As it happens, I don’t watch a lot of television anymore, because most of it is garbage. But over the last few years, with seasons of shows popping up on DVD, I’ve found myself watching a lot of television shows. Part of the appeal of watching shows is that they’re just about the right length (20-40 minutes) for me to watch while I’m eating or resting, and they don’t require me to sink the time I’d put into, say, a feature film. TV shows are also typically less demanding in terms of my attention; as long as I know the characters and the premise, I don’t have to have much more information, unless I’m watching a serialized show like Lost or Heroes.

One of the things I’ve found out in recent years is that many of the best shows produced for TV are fairly obscure titles that were either cancelled prematurely or aired on networks most people don’t watch regularly. So, I thought I’d put together a list of five really solid shows, all of which are available on DVD, but most of which you’ve probably never heard of. All I ask is that you do the right thing and buy them on DVD if they’re available, and reserve searching bittorent sites for those which are out of print or not yet available on DVD in your country.

With that said, here’s the list!

The name "Trailer Park Boys" really tells you everything you need to know aboutt his show, doesn't it?

Trailer Park Boys: The premise of this popular Canadian show is simple: Ricky and Julian are two criminals who live in Sunnyvale Trailer Park, and Julian’s hired a documentary crew to chronicle their lives as they move from scheme to scheme and find themselves in and out of jail. Julian is cool and collected, the brains of the operation, with big muscles, a goatee and a tumbler of rum constantly in his hand. People in the park respect Julian, and he certain sort of code that he lives by, looking out for others and trying to get himself out of crime and into something more legitimate.

Then, there’s Ricky — a raging id of a human being who lives in Julian’s old beat-up car, who is well known throughout the park for his wild behavior, and who has fathered a young girl named Trinity with one of the women in the park. You never know what Ricky’s going to do, because he often doesn’t know himself; he’s often the reason that Julian’s schemes fall apart at their most critical moment, but Julian can’t seem to get rid of him.

Ricky and Julian also have a friend named Bubbles, described as “the smartest guy in the park,” a peculiar guy who wears big glasses and lives in a shed that’s been rigged up with electricity. Bubbles tries to keep Ricky and Julian out of trouble, but he inevitably winds up left behind in the trailer park as his friends are dragged off to jail.

This probably sounds very heavy and dramatic, but believe it or not, this show’s a comedy, and a very good one at that. If you enjoy the mockumentary style of The Office, This is Spinal Tap or some of Christopher Guest’s films (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman), you’ll feel right at home in Trailer Park Boys, provided you can put up with the heavy used of the f-word, the regular drug use, drunken antics and other general shenanigans caused by Ricky and Julian’s criminal behavior. I wouldn’t say that this show glorifies criminal life so much as it lampoons it. It’s surprisingly smart and well-written, and fun to marathon.

The show began with a TV movie pilot shot in black and white, which you won’t find on DVD and may have to locate online to watch. It’s not crucial to see it, though, and it’s missing a lot of the regular cast. Seasons 1-7 are all available on DVD, and each has between 6 and 10 episodes. I personally feel that the show peaked somewhat after its fifth season, but seasons six and seven are still enjoyable enough. There’s also a prequel Christmas special that takes place before the pilot; it’s one of the best episodes in the series, and definitely worth watching. Try to buy these if you can, but since the DVDs are so expensive, I won’t complain if you search for them online (especially since many episodes can be found instantly on Google Video). Watch an episode or two, and you’ll either be disgusted or you’ll be hooked.

There was also a Trailer Park Boys movie called The Big Dirty that features the same characters, but outside the continuity of the show. The film also sheds the mockumentary style and is a little more conventional in its storytelling. The movie’s funny, but it’s not nearly as good as the show. It’s easily obtained on DVD

Julian, Bubbles and Ricky are pretty bad at being criminals. That makes their show all the more entertaining.

