NBC Movies

Before his untimely death in 1998, comedian and actor Phil Hartman had a successful film and sitcom career. He is probably best remembered, however, for his work on NBC's long-running variety show Saturday Night Live. Over the course of eight years, Hartman took on a varying array of characters, from Frankenstein's monster to Donald Trump. Saturday Night Live: The Best of Phil Hartman collects several of the performer's best-loved sketches, such as "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer," "The Frank Sinatra Show," and "The Anal Retentive Chef." Other titles in the series include Saturday Night Live: The Best of Will Ferrell and Saturday Night Live: The Best of Eddie Murphy. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

This release collects some of the best Halloween sketches from the late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live. Hosted by the metalhead cable access team of Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey), this collection includes classic Halloween-themed moments from 1975 to the late '90s. Some of the guest stars are Pamela Anderson, John Travolta, and James Woods. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

The first season of the prestigious NBC medical drama ER is seen largely through the eyes of new third-year medical student John Carter (Noah Wyle) as he tries to survive his shakedown cruise in the Emergency Room of Chicago's County General Hospital. Carter is swiftly introduced to his ill-tempered, ultra-demanding supervisor Dr. Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle), ER head Dr. Morganstern (William H. Macy), and his new co-workers, womanizing Dr. Doug Ross (George Clooney), workaholic Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), and troubled Dr. Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield). Likewise appearing for the first time -- and almost the last -- is Ross' current amour, Head Nurse Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies), a character who was supposed to have appeared only once before committing suicide, but who proved so popular that she recovered and returned to work. The many first-season plot strands include Greene's ever-growing domestic problems with his restless wife, Jennifer (Christine Harnos), the normally ice-cold Benton's anguish over the failing health of his mother (Beah Richards), and Lewis' tribulations with her irresponsible, drug-addicted sister, Chloe (Kathleen Wilhoite), who presumptively deposits her baby at Lewis' home and disappears. Showing up in mid-season during a major medical crisis is Dr. Angela Hicks (CCH Pounder), one of the few people who can match Benton in anger and imperiousness. Another character conflict develops between Lewis and rule-bound Dr. Kayson (Sam Anderson), who first brings charges of incompetence against her -- and then tries to date her! On a more salutary note, Greene is promoted to attending physician. The Emmy award-winning episode "Love's Labor Lost" dramatized a career turning point for Greene when a misdiagnosis causes the death of an expectant mother. Shortly afterward, new ER chief William Swift (Michael Ironside) makes trouble for the staff with his eccentric approach to medicine. Also introduced is another third-year med student, Jing-Mei "Deb" Chen (Ming-Na), who enters into intense competition with Carter -- with disastrous results. Another first-season recurring character, Lewis' erstwhile boyfriend Dr. Div Cvetic (John Terry), breaks under the pressure of the ER and runs naked into the streets, never to be seen again. Worth special notice is the episode "Motherhood," directed by no less than Quentin Tarantino; and the season finale, in which the marriage between Carol Hathaway and Dr. John Taglieri (Rick Rossovich) is scuttled at the last moment, leaving poor Carol with another emotional cross to bear. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This collection of classic sketches from the television variety series Saturday Night Live features some of the show's most outrageous performers at their envelope-pushing best. Highlights include Chris Rock as militant talk show host Nat X, Adam Sandler as Operaman, David Spade with the Hollywood Minute, Chris Farley interviewing Jeff Daniels on "The Chris Farley Show," and Rob Schneider as the Copy Guy. Mike Meyers, Phil Hartman, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, and Steve Martin also make guest appearances. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Comic actress Molly Shannon became a favorite with audiences during her five years on the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, and this home-video release compiles some of her funniest moments featuring her best-known characters. Saturday Night Live: The Best of Molly Shannon features Shannon as socially inept schoolgirl Mary Katherine Gallagher, "licensed joyologist" Helen Madden, and fiftysomething showgirl Sally O'Malley, as well as Shannon's satirical impressions of Anna Nicole Smith, Courtney Love, Elizabeth Taylor, and more. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

