Many sketch comedy shows have come and gone. Some of the best, like the “Carol Burnett Show” we wish would come back. Then there are the ones that started off promisingly enough and have somehow endured slow agonizing deaths that never end. You know, the ones that were funny the first couple of seasons and have somehow kept going and going. I’m thinking “Saturday Night Live” and to a lesser degree, “Mad TV.” Then there are the ones that lasted just about as long as they should have, going out before the humor left. In particular I’m talking about “In Living Color.” Running only five seasons, “In Living Color” is probably one of the most irreverent sketch comedy shows I can think of. Originally the brainchild of Keenan Ivory Wayans, the show premiered in 1990 and immediately shocked, ticked off, and upset a good portion of American audiences. In other words, my kind of TV show.

I can’t honestly say the show hit a home run with every single sketch or character, but on a weekly basis, it spat in the face of those who suffered from Political Correctness Syndrome. (I of course refer to these unfortunates as Intelligence Deprived.)

What really made the show a success stemmed not so much from the sketches themselves, but more so from the amazingly talented cast the series brought together. Most of them were just starting out, but went on to achieve successes in their own right. Tommy Davidson, David Alan Grier and Damon Wayans have done especially well, but it was a little know comic by the name of Jim Carrey that really caught my attention.

The first time I ever heard Jim Carrey’s name was over twenty plus years ago when I happened to catch an episode of Entertainment Tonight. They ran a short, five minute piece on this up-and-coming comic. I think I may even still have it on tape. In that five minutes, Carrey completely blew me away with his rubber faced antics. At the time the piece ran he was still only doing stand-up, but I remembered his name when he later popped up on the short-lived series, “The Duck Factory” and the film “Once Bitten.” Neither did much to get Carrey the attention he deserved, but each year he would pop up in a movie or two until “In Living Color” finally helped launch the amazing career he enjoys today. Though he created many memorable characters on the series, this season introduced one of the most loved and hated of them all, Fire Marshall Bill.

There are even some who might be thrilled to get a glimpse of the then unknown Jennifer Lopez as one of the gyrating ‘Fly Girls that filled time in between the sketches. Personally, I can take or leave her.

I was glad to see that the series was finally hitting the DVD market thanks to the folks at Fox, who released the 13-episode 1st season set a couple of months back and is now back with the 2nd season followup. This time there are a whopping 26 episodes in a 4-disc set. Fox opted to go with the super slim DVD cases again (a move they are doing more and more), which store really well in the keepcase. Each holder has its own cover complete with listings of the sketches in each episode.

There are also a few extras included in the form of commentaries by writers Kim Bass and Buddy Sheffield. They don’t do full episode commentaries, instead opting to chime in on about 18 specific sketches. There is also a fairly lengthy retrospective of the 2nd season of the series that includes a few interviews, as well as a couple of featurettes. Each runs a little over ten minutes and feature interviews with a lot of the cast and crew. In the first, they talk about the humor of the series and how it was accepted (and in some cases not accepted) by audiences. The second featurette focuses in a bit on particular characters (Homey the Clown, Fir Marshall Bill, and movie critics Blaine & Antoine).

All in all in all, it’s a fairly good package for the series; the only thing missing is input from the show’s creator, Keenan Ivory Wayans. I understand there was some feuding between Wayans and the studio in later seasons over the show’s scheduling, so that might explain his absence.

Starring: Keenan Ivory Wayans, Kim Coles, Tommy Davidson, Kelly Coffield, David Alan Grier, Jim Carrey
Extras: Commentary on Selected Sketches by Writers Kim Bass and Buddy Sheffield, Season 2 Overview, Notorious ILC: Characters Featurette, Appreciating In Living Color Featurette
Specifications: Full Screen, English Stereo
Studio: Fox
Release Date: 9/28/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give In Living Color: Season 2 a B.