The popular Nickelodeon boy band TV series “Big Time Rush” receives its first season DVD release with the first 12-episodes of the series plus a digital copy of the movie “Big Time Beach Party”. If you are a big fan of the series or the guys, this DVD is for you!
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DVD TITLE: Big Time Rush: Season One, Volume One
DURATION: 288 minutes (11 Episodes)
DVD INFORMATION: Full Screen Format, Dolby Digital (English Stereo), Closed Caption
COMPANY: Nickelodeon/Paramount
RATED: G
RELEASE DATE: March 29, 2011
Directed by Savage Steve Holland, Jonathan A. Rosenbaum, Jonathan Judge, David Kendall, Paul Lazarus, Joe Menendez, Stewart Schill
Written by Scott Fellows, Jed Spingarn, Ron Holsey, Mark Fellows, Lazar Saric, Dave Schiff, Keith Wagner
Produced by Debra Spidell, Joanne Toll, Lazar Saric
Executive Producer: Scott Fellows, Marjorie Cohn
Associate Producer: Audra Rodgers
Co-Producer: Jed Spingarn
Music by Dusty Moon, Guy Moon
Cinematography by Carlos Gonzalez, Mike Mickens
Edited by Jeff Wright
Casting by Geralyn Flood
Production Design by Deborah Raymond, Tom Lenz
Art Direction by Dorian Vernacchio, Amy Gavin
Set Decoration by Diane Yates
Costume Design by Elaine Montalvo
Starring:
Kendall Schmidt as Kendall Knight
James Maslow as James Diamond
Carlos Pena as Carlos Garcia
Logan Henderson as Logan Mitchell
Ciara Bravo as Katie Knight
Stephen Kramer Glickman as Gustavo Rocque
Tanya Chisholm as Kelly Wainwright
Challen Cates as Mrs. Knight
Erin Sanders as CAmille
David Anthony Higgins as Reginald Bitters
Matt Riedy as Arthur Griffin
Katelyn Targer as Jo Taylor
From hockey to Hollywood, join Kendall, James, Carlos, and Logan as they begin their journey to stardom! Hangin’ poolside at their apartment complex, “The Palm Woods,†chilling with the ladies (or at least trying to get their attention!), and working hard day in and day out, singing, dancing, making music videos, and more, these guys are learnin’ about the dedication, determination, and friendships they need to make it big time!
In 2009, “Big Time Rush”, a Nickelodeon TV series about four friends: Kendall Knight (played by Kendall Schmidt), James Diamon (played by James Maslow), Carlos Garcia (played by Carlos Pena Jr.) and Logan Mitchell (played by Logan Henderson) who become the popular boy band Big Time Rush.
The show was created by Scott Fellows (creator and executive producer of “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide”) who was inspired by the ’60s show “The Monkees”.
In order to make the music portion work with this TV series, Nickelodeon partnered with Columbia/Epic Label Group and became the third series to incorporate music into the series like “iCarly” and “Victorious”.
Nationwide casting for the series began in 2007 and of the 1,500 teens and young adults that auditioned, four were selected to be part of the boy band.  The show had their one-hour special preview in Nov. 2009 and drew an audience of 3.6 million viewers. The series began in Jan. 18, 2010 and received a total of 7.1 million total viewers (average around 3 million viewers) and became Nickelodeon’s highest rated live-action series debut and remains a popular series for the cable network.
As the series is on its second season, Nickelodeon has released the first volume of the first season (the first 12 episodes) of “Big Time Rush” on DVD.
“Big Time Rush: Season One, Volume One” included the following episodes (spoilerless summaries):
DISC 1:
- EPISODE 1-2: Big Time Audition – Four hockey players from Minnesota go an audition and become a singing group known as Big Time Rush. SPECIAL GUEST: Pussycat Dolls vocalist Nicole Scherzinger
- EPISODE 4: Big Time Crib – The guys are not thrilled about their new apartment at Palm Woods and want to improve it.
- EPISODE 3: Big Time School of Rocque – Although a music group, Kelly tells the guys that they still need to attend 4 hours of school every day. SPECIAL GUEST: WWE’s Chris Masters
- EPISODE 5: Big Time Bad Boy – The CEO of the record company wants to add a fifth member o Big Time Rush.
