Survivor - Season One - The Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments (2000)

When I seen this dvd advertised I was very excited. I bought it thinking that it would have the 13 episodes that were shown on tv, plus extra never before seen footage. I was a little disappointed to find it was only hightlights from the episodes. There was a lot that they left out, like the challenges which I truly loved. So you dont get the exact feel of it all.

I still enjoyed the dvd, and I enjoyed the extras, (well, most of them, excluding naked Rich). It brought back some good memories of watching it for the very first time.

So if you watched it before, and are a fan, I recommend picking this dvd up, but if you didnt watch it and were planning on getting this dvd to see what the fuss was all about, I recommend holding off.

Maybe they will release all 13 episodes that was originally shown on tv!

(We can all hope!)

The structure of this compilation is fairly straightforward: viewers are given a slightly expanded view of the pre-island days, and after establishing the basic premise of the two teams (and setup of the two camps), we go straight into the eliminations. Each survivor gets their own "chapter" on DVD, in the order of their departures from competition. These chapters highlight the social standing of each contestant, just prior to losing at tribal council. The soon to be banished survivor's pre-selection interview and "demo tape" is spliced in with footage of them in various "notable" social interactions. These are also the chapters in which continuity is ignored, and occasionally an already banished survivor appears, in interaction with the victim-to-be.

Some of the "heavier" moments are highlighted, though virtually every minor alliance and casual friendship wound up on the cutting room floor. That's the problem with taking 14+ hours of televised footage and straining it down to manageable 2 hour feature. But don't worry that your favorite survivor's personality has been whitewashed: Stacy still comes off as snide, Gervase's lazy charm is in force, etc. The survivors who lasted longest get the most exposure, of course. Speaking of 'exposure,' parents can need not worry about the nudity warning that flashes onscreen before the program begins: there are half a dozen fanny shots (mostly Richard) that never made it to TV. (Oh yeah...nice butt, Greg!) Profanity is probably the only objectionable material here, since there are some four letter words that made the final cut. For sheerly disgusting moments, nothing beats the fish-thing Richard catches, which starts to melt into slime the minute he cuts it open. Yes, even worse than the larvae eating sequence.

Of the many Survivor-related conversations I've had at work, it seems like a lot of people questioned "actual" personalities versus "televised" personalities. No one can say how each survivor adapted their "normal" speech and activities for the sake of TV (remember Greg & Colleen's fake fling?), but the way in which producers "arranged" and scored material to achieve a certain impact with TV audiences is reinforced here. Again, some of the survivors (Sonja, BB, Ramona) register only nominal personalities, but many of the others were shown to audiences cast in the light of the producer's eyes. So much of the "total" experience is edited that this DVD will reinforce the stereotypical character traits associated with each survivor...rather than show you a side of their personalities you didn't see when the show aired.

The bonuses on this disc are fairly interesting. There's a section of survivor bios (still frame reading) and voting histories, a map of survivor island and it's environs, a bit about the climate, vegetation and wildlife on the island, and a few other goodies. The 'documentary' piece is a worthwhile extra, featuring narratives from host Jeff Probst and series creator Mark Bennett. No, neither of them tells us who their favorite survivors were, but Probst' enthusiasm for the show makes his hokey host routine easier to bear.

In spite of some over-familiarity and unavoidably massive editing, this Survivor compilation is probably a must-own for fans. It's also a worthwhile 'document' in regard to television history, no less remarkable for it's manipulative premise.

-Stoned Soul

1) the intro (the castaways meet for the first time on the boat and swim to the island)

2) the body (the audition tapes of each castaway, the events that led up to their ejection at the tribal council, the actual tribal councils themselves, and the dejected castaways' comments afterwards)

3) and the finale (an interview with producer Mark Burnett and host Jeff Probst about some of the behind-the-scenes experiences they faced with the show - an interesting and amusing revelation)

In my opinion, the video plays a little too heavily on the inter-personal relationships of the castaways and less on the great immunity challenges that made the show so exciting to watch every week. Also it lacks some of the great speeches from the final tribal council (most notably Rich and Kelly's rebuttle speeches).

The problem you have with a compilation of this nature is that your favourite parts get edited and cut to save time. It is a mystery to me why the show's producer decided not to release the entire series in its full length as a Christmas gift set or something. This would have allowed people who didn't see the series (or missed some of the episodes) to see them in their entirety, the way they were meant to be seen. I know many friends of mine who would have bought a collection like that.

So my final analysis is this: if you haven't seen the series, don't buy it unless you are VERY curious about it. You won't get the same experience as you would have had seeing the original series, and therefore you won't get much out of it. But for those of you who have seen the series, loved it, and like me, want to relive it, go ahead and pay the. . . money . . .. The video offers extra footage and insight fromBurnett and Probst that die hard fans will probably enjoy.