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Parker Lewis Will Come To DVD! Rejoice!

Oh, yes, this is one of the things I was hoping for when Shout! Factory started licensing titles from Sony:

Shout! Factory will be releasing Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, beginning with the first season, later this year.

We are currently lining up talent for retrospective interviews and trying to get our hands on as much archival material as possible

You know how I was talking about the “modern” single-camera comedy? Well, a lot of its conventions were pioneered by Parker Lewis. There had been other one-camera comedies without laugh tracks, but most of them were shot like dramas, and referred to as “dramedies.” Parker Lewis used special effects, camera gimmicks, wacky sound effects, music and fast cutting to brand itself, in effect using the way of shooting, editing and mixing the show as a substitute for a laugh track. This is the method that Arrested Development, 30 Rock, My Name Is Earl and other wacky single-camera shows use to this day. The co-creator of the show, Clyde Phillips, went on to become the creator of Suddenly Susan and the showrunner of the first two seasons of Dexter. Now there’s a schizophrenic résumé for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk6dZw7wxAw

This is not a great time to sell TV shows on DVD; if Shout! Factory had been able to license some of these titles in 2007 or 8, I’d be less nervous about the prospect of future seasons. But come on, it’s Parker Lewis. This one just needs to sell well enough to justify the other two seasons.

And at least sitting for the special features will give Corin Nemec something to do other than appearing in that David Faustino web show.

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