Product Details

• Actors: Don Pardo, Lenny Pickett, Darrell Hammond, Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen
• Directors: Christopher Guest, Mike de Seve, Robert Smigel
• Writers: Andrew Hill Newman, Barry W. Blaustein, Beth Cahill, Brad Hall, Chris Cluess
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: September 7, 2004
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (140 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002I84FI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,706 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell - Volumes 1& 2" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Best of Will Ferrell - Vol. 1
The latest in the line of Saturday Night Live's great character players (including Dan Aykroyd and Phil Hartman), Will Ferrell showcases his fearlessness in this 72-minute collection. Whether exposing skin or taking a pause beyond the normal limits, Ferrell induces hard laughs like with the cowbell rocker in the first sketch. The selection includes Ferrell's spot-on impressions of Cub announcer Harry Caray, game-show icon Alex Trebek, President Bush, and Inside the Actor's Studio host James Lipton. As with other SNL Best of... retrospectives, there are short snippets to go along with the full-length sketches that include excellent selections of Ferrell's returning characters Craig the Cheerleader and the swinging Culp brothers. A must for fans, and the DVD includes an intriguing audition footage in which Ferrell leaps from character and character.

The Best of Will Ferrell - Vol. 2
There is no drop-off in laughs from the first to second volume of Will Ferrell's work on Saturday Night Live. Giggle along with his recurring characters, including James Lipton (interviewing Kate Hudson as a wonderfully ditzy Drew Barrymore), a wickedly clever George W. Bush, and one-half of the smarmy Lovers couple. This volume spotlights Ferrell's ability to go successfully over-the-top whether as an overbearing boss (check out how long he keeps stabbing a doomed coworker), a strict airplane pilot, an absent-minded doctor, or the world's oldest baby. There's plenty of unabashed (near) nudity and risky violence, which keeps the SNL tradition of "Not Ready for Prime Time"; check out what longtime hosts of the morning talk show resort to when the much-needed teleprompter fails. All that plus "Janet Reno's Dance Party" (with guest Rudy Giuliani) makes this the perfect pick-up for those who could not get enough of Ferrell with volume 1. --Doug Thomas

Product Description

The best of Will Ferrell's appearances on Saturday Night Live. 2-DVD set, special features include auditions, photo gallery, dress rehearsals, outtakes, TV appearances.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 96 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Could have been much better August 15, 2003

By J. Evans

Format:DVD

This DVD is great, but could've been much better. At only 75 minutes, SNL/NBC are giving a [weak] product. Of course Will Ferrell doesn't disappoint at all on this though. Skits include:

-Behind the Music: Blue Oyster Cult ("more cowbell")
-Spartan Cheerleaders @ a chess match
-"Dissing Your Dog" commercial
-Harry Carey show
-the annoying lovers (with Rachel Dratch)
-the pretentious NYC store clerks (with Jimmy Falon & Sean Hayes)
-the bum as the nude art school model (can't remember his name)
-fishing with Bush Jr & Sr
-Jeopardy with "Burt Reynolds" "French Stewart" and "Sean Connery"
-Robert Goulet does gangsta rap
-Bobby & Marty Culp at the Drug Awareness seminar
-Inside the Actors Studio w/Charles Nelson Riley
-Roxbury guys with Jim Carrey

the extras are pretty cool..especially the deleted skit with the "old prospector." I think that's the funniest thing on the whole DVD. It also has Will's "tryout" with SNL, and 2 Conan O'Brien appearances.

But what is missing is the Neil Diamond Storytellers. I can't believe they left that off. SNL/NBC really could have given everyone a quality product but they just phoned it in.

87 of 99 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Very Disappointing November 10, 2004

By Guy in Ohio

Format:DVD

I purchased volumes 1 and 2 as a package, and I must say that I don't recall ever being so disappointed in a DVD purchase.

Will Ferrell, in my opinion, is one of the funniest actors to hit the set of SNL. There were mountains of classic sketches from which to choose when compiling these this set, yet these releases are terrible. Volume 1 has one Jeopardy sketch (quite funny, of course) and a very, VERY small snippet of Ferrell doing his Bush thing. Everything else is pretty much trash on Volume 1. Scattered throughout volume 1 are a bunch of three- or four second clips from "C+/C" sketches. I kept getting pissed when one would start and I'd think to myself "finally, one that I can force myself to laugh at", and it would get cut off. Well, in volume 2, some of these sketches are shown in their entirety. You can't but feel double-charged for SNL's double-dip on these clips. Volume 2 is just as empty as volume 1 in that it really doesn't contain Ferrell's best material. Where are the presidential debates? Where are the other jeopardy sketches (remember: out of BOTH releases, we only get ONE)? Where are the sketches of the angry father who lashes out at his kids in sudden bursts of rage? I'm not exaggerating when I say that the entire collection seems like the producers ordered all of Ferrell's sketches from "most hysterical" to "barely made the cut", and then started at the wrong end.

