‘Point Pleasant’ DVDs include series’ wild finish
I told producer Marti Noxon that I finally had gotten to see the 13th episode of “Point Pleasant.” She laughed and said, “Oh, yeah, the crazy one.”
No kidding. On view in a new DVD set, it has violence, horror, some laughs, at least one inside joke (Noxon’s mother is an extra in a key scene) and a flamboyant unleashing of evil on the world that will make you glad the story is over and wish for more.
It’s so wild because by the time the show made that episode, everyone knew it would not be back for a second season.
The early reviews had been consistently harsh (a “dog-pile,” Noxon said), and the ratings low. Fox pretty much stopped promoting it after three telecasts, she recalled, and the network pulled the show off the air with five episodes unshown.
Still, Noxon is happy about the release of “Point Pleasant: The Complete Series” (Fox, 13 episodes, three discs).
“I felt like we got better as the show went along,” said Noxon, whose other credits include “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel.” “We found our sea legs five or six episodes in; we found the tone of the show after a a bit of a rocky start.”
The series involved Christina Nickson (Elisabeth Harnois), a young woman washed ashore in a troubled small town, and bringing a lot more trouble with her. In the beginning, working off another producer’s concept, Noxon found herself dealing with something that was part horror, part soap opera.
“It was a concept that I hadn’t fully gotten a handle on,” she said. “But we found out that it worked when it was horror or darkly funny.”
She especially enjoyed making Christina out-and-out evil, and then forcing the other characters to deal with it.
One disappointment: The only DVD extra is a making-of segment done before the show had even aired. It’s a big contrast to a new complete “Buffy” set being released Nov. 15, which adds still more to the copious extras from “Buffy“‘s single-season releases.
“Even we are getting tired of hearing ourselves talk,” Noxon said.
More on DVD
I was not a fan of “Hart to Hart” when the romantic adventure ran on ABC from 1979 to 1984. But I enjoyed the audio commentary on the new DVD of “Hart to Hart: The Complete First Season” (Sony, premiere movie and 22 episodes, six discs).
Executive producer Tom Mankiewicz and stars Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers offer a relaxed and conversational look at the show during commentary on the premiere. They joke about the plots and dialogue, offer trivia (Sugar Ray Robinson was Wagner’s first choice to play servant Max) and have such a good time, it makes the show seem better.
The DVD also includes a short feature on the making of the show.
Among the extras on the second-season DVD of “3rd Rock From the Sun” (Anchor Bay, 26 episodes, four discs) is a cute one: A pair of 3-D glasses to watch two episodes with 3-D segments. (You also can watch those episodes without the glasses. Either way, you’ll laugh.) One modification: The hourlong season opener is presented in its syndicated, two-episode form; same thing with the hourlong season finale.
With Christmas on people’s minds, the big (and expensive) DVD boxes are starting to take up shelf space, like the “Buffy” box I mentioned and a complete “Sex and the City” collection on Nov. 1.