{"id":33434,"date":"2020-07-07T20:31:22","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T00:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=33434"},"modified":"2020-07-07T20:33:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T00:33:28","slug":"tv-on-dvd-head-of-the-class-the-complete-first-season-dvd-mystery-science-theater-3000-the-gauntlet-season-12-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/07\/tv-on-dvd-head-of-the-class-the-complete-first-season-dvd-mystery-science-theater-3000-the-gauntlet-season-12-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"TV on DVD: Head of the Class: The Complete First Season (DVD)\/Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Gauntlet – Season 12 [Blu-Ray]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After the end of the seventies series \u201cWKRP In Cincinnati,\u201d star Howard Hesseman went on to more downbeat fare that, while formula, was at least a different direction. \u201cHead of the Class\u201d is a childhood favorite, a series I fondly remember watching as it came to a close, and then re-watching in reruns. I loved the show then, and years later it\u2019s perfectly fine. As an eighties multi-camera prime time sitcom, it\u2019s a serviceable and occasionally funny series about a substitute teacher who manages to take charge of a group of mismatched students with high IQ\u2019s.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Made on the cusp of the introduction of shows like \u201cSaved by the Bell\u201d and \u201cFull House\u201d which would become the gold standard, \u201cHead of the Class: The Complete First Season<\/a>\u201d<\/strong> is basically the same lather, rinse, repeat form of sitcom storytelling many were used to in the eighties. There\u2019s a good diverse cast, a large group of characters we can relate to, and as an out of the ordinary curve ball, these students are exceptional, and not slackers or under achievers.<\/p>\n

Most, if not all, of the episodes are set within the confines of the school as main character Charlie Moore struggles to get his class to work together, and experience childhood outside of the class.<\/p>\n

Among the large roster, there\u2019s Arvid (Dan Frischman), Darlene (Robin Givens), Simone (Khrystyne Haje), Alan (Tony O\u2019Dell), computer geek Dennis (Dan Schneider), Sarah (Kimberly Russell), Janice (Tannis Vallely), Jawaharlal (Jory Husain), Eric (Brian Robbins) and Maria (Leslie Bega). The collective cast are all very good in their respective characters, and while the show is a decent eighties artifact, it\u2019s more famous for the legacy it left.<\/p>\n

Three of the cast members went on to be executives, and bit players at Nickelodeon, and of course, Robin Givens was a tabloid darling for most of the late eighties and early nineties. There isn\u2019t much to the DVD beyond the studio putting all of the episodes on DVD for collectors of physical media. There isn\u2019t much restoration, and the episodes are frankly only one small step above VHS SP recordings off of Television.<\/p>\n

The DVD set has zero extras, unfortunately. But if you absolutely must collect the series (I wouldn’t hold my breathe for a Blu-Ray\/4K Edition any time soon), this is a good step in the direction of owning the whole series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After much earned resurgence, Mystery Science Theater 3000 managed to make a roaring comeback with new episodes, new movies, and a hilarious new host. Jonah Ray Rodriguez as new human sidekick Jonah Heston is a welcome breath of fresh air, adding the sarcasm and wit of Mike and Joel, while also injecting the Millennial self awareness that\u2019s frankly hysterical.<\/p>\n

Mix that with the return of Tom and Crow, and the legions of MST3K fans were in hog heaven. Despite a rocky season eleven (seriously those celebrity cameos became very tedious, very quickly), Netflix allowed the series a season 12 entitled \u201cMystery Science Theater 3000: The Gauntlet<\/a>\u201d<\/strong> which continued a small story line involving villain Kinga Forrester and her search for a husband with Max: TV\u2019s Son of TV\u2019s Frank.<\/p>\n

Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt are always great, and they do a bang up job in their respective roles as the conniving villains. Heston returns with the bots once again to deliver a banner line up of some of the best modern episodes of the series by far.<\/p>\n

Among the highlights are the absolutely hysterical riffing on \u201cMac and Me,\u201d the 1988 \u201cE.T.\u201d rip off that stars a creepy alien, and embarrassingly blatant product placements for MacDonald\u2019s. \u201cAtlantic Rim\u201d takes the Asylum mockbuster to the chopping floor, riffing on the ridiculous \u201cPacific Rim\u201d wannabe, with raucously funny results. I\u2019m also a big fan of \u201cAtor, The Fighting Eagle,\u201d the 1982 Conan rip off. If anything season twelve is unique in carrying the theme of skewering and mocking cinematic rip offs of more successful blockbusters.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a welcome treat to see them mock knock offs of \u201cJaws\u201d and \u201cThe Abyss.\u201d The twelfth season has less filler, less padding, and so much more energy. Not to mention it introduces a few new great robot pals on the Satellite of Love (how can you not love M. Waverly and Growler?) that deserve their own Funko figures to go with Crow and Tom Servo, without a doubt. Sadly, Netflix axed the revival shortly after it ended, with much disbelief and anger from the fans. But it\u2019s thankfully a good season to go out on, ending the series\u2019 television legacy and giving us another line of outstanding episodes to re-visit for years. Pre-tty nice!<\/p>\n

Sadly there aren’t any bonus features in the \u201cGauntlet\u201d DVD set from Shout Factory. While previous DVD set releases (including the Rhino releases) included some top shelf material about the making of the actual movies or some extra stuff from the MST3k cast and crew, this is sorely lacking. I wish we\u2019d gotten so much more, at the very least, I wish they\u2019d included the live show with Jonah riffing alongside the cast and crew from the classic episodes.<\/p>\n

Remember: purchasing through our links helps to support Cinema Crazed!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the end of the seventies series \u201cWKRP In Cincinnati,\u201d star Howard Hesseman went on to more downbeat fare that, while formula, was at least a different direction. \u201cHead of the Class\u201d is a childhood favorite, a series I fondly remember watching as it came to a close, and then re-watching in reruns. I loved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[219,692,906,947,1033],"class_list":["post-33434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collectors-den","tag-comedy","tag-mst3k","tag-science-fiction","tag-sitcom","tag-teen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33434"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33438,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33434\/revisions\/33438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}