Product Description

The 2004 race for the White House was one of the most memorable presidential elections of the last five years. Now relive it again - and again - and, that's enough - with this exquisitely packaged heirloom collection. This 3-DVD set brings together some of the most repackageable moments from "Indecision 2004."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28018 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2005-06-28
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 299 minutes

Amazon.com

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is so laugh-out-loud funny that Indecision 2004--which could have been a dated recap of a time many would rather forget--is instead a hilarious time capsule of the follies and foibles of the 2004 presidential election. What also helps is that many of the issues being lampooned, such as the Iraq war, are still in the news in 2005. The 10 episodes included in the three-disc set are the four reporting on the Democratic National Convention, the four from the Republican National Convention, the episode following the first Bush-Kerry debate, and the hourlong election-night episode, subtitled "Prelude to a Recount." The Daily Show mimics the format of a news program, with Stewart as the anchor and his troupe of "senior correspondents/analysts"--Stephen Colbert, Rob Corddry, Samantha Bee, and Ed Helms--filing their "reports" from the field. Stewart is always quick to dismiss his show as "fake news," but an increasing number of people have taken to the Comedy Central staple as the way to get their news. Political news is mostly sound bites anyway, so Stewart piles the video clips together at their most incongruous or contradictory, then follows up with a wisecrack or a marvelously deadpan look of disbelief. As further proof of its impact, The Daily Show won a 2005 Peabody Award for electronic media excellence for its "satire that deflates pomposity on an equal opportunity basis." (Stewart admitted during the campaign that he himself was voting for Kerry, and his audience is very anti-Bush, but he takes the opportunity to skewer anyone who deserves it.) He also attracts a number of "legitimate" guests. Appearing on these episodes are Ted Koppell, Joe Biden, Chris Matthews (shortly after he'd been challenged to a duel by Zell Miller), Al Sharpton on election night, and a wry John McCain not looking like the combative party zealot that had appeared at the convention podium the night before.

In addition to the 10 episodes, the three-DVD set has more reports by Colbert (whose survey of Democratic minority groups has something to offend anyone), Corddry, Bee, and Helms. There's also John Edwards's 2003 announcement of his presidential candidacy on The Daily Show, the Schoolhouse Rock! spoof about midterm elections, a surprisingly musical four-correspondent rendition of the national anthem, and other lunacy. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Here's What You Get...Besides Laughs
I was very excited to see that The Daily Show was finally coming to DVD. I understand it's difficult for this type of show to release a Season by Season box set but this seems like a good compromise for fans. It will include:

3 discs

All 4 Democratic National Convention episodes which were taped at Boston university in front of a live audience.

All 4 Republican National Convention episodes which were taped at Daily Show Headquarters in NYC.

The first Bush/Kerry Debate entitled "The Squabble in Coral Gables" Really funny stuff.

The Daily Shows live coverage of Election Night 2004 entitled "Prelude To A Recount"

I can review all of these things honestly having watched the show since it's inception and having seen all of the above mentioned episodes. I've even gone to watch a live taping which I would recommend to anyone who lives within striking distance of NYC. The special pieces they did during the campaigns are truly funny from either side of the fence.

As for special features I really don't know but I hope that some of this information has helped.

For this uber fan -- Good, but a slight letdown . . .
If you're a voracious fan of the show don't let my review discourage you (it wouldn't anyway probably . . .):

I love the Daily Show -- have watched it since its inception before Jon Stewart -- been to the tapings , etc. Stewart warns at the beginning of Disc 1 that the material is no longer timely -- I can easily live with that because 2-3 years from now it will still be interesting to recall (with laughter preferably) some moments from that crazed election of 2004.

My complaint is the extra material -- there's just not that much of it. How difficult is it to do commentary over 4 or 5, 3-4 minute long segments? Not very difficult at all.

I guess I hoped for better "extra stuff" in a debut disc from such a talented group of people. It may well have been that Com Central gave them little or no money to do the extras. I feel like it shows.

And I agree with the other reviewer -- don't like the Paramount "bug" in the corner of my screen either -- I payed my good money for these discs and shouldn't have to deal with that kind of perpetual blot on my tv screen.

And one more thing: Just want to make note that before the disc was even released, a few people here decided to celebrate and then rate the quality of the show (number of peabody awards, emmies, etc.) instead of using this space the way it is meant to be used -- as a space to rate THE PRODUCT. nuff said.

One of the last refuges of sanity on television
I certainly look forward to this release. The Daily Show was one of the few refuges of sanity during the awful election coverage of 2004. Every year I say it can't get any worse, but somehow it does. My hat is off to the team at The Daily Show for not only puncturing the balloons of the political candidates but the inflated egos of the news media as they stumbled over themselves in a pathetic effort to cover the election. Hard to believe that "fake news" sounds more genuine than "real news," but that is too often the case on The Daily Show.