Television. One DVD at a Time.

"The Vietcong hooked my genitals up to a car battery for 38 hours straight to get me to confess to something I actually did. You're going to have to do better than 'please.'" - Bob Gunton as Junction Jack when asked to own up to a crime he didn't commit

Greg the Bunny: The Complete Series DVD Review

By A.J. Carson

Imagine if you were given the opportunity to star in your favorite TV series. That's just what happens to Greg (Dan Milano), a cute little bunny puppet.excuse me, Fabricated American.who winds up starring in the kids show Sweetknuckle Junction when the previous star comes unhinged. Greg lucks into the position because his human roommate, Jimmy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Seth Green) is the slacker son of the series' director, Gil (SCTV's Eugene Levy). Before you can utter the pejorative word "sock," naïve Greg is learning tough showbiz lessons from his insane costars: Warren "The Ape" Demontague (Milano), a pretentious puppet with Shakespearean aspirations, Count Blah (Drew Massey), a Bela Legosi-esque puppet perhaps best suited for schlock horror films, Tardy the Turtle (Victor Yerrid), a puppet who is slow in more ways than one, and humans Dottie Sunshine (Dina Waters), a perkily slutty airhead, and Junction Jack (Bob Gunton), a scary-eyed Vietnam vet who bakes cupcakes and makes pottery for Earth Day but could snap at any time. Alison (Sarah Silverman) is the uptight network exec who tries to create order from the chaos.

In each episode, Greg and the Sweetknuckle gang try to overcome their personality conflicts long enough to film their crappy TV show. Of course this proves to be difficult with a gang this crazy: Greg gets bunnynapped by Corey Feldman ("Jimmy Drives Gil Crazy"), Count Blah hooks up with Warren's ex-wife ("Blah Bawls," guest starring Taxi's Marilu Henner), Dottie gets blackmailed when she accidentally donates a homemade porno to Goodwill ("The Singing Mailman"), and Warren pees in Alison's car when she refuses to let him perform Shakespeare on the show ("Piddler on the Roof").

Greg the Bunny's conceit - that puppets are not only real, but an oppressed minority - is a funny one. Unfortunately, it does not translate into a funny series. Laughs are often few and far between, with the first few episodes evoking only an occasional chuckle. Perhaps having the series revolve around the making of a children's show wasn't such a smart idea. We're accustomed to seeing puppets on kid shows, so there might have been more comic punch seeing them hanging around a bar or at an office. The series gets funnier as it goes along ("The Singing Mailman" and "Blah Bawls" elicit more consistent laughs), but since only thirteen episodes were produced, it is too little too late.

The end.

Well, not exactly. In an extremely odd turn of events, the DVD presentation of Greg the Bunny actually turns out to be far more interesting than the series itself. Through an entertaining making-of featurette, episode commentaries, and deleted scenes (also with commentary), viewers are able to see first hand the compromises that go into the creation of a show. The extras offer confirmation that almost every aspect of our lives - from politics to TV shows - are now being dictated by polls and surveys: even as the creators struggled to achieve a consistent tone for the series, focus groups were gathered together to discuss incredibly important topics.like whether or not Greg's button eyes should be replaced by traditional eyes. They were, by the way. That'll fix the show!

Greg the Bunny's thirteen episodes are divided onto two discs. The discs are housed in a keepcase that has an interior swinging arm to hold the second disc. The colorful full motion menus are accompanied by amusing narration from the puppet gang. There is no "play all" feature. The episodes are divided into chapters, but there are no scene selection menus.

It should be noted that the episodes are in production order. The episodes were originally broadcast in a wildly different order, and two of the episodes were never even aired.

Video and Audio

The series looks and sounds great with no noticeable flaws.

English and Spanish subtitles are included. The episodes are also closed captioned.

Extras

Disc one contains commentaries on four episodes: co-creator Dan Milano, production designer Jim Dultz, music supervisor Howard Paar and prop master Brat Elliot on "Welcome to Sweetknuckle Juntion," Milano, actors Seth Green and Bob Gunton, and puppeteers Drew Massey, Victor Yerrid, and James Murray on "Sock Like Me," Milano, Green, Massey, Yerrid, Murray, and actors Sarah Silverman and Dina Waters on "Piddler on the Roof," and Milano, Murray, director/editor Brent Carpenter, and writer Bill Freiberger on "Rabbit Redux."

Each episode on disc one contains "Delete & Extended Scenes." Some of these scenes are quite different than the ones that made it on the air and are quite funny. Disc two contains extra scenes for "Surprise!" and "The Singing Mailman."

Disc one's "The Humans Behind the Fabricated Americans" is a thirty-two minute featurette on the creation of the show. The featurette is quite informative, covering Greg the Bunny's origins as host of a public access show called Junktape, the addition of Warren the Ape and Count Blah once Greg began recording interstitials for IFC, and the eventual Fox series. Included are interviews with co-creator Milano, puppeteers Massey and Yerrid, actors Green and (in file footage) Levy, and the show's puppet stars. In many ways, this featurette is much more fun than the actual series - and it provides us with a little insight on the creative differences that perhaps contributed to the series being less satisfying than it could be.

"Puppet Auditions" is a six minute compilation of puppet audition footage. Fans of puppeteering will definitely want to give this a look.

The twenty-one screen "Conceptual Artwork" presents drawings of the characters and sets used in the series.

Two more commentaries are found on disc two: actors Greg the Bunny, Seth Green, Bob Gunton, Warren "The Ape" Demontague, Count Blah, Tardy the Turtle, Rochester Rabbit, and Susan the Monster on "Jimmy Drives Gil Crazy," and Milano, Green, Silverman, Waters, Massey, Yerrid, and Murray on "The Singing Mailman."

"IFC: The Greg the Bunny Show - 'Reality'" is a seven minute episode of Greg's IFC series. In it, Greg visits a number of art galleries to learn about, well, art. Fun and weird.

"Tardy Deliver" is a short (eight minutes) film starring Tardy the Turtle and the cast and crew of Greg the Bunny. Featuring the kind of quirky stupidity often missing from the series, this extra should not be missed. The short can also be viewed with optional commentary by Drew Massey and Victor Yerrid.

"Behind-the-Scenes Stills" collects twenty-two images from the filming of the series.

Eight-three pencil drawings make up the "Storyboards - 'Jimmy Drives Gil Crazy'" gallery.

Choosing "Publicity Gallery" on disc two brings up a separate menu of publicity odds and ends. "Greg and Seth" is a five minute interview with the show's two stars. Six Fox commercials for the series can be viewed separately or all at once with the "play all" function. The "Publicity Stills" collection features thirty publicity photos.

Finally, the "Wrap Reel" is a six minute end-of-season gag reel.

Summary

Greg the Bunny is an odd duck, or bunny, as the case may be. Fans of the short-lived series should rejoice that it has been given such a lavish DVD release. Even though the series is not really successful, those of us who are interesting in behind-the-scenes stuff may want to give it a rent.

10/11/04