very Special Episode, Just for Girls, Head Lice, Vaya Con Cornholio, Nosebleed, Underwear, Follow Me, On Strike, Take A Lap, Pierced, Ding-Dong-Ditch, Huh-Huh-Humbug, It’s A Miserable Life
Disc Two: Citizens Arrest, A Great Day, Dumbasses Anonymous, Woodshop, Shopping Cart, Bride Of Butt-Head, Special Delivery, T.V. Violence, The Miracle That Is Beavis, Impotence, Inventors, Canned, Drinking Butt-ies, Garage Band, Die Fly, Die!, Breakdown, Speech Therapy, Work Is Death, Graduation Day, Butt Flambé, Leave It To Beavis, Beavis and Butt-Head Are Dead
Video:
(Presented in 1.33:1 Fullscreen)
For the most part these episodes are cleaned up nicely just like the previous sets, but several episodes look dull and washed out. That issue is due to two things, some episodes seem like their master tapes have just been poorly maintained, others appear to be off because of interlacing problems that cause them to look soft and muted. Dust and scratches run rampant here popping up in just about every episode, but do not become too much of an issue. But don’t let those few complaints scare you off, as the set is overall very nice and looks better than any version you’ll see on VHS or in re-runs.
Audio:
(English 2.0 Stereo)
The shows was made and presented with a 2.0 track and that’s what we get here. Had the music videos been included in the shows this would have been a problem. Since all we ever here are mainly laughs and grunts, I could live without it being in surround sound. The episodes sound clear with no distortion.
Extras:
Once again Paramount has amassed a collection of Music Videos for the DVD set that combined play for almost a half hour (27:03 to be exact). The chosen music videos include: Stakka Bo’s “Here We Go”, Crowbar’s “Existence Is Punishment”, Salt ‘N Pepa’s “Whatta Man”, Poison’s “I Want Action”, 2 Unlimited’s “Get Ready For This”, Tripping Daisy’s “I Got A Girl”, Jesus Lizard’s “Glamorous”, Sonic Youth’s “Dirty Boots”, Soundgarden’s “Spoonman”, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Dang”, PJ Harvey’s “Down By The Water”, Alice Cooper’s “Teenage Frankenstein”, Toadies’ “Possum Kingdom”, Rollins Band’s “Liar” and Paul Broucek’s “Hollywood Halloween”. The videos are again the most entertaining thing you’ll find in the special features section.
After the rather bland part two, Taint of Greatness: The Journey of Beavis & Butt-Head Part 3 (24:04) is a much more enjoyable piece, and holds back no punches when it comes to where Beavis and Butt-head went wrong as the show progressed. Judge admits to getting tired of the show by around season two but since he was contractually obligated for eight seasons he was forced to stay. When the idea for a movie was being thrown around he was able to convince MTV to count it as the final eighth season so he could leave the show once and for all. The piece is very honest in where the show went wrong, why certain choices were made, and even talks by Judge about wanting to possibly bring the characters back in some capacity down the road.
Frog Baseball (2:55), the short that started it all for Beavis & Butt-head is included here in its original uncut form. It’s short and very very rough looking. Fans might enjoy this to see how it all began, but after one viewing you’re pretty much done with it.
The Special Appearances section has several things that will make some of you happy. Included here is “Letters to Santa Butt-Head” which is nice to go along with Huh-Huh-Humbug and It’s a Miserable Life on disc one. Footage from the 2005 Video Music Awards is available, and having never seen them myself during the original broadcast, it’s nice to know they haven’t skipped a beat in the comedy department. Also here is an interview with MTV’s Chris Connelly about Beavis & Butt-head Do America and more.
Promos for the Beavis and Butt-Head Movie, Sunday Stew, and Holiday Gifts along with Previews for Beavis & Butt-head: The Mike Judge Collection, Wonder Showzen Season two, and The Andy Milonakis Show Season Two finish the set.
| InsidePulse’s Ratings for Beavis & Butt-head Vol. 3 | |
