Blossom – Seasons One & Two (1991 – 3/Shout! Factory DVD)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: C-
Sometimes a comedy comes along that is sop bad, you can
not believe it is a hit, but by the time the 1990s rolled around, sitcoms
became so bad that they were unfunny joke in themselves. Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas had made
some of the most important, groundbreaking TV around, but producing Blossom is the nadir of their work
together. Blossom – Seasons One &
Two are now on DVD from Shout! Factory and they are now digital proof of
how bad this show really was. More
shocking, it was a hot for five seasons!
Don Reo came up with this nightmare about the title
character (Mayim Bialik) as the daughter of a widowed father (Ted Wass of Soap) who wants to record her diary on
tape among other things and juggles two brothers (Michael Stoyanov, who’s
character eventually becomes a drug addict (did his sister drive him to it?)
and Joey Lawrence in his second hit after Gimme
A Break!, becoming even more popular) in a show that wants to be funny, but
never is. Then it wants to take on
social issues, but none of the shows could ever focus on them enough to
work. Even after the problem was or was
not resolved, it is amazing how the characters never really grew, developed and
remained flat. Add the guest appearances
shtick and you have a show that makes Degrassi
Jr. High and its continuations look like Room 222. They make Welcome Back, Kotter look like The Paper Chase.
39 episodes over six DVDs are included here and they are
all bad. The pilot is also included and
it turns out to be a better show than the one they landed up with, including
Richard Mazur (One Day At A Time) as
the father and It’s A Living’s
Barrie Youngfellow as the adult leads.
It is not perfect, but the producers zigged when they should have
zagged, resulting in a bad nostalgia trip and a time capsule showing us how
quality network TV slowly died. Yet the
show did not.
If you are a fan or non-fan who has not seen it for years,
brace yourself.
The 1.33 X 1 image is poor and harsh as has been the case
with many analog NTSC videotaped sitcoms from the Disney vault. These are strident digital copies. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is better, but shows
its age in some distortion and harshness, extending to the goofy theme
song. Extras include that early pilot,
audio commentary on two episodes by Bialik, Reo, Lawrence & co-star Jenna
von Oy and three “A Very Special”
featurettes (Show, Friendship, Style) that are for fans only.
- Nicholas Sheffo
