What could be better than a CGI-heavy tale of everything in a museum - from a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton to a statue of Christopher Columbus - coming to life at night? "Night" is truly a spectacle, with rich, glowing sets and showy special effects. Although the alleged "heart" of the film, the father-and-son story, is weak, the humor - much of it improvised - saves the day.
The array of featurettes and promotional specials on the two-disc DVD seem to assume viewers know little about moviemaking, costumes or special effects. The bloopers and deleted scenes are interesting, but two commentaries for a popcorn movie is overkill. Director Shawn Levy's fast-talking, nuts-and-bolts discussion isn't bad, especially when he stops kowtowing to movie star Ben Stiller and spends a moment describing his own childhood love of Barry Manilow.
But when the screenwriters jokingly describe their commentary as being "down in the dustbin of bonus materials" and likely to be chosen only by accident, they are sadly, painfully correct. (HD widescreen enhanced widescreen, 2006, rated PG for mild action, language and brief rude humor) It has frenetic, 360-degree pans of cityscapes, courtesy of fictitious government satellites (and seemingly lifted from director Tony Scott's own "Enemy of the State"). It has a clever (if highly improbable) time travel element, in which investigators use a "surveillance window" to follow the crime as it unfolds.
It has a clever plot that will snag your interest - a federal investigator (Denzel Washington) falls in love with a murder victim and considers changing history to save her. The icing is the superb picture quality, especially the high-def Blu-ray with its lush, saturated color. Besides deleted and extended scenes, the Blu-ray and DVD versions contains a dozen short documentaries all taped in HD.
You'll learn how the explosion at the beginning was non-CGI at the director's request (the ferry it happened on was back in service two weeks later); while the many banks of high-tech surveillance camera monitors were modeled after the London bombing investigative epicenter. While the film is playing, an option can be accessed to make the HD features pop up before their related scenes, with a commentary by Scott, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and co-writer Bill Marsilii for the rest. Marsilii shares how he wrote the script on spec at the request of friend Terry Rossio (a co-writer for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy).
Rossio then presented it to Scott, who thought the multiple genres would present a fun challenge to film. (HD widescreen enhanced wide-screen, 2006, PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images and some sensuality) 
YOU KNOW that scene at the start of "The Odd Couple" where Felix tries to help a little old lady across a busy street and she smacks him with her pocketbook? It really happened.
Executive Producer Garry Marshall says the titles were unscripted; instead, a crew followed stars Tony Randall and Jack Klugman as they wandered around New York. Apparently, that lady got so annoyed with Randall, she let him have it. OK, Marshall may be pulling someone's leg, but it's still a good story -- “ kinda like his commentary with partner Jerry Belson on "The Odd Couple: The First Season" (audio: ***½, video: ***½, extras: ****).
A couple of menschen chewing the fat? Hot dog! Choice nugget: Randall and Klugman, worried about duplicating the Broadway success of Walter Matthau and Art Carney on the small screen, wanted to back out.
Can you see Martin Balsam and Mickey Rooney as the stars? Their names came up. Extras on the four-disc set include a Klugman commentary, intros by Marshall, TV appearances by the stars and - talk about full circle - a scene from them doing the play in 1993.
There's even a bonus bonus, a fifth disc of Klugman's and Randall's favorite episodes. (Full-screen, 1970-71, unrated) 
AS MOVIEGOERS prepare for the release of "Spider-Man 3" on May 4, you can count on plenty of backup in the way of merchandise - all the better to feed your Spidey cravings.
Thus we have "Spider-man 2.1" (audio: ****, video: ****, extras: ****), a two-disc DVD with eight minutes of new footage added in and a double barrel of extras. "Spider-man 2" has been hailed as the best superhero movie ever made.
It's hard to imagine how new footage could improve on that. But the new scenes are good; fans and newcomers should enjoy the results. Viewers will find more action with Doc Ock and an extended birthday party scene with Peter Parker (Tobey McGuire) and Harry Osborn (James Franco) that gives their moment a different touch.
We also find out why J. Jonah Jameson (J.K.
Simmons) was so upset when the Spidey suit was snatched from his office wall. (Who could have guessed? I'm not telling!
) What makes repeated viewings even more of a treat is a fact-laden trivia track that viewers can choose to play as the film runs. It provides an on-going series of factoids and scene-within-scene detail. Commentary by producer Laura Ziskin and screenwriter Alvin Sargent also entertains.
