I don’t know how many times I have laughed while watching this high-concept show. It’s an odd television series which has now become one of my favorite television series that is currently airing. I love originality, I love the characters and I love the comedy. The fact that the writing staff are able to stay consistent and make you laugh for each episode is important and watching this entire DVD…it’s been a blast! I love it! “The Neighbors: Complete First Season” is highly recommended!
Image courtesy of © 2013 ABC Studios All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: The Neighbors: The Complete First Season
RELEASE OF FILM: 2012-2013
DURATION: 22 Episodes (506 Minutes)
DVD INFORMATION: Colors, 1:68:1 Aspect Ratio, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, English SDH, French and Spanish Subtitles
COMPANY: ABC Studios
RELEASED: September 24, 2013
Directed by Chris Koch, John Fortenberry, Lev L. Spiro, Luke Greenfield
Written by Dan Fogelman, Isaac Aptaker, Elizabeth Berger, Kristin Newman, Scott King, John Hoberg, Kat Likkel, Tracy Oliver, Kirker Butler
Producer: Bari Halle
Co-Producer: Isaac Aptaker, Elizabeth Berger
Executive Producer: Dan Fogelman, Aaron Kaplan, Chris Koch
Co-Executive Producer: Kirker Butler, John Hoberg, Kat Likel, Kristin Newman
Supervising Producer: Scott King
Associate Producer: Nick Pavonetti
Music by Christopher Koch, Jim Murphy
Cinematographer by Joe Pennella
Edited by David L. Bertman, Jonathan Schwartz
Casting by Susan Vash
Production Design by Erik Carlson
Set Decoration by Erica Rogalla
Costume Design by Karla Stevens
Starring:
Jami Gertz as Debbie Weaver
Lenny Venito as Marty Weaver
Simon Templeman as Larry Bird
Toks Olagundoye as Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Clara Mamet as Amber Weaver
Tim Joe as Reggie Jackson
Ian Patrick as Dick Butkus
Max Charles as Max Weaver
Isabella Cramp as Abby Weaver
Lora Plattner as Giselle Braxton
The Weaver family moved from the city to the suburbs only to discover that their neighbors are aliens. From Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love, the writer of Cars, and Tangled) comes this new comedy about close encounters of the ultimate kind, in New Jersey. Own ABC’s The Neighbors: The Complete First Season on 3-Disc DVD on September 24th, 2013.
Marty Weaver (Lenny Venito) just wants the best for his wife Debbie (Jami Gertz) and their three ids. That’s why he’s moving them to Hidden Hills, New Jersey, a gated community complete with its own golf course. Marty is certain that their new home will be a dream come true. And then, they meet the neighbors. After Debbie and Marty frantically try to make sense of the weird neighbors (Very European? A cult? Amish athletes?), they discover that the entire Hidden Hills community is comprised of aliens from the planet Zabvron, Turns out the Zabvronians have been holed up in Hidden Hills for the past 10 years, awaiting instructions from back home. And the Weavers are the first humans who have ever lived amongst them.
From Dan Fogelman, the writer of Disney films such as “Tangled”, “Bolt”, “Cars” and “Cars 2” has created an ABC television series “The Neighbors”.
A concept that came from a visit to his mother who lived in a gated townhouse community and seeing how close the homes were together and wondered, what if the people in her community were aliens?
And sure enough, the family TV series was created. It’s unusual premise and hilarious nature has earned the series a second season which is currently airing on ABC and now the first season was released on DVD in Sept. 2013.
The series stars Jami Gertz (“Still Standing”, “Entourage”, “The Lost Boys”, “Less than Zero”), Lenny Venito (“War of the Worlds”, “Men in Black II”, “Rounders”), Simon Templeman (known for his voice roles in “James Bond Jr.”, “Uncharted” games, “Dragon Age: Origins”, “Mass Effect” games), Toks Olagundoye (“Brown Sugar”, “A Beautiful Soul”), Clara Mamet (“Spartan”, “Phil Spector”), Tim Jo (“Band Slam”, “Fame”), Ian Patrick (“Looper”, “Wanderlust”), Max Charles (“The Amazing Spider-Man”, “Spooky Buddies”) and Isabella Cramp (“Happy Endings”, “Family Album”).
