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“Las Vegas: Season One Uncut & Uncensored”
Reviewed by: Wayne A. Klein
Genre: Drama
Video: 1.78:1 widescreen
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages English
Subtitles English, French, Spanish
Length Approximately 1060 minutes
Rating NR
Release Date 1/5/04
Studio Universal Home Video
Commentary: Four commentary tracks from the cast and writer Gary Scott Thompson/"Pilot" - Gary Scott Thompson, James Lesure, Nikki Cox, Molly Sims and Marsha Thomason. "Hellraisers and Heartbreakers" - Gary Scott Thompson and James Caan. "The Night The Lights Went Out in Vegas" - Gary Scott Thompson and Vanessa Marcil. "Always Faithful" - Gary Scott Thompson and Josh Duhamel.
Documentaries: Las Vegas: The Big Gamble: A historical look at the city of Las Vegas/Las Vegas: The Big Gamble,Josh Mankiewicz hosts this featurette which is the history and of Las Vegas.
Featurettes: Rumble in the Montecito: Jon Bon Jovi and John Elway,Interferences abound in this mini-movie sequel co-starring the stars of Las Vegas/Inside the Montecito: Go behind the scenes with the creator, Gary Scott Thompson, who reveals every nuance that went into the making of Las Vegas
Filmography/Biography: None
Interviews: None
Trailers/TV Spots: Las Vegas: The TV Show Spot/City of Las Vegas Spot
Alternate/Deleted Scenes: None
Music Video: MTV style throughout show
Other: None
Cast and Crew: James Caan,Josh Duhamel,Molly Sims,Vanessa Marcil,Nikki Cox,Marsha Thomason,James Lesure
Written By: Gary Scott Thompson
Produced By: Assorted
Directed By: Assorted
Music: Assorted
The Review:

What are the odds that another show named after Las Vegas (the last one I remember is “Vegas” prior to this) would be a hit on TV? Well since most of America seems obsessed with rolling the bones, it should come as no surprise that “Las Vegas” clicked with audiences. Ed Celine head of security and his team of surveillance experts prevent cheating and other less than honorable activities from occurring at the Montecito Resort & Casino. When Danny McCoy (Josh Duham) takes an interest in his daughter Delinda, things are sure to get a bit…hot. Danny’s gambling that he’ll fit right in. Oh, did I mention that Danny is Ed’s assistant. Things turn hairy for him very suddenly either he’s picked the right girl at the wrong time or the wrong girl at the right time. He’ll find out by the end of season one.

Image and Sound: You won’t be gambling with this set if you like the series. The image quality is so good you can count the beads of sweat on the winners and losers as they gamble their life away. Seriously, the only problem I could see is a lack of contrast during some of the darker scenes which meant that it was difficult to spot much in the way of image detail. The transfer does credit to the city of Las Vegas capturing every color of the glittering and sparkling billboards that entice you into smoke filled rooms. Skin tones appear natural and the blacks are so deep you might get lost in them without a flashlight. The 5.1 mix has odds in its favor due to the effective sound mix. You’ll be itching to break out your wallet and lose money as you’re watching this program. All 23 episodes are presented on three dual layered dual sided discs. It makes things more cost effective but it also means that you’re more likely to damage these puppies.
The Extras:

Evidently these episodes were cut for network TV (but they ran in the overseas market and were shot with DVD in mind). I’m not sure how much of this “uncut” action ran on network TV as I never saw the program on NBC. Universal has included a “mini-movie” sequel to one of the episodes here where Jon Bon Jovi and John Elway duke it out for your attention in this promotional piece for the Arena Football League. It’s advertising but pretty darn good looking advertising. It’s also short (under three minutes) so you can move on to the more important longer featurettes. “Inside the Montecito” pulls back the curtain and host/creator Gary Scott Thompson and members of the cast give us a grand tour of the sets. The sets look pretty darn close to the reality here. This nine minute featurette shows the amount of research and detail went into reproducing a big casino. “Las Vegas: The Big Gamble” gives us a historical look at the city’s past from its humble (and mob influenced) beginnings until today. Of the two featurettes (the others are, again, advertising) this one covers things more in depth. Keep in mind that it would take a documentary a couple of hours long to truly to the city of sin justice but this isn’t a bad substitute. I don’t know that the AFL schedule and AFL Match up quality as extras. In reality they’re advertising for NBC’s sports division. That’s the nice thing when you buy a major studio you can put your advertising everywhere and not worry about paying anything. There’s also a number of TV spots as well. ***

Let’s go with the negative comments on the discs now. While these are advertised as “uncut and uncensored” they’re anything but that. Most of the music for each episode has been substituted with other music so these aren’t the broadcast episodes. As to extra T&A well there might be a bit of that here and there but nothing monumental. It seems if Universal is going to advertise this as “uncut” then they should have the original music in every single episode. If not, there should be a disclaimer to that effect. Perhaps I missed it on the box but, like “Quantum Leap: Season Two”, is doesn’t appear to be anywhere on the box. Now I understand that the budget for obtaining the license for the various songs for each episode might have been busted if they had arranged for it but, again, you need to disclose this stuff to fans. ---

Commentary: With four commentary tracks from the cast and writer Gary Scott Thompson, viewers are given an interesting insight into the workings of the show. Various cast members appear with Thompson. The most interesting of the commentary surprisingly doesn’t come from the Thompson-James Caan combo but from the pilot where we have Thompson, Lesure, Cox, Sims and Thomason competing for your attention with interesting background stories on the episode. “Hellraisers and Heartbreakers” features Thompson and Caan while “The Night The Lights Went Out in Las Vegas” features Thompson and Marcil. Finally “Always Faithful” features Thompson with cast member Duhamel. The combinations are pretty good as the commentaries feature folks that were prominently featured in the episode they’re discussing.
Final Words: A pretty good boxed set for fans of the series, there’s just enough here to entice fans to purchase this vs. keeping their VHS or DVD recorded episodes to watch again and again. The big question is how often you’ll watch and rewatch the first season. If the answer is “not very often”, I’d suggest sticking with your home recordings or try and find a place to rent this. I tend to find that there are few TV shows that I’ll have the time to revisit again and again on the other hand if you’re a highroller and believe you’ll return to the craps tables here again and again by all means it’s a must buy. If you have the time and the money, it might be worth it to gamble on “Las Vegas”

 

 
 
 
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