Disc two provides a sneak peak of "Spider-man 3" and several featurettes, including a showcase for Danny Elfman's splendid score. (Enhanced widescreen, 2004, not rated but look out for scenes of action film violence) SOME FILMS are made to exploit a concept and "G.I.
Jane" (audio: ****, video: ***, extras: *) is one of them. There's no way around that, not even with fine actors, a brilliant director and a masterful Blu-ray edition. Demi Moore pumps up and shaves her head to become the trailblazing first woman SEAL.
It's a political maneuver designed to show that women can hold their own in the military. Ridley Scott is the director who must have been following the studio party line here. All the cliches of training camp brutality, betrayal, and acceptance are trotted out.
Viggo Mortensen demonstrates some pre-Aragorn grit as her uncompromising D.I. Yet despite the great score and soft focus, we can't get past the fact that Moore - who can act - has no character to work with.
Sound is great here. There's plenty of surround effects and the soundtrack is lush, yet the dialog comes through. Look for plenty of montage sequences, one-armed push-ups in the mud and so forth.
It looks sharp in high-def Blu-ray, mud and all. Extras are fairly nil with only a "movie showcase" for instant access to select scenes. (HD widescreen, 1997, R for language and combat violence) 
IT'S THE CLASSIC smart film about the dumb guy.
No, not "Forrest Gump." We're talking about "The Jerk" (audio: ****, video: ***, extras: ***), the hilarious spoof starring Steve Martin and directed by Carl Reiner. It's now available in a quality HD presentation.
The HD treatment helps the presentation, cleaning up a lot of funky old film murkiness for a bright, fresh look. It still looks a bit gritty, but let's chalk that up to style rather than shortcoming. Sound is enhanced, but still rates an average.
Universal just didn't have much to work with from the original. But you're still going to laugh at Martin's tale of a "poor black child" growing up among the Mississippi sharecroppers - keeping in mind, of course, that Martin is the poor black child. Martin co-wrote the script which became his first major hit.
It pokes fun at things that still need poking. Viewers will also find the same extras here that were available on the recent 25th Anniversary Edition. (HD widescreen, 1979, R for adult situations and crude humor) The HBO SERIES "Project Greenlight" was a great behind-the-scenes series that showed movie fans the comedy of craziness of how films were made as would-be pros entered a contest to have their film produced.
As a result, Wes Craven, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris Moore have produced a winners, "Feast: Unrated!" (audio: ****, video: ****, extras: ****), available here in HD. The non-winner here is the audience.
It may be one of the worst horror movies that ever made it to DVD, boasting an over abundance of cliches, gore and seriously bad acting in a kind of "Aliens" meets "From Dusk Till Dawn" scenario. The HD presentation tries to make the best of it - but why would you waste your money? Wait for "Aliens," FDTD or almost anything else to make it to HD or Blu-ray before spending your hard earned cash.
The "Project Greenlight" background gives this stinker plenty of extras, including a "Project Greenlight - Where are They Now?" documentary (do you really want to know?), deleted scenes, outtakes, commentary and too much more.
(HD widescreen, unrated but look out for scenes of bloody carnage, language and excess) THE CHAMPION Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" (audio: ****, video: ****, extras: ****) has made it to Blu-ray. It comes in six months after the HD release, but it is worth the wait. The film looks great.
You would never guess this is a 34-year-old film. The exotic settings and stunning action footage never looked this good in the original theatrical release. Bruce Lee worked hard to become a success outside of Hong Kong, paving the way to international stardom for Asian actors such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
Lee is still the king of martial arts, however, and "Dragon" helps show us why. Legend has it that filmmakers had to slow the footage of some of Lee's action scenes. He was so fast, viewers could barely catch the movement.
Watch competition scenes where flags ripple in the wind. You'll catch the slowdown among the flags while Lee moves like lightning on two feet. Here he plays a martial artist master hired on to explore a ruthless warlord in a tournament on the villain's turf.
John Saxon co-stars with Jim Kelly, decked out in a fierce Afro. Fashions and plot points might seem dated, but Lee is positively ageless. An exceptional library of extras feature documentaries that explore Lee's background and contributions to filmmaking.