“The Neighbors” revolves around a New Jersey family that has relocated to a gated townhouse community known as “Hidden Hills”.
The series begins with an introduction of how a community of aliens in human bodies have tried to live without any real human is their gated community. The aliens are waiting on Earth for ten years, waiting for instructions of how they can return home but as some of the aliens are becoming tired of waiting, one family has moved away thus leaving an opening for a human family of moving in to their community.
That human family are the Weavers. A family that consists of accountant Marty (portrayed by Lenny Vito), his wife Debbie (portrayed by Jami Gertz), his sarcastically blunt daughter Abby (portrayed by Isabella Cramp) and his often arguing young children, Max (portrayed by Max Charles) and Amber (portrayed by Clara Mamet).
The Weaver family are struggling to get by and for Debbie, when she said she wanted a surprise from her husband, she did not exactly mean buy a new house. And on the first day of moving to the gated community, they are greeted by the community led by Larry Bird (portrayed by Simon Templeman).
Larry Bird, a Caucasian man introduces his Black wife, Jackie Joyner-Kersee (portrayed by Toks Olagundoye), his Asian son Reggie Jackson (portrayed by Tim Jo) and their young and strange son Dick Butkus (portrayed by Ian Patrick).
At first Debbie thinks they are on a prank show because everyone in their community are named after major sports athletes but realizes they were not joking.
As the community leaves pies for the Weaver family, one day their neighbors come to visit and while Max and Amber are playing with Dick Butkus, Dick shows them his true alien form which scares them.
Their neighbors reveal that the community they live in are all extra-terrestrial and their predicament of being stuck on Earth.
At first, the Weaver family are terrified about the aliens but as they get to know each other and try to teach the aliens about human customs, they eventually become accepted in the community and become friends, while the Weaver’s protect their secret.
The following are spoilerless summaries of the first season of “The Neighbors: The Complete First Season”:
- EPISODE 1 – The Weaver family find out their neighbors are aliens.
- EPISODE 2 – The Weaver family convince Jackie Joyner-Kersee of enrolling Reggie and Dick to public school.
- EPISODE 3 – Debbie is going to have a women’s night out with her friends but what happens when Jackie Joyner-Kersee learns about how to relate to other women by watching the reality show “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”?
- EPISODE 4 – The neighbors feel insulted when they feel that the Weavers look at Larry and Jackie as bad parents.
- EPISODE 5 – The Weavers try to explain to the community what Halloween is all about.
- EPISODE 6 – Debbie is throwing a party for Abby, but everyone learns how Debbie transforms to something different during a planning for a birthday.
- EPISODE 7 – The Weavers try to find out why their power is going out.
- EPISODE 8 – It’s Thanksgiving time and the Weavers invite Marty’s parents and Jackie’s family shows up as well.
- EPISODE 9 – What happens when the Weavers ask the Bird-Kersee’s to watch over their Christmas presents?
- EPISODE 10 – The Weavers try to teach the aliens about death after their gardener Juan has died.
- EPISODE 11 – What happens when Debbie and Larry join the PTA.
- EPISODE 12 – The aliens learn about how contagious the common cold is.
- EPISODE 13 – The Weaver parents and the Bird-Kersees become chaperone at Amber and Reggie’s high school dance.
- EPISODE 14 – What happens when the Weaver and Bird-Kersee family are invited to join a Country Club.
- EPISODE 15 – What happens when Reggie proposes to Giselle?
- EPISODE 16 – Larry wants to become more attractive than his wife.
- EPISODE 17 – Larry wants to win an Academy Award.
- EPISODE 18 – What happens when both family’s go camping?
- EPISODE 19 – Marty teaches the Bird-Kersee’s how to drive.
- EPISODE 20 – A musical episode.
- EPISODE 21 – Debbie throws a garage sale and gets some help from Jackie.
