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Dom Robinson reviews
Medusa
- Cat.no: MDV 146
- Cert: 18
- Running time: 53 minutes
- Year: 1997
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2 (PAL)
- Chapters: 6
- Sound: Dolby Surround
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: Dutch
- Presented in Fullscreen
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £15.99
- Extras : Scene index
Jerry Springer: Too Hot For TV !is the first compilation of classic moments from the American TV show whichfirst began in 1991 and has seen over 1200 episodes aired to date. The formathas been copied many times but nothing can match the original chat-n-fightformat. In each episode, two people will come on stage for what looks like thestart of a standard chat show about their own problems, but one will make arevelation that will forever drive a wall between them. This usually involvesa third party being brought into play at which point a fight ensues.
That is a template for the show after which follows more guests providingvariations on a theme. Given that almost anything in life can happen, thereis an almost-infinite number of variations that can occur.
The programme is broadcast daily on television, ITV in the United Kingdom, butall the bad language and anything controversial, such as nudity, is edited outfor home viewing. Jerry Springer: Too Hot For TV ! gives you the chanceto see ‘the best of’ these in their full uncut glory.
Clips included on this DVD include, “My Sister Slept with My 3 Husbands”,”My Dream is to Pose Nude” and a food fight in “Holiday Hell with My FeudingFamily”, not to mention the scene where a man has his own stag night andlap-dancers on stage. His girlfriend was there with him and gave him thechoice : either he declines the invitation to eat whipped cream straight froma busty girl’s breasts, or his fiancee finishes with him. He’s a red-bloodedmale so you can’t fault him when he makes his choice. If his fiancee had beenfaced with a similar situation involving the Chippendales, she’d have done thesame.
The encoding on this DVD is first-rate with no artifacts. The only reason itloses a star is because the picture quality is a little soft as a result of theconversion from NTSC to PAL, since the show originates in the USA. That said, inthe main it looks identical to the broadcast-quality images the programmereceives on a daily basis. The average bitrate is a high 6.97Mb/s peaking at9Mb/s and is not presented in anamorphic format, a process which provides extraresolution for those watching on widescreen televisions, as it is a 4:3fullscreen title.
The sound quality is also excellent. It’s not a surround-sound fest but what’sthere comes across without a hitch. There’s no Dolby Digital logo on the backso it may not be Dolby Digital 2.0, just standard Dolby Surround.
Extras : Chapters :There’s a mere 6 chapters on this disc to cover the 53-minute running time.The first covers Jerry’s introduction and the next four serve to split up therunning time as opposed to sectioning the action into different genres.The last chapter, a “Bonus” one, is the 12-minute piece which features footagedeemed “Too Hot For TV !”. Since parts of it is reminiscent of earlier Jerryfootage, it’s not always enough to get banned from a TV broadcast but it’llcertainly set granny’s ears alight… Languages & Subtitles :
The programme is in English only, but the subtitles can only be selected inDutch. Sounds odd, but the one disc is covering two separate markets. When theplayer starts up you are offered a choice between English or Netherlands.Select English and you’ll get the Medusa logo followed by the chapter selection.Select Netherlands and you get a logo for Arcade Pictures, whoever they are,then an option for subtitles on/off and then the chapter selection.
One could say that subtitles aren’t necessary because the words are mostlyprofanities – and the Dutch subtitles appear on top of the onscreen logos suchas “Jerry Springer: My Sister Slept with My 3 Husbands” which isn’t too helpful.Personally, I’ve found the only time subtitles are needed are for when ITV showthe usual censored editions with bleeped-out swear words, as there’s so muchbleeping going on that you can’t hear the rest of it so need the other wordsonscreen to keep up with the script, er.. I mean spontaneous conversation.
Menu :
The menu is static, but quite a colourful affair with still shots of clips fromthe respective chapters. is simple and effective. You can skip past thecopyright info by fast-forwarding past or selecting a pre-saved bookmark.
Overall, this compilation is a must for anyone who wants to sample the bestbits of Jerry Springer’s show or for those who want to see plenty ofbig-breasted women squirt liquids of different viscosities upon their amplecharms and thanks to the top-rate encoding job done on this DVD, it can allbe seen in an artifact-free environment.
It’s also worth noting that thanks to the low price of this disc, it’s onlycosting £2 more than the video for something that has twice the resolution.A videotape of this would suffer from much use of rewinding and pausing forcertain scenes, which is something that won’t affect this DVD.
The best parts are probably when someone starts a fight at which the audiencestand up to chant and it won’t be long before you’re joining in with the callof “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!”.PROGRAMME CONTENT: Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!PICTURE QUALITY : Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! SOUND QUALITY: Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! EXTRAS: No “Jerry!”s————————————————————OVERALL: Jerry! Jerry! Jerry! & a half
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.