Vintage home movies show him working out at his home, while his wife Linda Lee Cadwell offers personal insight. (HD widescreen, 1973, R for martial arts violence and brief nudity) THERE ARE A whole lot of good movies out there making their way to HD but "School for Scoundrels" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: ***) isn't one of them. It should have been a fun flick, staring comedy guys Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder.
Heder, suffering from extremely low confidence, enrolls in an assertiveness training course run by Thornton. The two have good chemistry together and marketing promises outrageous comedy. After all, the director/co-writer is Todd Phillips of "Frat House" and "Old School.
" But Phillips has toned down the frat-type humor (no objection here to that) but he just doesn't quite find the right touch to make the most of his story or actors. The HD presentation looks and sounds great, although there really isn't much to work with. There are no special effects or costumes.
It's just your average guys and gals working through average scenes. Sound beats picture here, however, as you can see a bit of edge enhancement. This has a rushed-to-HD look.
Supplements are the same as those available on the standard-def presentation and include an alternate ending, and a making-of that promises more than it delivers, like the film. (HD widescreen, 2006 not rated but beware of language and adult situations) SO, LET'S SAY there's this astronaut who wants to get rid of her romantic rival. She arranges an infernal machine of Rube Goldbergian proportions to do away with the woman, while establishing an alibi on board the International Space Station.
When she returns to earth, she is met by this guy who looks like he's been living in the bus station. That would be Lt. Columbo, and you know her goose is cooked.
This formula has worked since Levinson Link's "Prescription Murder" in 1968, originally a play starring Thomas Mitchell as the canny detective, then proposed as a vehicle for Bing Crosby. The role fell to veteran character actor Peter Falk, who made it his own. The raincoat took a hiatus of 10 years between 1979 and 1989 until Universal brought him back in a series of two-hour movies.
"Columbo Mystery Movie Collection 1989" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: **), minus the devilish plotting of his creators, gives us Falk doing what he does so well, but not much else. A three disc set contains "Columbo Goes to the Guillotine," "Murder, Smoke and Shadows," "Sex and the Married Detective," "Grand Deceptions," "Murder, a Self Portrait" and a bonus feature, "America's Top Sleuths." This last contains the results of a poll run by the "Sleuth" channel about the most popular cops and private eyes in American entertainment.
Input from Falk, writers Sarah Paretsky, Michael Connely, comedians like Eddie Griffin (representing the average viewer), and archival footage of interviews with the likes of Tom Selleck and Michael Mann make for an engaging half-hour. (Full-screen, 1989, unrated) 
MEMORIAL DAY APPROACHES and it's time for another bundle from Fox War Classics. The mixed bag includes "Tonight We Raid Calais" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: *), in which a British agent is sent to Nazi occupied France to ensure the destruction of a munitions factory; "Fixed Bayonets!
" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: *), Samuel Fuller's naturalistic take on a corporal (Richard Basehart), who tends to freeze in combat, and "The Man in the Middle" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: *), based on Howard Fast's novel about a U.S. non-com who kills a British soldier.
Robert Mitchum is the army officer sent to defend him in a case involving race and hidden military agendas. Then, there is "Sailor of the King" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: **). Based on a C.
S. Forester novel, it stars Jeffery Hunter and Michael Rennie. In addition to the theatrical trailers and still galleries, which the previous discs also contain, "Sailor" includes an alternate ending.
Lastly, there is "The Purple Heart" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: ***). Only months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Col. Billy Mitchell set out to attack Tokyo with bombers launched from the carrier Hornet.
The planes accomplished their mission with devastating psychological impact on the Japanese who had considered their homeland invulnerable to U.S. attack.
Unfortunately, it was a one-way mission for all of the aircraft and several of the crews. One such crew, captained by Dana Andrews, is captured in occupied China after it crash lands. Instead of holding the men as prisoners of war, the decision is made to try the crew in a Japanese civil court on criminal charges.
One by one, the crew members are taken out and tortured to get them to reveal the specifics of the raid. The film was directed by Lewis Milestone from a pseudonymous screenplay by producer Darryl Zanuck. The disc includes commentary by Richard Schickel, who puts what would now seem to be a complete propaganda piece, into the context of the time it was released.
