Heartily second all of these. I notice that both series of Spaced and the Brass Eye DVD are about half price on Benson's at the moment, so now's the time to get them.

Chris Morris is definitely the way to go if you like your humour surreal, disturbing and hilarious. He started out cutting edge and then progressively moved that edge further than you'd ever think possible. The Day Today must be about the funniest TV series ever (distressingly prophetic even, as TV news coverage has "evolved" to resemble this ever more closely). Even the computer animated segues are brilliantly satirical. Not recommended if you ever want to take real news coverage seriously again, however.

Jam is definitely not for the faint-hearted. Other representative highlights include footage of a suicide who, rather than throw himself out of a 40th floor window, throws himself out of a first floor window forty times - in case he changes his mind (he doesn't), and (my favourite) the eerie tale of the sweet six-year-old you can call upon to dispose of any inconvenient corpses. Stylistically, the series is way out there as well: if you ever wanted to know what sketch comedy would look like directed by Aleksandr Sokhurov, for instance, look no further. Special mention should be made of the extremely antisocial DVD of the series, which offers you all sorts of bizarre and annoying ways of viewing the episodes (such as in bouncing screensaver mode, or squashed vertically) and even includes a "forced viewing" option that shows you absolutely everything on the disc while disabling the DVD controls so you can't skip anything or stop.

I'd say (and often I do), the best dramatic show of any kind, ever.

The Day Today and Brass Eye I can wholeheartedly recommend, but jam is really the most redudant and unnecessary television series I've ever seen, insofar as it's almost entirely sketches from the radio series carried over directly with irritating After Effects-plugin-of-the-week visuals (sorry, I don't really see the Sokhurov comparison at all) that, try as they might, can't make what is overwhelmingly a bunch of talking heads visually interesting for more than five or six seconds. I've seen every episode of TDT and Brass Eye more times than I care to remember, but in the case of jam I watched the entire series all the way through twice, in both original and jaaaaam incarnations (speaking of redundancy...), then put it on my shelf and have never felt compelled to touch it again. The radio series, on the other hand, is great stuff for 2 A.M. car drives.

I heartily recommend something I never thought would end up on DVD, a weird little cancelled-before-its-end cartoon show called God, The Devil and Bob which is a total hoot.

Now all we need is a Complete Series Box for Vengeance Unlimited, and I`m set as far as TV on DVD is concerned.

It's quite simple really. If you consider some of the most obvious elements of Sokhurov's style (heavy use of filters, non-standard use of anamorphic lenses, low contrast, low light, glacial pacing), some of the sketches in Jam employ all of those elements. QED.

I don't think Morris & co. set out to emulate Sokhurov in those cases, but they clearly set out to shun the paradigms of TV comedy, and I guess the further away you try to get from The Two Ronnies the closer you're likely to find yourself to filmmakers like Sokhurov. Jam's visual style is all over the place, however, and there are equally elements (unmotivated drifting camera, manipulation of camera speed, flaring colours, degraded video) that recall Tsukamoto, Ahwesh, Wong Kar-wai.

Here is the link to davebert's review of Brass Eye from Cinenikki.

EDIT: Sorry - link is now gone.

The best tv show on dvd has got to be Freaks & Geeks. Even though I had seen the show in syndication after it originally aired, I hadn't realized I'd seen at least parts of all but the last two episodes. After sitting down and watching all 6 discs in a few days span... nbc needs to go to hell! I love the character development for every single freak and every single geek in the show (except for Cindy, she's kinda creepy though cute). I feel foolish but I miss these characters. I want to know what happens next! The one nice thing, though, is that it was never given a "proper" ending, that the characters do not die or are sent off or anything so their lives "continue" in the realm of imagination. The people involved behind the scenes on this show are also pretty impressive: Mike White, Miguel Arteta, Jake Kasdan, and of course Judd Apatow. I wanna see all of "Undeclared" on dvd as well, but I think one thing that show did wrong was trot out guest stars too early in the season as a "draw" for viewers whereas Freaks & Geeks held off, allowing the characters to establish themselves, and then when they had guest appearances they were seasoned character actors as opposed to, say, Adam Sandler.

I think one of the advantages of Freaks & Geeks is the chronological distance. Placing it in 1980-81 school year works similar to Wonder Years though, for me, more successfully because even though I was nowhere near high school at the time the early 80s are part of my memory and vocabulary. Beyond "Disco Sucks!" most of the "topical" humor can be directly translated to today, making it more timeless than Wonder Years for that show often delved into the wonders of the first space exploration or a political campaign, specific nodes of time while Freaks & Geeks deals more with the feeling of the time.

The dvd has deleted scenes, audition tapes, blooper reals, behind the scenes reels, and 2 commentaries. It's a bit expensive but is a LOT of content for its price. Serious is the greatest tv show on dvd.

Speaking of James Garner, I read somewhere that Maverick is finally going to be released on DVD. I can't find the source, though.

Oh, glorious day! My favourite TV series of all time is coming out in March. It is, of course, The Wind in the Willows: Series One. It's just the most meltingly lovely children's show ever made, plus Mr Toad is my fashion idol.

Some great series mentioned so far(Mr. Show, Home Movies, Freaks and Geeks, Brass Eye, etc.) but here are two that I don't believe I've seen anyone talk about yet..

Upright Citizens Brigade
Strangers with Candy

especially season one, it is the height of absurdity. amy sedaris was on letterman on friday, apparently the movie version (which he produced) premieres at sundance on jan 24.

One episode of it is included on the Unforgiven SE. Is the rest of the show anything like it? I`ve seen it, and it`s purty fun.