Since the show was running out of steam in season 7, the creators apparently decided to release a new special in December, 2008 subtitled Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys and a new film in Fall, 2009 subtitled Countdown to Liquor Day. The special brings the show back to its roots somewhat, and the film will presumably pick up where the special leaves off.

DVD Sets on Amazon:

• Seasons 1-2
• Season 3
• Season 4
• Season 5
• Season 6
• Season 7
• Trailer Park Boys: The Big Dirty (feature film)
  
• Trailer Park Boys: Christmas Special

Don't let the simple animation style fool you. Clone High is one of the smartest animated series I've ever seen.

Clone High is a show that appeared on MTV’s animation block, but which never made it past the first season. That’s a shame, because the show was brilliant. The premise is that the government cloned a bunch of famous historical figures in the 1980s, and they’ve all been growing up in the same town with surrogate parents. So, it’s only natural that they go to high school together, right? The main characters include Abe Lincoln, a lanky, awkward teenager who’s obsessed with the sexy Cleopatra, a vain and petty girl who is upset when people aren’t paying attention to her. Cleo begins the show dating JFK, who is popular, but self-absorbed and dim-witted, and he becomes Abe’s rival for her affetions. Abe is also friends with Joan of Arc (who has a secret crush on him) and Ghandi, who’s a lot more free-spirited than you might think.

The show has some light continuity, but it differs so greatly from episode to episode that you never quite know what’s going to happen. Sometimes, you’ll get biting social satire, while other episodes are parodies of popular culture. One even features Jack Black as the villain of a rock opera. Several episodes feature voices from the cast of Scrubs, and that’s no accident – Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence was one of the producers of Clone High. Meanwhile, the creators, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, have gone on to write and produce How I Met Your Mother. It’s obvious that a lot of talent went into the writing and production of this show.

Oddly enough, the show was much more popular in Canada than it was in the US, and thus the DVD set is a Canadian release. You can find it on Amazon, and it’s worth every penny — I’ve watched these 13 episodes many times over, and still find it extremely funny. If you’d like to test the waters first, try Google video.

Rather than simply making fun of the pop culture of the 1980s, Freaks and Geeks gently reminds us how awkward that decade really was.

Freaks and Geeks is a show you might have heard of, but probably didn’t watch. You missed out — it’s easily one of the best “dramedies” ever made, a wonderful look back at the early 1980s that lacks both the annoying narration of The Wonder Years, the yuppie culture of My So-Called Life and the tiring goofiness of That 70s Show. It’s also one of those shows that was the launchpad for many young comedic actors and actresses whom have gone on to become stars in their own right, such as Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jason Segal, Busy Phillips, John Francis Daley and Linda Cardellini. The show was created by Paul Feig (who now works on The Office as a director and producer and has directed episodes of 30 Rock, Weeds, Mad Men and Arrested Development) and produced by Judd Apatow (the writer of The 40-Year-Old-Virgin and Knocked Up and producer of many popular comedy films).

The show begins with a high school-aged girl named Lindsey Weir beginning to question her place in the world following the death of her grandmother. She leave behind her honors student friends, dons a green army jacket and begins hanging out with a group of stoners, the “freaks” of the show. Lindsey doesn’t fit in very well with the group, but soon finds herself becoming somewhat of a moral compass to her new friends — she accepts them for who they are, and they help her to break out of her shell and enjoy life. Her young brother, Sam, is trying to find his own place in junior high school along with his two geeky friends, Neil and Bill. Sam has a crush on a girl named Cindy Sanders and idealizes her, but as the show goes on, Sam discovers that she’s as human as anyone else.

Some people view Undeclared as being a spiritual sequel to Freaks and Geeks.

Part of what makes the show so compelling is its heart. These kids feel like real teenagers, struggling with real teenage issues and not the artificial stuff you see on shows like Beverly Hills: 90210 or Melrose Place. This isn’t a high school drama about jocks and cheerleaders, and it really stays away from stereotypes. One of the most endearing characters in the show, the ultra-awkward Bill Haverchuck, could have been portrayed as a two-dimensional nerd, but instead feels like a real person. You start off pitying Bill in the first few episodes, but by the end of the show’s 18-episode run, you realize he’s far stronger and deeper than he appears to be.