(All full-screen: "Tonight We Raid Calais, 1943," "Fixed Bayonets!, 1951," "The Purple Heart," 1944, "Sailor of the King," 1953, enhanced widescreen: "The Man in the Middle," 1964, All: Not rated) HERE ARE SOME things that can be taken for granted: Gravity works, day follows night and if the History Channel covers a subject, the viewer is going to get the who, what, when, where, and why of it along with the best graphics available and expert commentary. "Dogfights: The Complete Season One" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: ****), is the History Channel's typically creative and diligent approach to air combat through the years.
A four-disc set containing eleven episodes and bonus features covering WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Six Day War, uses videogame-like computer graphics to diagram eleven separate air battles in those conflicts. The set opener is "MiG Alley" with commentary by Gen. Robbie Risner.
The first jet-to-jet battles took place on the Chinese border with North Korea between two pilots that weren't supposed to be there. U.S.
forces were enjoined from crossing the border into China and Robinson's opponent was one of several Russian pilots whose existence was so secret, that they could not afford to be captured alive. Risner's dual with the Russian over a Chinese airbase plays out as a battle of wits, nerve, and physical endurance. It is only at the conclusion that the viewer realizes that the whole thing lasted a little over five minutes.
Other episodes include: "Air Ambush," "Flying Tigers," "Guadalcanal," "Hell Over Hanoi," "The Zero Killer," "The Last Gunfighter," "Death of the Japanese Navy" (in which we see the demise of the battleship Yamato"), "Long Odds," "Dogfights of the Middle East" and "Hunt for the Bismarck." Extras on disc one include a break down of Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker's work in WWI, P-51 Mustang versus ME-109, "From Prey to Predator," F-86 Saber versus M-15 MiG, "No Guts, No Glory," F-4 Phantom versus M-16 MiG, and "The Basics Remain the Same.
" An extra on disc four is a graphic display of all the featured aircraft in the series. (Full-screen, 2006, not rated) GRANTED, ACTRESS Milla Jovovich ("Resident Evil," "Ultraviolet"), doesn't exactly have Oscar-caliber directors knocking down her door. But if she or her agent can't pick material better than ".
45" (audio: ***1/2, video: ****, extras: *), her career is in deep trouble. Written and directed by Gary Lennon, whose experience has been limited mostly to episodic TV (including, to his credit, the short-lived "The Black Donnellys"), Lennon, desperately trying to channel Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez, phones in a script heavy on needlessly coarse language, drastically light on dramatic payoff. (Right out of the gate, Jovovich's character, Kat, graphically describes the anatomy of her drug-dealing boyfriend, Big Al, in a scene meant to be funny.
It isn't.) Before we even learn who Big Al is -- enough to care enough about why Kat wants him obliterated from the planet, anyway -- Lennon has squandered what little audience goodwill he had with his sleazy, dramatically inert dialogue. It isn't even fun in a tin-eared, mindless sort of way.
Lennon offers a running commentary, but the film is so pungent, your desire to look under the hood at his thought processes will most likely be nil. (Enhanced widescreen, 2006, R for graphic sexual references, sexuality, violence and drug use) NICK NOLTE in "Off the Black" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: **) plays high school umpire Ray Cooke, who befriends a troubled teen, played by newcomer Trevor Morgan. The boy, Dave Tibble, and his crew decide to vandalize Cooke's home after a baseball game (the film's title comes from a baseball term, by the way .
..).
Cooke catches Dave and makes a deal with him: he won't call the cops if the boy repairs the damage. In a short while, the two start an unlikely friendship and Cooke cooks up another proposition: Dave is to accompany the grumpy loner to his 40th high school reunion ..
. as his "son." The making-of featurette is pretty interestingly done.
And we're also treated to commentary by the film's writer/director, James Ponsoldt. The film also stars Timothy Hutton as Dave's distant father. (Enhanced widescreen, 2007, R for or a crude sexual remark) "Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: *) from PBS Home Video is a haunting look at the jungle temple in Guyana called Jonestown and its leader, the Rev.
Jim Jones. In November 1978 Congressman Leo Ryan of California took a fact-finding trip to the compound to get information for his San Francisco-area constituents. Ryan, Jones and more than 900 of Jones' followers were dead shortly after Ryan's arrival.
