Chappelle's Show: The Series Collection – DVD Review

Shows

Available at Amazon.com

Studio: Comedy Central
Release Date: November 20, 2007
Number of Discs: 6
Number of Episodes: 29
Running Time: 626 Minutes
MSRP: $49.99

Creators:

Neal Brennan
Dave Chappelle

Cast:

Dave Chappelle.………Various
Donnell Rawlings…Various
Neal Brennan.………Various
Rudy Rush.………Various
Charles Q. Murphy.………Various
Mos Def.………Various
Paul Mooney……….Himself
Karl Lake.………Robot Dancer

The show:

I’m going to go out on a limb on this one and assume that most of you know who Dave Chappelle is. I am also going to assume that most of you have heard of his sketch comedy show, Chappelle’s Show. It is therefore safe to assume that you also have a small inkling of his nervous breakdown during the beginning of the never finished third season.

If all the above is true, and you are a fan of Mr. Chappelle and his show it is probably safe to surmise that you bought each season when it was originally released. Perhaps when you heard a complete series set was being released you cursed under your breath as you imagined what hilarious outtakes and other unseen Chappelle wonders Comedy Central had unearthed now and were wondering if you should bother double dipping to pick this new collection up.

For all of you who already own all three released of Chappelle’s Show, let me put your mind at ease. There is nothing new in this collection. All Comedy Central did was take the previous sets and shrink-wrap them in a new cardboard box. So if you really feel the need to get yourself a new cardboard box with Chappelle’s mug on it then by all means shell out the dough for this set. The rest of you can rest assured that what you’ve purchased is all that is available.

However, if for some reason you live under a rock or on the moon and don’t know anything about Chappelle’s Show let me enlighten you. This was a sketch comedy show on the aforementioned Comedy Central that ran for two wonderful seasons and was cut short. The show allowed Chappelle to bring his uproarious stand up humor to a much wider audience than he’d ever been exposed to. Racism was often the source of his humor and the “n” word was thrown around like nothing. Dave’s humor was very much the “what you are thinking but afraid to say” kind also tackling drugs sex and celebrities. He had many colorful returning characters including a crackhead named Tyrone, Lil’ Jon and Rick James and he filled his show with more memorable one lines than can be listed here.

Episodes:

Season One:

Disc One:

Episode 1

Dave Chappelle plays America’s most vicious blind white supremacist and unveils racy “bootie” videos starring Nat King Cole.

Episode 2

Dave Chappelle plays a crack addict who visits an elementary school to give an anti-drug speech.

Episode 3

Dave shows a girl who curses her breasts the error of her ways and shares hilarious outtakes from Roots.

Episode 4

Dave awards women with great “NY boobs” and predicts the chaos caused by reparations for slavery.

Episode 5

Dave reflects on “Great Moments in Hookup History” and dares viewers to “Ask a Black Dude.”

Episode 6

Dave Imagines if The Real World did a season with an all-black cast and one super white guy.

Episode 7

Dave takes a realistic look at Pretty Woman and The Matrix and introduces the Wu-Tang Clan’s new financial consulting firm.

Episode 8

Dave uncovers racism among Hollywood’s animal stars, and Tyrone Biggums returns when his friends hold an intervention.

Disc Two:

Episode 9

Dave takes Japan by storm in the sci-fi adventure Blackzilla and stars in his own video game.

Episode 10

Dave presents the History Channel’s coverage of great inner city gang wars from the 1980’s.

Episode 11

Dave sees people’s inner thoughts and freaks out when a little kid beats him at video games.

Episode 12

Dave shows us what happens when couples try Trading Spouses and introduces a family-friendly brand of pot.

Season Two:

Disc One:

Episode 1

Advertisement for Samuel Jackson beer; Dave tells why things look better in slow motion and The Racial Draft.

Episode 2

WacArnolds, Black Gallagher and The Niggar Family.

Episode 3

White People Can’t Dance Experiment with John Mayer, Three versions of Dave, and more shenanigans with John Mayer.

Episode 4

The first infamous Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories. Dave plays Rick James for the first time.