Please don't let me sidetrack this thread, but can anyone comment on Deadwood? Although I no longer have HBO, I enjoy a lot of their programming, but definitely don't want to make a blind buy at the prices their box sets go for.

Also Narsh - have you seen The Wind in the Willows film by Cosgrove? I can fondly remember watching it when I was younger, but am unclear on whether it was the upcoming TV series or the readily-available feature.

I've always found the episodes of Deadwood that I do watch are fairly compelling, but I'm never compelled enough to make an effort to watch it regularly. There is some great acting in it and the double-crossing plotlines are always interesting. The standout performances are from Robin Weigert and Ian McShane, but Timothy Olyphant is surprisingly decent as well (I'm also a big fan of Molly Parker, but that's also for superficial reasons). Keith Carradine did fairly well as Wild Bill Hickok from what I saw of him. It's unlike any other western I've ever watched in that a great deal of the story has to do with political/business jostling. In Canada it's always on after Sopranos, but I often just forget to stay tuned. It's probably worth a rental at least.

Deadwood reminds me very much of McCabe and Mrs. Miller, in that it's iconoclastic toward Western tropes and depicts human foibles and character flaws, as well as larger societal problems, in a really realistic manner. The cast is uniformly outstanding.

I had absolutely no idea that McShane had anything this brilliant in him. The Golden Globe he won yesterday was well deserved.

Holy mother of god, people-- our prayers have been answered: The Job is coming to dvd.

I thought I saw someone here asking about Profit but maybe it was some where else. Anyway, for fans of yet another short-lived Fox series, Anchor Bay is bringing us Profit, the complete series. From the Anchor Bay web site:
This bizarre and highly acclaimed television series only aired for a few weeks before being pulled from the airwaves but its popularity has remained strong and now the entire series comes to DVD in a special collector's series package featuring new interviews, etc and more to be announced. Expect a late Summer release.

Starring: Adrian Pasdar, Lisa Zane, Lisa Blount, Keith Szarabajka

I'm actually still waiting for THE RIPPING YARNS, the tv series that Terry Jones and Michael Palin did. Last time I checked only the scripts were available, and even though they were funny, the show I hear was a bomb. Still worth watching.

Ta da! There's apparently some nasty glitch with the audio though. Not sure if it's been corrected yet.

If low rated but cult loved stuff like The Job, Profit and Miracles make it out, I may just see, one of these fine days, a set for the one and only season of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

From DVDAnswers:

To follow up, I'd like to thank those who recommended Deadwood to me earlier in the thread. I managed to get a copy prematurely and I instantly and unexpectedly fell in love with the show (I managed to watch the entire season in three quick days).

The characterizations are absolutely spot-on, from the main to the marginal characters. I was also impressed the the technical care taken by the show, especially its attention to period detail. Also, I was surprised to see Walter Hill's name under the directorial credits for the first episode, and it was indeed a dynamite comeback for him of sorts (and, looking ahead to the second season, it appears that Michael Almereyda took a crack at it as well). And, as mentioned, the acting is amazing; one of the best ensembles I've seen on television. Brad Dourif (an old favorite of mine), Timothy Olyphant, Powers Boothe, and for his short time, Keith Carradine, were all excellent, but Ian McShane was absolutely and consistently amazing - hands down my favorite television villain of all time. The scripts were stellar as well, most notably the way in which the politics of the time are painstakingly worked into every script in a realistic and functional manner. It never shrinks from being ugly or offensive, as long as it stays true-to-character. Brilliant, highly-entertaining and insightful stuff.

I recently bought Freaks and Geeks DVD collection and it's an excellent TV show that got cancelled too early. I saw it on TV when it was on and quiet liked it, but it was hard to find it when they started to move the time slot. Now, in this excellent presentation, I watched the whole show in a week. I'm thinking of selling it to get 8-disc set from their website for $120. Does anybody have it? Does it worth extra money for extra 2 discs?

I bought my wife "Wonderfalls" on DVD as she liked the show while it was on (cancelled after only 4 episodes according to the supplements) and I watched it with her and I have to say I actually really enjoyed it. It was quite funny and clever, and the general premise was cute: Inanimate objects with animal faces talk to the protagonist, a laid back, over educated, slacker gen Y girl working retail, forcing her to do good deeds for other people. I remember when I heard the premise originally I was thinking it sounded cheesy, but it was actually quite well written, and some of the humour was sort of sick and dark, the way I like it. Plus I liked how the good deeds unravelled to unvail other bigger things as the episodes progressed. I'm glad Fox actually released it on DVD because I would have missed it otherwise.

With this and "Freaks and Geeks" could DVD save TV shows cancelled too soon. Are there any other lost gems out on DVD? Any that probably should be released on DVD?

Ah, it's nice to see someone else chime in about this underrated show. I just got the DVD set of this as well and watched a bunch of the episodes last night. Lots of clever dialogue often snappily delivered by the cast. It has a really excellent off-kilter, quirky (over-used word but applicable here) vibe that I really dig. I also thought the setting -- the U.S. side of Niagara Falls -- was rather novel and provides a wealth of oddball characters to interact with the regular cast.

Watching the episodes I started thinking, you know, this is like a cynical, more fantastical version of Joan of Arcadia (although, I think it came out first) and then on one of the extras one of the creative team mentions that the initial idea was a modern tweaking of Joan of Arc.

It continues to baffle me as to why Fox continues to green-light these left-of-center shows (Wonderfalls, Arrested Development) and then abandons them at the first sign of trouble. I know, it's all about ratings and money but it seems to me that they are losing more money by cutting them off at the knees before they develop an audience.