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Zach Braff, Donald Faison, Ken Jenkins, Sarah Chalke, John C. McGinley, Neil Flynn, and Judy Reyes. Created By: Bill Lawrence

I had all but given up on TV as a viable form of entertainment when a couple of years ago (it seems) my wife and I stumbled upon a premier of a show called Father of the Pride, and another zany show called Scrubs immediately afterward. We fell in love with both shows, but only one would survive to a sophomore season. The advantage Scrubs had is multi-fold, it featured edgy writing, a great cast, colorful and loveable characters and physical comedy that is rarely seen in sitcoms. It also did away with the annoying canned laughter that most sitcoms incorporate almost as instructions for the audience on when to laugh. The biggest advantage Scrubs had over Father of the Pride was it’s low budget, but would you believe that the show’s low budget would hardly be noticed? There are many moments that his show pulls off high quality stunts, and special effects that are quite nice! The best part of it is that the show is hilarious, and completely off the wall. I like how the main character of the show (JD) has countless memorable day dreams which are often as random and completely absurd as what most of us imagine, but never vocalize. This presents a wonderfully human quality to this otherwise over the top show, and its this element which puts it over the top as well, which adds to the fun. Though the show doesn’t quite reach the high quality standards set by the likes of Third Rock from the Sun Scrubs does come pretty close. What holds it back is that unlike 3rd Rock this show is not family friendly and features a great deal of sexual content which may not be appropriate for younger viewers. There isn’t anything that would make it R rated, but the show certainly does push the limits of what is acceptable on Prime Time TV. Thankfully the show compensates by keeping the vulgar language to a minimum. All in all I highly recommend this show to comedy fans, but with the warning to parents that some of the subject matter may be inappropriate for younger audiences, funny show that it is, I certainly would not let any children watch it. *** ---

Not every show is airing in widescreen, it’s a real shame because this show would benefit from it greatly as the picture is crystal clear, and extremely sharp, but is limited to a 1:33:1 aspect ratio, which means watching it in an awkward stretched ratio, or with reversed letter boxes for widescreen TVs. It would have been nice to have this show filmed with Widescreen in mind, as the clear picture does reveal HD was in mind. Usually HD and Widescreen go hand in hand, but not in this case. ***

The sound for the first couple episodes were great but for some reason the volume dropped suddenly in the middle of disk one and never really came back up until UI adjusted the volume. However, this is a show with few crashes, explosions, or anything that would require Dolby Digital 5.1, so the fact that it is included is a nice bonus. The sound is decent, but not exceptional. ***

The extras are another example of what I like to see in a TV DVD box set. There’s plenty here to enjoy, giving both historical, personal perspectives to the show’s second season.

Alternate Lines:

A collection of short alternate scenes where different punch lines are tried out in various episodes. Most are pretty funny, and the jokes could have still worked no matter what they chose.***

Stunt Casting:

A behind the scenes look at the stunt cast. You’d be surprised how many stunts were done by the actors themselves. Musical Stylings: A documentary about the music in the show. Apparently the goal was to highlight older music, or music that is unknown. There’s a spot given to the quartet singers in the show, who are pretty darn good. ***

Secrets and Lies:

A documentary about the various embarrassments that go on behind the scenes, sometimes by someone other than the person it involved!*** One on one with John C. McGinley: An interview with one of the show’s actors, which is fun and informative. ***

Deleted Scenes:

A collection of scenes that in general were simply shortened rather than deleted. None of them really add anything to the existing stories, but are still fun anyway. ***

Practice, Practice, and Malpractice:

Here is the golden moment of the extras, a blooper reel that is far more than just people randomly cracking up, a truly entertaining blooper experience that shows mistakes, as well as things that went wrong physically. Definitely one of the better blooper reels I’ve seen! Definitely worth a gander. ***

JD’s Mojo:

Now remember what I said about some of the content of the show not being child appropriate? Well the same can be said of the special features. JD’s mojo is a documentary of the sex in the show, and about how it pushed things as far as it could. There are a couple actors who express their moral objections to the Character JD’s apparent lack of morals, but its still advisable to keep your kids far away from this documentary. ***

Imagination Gone Wild:

My favorite part of the show is spotlighted here, JD’s imagination. The show’s creative forces discuss how the goal of the series was to give the audience a glimpse into what goes on in the mind of the series protagonist, and this is an entertaining look at the behind the scenes going ons of making those fantasy segments work in the show itself. ***

It’s not often I find a TV show that can make me laugh, but this is definitely over the top enough to pull it off, but not with the same element of class as, say 3rd Rock,. Its not something you can watch with the whole family, because of its content, but it’s still a highly enjoyable experience for the adults in the home, and has an excellent collection of special features which are worth watching as well. 4 (out of 5) ***