Snl: Best of Dan Akroyd [DVD] [1986] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Few "Saturday Night Live" castmembers have carved a greater niche in the show's history than Dan Aykroyd. His four years on the show gave us some of the most hilarious moments ever to grace our television screens. From his zany charatcers to his dead on impresions, Aykroyd was a force to be reckoned with.

On September 6th, 2005, "The Best Of Dan Aykroyd" was one of four new "SNL" dvds from the show's first five years released on dvd. It features 22 sketches and has a decent run time of 93 minutes. How does it hold up. Read on for the positives and the negatives.

Positives:
-You get most of Aykroyd's popular recurring characters on here. Beldar Conehead, Leonard Pinth Garnell, Elwood Blues and others are all on this dvd.
-They included the Nerds sketch where he's the refrigerator repair man with his [...] hanging out. I've always wanted to see that sketch.
-You get his most popular impressions on here as well, such as his note perfect impersonations of Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon and Tom Snyder.
-You get to see many forgotten sketches that will serve as a real treat for diehard fans.
-You get some great extras.

Negatives:
-The dvd's main flaw is this. A lot of the dvd's funniest sketches were on previous dvds as well. For example, the "Coneheads And The I.R.S." sketch and "The Festrunk Brothers" bit were both on "The Best Of Steve Martin". Similarly, the "Consumer Probe" sketch with Irwin Mainway was on the "Best Of Halloween".
-A lot of great characters were left off, such as Jason The Hippie, Mike Mendoza, one of half of the X - Police and many other great characters were left off.
-They don't include anything from the various cameos he made on the show between 1988 and 2003. He did a lot of funny stuff then, too. I was especially disappointed that his Bob Dole impression was not included.
-This next one is going to stir some disagreements. I did not find "Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute" very funny. I expected it to be much funnier, but I was disappointed.
-There were a few other sketches that didn't do anything for me. Howeer, this is almost always the case with most "SNL" dvds.

So, this is a far from perfect retrospective of Aykroyd's "SNL" career, but I'd definitely recommend you'd check it out.

This DVD is an excellent collection of Aykroyd's work during the first four years of SNL. Thankfully it is slightly different from the original VHS Best of Aykroyd DVD.

Most of the old material is included, except that there is a different Blues Brothers song instead of "Rubber Biscuit". There is an additional Jimmy Carter sketch and a "Point/Counterpoint" debate with Jane Curtin that was sadly missing from the original set.

Also included is a brief interview/documentary with Aykroyd and other cast members and hosts. I wish that some of the sketches excerpted here had made their way onto the disc.

Finally there is Aykroyd's original audtion tape for SNL. He goes through his characters and routines seamlessly. It shows off his versatility, even if it isn't hilarious.

Definitely worth buying for fans of classic SNL.

With the recent releases of Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and other original SNL members, let's hope the SNL people (reading this, Mr. Michaels?) will finally release complete seasons, starting with the FIRST one!

There IS a market for it, please go ahead, release season 1 now and you'll see!

Aykroyd is a genius of comedy.

I want to see ALL his skits in ALL the episodes.

Thanks