This documentary, produced and directed by Stanley Nelson, goes behind the headlines of the horrific event to give us a look at the enigmatic Jones via interviews with Jonestown survivors, relatives of those who died, journalists and former Peoples Temple members. Extras include deleted scenes and a very interesting interview with Nelson. (Enhanced widescreen, 2007, not rated) "Slingshot" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: 0) stars David Arquette, Thora Birch, Balthazar Getty and Julianna Margulies.
In a nutshell, things get complicated and deadly after two con men, Arquette and Getty, target rich, lonely housewives in the suburbs of Connecticut to seduce. After one of the grifters hooks up with soccer mom Margulies, his partner goes through extreme measures to make sure their partnership remains intact. And the proverbial plot thickens, leading to the film's climax.
The turns and twists will keep you on the edge of, your seat, but the DVD offers no extras to speak of. (Enhanced widescreen, 2007, R for pervasive language, drug use, some sexuality and violence) Four discs, 22 episodes, 489 minutes and a bunch of laughs.That's what you get with "The Drew Carey Show: Season One" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: **).
Drew Carey is an average, working guy who toils away in a 9-to-5 office gig in Cleveland, Ohio. The show, which ran nine seasons on ABC, was a riot. And it was because of the zany cast: Mimi, Lewis, Oswald and Kate.
Kathy Kinney is Mimi. Kevin Pollak is Mr. Bell.
Christa Miller is Kate. Ryan Styles is Lewis. Diedrich Bader is Oswald.
And Drew Carey, who created and wrote several of the show's episodes, is Drew. Extras include two featurettes: "Life Inside a Cubicle: Drew and His Fellow Series Stars Share Reflections and Anecdotes," and "1-900-MIMI." Both add to the fun of this boxed set, but Mimi fans, the latter is a treasure.
Who says the folks in the Midwest aren't funny? Cleveland rocks! (Full-screen, 1995-1996, not rated) What does Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins" have in common with "Jane Eyre" (audio: ****, video: ****, extras: ****)?
Both films were directed by Robert Stevenson. Stevenson was the creative British gentleman behind a score of Disney classics. He also directed seven episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
" Yet one of his most challenging triumphs had to have been the delicate non-handling of the tempestuous Orson Welles, who plays Mr. Rochester in what many believe is the best version of "Jane Eyre" ever filmed. The book by Charlotte Bronte is a winner.
It has been made into three miniseries and more than a dozen different films. David O. Selznick planned this 1944 version as a follow up to "Gone With the Wind.
" Yet eventually, the film went to William Goetz who placed Stevenson in charge. Joan Fontaine came on to play Jane. As the star of "Rebecca" and "Suspicion," Fontaine was the bigger star but Welles was a media king.
His "Citizen Kane" had been released to critical praise, although the film had not been a commercial success. His troupe at Mercury Theatre had just put on the updated version of "War of the Worlds," a radio play that had shaken listeners into believing aliens were actually invading - and up to no good. Welles could not be brought into the film production without guaranteed rights as star - with top billing - writer, director and producer.
He arrived for the first meeting hours late and with entourage in tow. He threw down his version of the script and announced, "Now, let's all turn to page four, shall we?" How Robertson handled this situation and others to create a marvelous gothic classic - with a score by the incomparable Bernard Herrmann, no less - is just one of many riveting extras to be found on this Fox Classic.
Viewers can also enjoy audio commentary by Welles' biographer, another commentary track by film historians, an isolated score and FX track, restoration comparisons, production, storyboard and poster galleries and a short film directed by Stevenson, "Know Your Ally,Britain: United States War Department Film." A small booklet on the film and a set of four miniature lobby cards are enclosed in the slipcased, single disc set. Bravo to Studio Fox.
DVD presentations just don't come any better than this. Also available from Fox is the Alexander Korda production of "Tolstoy's Anna Karenina," starring Vivien Leigh and Ralph Richardson, and Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" (both: audio: ****, video: ****, extras: ****). These classics also get the star treatment.
The "Les Miserables" DVD also includes two versions of the film: The 1935 version staring Frederich March as Jean Valjean with Charles Laughton as Javert and the 1952 film with Michael Rennie ("The Day the Earth Stood Still") as Valjean, "Treasure Island's" Robert Newton as Javert, and Debra Pagent ("The Ten Commandments") as Cosette. (All: Fullscreen, black and white, not rated. "Jane Eyre," 1944; "Anna Karenina," 1948) "Jean Renoir: Collector's Edition" is a 3-disc box set containing seven films that span the French director's long, varied career.
