In its first two seasons, Chappelle's Show became a monster cult hit. Smashing television DVD set sales and making millions of North American's laugh hard - really hard - Dave Chappelle was on top of the world. ***

And then he went crazy. ***

With a $50 million dollar deal in place for seasons 3 and 4 of The Chappelle 's Show, Dave hit the Hollywood jackpot. The pressure, though was too much and shortly after completing enough sketches to produce three complete new episodes, Dave flew the coop, literally. He left for Africa. He's subsequently come back and is back on the stand up comedy trail but Chappelle's Show stands as a legacy that will live on for a long time to come. ***

These "lost" episodes just aired on Comedy Central and pulled in half the ratings of a typical broadcast of Chappelle's Show. It's no wonder after seeing the disc. Let's be frank, Dave didn't crack under pressure because he was worried he wasn't going to be able to match the heights of the second season, he cracked because he knew he had lost the mojo. ***

Other than the stand out first episode, The Lost Episodes are atrociously bad. The sketches aren't funny and are too focused. Dave seemed to be stuck on race and his new found money. While the look at becoming an instant millionaire provides some great sketches like a trip to the barbershop that becomes an $11,000 hair cut, there are so many redundant sketches about race that miss the mark the whole ordeal becomes pointless. ***

Instead of having in-between stand up routines done by Dave Chappelle, series regulars Charlie Murphy and Donnell Rawlings handle the task. They do quite a good job in light of being thrown into the roll. They even get they're own 20 second sketch that deals with Dave leaving for Africa that might be funnier than anything else on the disc. ***

The real reason to watch the Lost Episodes is to put your intrigue to rest and see why Dave Chappelle lost his marbles. It's clear that Dave was stuck on the amount of money he was making and it clouded his creativity. Still, bad Dave Chappelle is better than a lot of comics. ***

Transfer & Sound:

Television broadcasts of the show only looked this good on HDTV. The transfer is solid, considering it's a new television show. The sound is perfectly passable. Really, there's not much to comment on here. ***

Here's the reason to pick up The Lost Episodes, the special features. There are a number of unaired sketches and deleted scenes, most of which are better than the final episode of the show. The real greatness comes from the bloopers, which runs over twenty minutes. Here we get to see Dave just let loose. There's an especially funny sequence during the MTV Cribs sketch that shows off the improvisational talents of Mr. Chappelle. ***

"The Fabulous Making of Chappelle's Show" chronicles how everybody prepared to release this DVD. It's quite insightful. There's also musical performances if you're into that sort of thing. *** There's also commentary from Donnell Rawlings and Charlie Murphy for you to check out, along with the usual teasers and trailers for other Comedy Central shows. ***

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