Reno 911! The Complete Series
88 Episodes 14 DVD
Comedy Central Paramount 2014
Reno911! is Cops meets Police Academy way back when it was funny. This pseudo-reality show follows the officers of the dysfunctional Reno Sheriff’s Department. The show lasted 6 seasons or 88 episodes on 14 DVD. 32 of the episodes have a commentary track. The show does get tired around season 5. I am surprised it did not do so before considering most of the dialogue is improvised. For what Amazon is charging for this set, you’d be dumber than a Reno 911 cop not to go for it.
One of the reasons the show works is more often than not scenes rarely last too long. IN fact most are quite short. This means you get the gag and then move on. A lot of the characters the cops come across have to be based on characters seen in Cops!, brief masked nudity included.
Some of the running gags include something happening to Lt. Dangle’s bike, one of the cops having a disastrous visit to the children’s ward, the public service commercials,
Season 2 ends with the entire department under investigation. Some of the revelations include one of the officers being legally blind. Season 3 opens with the cops trying out new jobs. There is a new member of the force, a weird version of good cop bad cop, and two of the cops running around naked.
Season 4 has Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) show up, as well as comics Patton Oswalt, frequent guest Nick Swardson, and Brian Posehn.
There is a major development at the end of season 5 of Reno 911!. The clown car scene is really funny but funnier still full-length in the special features.
Season 6 presents a few changes. Cameos include Jonah Hill, Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele),Patton Oswalt, Scott Thompson (Kids in the Hall), and comics Nick Kroll and Aziz Ansari. And of course almost regular Nick Swardson
A favorite special feature is Season 1 Episode 2 where the cast recreates live the entire episode in voice over, music included. Season 2 has some 2 hours of deleted scenes and a forty-some minute live performance at the 2004 U.SD. Comedy Arts Festival. Season 3 has extended Outtakes, Action Figure Promos. Special features for season 6 are extended scenes and such.
My pet peeve about DVD sets applies here: There is no sheet with episode information.