The Jamie Foxx Show: The Complete First Season (1996)
Film:
DVD:

Created by Bentley Kyle Evans & Jamie Foxx
Starring Jamie Foxx, Garcelle Beauvais, Christopher B. Duncan, Ellia English, Garrett Morris

Features:

• Gag reel
  

Released by: Warner Brothers.
Rating: NR.
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; episodes appear in their original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Fans of the show or of Foxx should own.

Jamie King (Foxx) moves from Texas to Hollywood in order to be able to pursue his dream of hitting the big time. Trouble is, he's got to make ends meet, and that means working at the hotel his aunt and uncle (English and Morris) own. He gets to work the audience at the hotel's cocktail lounge, but he's also doing odd jobs all over the place within the hotel to earn his keep. To make matters more challenging is his desire to get with the desk clerk (Beauvais), who refuses to have a relationship on the job.

Well, this was a bit of a surprise. I never knew Foxx had had his own show. He kind of went from In Living Color to blowing my brains out in Any Given Sunday without this ever registering on radar. Then I found it lasted five seasons. Man, just goes to show how far TV is removed from my normal radar. And it's obvious that Warner Brothers put this out with its latest wave of television boxed sets in order to capitalize on Foxx's ass kicking career at this point, what with two Oscar nods in the same year and a win. Smart move on their part.

While the show itself is nothing to sneeze on--although God love them for bringing Garrett Morris back to television--it's Foxx who manages to sell this and keep it afloat. It's easy to see, with his personality driving this, how it lasted as long as it did. He's able to work his comedic skills in multiple directions and the rest of the cast is there to stand back and let him do his thing. So he does that.

While it's obvious that Foxx is a little busy right now to take part in any bonus features (or Warner Brothers couldn't afford him...or both), it's a shame that this title comes out on the low end of the feature pool for this wave of Warners releases. You get only a gag reel--and as anyone who's watched more than one or two of those can tell you...there's only so much you can do with people blowing lines or just generally goofing up.

It would have been nice to have some other cast members take part in a commentary, or Foxx's co-creator, Evans. Or even a retrospective docu like the other sets have had would have been nice. Hard to imagine this show is almost a decade old now, but there you have it.

Because there's little in the way of features, I'd recommend this as one to own only if you're a huge fan of the show or of Foxx in general. Otherwise, a rental should scratch this itch for you.