I won't be surprised when volume 3 is released: "Best of Will Ferrell: No, seriously."

This entire collection is just dreadful. I'm a big fan of Ferrell's and this collection is a disgrace. I wouldn't recommend either release to even the most loyal of fans. I'm giving it two stars instead of just one only because it's Ferrell.

39 of 42 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Not sure about 'Best Of', but still funny August 26, 2003

By A Customer

Format:DVD

Like most Saturday Night Live 'Best Of' compilations, it would be more accurate to call this a random sampling of Will Ferrell skits than his greatest ones. How else do you explain the fact that there are throw away skits like the dysfunctional family, yet only brief clips of him doing George Bush and Janet Reno, among others. Also there are a few skits on this that are also on the Best of SNL 96-97 tape.
With that said, this DVD does have enough funny skits and redeeming value to make it worth checking out. You can't go wrong with him playing a flustered Alex Trebeck in 'Celebrity Jeopardy;' his Marty Culp the singing/preaching principal is also always good for a laugh. Both longtime fans and those who don't know Ferrell's work as well will appreciate the range, audacity, and irreverence of the characters he played.
There are also some good extra features, including two very funny apperances on Conan O'Brien. Again this is not perfect, but still is well worth a look.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "Gouuuulet." August 19, 2004

By B-MAN

Format:DVD

It's true that Will Ferrell's contributions to SNL can't be summarized on one dvd, especially not one running a little over an hour (one episode of SNL is 90 minutes), but that's not to say that the material here isn't hilarious. The problem with these collections is that fans have their favorites and almost always a few of them are missing and that's definitely the case here. In fact, some of the particular recurring sketches like "Jeopardy" & "Inside the Actor's Studio" could've chosen better examples than what ended up here for those. Again, what is here is funny and the extras are nice too. Here are the sketches in order that make up the main feature (the sketches are pretty complete except for where I list them as "snips":

Marty & Bobby Culp: Drug awareness assembly

VH1 Behind the Music: Blue Oyster Cult (with Christopher Walken)"More Cowbell, baby!" - A personal favorite!

Dissing your dog training video

Spartan Cheerleaders Chess Team tournament

Robert Goulet: Coconut Banger's Ball

Snips - Will in thong at business meeting/Mini Cell Phone at new wave store/Rachel Dratch gives birth to Will

Jeopardy: Burt Reynolds, Sean Connery, French Stewart

Inside the Actors Studio: Charles Nelson Riley (Alec Baldwin)

The Devil teaches Garth Brooks a song

Snips: George W.... Bush/Janet Reno boxing Guliani/Clinton, Monica, & Saddam on the phone

Space the Infinite Frontier with Harry Caray (& Jeff Goldblum)

Hot Tub Luvas (with Drew Barrymore)

Roxbury Guys (with Jim Carrey)

Snips: Good Morning Latte/Dog Show

Nude guy poses for Art Class (with Lucy Lawless)

Family yelling at dinner (with Sarah Michelle Gellar)

Jacob Silj: Voice Modulation (on Weekend Update)

Extra Features:

Will Ferrell's audtion for SNL as Harry Caray

Unaired Dress Rehearsal sketch: Prospector in the Army

Will's Conan appearance in black underwear (plugging Roxbury)

Will's Conan appearance as Goulet

Outtakes: Hot Tub Luvas (with Winona Ryder), Goulet as Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Sketch (with Seinfeld), Voice Modulation on Weekend Update, George W Bush & George Bush Sr. (Dana Carvey), Neil Diamond on Weekend Update, Fight in club (with Ellen Degeneres), Tap dance (with Katie Holmes), and Mini computer email at New Wave shop (with Pierce Brosnan)

As you can see, the disc is above average in content and as far as these collections go, this one's up there. None of these collections will be perfect because the focus is on stars who have done a slew of hilarious sketches and many of them will be left out. Personally, I was disappointed to not see the VH1 Behind the Music on Neil Diamond...priceless. I agree with a previous reviewer that said Will needs something like a three disc set to even scratch the surface of his hilarious work on SNL, but this is better than nothing and probably as good as it will get unless SNL one day sees Season set releases. So I'd say start digging up your dubbed from TV SNL marathon VHS tapes, unless you have none, then by all means pick this up! Read more ›