- EPISODE 22 – The family goes to Atlantic City.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“The Neighbors” is presented in widescreen (1:78:1 aspect ratio). Picture quality is good on DVD, colors are well-produced, skin tones are natural and no problem with excessive artifacts or low noise issues. Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and dialogue is crystal clear.
Subtitles are presented in English SDH, French and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Neighbors: The Complete First Season” comes with the following special features:
- Gag Reel – (7:58) Outtakes from the first season of “The Neighbors”.
- Deleted Scenes – Featuring ten deleted scenes.
EXTRAS:
“The Neighbors: The Complete First Season” comes with a slipcover.
Prior to watching every episode of “The Neighbors”, I didn’t know a single thing about the TV series. All I knew was that it starred Jami Gertz, who I enjoyed watching her on the big screen and television but from the first episode on, I felt myself captivated by this odd yet hilarious series.
The humor, the characters, suffice to say, I am hooked and I absolutely love this series.
It’s actually quite unique and while the community that the Weaver family has moved into are all aliens, it’s not the focal point of the series. It’s more about human relationships and understanding one another.
Not only is the series interesting in the fact that it does have cultural diversity but the way it also portrays an American family that is not so perfect and unlike a series like “Desperate Housewives” where families are involved in murder or some conspiracy, this is all about family fun.
The Weaver family is nowhere near perfect. Their younger children are often screaming their heads off against each other, their eldest daughter is wise, blunt and not as strong when it comes to family bonding and the parents just try to survive with how much they have but also understanding each other and about themselves.
Both Lenny Venito and Jami Gertz do a great job of playing this non-sophisticated, normal American family that is not perfect. They are not perfect. They know it but they do their best as parents and I love how the writers integrate their style of parenting for Marty and Debby. They have three children who can get out of control but they know parenting is not easy but they do try and eventually grow and mature as parents, the more they try to help their aliencounterparts.
But to have the Bird-Kersee family, the alien odd family trying to learn about human civilization with Larry Bird thinking he is better than everybody, his beautiful wife Jackie Joyner-Kersee who is learning more about the needs of a mother and wife through being around Debra, an Asian high school teen named Reggie Jackson who has fallen for Amber Weaver and the most unusual child but you can’t help enjoy each time he is featured, Dick Butkus.
But while one can think the series is blatant in terms of its casting of people of different races, I absolutely love they have because these are major characters, they have an importance for each episode and it’s one of the few times on television where you will see people of multicultural backgrounds as part of a major comedy. So, it’s rare to see on television and kudos for casting on this series.
The jokes are tastefully done and by no means are they hurtful. Yes, the character of alien Reggie Jackson has the stereotypical Asian student affixed to the character but unlike other series where they stay to it and make the character out to a total dweeb, Reggie Jackson was done tastefully and yes, he matures and is able to get a girlfriend and also partake in various scenes that as an Asian American, I’m so happy to see this and it’s been a long time coming (probably since Margaret Cho’s “All-American Girl” nearly 20 years ago) and Tim Jo does a great job playing the role.
Both Simon Templeman and Toks Olagundoye are magnificent as the parents of Bird-Kersee family. Simon brings a more refined character to the series as Larry Bird, but because of his character’s lack of understanding of American/human customs, he learns quickly that what he thought about his level of superiority, was not as cracked up to be when he’s introduced to American things. The same with Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a beautiful woman but yet not knowing about being a woman and through Debra, learns how to establish her own identity as a mother, wife but also being independent and strong and that she is not beneath her husband.
And of course, the casting of Ian Patrick as Dick Butkus. The character is so odd, so strange but so hilarious. And he literally steals the scene when he makes an appearance.
The DVD presentation for “The Neighbors: The Complete First Season” in video and audio are very good and you get outtakes and deleted scenes included.
Overall, I don’t know how many times I have laughed while watching this high-concept show. It’s an odd television series which has now become one of my favorite television series that is currently airing. I love originality, I love the characters and I love the comedy. The fact that the writing staff are able to stay consistent and make you laugh for each episode is important and watching this entire DVD…it’s been a blast! I love it!
“The Neighbors: Complete First Season” is highly recommended!
