MADtv: The Complete Second Season

This set collects all 22 episodes of the 1996-1997 sophomore (in more ways than one) season of the Quincy Jones-executive-produced, Fox-aired comedy hour, which was loosely based on the iconic humor magazine. Much of the sketch-based satire is stuck in the ‘90s, with gags about Gen-X teens, Party of Five, Bob Dole, and the assumed marital bliss between Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. A mash-up of the sitcom Suddenly Susan and the serial-killer thriller Millennium is hilarious (at least to anyone who actually remembers those shows). Aging better: what purports to be Woody Allen's first South-Central-L.A. gang drama Annie Ho; Corky Quackenbush's stop-motion travesties of Curious George, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and Will Vinton's California Raisins; and the bits that most directly evoke Mad magazine, such as animated versions of "Spy vs. Spy." Nineties-tastic guest hosts include Pauly Shore, French Stewart, Neve Campbell (announcing that she's just made a movie entitled Scream), Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Harry Connick Jr., Bobcat Goldthwait, and the late, great Rodney Dangerfield. Recommended, overall. (C. Cassady)