Episode 5

NegroDamus with Paul Mooney, Tyrone Biggins returns and more Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories, with time about Prince.

Episode 6

A Day In The Life Of Lil’ Jon, When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong, and What If The Internet was a real place.

Episode 7

Marijuana commercial, more fun with Lil’ Jon, Paul Mooney on Movies and the World Series of Dice.

Disc Two:

Episode 8

Dave hosts a new game show, I Know Black People, and more When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong.

Episode 9

Dave’s take on sales pitches, Dave Gets Oprah Pregnant and Jury Selection.

Episode 10

Dave takes a closer look at Making The Band, Dave’s new children’s show Kneehigh Park and a musical performance by Snoop Dogg and Tyrone Biggins.

Episode 11

Greatest Misses (Hater’s In Time), Holla Services, A Gay World, and Leon Mandela’s Bootcamp.

Episode 12

Dave Quits Chappelle’s Show (foreshadowing?), The Wayne Brady Show, Fear Factor, Dave Claims his show back, and Dave and Wayne Brady together.

Episode 13

First Black Man to Use a White Toilet, even more moments with Lil’ Jon, Black George Bush and a performance by Big Boi.

The Lost Episodes:

Episode 1

$11,000 Haircut, Hip-Hop Newsbreak, Dave gets Revenge, and 2Pac’s Alive.

Episode 2

Howard Dean Campaign, Sex Tape, Security, the infamous Pixies, and then the audience’s reaction to Pixies.

Episode 3

Monsters who get racially profiled, “Minorities” is replaced by a new word and Dave meets with Show Business to get new ideas for the show.

The Extras:

Season 1:

Audio Commentary: Dave Chappelle and co-creator Neal Brennan talk about 5 of their favorite episodes. These are kind of funny, but not half as funny as the shows themselves. You get some okay behind the scenes info, but nothing super special.

Bloopers and Deleted Scenes: 29 minutes of very very funny uncensored bloopers and deleted scenes. This is good stuff and can also be watched with Dave and Neal commentary.

Ask A Black Dude with Paul Mooney: (12 min.) Unaired footage of Paul Mooney answering peoples questions. Not all of it is funny. But when it is funny, it’s really funny.

Season 2:

Extra Stand-Up from Dave Chappelle: (16 min.) Dave Chappelle is a fantastic stand-up comedian and this is wonderful sampling of that.

Bloopers and Deleted Scenes: (71 min.) These are more wonderful bloopers and deleted scenes. Chappelle is easily one of the funniest men on the planet and this hour plus montage shows why. You can also watch this with optional commentary. And while it may sound redundant the commentary isn’t as interesting as the actual footage, but it’s not bad.

Charlie Murphy’s Rick James Memories: (14 min.) This is uncut Charlie Murphy talking about his past. This is great even without the Chappelle reenactments.

The Rick James Extended Interview: (20 min.) The unedited interview with Rick James. This is amazing stuff.

2 Unaired Charlie Murphy Stories: (28 min.) These are two more Charlie Murphy stories involving Rick James.

Audio Commentary: More commentary with Dave and Neal on five episodes. Again, there’s some good stuff here and it’s nice to here Dave in a relaxed atmosphere, but none of this is funnier than the shows they’re talking about.

The Lost Episodes:

Unaired Sketches: (15 min.) These are funny, but not as funny as anything on the previous seasons.

Bloopers and Deleted Scenes: (31 min.) More of what you’ve grown to expect from the other season, but again, not as funny.

The Fabulous Making of Chappelle’s Show: (20 min.) Presented like those Fabulous Life of… shows on VH1 this is a descent behind the scenes making of with some extra humor thrown in.

Audio Commentary: Being that Dave was appose to all of this, the commentary here is with Neal, Charlie Murphy and Darnell Rawlings. These are okay commentaries. With Chappelle not there it really brings the whole thing down.

The DVD Lounge’s ratings for
Chappelle’s Show: The Series Collection
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE SHOW

10
THE VIDEO

9
THE AUDIO

9
THE EXTRAS

10
REPLAY VALUE

10
OVERALL
6
(NOT AN AVERAGE)

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years