Sadly, NBC really squandered this show when it was on TV, and it never got the chance it deserved. Many of the cast members went on to work on Apatow’s Undeclared on Fox, which takes place in the modern day on a fictitious college campus. Though it’s also very good, it’s more of a comedy than Freaks and Geeks and less enduring.

Fortunately, since the show has achieved cult status, it’s available on DVD. You should watch it. It’s good. You might also check Google Video for some episodes.

Don't let the DVD cover fool you. Wonderfalls's main character, Jaye, is a pistol!

Wonderfalls was a show created by Bryan Fuller, who’s better known as being the creator of Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies, as well as being one of the best writers on Heroes. The show had a short run on Fox before being canceled, but if life were fair, it’d still be running, because it was absolutely brilliant. The premise is sort of strange: a sarcastic and unlovable girl working at a gift shop outside a waterfall that looks suspiciously like Niagra Falls inherits a peculiar gift from a commemorative statue of an American Indian princess who perished going over the falls. This power gives her the ability to receive strange and cryptic messages from things that look like animals, such as a figurines, bookends, stuffed bears, or a little deformed plastic lion that she carries around with her. But Jaye is a reluctant heroine, often trying to shirk the quests that are given to her instead of following through. What’s more, she often thinks she’s being told to help one person, only to find that someone completely different requires her help. You never quite know where the show is going until an episode reaches its conclusion.

While the premise is a little weird, the characters are very interesting and well-realized. Jaye’s acidic, sarcastic wit is truly entertaining, and her entire family, which includes a meddling mother, a repressed and still-in-the-closet lesbian sister, and a brother with a secret girlfriend, adds to the color of the story. There are also some wonderful background characters, like a young boy who somehow orders himself a mail-order-Russian bride.

It’s very sad that this show got killed before the creators could really take the time to explore the powers behind Jaye’s gift, because it was clearly headed somewhere very cool and interesting. At least Dead Like Me (which was also prematurely canceled) got a follow-up film. I’m guessing we’ll never get to see any more of Wonderfalls. Thankfully, it’s available on DVD, and you can probably find it on Google Video.

Thank god for DVD re-releases of Fox shows; I never even knew this one was on the air or I would have watched it!

Action was another show prematurely killed off by Fox, but it never really belonged on a network to begin with. On the DVD’s special features, the creators and writers of the show explain that Action was meant for HBO or Showtime, but they got greedy, tried to get a bidding war going, and wound up on Fox instead. It starred Jay Mohr as the Jerry Bruckheimer-style movie producer Peter Dragon, an amoral character who secures funding for ridiculously stupid action movies so he can live a lifestyle of excess. Illeana Douglas (one of those actresses you see all the time, but who never seems to star in anything) plays a former child star turned Hollywood prostitute whom Peter Dragon signs on as his assistant when he begins production of the ill-fated film, Beverly Hills Gun Club, a movie that’s being produced soley because Peter’s people bought the wrong script by accident.

This is one dark show, and it’s got one of those cynical takes on Hollywood that would lead you to believe that the inmates are running the asylum. It’s easy to see why it couldn’t survive on Fox, since it debuted in 1999, when single-camera shows were still a curiousity and laugh tracks were expected. Had the show done better, it’s very possible the producers would have released a cut of Beverly Hills Gun Club during the second or third season. But since it was axed after a mere thirteen episodes, the writers decided to end the show with an episode that potentially secures Peter Dragon’s success, but has his assistant going back into prostitution because she wants to feel clean again — apparently, the film industry is just too dirty for her.

The show is pretty hard to find online (a Google Video search turned up few relevant videos), but it is available on DVD. Provided that you’re into dark humor that has some subtlety, it’s well worth the purchase.

Next Thursday, I’ll follow up with five more great shows you’ve probably never heard of, so be sure to check back!