Best of MadTV Seasons 8, 9 & 10
Following the release ofMadTV's completefirst season, this generous three-hour single-disc collection of sketches, spoofs, and parodies from the long-running series' three most recent seasons seems a little slapdash. There is, for example, no opening-credit sequence, so a newcomer to the series might never know just who is doing the dead-on Ellen DeGeneres imitation in the season 9 sketch "Letters to Lincoln." This collection includes some ofMadTV's most inspired cross-parodies, including "Oprah: Jackass" and  a pitch-perfect reality TV collision betweenThe Osbournes,The Anna Nichole Show,Cops, and even a "Jay Walking" Jay Leno. Also included is one ofMadTV's most epic movie parodies, the "Lords of the Bling: The Two Ta-Tas" as well as "The Honeymooners 2003," still in black and white, but with much coarser language and a terror alert. Sketches featuring such singularly annoying characters as hyper-child Stuart (Michael McDonald), ditzy Dot (Stephnie Weir), and throat-clearing Lorraine are a matter of taste, although the wildly enthusiastic studio audience greets their entrances as if they were rock-star royalty).--Donald Liebenson