Survivor - The Complete First Season
Here's where it all began. The first season ofSurvivordominated the ratings in the summer of 2000, helped spur the reality-TV craze, and inspired countless water-cooler jokes about getting voted off the island.  The first season established the formula that would continue, with sometimes surprising variations, over numerous subsequent seasons:  16 people intended to represent the American mosaic are stranded far from civilization (in this case, the island of Pulau Tiga, off the coast of Borneo), struggle for food and shelter, compete in a series of physical and mental challenges, and at the end of each three-day episode vote out one of their fellow contestants.  After 39 days, the one sole survivor who is able to outwit, outplay, and outlast the others wins a million-dollar prize. Because theSurvivorcraze preceded the craze for complete-season DVD boxed sets, the first season was represented on DVD and video by a 150-minute highlights package calledSeason One: The Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments.  Now, all 13 episodes are available in a five-disc set (the fifth disc is...Outrageous Moments) that contains every challenge, every political maneuver, every next-episode preview and previous-episode recap, every tribal council including the famous finale, and the reunion show.  If you started watchingSurvivorin the Australian Outback or later, this is the perfect opportunity to see how host Jeff Probst, scheming Richard Hatch, tough truck driver Sue Hawk, ex-Navy SEAL Rudy Boesch, athletic Kelly Wiglesworth, and the others got the ball rolling.  If you did watch the first season, here's your chance to relive it, and you also get an enthusiastic group commentary by host Jeff Probst (poking fun at himself) and contestants Hatch (talking the most, which should surprise no one), Boesch, and Gervase Peterson on the first and last episodes, plus some minor featurettes (seven minutes of footage of the contestants leaving L.A. for Borneo, David Letterman's Top 10 featuring the contestants, and 10 minutes of new interviews with Hatch, Boesch, and Peterson).  Many reality shows have come and gone in the meantime, but in terms of staying fresh over a long run,Survivorhas outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted them all.--David Horiuchi