The complete series

Straight from the Press Room at Fox, the complete series of Futurama (Seasons 1 to 4, plus the four movies) is being released October 13 in a collectible Bender head for the low, low price of $169.98 ($199.98 Canadian). Of course, once those new Comedy Central episodes are shown, this won't be the complete series anymore. Don't tell Fox. They need to sell DVDs.

I wish I could justify getting this set, but I already purchased the first four seasons of the show on DVD and this isn't worth getting just for the four direct-to-DVD movies. Dear Fox: please release the four movies in a collectible head of Richard Nixon. Or one of the other characters. Which collectible head would you prefer to have?

The box set is also being released in honor of Futurama's ten-year anniversary. Can you believe this Simpsons knock-off is ten years old already? Just kidding. Family Guy is the Simpsons knock-off.

More interesting than the actual series collection of Chappelle's Show on DVD is the story behind it. For those yet unaware, in 2005, after completing two seasons of the show, Dave Chappelle walked away from a $50 million dollar contract to produce further seasons (despite having completed the filming of sketches for season three which were showcased in "The Lost Episodes"). The DVDs of Season 1 of Chappelle's Show were among the best-selling of the time. What happened to make Dave walk away from that?

I'm getting ahead of myself. I enjoyed Dave Chappelle's style of humor and enjoyed watching the seasons of his show again. I found his recurring characters funny such as Tyrone Biggums and Lil Jon (recurring characters are a formula for success as evidenced by other sketch shows including SNL) and his humor always seemed to return to topics of racism, sexism, drugs and money (topics everyone can relate to). Hell, I've liked Dave Chappelle since Robin Hood: Men In Tights.

When I was asked to review the DVD of the series Kidnapped, I eagerly jumped at the chance. After all, I've been a fan of the show since before it even aired: I visited the set, I went to the premiere, I reviewed the pilot, I was among the throngs at TVS and elsewhere that reported that the show was cancelled, and now I get to review the "thanks for everything, fans!" DVD. I feel like I witnessed the show's birth and death, and now I'm attending its funeral.

Despite the show's quality, it never had a chance; saddled with a bad time slot (Wednesdays at 10), NBC showed four episodes, then told the producers to stop at 13, shuttled the show to the Saturday death slot, then canned it after one Saturday airing.