The picture and sound quality (some of the films are silent) vary widely from film to film, but each has something to recommend it. Four silent films, "Whirlpool of Fate" (1925); "Nana" (1926; based on Emile Zola's novel); "Charleston Parade" (1927) and "The Little Match Girl" (1928, inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's tale) star Renoir's wife, Catherine Hessling, who gives increasingly nuanced performances as the years go by. "La Marseillaise" (1938), an excellent talkie about the French Revolution, offers a moving and amazingly even-handed look at the both sides of the conflict.
"The Doctor's Horrible Experiment" (1959) was Renoir's quirky take on "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," with the wonderful Jean-Louis Barrault transforming himself from staid elegance into perverse monster.
"The Elusive Corporal" (1962), considered a remake of "Grand Illusion," is the story of a soldier in a WWII German prison camp who attempts a series of escapes. "Jean Renoir: An Auteur to Remember" is the last cut on the third disc, but it would make sense to watch this interesting documentary first. Hosted by Martin Scorsese, it includes interviews with a couple of experts as well as the director's son, Alain Renoir.
They discuss the films in the collection and add interesting insights and perspectives, like Scorsese's comment that "La Marseillaise" is "one of the greatest historical films ever made." It was 1977 and the American League boys of summer in New York termed themselves members of the Bronx Zoo as opposed to the Yankees. They said it was more fitting.
Why? Well, one day manager Billy Martin would be mad at outfielder Reggie Jackson. One day Jackson and catcher/team captain Thurman Munson would be exchanging words.
Pick a problem. The team had it and the media played it up. When it came to October, though, the men in pinstripes came through and it was none other than the supposed team malcontent, Jackson, who played a huge role, blasting three home runs in one game to clinch the series over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"The New York Yankees 1977 World Series Collector's Edition" (audio: ***, video: **, extras: ***1/2) is out on DVD to capture "Mr. October's" heroics for home enjoyment. Extras includes the teams Game 5 comeback against the Kansas City Royals (Jackson, who didn't start that game, had a role in that win, too) in the American League Championship Series and about an hour worth of interviews with former players.
You'll see the infamous clip from a game with the Red Sox where Jackson was yanked from a game in the middle of an inning (one of the spats that made headlines). You'll hear Jackson downplay his image as a malcontent. You'll see the clubhouse celebration and more.
Be aware, glitches in the film transfer over in the reproduction, especially in the last game of the ALCS. All in all, another classic output of the Fall Classic. (Full-screen, 1977, not rated) OK, get over the irony of the name.
It was no doubt planned by writers that Chief Robert T. Ironside would end up in a wheelchair. That aside, "Ironside: Season 1" (audio: ***, video: **1/2, extras: 0) is out on DVD.
The detective series from the late 1960s lays claim to being the first to introduce a potential series with a premiere, a trend that lingers today in some cases. That was the episode where Ironside (Raymond Burr) is shot while he is taking his first vacation since he has been a member of the San Francisco Police Department. His motto: A police officer's only excuse for missing a day of work is a funeral -- his own.
The first season runs short on compelling episodes, though Eve (Barbara Anderson) struggles with the emotional backlash of shooting a 17-year-old during a robbery in one episode and Ed (Don Galloway) is on the list of police officers that a man wants to kill in another. But when you go by Internet ratings, this is a show that got better with age. By that criterium, the only first season episode to make it in the top 20 was "Ironside," the series premiere.
(Full-screen, 1967-68, not rated, some violence) When "NCIS" lost one of its key agents at the end of the second season, viewers had to be ready to expect some changes in the third season. Donald P. Bellisario, executive producer, doesn't disappoint.
In "NCIS: The Complete Third Season" (audio: ***, video: ***, extras: ***1/2), he provides a commentary on the season opener, "Kill Ari: Part I" where he discusses some of the changes. It goes beyond the cast replacements to include a new look at life by Gibbs (Mark Harmon), a new treatment of flashbacks, and a discussion of how he injected humor in a two-part episode that dealt with the team mourning the loss of Kate (Sasha Alexander). Bellisario brings in a new director, a woman played by Lauren Holly, and that adds some interesting twists to the the show because she and Gibbs have a past.
Kate's replacement on the show, Ziva David (played by Cote de Pablo), is a Mossad agent.
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