The Osbournes: Season 1 (Uncensored)
As the second season aired, the decline in TV ratings and the tepid  sales ofKelly Osbourne's albumindicated that the Osbourne family's 15 minutes were just about up. But this  two-disc set is an indispensable time-capsule keepsake of that brief and shining  moment when Ozzy and his family put their indelible stamp on pop culture as the  stars of the first reality sitcom. For addledheavy-metal pioneer  Ozzy, his fiercely devoted wife and manager Sharon, and two (of three) of  their children--petulant misfit Jack and the more flamboyant pink-haired  Kelly--it was a very good year. They were MTV's top-rated series ever. They graced  magazine covers. They were championed by no less a moral arbiter than Dan  Quayle. Even President George W. Bush got into the act, toasting Ozzy at the  annual Washington Press Club soiree: "Ozzy, mom loves your stuff."The  Osbournesis the kind of series for which the phrase "instantly addictive"  was coined. The idea seemed positively batty: Chronicle the lives of the  Osbournes as they settle in to their new Beverly Hills home. They ain't the  Clampetts, as the crates marked "Dead Things" indicates. Persistent use of theFword and other obscenities (not bleeped on the uncensored DVD) aside,  the Osbournes at heart are a close-knit, loving family. Or, as Ozzy so tenderly  puts it, "I love you more than life itself, but you're all f------ mad." Episode  4 bears him out, as Sharon and Jack declare war on their noisy next-door  neighbors with airborne foodstuffs. These 10 endlessly repeatable episodes are  enhanced by this features-heavy DVD; among its most inspired extras is an "Ozzy  translator." The first season ofThe Osbourneswas a lightning-in-a- bottle phenomenon whose success has yet to be duplicated, not by the shameless  Anna Nicole, not by clueless Liza, not even by the Osbournes themselves.--Donald Liebenson