The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2004

I was very excited to see that The Daily Show was finally coming to DVD. I understand it's difficult for this type of show to release a Season by Season box set but this seems like a good compromise for fans. It will include:

3 discs

All 4 Democratic National Convention episodes which were taped at Boston university in front of a live audience.

All 4 Republican National Convention episodes which were taped at Daily Show Headquarters in NYC.

The first Bush/Kerry Debate entitled "The Squabble in Coral Gables" Really funny stuff.

The Daily Shows live coverage of Election Night 2004 entitled "Prelude To A Recount"

I can review all of these things honestly having watched the show since it's inception and having seen all of the above mentioned episodes. I've even gone to watch a live taping which I would recommend to anyone who lives within striking distance of NYC. The special pieces they did during the campaigns are truly funny from either side of the fence.

As for special features I really don't know but I hope that some of this information has helped.

If you're a voracious fan of the show don't let my review discourage you (it wouldn't anyway probably . . .):

I love the Daily Show -- have watched it since its inception before Jon Stewart -- been to the tapings , etc. Stewart warns at the beginning of Disc 1 that the material is no longer timely -- I can easily live with that because 2-3 years from now it will still be interesting to recall (with laughter preferably) some moments from that crazed election of 2004.

My complaint is the extra material -- there's just not that much of it. How difficult is it to do commentary over 4 or 5, 3-4 minute long segments? Not very difficult at all.

I guess I hoped for better "extra stuff" in a debut disc from such a talented group of people. It may well have been that Com Central gave them little or no money to do the extras. I feel like it shows.

And I agree with the other reviewer -- don't like the Paramount "bug" in the corner of my screen either -- I payed my good money for these discs and shouldn't have to deal with that kind of perpetual blot on my tv screen.

And one more thing: Just want to make note that before the disc was even released, a few people here decided to celebrate and then rate the quality of the show (number of peabody awards, emmies, etc.) instead of using this space the way it is meant to be used -- as a space to rate THE PRODUCT. nuff said.

I am proud to announce that I am one of those 18-35 year-olds who (nearly) exclusively gets his news from The Daily Show. Jon Stewart and company's critiques of the way the media has slumped into a 24/7 spin machine are both heartbreaking and hysterical.

On to the DVD - I must agree with the other reviewers in that this seems a bit slapped-together. The Comedy Central previews that open up Disc 1 are rather obnoxious, as is the fact that Discs 1 & 2 both have long intro segments (though funny long intro segments) that must be skipped past in order to get to the main menus. Speaking of the menus - the third disc is horribly laid out, with the two live shows buried at the bottom of the screen.

The studio portions of the show are uncensored, meaning that every time Jon Stewart drops the F-bomb you actually get to hear it. Somehow, actually hearing the word instead of the bleep takes something away from the comedy. Most of the pre-taped segments are still censored, however.

While it is nice to have 10 uncut episodes of the show all in one place, I wish that they had removed some of Stewart's more uninteresting interview bits and loaded on more of their election coverage instead.

It has also been noted that the bonus content is rather sparse, and this is true. There are a few commentaries on segments from the third disc - the commentaries heavily feature Samantha Bee, though the other three correspondents drop by as well (including Colbert, even though this is not advertised). Unfortunately, Stewart is not featured in any of the commentaries - though just as well, since they're all fake anyway.

Colbert's studio tour DVD extra is enlightening in that it appears that The Daily Show is produced in the basement of a crack house somewhere - though the Daily Show has moved to a bigger studio, so the segment has become even more irrelevant than it was to begin with.

To sum up - if you're a fan of the show and don't already have these episodes illegally downloaded on your computer, this is worth the purchase just for the historical value. Also, if you don't have cable and have been wondering what all the fuss is about, this is definitely worth a purchase (though if you're at all conservative, prepare to be offended).

So while this is a good first effort at repackaging The Daily Show, I hope that they'll produce a "best of" clip DVD in the future.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 36 reviews  4.3 out of 5 stars