- EPISODE 6: Big Time Love Song – All four guys fall for a girl named Jo and tempers rise. SPECIAL GUEST: Lorenzo Lamas
DISC 2:
- EPISODE 7: Big Time Mansion – Gustavo has to go on a business trip in North Carolina and wants the guys to house-sit his mansion.
- EPISODE 8: Big Time Photo Shoot – The guys talk about their experience of their first photo shoot.
- EPISODE 9: Big Time Break– The guys get to spend some time apart and go on break. SPECIAL GUESTS: CHiPs star Erik Estrada
- EPISODE 10: Big Time Demos – The guys need to work on their demos and if they don’t finish, they will be forced to go back to Minnesota from L.A.
- EPISODE 11: Big Time Party – The guys find out that they are not invited to their own party at Rocque Records.
- EPISODE 12: Big Time Jobs – The guys get into some trouble and need to pay for damages and thus take on jobs to raise money to pay for the damage.
VIDEO, AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Big Time Rush: Season One, Volume One” is presented in full screen, Dolby Digital (English Stereo). The series is shot via Digital and the picture quality is very good on DVD. Because these are 25-minute episodes, and each disc holds about 5-6 episodes, I didn’t notice any major artifacting or digital noise. But for the most part, fans should be pleased with the video and audio.
There are no subtitles but closed captions are included.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Big Time Rush: Season One, Volume One” comes with the following special features:
- “Big Time Break” with Trivia Option – While watching episode 9 of “Big Time Rush”, you can watch with a trivia option.
- Photo Flipbook – With your remote, you can view various photos of the guys of “Big Time Rush”.
EXTRAS:
“Big Time Rush: Season One, Volume One” comes with a digital copy of the Big Time Rush movie, “Big Time Beach Party” (for PC). Note: This Digital Copy works with PlayForSure-compatible portable media player with a minimum of 2GB free storage. Not compatible with the iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Sony PSP or Microsoft Zune.
The first time I heard of “Big Time Rush”, it was my little six-year-old nephew just watching videos on the Nickelodeon website and he knew the lyrics of each of the Big Time Rush songs completely. My son who is a big “iCarly” and “Victorious” fan would get into debates with his cousin of which show was better.
But I did catch the pilot as it was included on a “iCarly” DVD I reviewed and I could see where Scott Fellows meant that he wanted to created a series like “The Monkees”, back when I was younger, we had shows like “Kids, Inc.”, including an all-boy band Saturday morning series known as “The Guys Next Door” and “Menudo”.
Since I’ve gotten older, I have watched similar shows in the US as well as a variety of different countries and for the most part, these shows have a pretty significant following. I will admit that the production value of “Big Time Rush” is a lot better than the teen music shows I grew up with back then and the music is pretty catchy and cool as well. And I have to admit, if there was a series that was more true to the style of the original “The Monkees” series, “Big Time Rush” captures that look and feel. Of course, the stories are more teen driven in “Big Time Rush” compared to “The Monkees”. Also, it’s cool that the episodes have a few cameos from celebrities as well.
Now, if I was to catch these shows today, of course, I would view these older shows as campy and the same can be said about “Big Time Rush”. But these shows are created for the younger demographic and as I have seen my little nephew memorize the lyrics to their songs and just watch him sitting down and jamming to Big Time Rush, it’s indicative of other youngsters or teens as part of those three million viewers who love the show. Bare in mind, the series is rated PG and despite it being a Nickelodeon show, it’s a series targeted more to the older children and young teens. Because these guys are teenagers, a lot of their time is spent having fun and wanting a girlfriend. While you do have a strict parent trying to make sure these guys don’t get into trouble.
As for the DVD, you get 12 episodes and although I do feel it’s much better to have complete series releases, I suppose that it’s much more economical to split the season up and offer two volumes that are cheaper for parents and teens to purchase. PQ and AQ is good and you also get a free digital copy of the Big Time Rush movie – “Big Time Beach Party”. Which is a pretty cool deal!
Overall, Big Time Rush: Season One, Volume One” is for those who love the series or love the guys. This DVD is for you!