'In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important, groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.' With this pithy but all-inclusive prologue, thus began each hour-long episode of Law & Order, American network television's longest-running police drama. This was not the first such program to equally divide its time between the arrest and the trial; indeed, there had been a series precisely titled Arrest and Trial back in 1963. But Law & Order was easily the most popular and successful of the batch, and as the series eased gracefully past its 11th, 12th, and 13th season, it was very likely that its creator and executive producer Dick Wolf would fulfill his dream of matching and even surpassing the longevity of Gunsmoke, which lasted 20 years, setting a record as American network television's most durable dramatic series. Although Law & Order boasted a large and fluid ensemble cast, there were no real "stars" per se, save for the city of New York (a point made by scores of TV historians, notably Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh). Virtually every episode starts out with the discovery of a dead body or evidence of a violent crime. A pair of NYPD detectives arrive on the scene, begin gathering evidence and eyewitnesses at the behest of their superiors, and -- generally after a handful of frustrating dead ends and false leads -- manage to collar the principal suspect. The story then shifts to the offices of the DA, where a team of brilliant prosecuting attorneys do their best to build a case against the accused, dodging the obstructive tactics of defense lawyers all along the way. Even when the case gets to court, the story is far from over, with several twists and turns -- and usually a shocking and unexpected denouement -- awaiting both the prosecutors and the viewer. The series made its NBC network debut Thursday, September 13, 1990, moving to its originally scheduled Tuesday-night slot October 23. The original cast included, on the side of "Law," chubby, hard-boiled veteran detective Sgt. Max Greevey (George Dzundza) and his younger, more athletic partner, Mike Logan (Chris Noth). Their supervisor was Captain Donald Cragen, played by Dann Florek. Once the detectives had completed their share of the work, the scene changed to the "Order" team of District Attorney Adam Schiff (played by Steven Hill), who appeared in all but the pilot episode, and a brace of intense, dedicated assistant DAs, the Caucasian Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty) and African-American Paul Robinette (Richard Brooks). The program's first season had several distinctions: In keeping with network's promise of delivering TV's top "action series," the scenes in which Greevey and Logan track down the perp are top-heavy with noise and violence (generally implied, but not always so), vertigo-inducing handheld camerawork and punchy background music. Also, individual scenes run a bit longer than the later short-and-sweet vignettes that would become the series' stylistic trademark. And unlike the relatively dispassionate detectives seen in later seasons, Greevey and Logan tend to become emotionally involved in their work; similarly, lawyers Stone and Robinette seem to take every legal setback personally, much more so than their successors in the series' subsequent years, although DA Schiff exhibits as much calm, stoic integrity in his first appearance as he would in his last, a decade later. Even in its earliest episodes, however, the emphasis is on the story rather than personalities: All we learn of the regulars' private lives is revealed in fragmentary fashion, and only when it bears some relevance. Fans of the latter-day Law & Order will notice that the first season lacks the gender balance of the series' later years -- or, put more bluntly, the series was pretty much an "all boys' club." Although dozens of prominent actresses appeared in supporting roles, there were no regular female characters, a fact that tended to weaken the series' ratings in its formative seasons. Still, it would not be until the fourth season began in 1993 that any distaff characters would be added to the weekly lineup. One element of the series was established early on and would remain in place forever afterward: Most of the stories on Law & Order were "ripped from today's headlines," often with only the names changed to protect the innocent (?). In season one alone, the series offers fictionalizations of the Bernard Goetz subway shootings, the Menendez killings, the Central Park "Preppie Murder," the "Mayflower Madam," the Tawana Brawley imbroglio, and the Steinberg child-murder case. So close did the last-named episode come to the actual facts that the series' producers were compelled to include a disclaimer at the beginning of several episodes, assuring viewers that, although the story was inspired by real happenings, the script itself was otherwise purely a work of fiction. The fact that Law & Order was frequently pre-empted by network specials indicated that NBC wasn't all that sure of the series' success. By the end of the first season, however, the ratings, if not spectacular, were good enough to warrant a renewal -- while backstage intrigues assured that the series would undergo the first of its many abrupt cast changes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Although never an actual cast member, Steve Martin is often thought of as one of the quintessential performers on Saturday Night Live. This video combines over a dozen of his most famous skits. Included in the collection is a performance of "King Tut," the classic Jeopardy 1999 routine, and the James Bond parody Tightwad 007 (Bullets Aren't Cheap). ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Like it or not, for 25 years, Saturday Night Live has graced our living rooms on Saturday nights. The show has gone through changes and ups and downs in its 25 year run and has become a breeding ground for many talented comics who use its stage as a trampoline to stardom. This side-achingly funny retrospective features its most brilliant alumni and the skits that helped launch their careers. Includes sketches featuring Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Billy Crystal, and Dana Carvey. ~ Laura Mahnken, Rovi

This immensely entertaining video features Mike Myers' most memorable work on the Saturday Night Live stage. Before the wildly-successful Austin Powers character came to the big screen, Myers was making us laugh with outrageously-original and hilarious characters. Featured on the program are Wayne Campbell of Wayne's World fame, the wiry German Sprocket host Dieter, and the host of "Coffee Talk," Linda Richman, in a sketch which featured surprise cameos from Madonna, Roseanne, and Barbra Streisand. This is Myers at his comedic best. ~ Laura Mahnken, Rovi