Newsradio - The Complete Fourth Season
With the departure of Khandi Alexander in the seventh episode, the radio-station sitcom became looser and wackier as the season went on. No new costar was immediately brought in, allowing other actors to do more, especially Phil Hartman as WNYX's blowhard anchor, Bill McNeil. Hartman rises to the challenge in his last season; he tragically died before the start of season 5. Bill gets to be boss for a day, works on his lounge act, interviews a jumper (fellowSNLalum Jon Lovitz, his second go-around on the show), tries to prove he can tell jokes, seeks adoption, and invents interviews with celebrities. The penultimate 22-epoisode fourth season starts off with a goody-two-shoes efficiency expert played by futureGilmore GirlLauren Graham raising havoc: Matthew (Andy Dick) is fired (but still hangs around the station), Lisa (Maura Tierney) takes over as manager, and Dave (Dave Foley) winds up as Bill's producer. When the expert leaves, things return to relatively normal with episodes on the new security system, owner Mr. James's (Stephen Root) ballooning adventure, Joe (Joe Rogan) showing his Ultimate Fighting persona, Beth (Vicki Lewis) going British for a charity auction, and the annual fantasy-episode placing the station on theTitanic. The show seemed ready to hit the mainstream by the end of the season, even introducing a new character, Mr. James's hunk nephew (Brad Rowe) who short circuits the office romances (Dave and Lisa are still apart, despite the "help" of others). Alexander certainly didn't have enough to do on the show, but her final episode is the season's best. When she quickly states she's leaving and runs out the door, everyone has a different version of what happened, played out with hilarious results. As before, the DVD set has commentary roundtables on a few key episodes and 20 minutes of knee-slapping bloopers.--Doug Thomas