The Story So Far
After a wide assortment of VHS releases, three DVD releases of Gallagher's comedy, including two best-of discs and a retrospective set with 11 of his shows. DVDTalk has a review of the previous not-so-complete collection, "Gallagher - The Smashing Watermelon Collection," that can be checked out here.

The Shows
There's a danger in collecting the life-work of a comic in one set, and that's how you're bound to expose any repetition in his or her act. Now, I've seen all of George Carlin's shows, and yes, he has repeated jokes on ocassion. Gallagher, on the other hand, might have enough original material in this set to fill two, maybe three hours. The rest is repeated again and again. It's not even like the jokes or sight gags are updated in any way. They are just brought back out. Thus, the third time he breaks out the sausage in a banana skin, all that garners from you is a groan, negating whatever good time you may have due to his more intelligent comedy.

That intelligent comedy, built mostly around the vagueries of the English language, is cute, if not funny, and forms the basis of his shows, all of which result in Gallagher ranting about some aspect of American life, normally political in nature. Listening to him talk about the Japanese surpassing the U.S., the problems with Iran (deja vu) or the threat from the Russians makes it rather obvious that the end of the Cold War and an increasingly smaller globe put a crimp in Gallagher's comedy style. No longer could he rally his crowds with his pro-American rhetoric. The introduction of equal rights for the sexes, a concept parodied in "Two Real," didn't help his somewhat sexist act out much either.

Due to his extremely topical act, the majority of his shows have not aged well. I like to think of myself as somewhat well-versed in the pop culture of the '70s and '80s, but even I found myself scratching my head at times, wondering just what the reference being made was. Only three shows truly stand out, and those are "An Uncensored Evening," an intimate show where the audience is drinking and smoking approximately five feet from Gallagher; "The Maddest," which features some of his biggest props, including a giant stage-filling trampoline; and "Overboard," with its elaborate stage set-up, which featured a pool and a rope swing he used to fly out over the crowd. Only the settings really set one show apart from another, as the jokes tend to blur into one long-haired pile of impossibly well-designed comedy props.

That pile is topped off by the Sledge-o-Matic, his signature bit. The bit is simple, as he takes an oversized mallet and smashes various food items, splattering them on the crowd, who come to the show with covers and jackets and anything else that will keep them clean. The bit was originally intended as a parody of all-in-one kitchen gadget, but it took on a life of its own, becoming just one of many ways in which Gallagher makes a mess of his audience, including various water sprayers, soaked foam frisbees and beer guns. There's nothing inherently funny about a grown man smashing a watermelon with a hammer, but people sure seemed to enjoy it, and Gallagher made a career of doing it. At one point, he says that comedy is about being surprised. To me, getting shot is pretty surprising, but rarely funny. Instead, I'd rather be told a funny joke. But Gallagher would rather throw candy into the audience. Maybe his act should be considered not as stand-up, but as a variety show. After all, no one really laughed at the old "Brady Bunch Hour."

The three shows added to this set are "Sledge-o-Matic.com," "Smashing Cheeseheads" and "Totally New," and of the three, only "Totally New" has any redeeming value. "Sledge-o-Matic.com" and "Smashing Cheeseheads," along with "Messing Up Texas," are from the comics' most recent shows, which are independently produced, and look as low-budget as they likely are. Gallagher becomes increasingly aggressive in his treatment of the audience, to the point where his splat attacks on the audience are no longer fun, but mean. Spraying a man who's late to the show with mustard is hardly the same as getting hit with a bit of flying chocolate milk. Perhaps it's just the march of time, but the cranky Gallagher isn't nearly an enjoyable as the earlier fun-loving character. To spend the money necessary to add these shows to your DVD collection would serve only to rob one's self.

Here's a rundown of the 14 hour-long ("Two Real" is only a half-hour) shows:

• "Mad As Hell"
• "Two Real"
• "Stuck in the '60s"
• "The Maddest"
• "Melon Crazy"
• "Over Your Head"
• "The Bookkeeper"
• "Overboard"
• "We Need a Hero"
• "Messing Up Texas"
• "An Uncensored Evening"
• "Totally New"
• "Smashing Cheeseheads"
• "Sledge-o-Matic.com"

The DVDs
"The Sledge-O-Matic Collection" collection spreads 14 shows over four DVDs, with three shows on two discs and four on the remaining pair of DVDs. The discs are packed in a four-panel digipak, which comes in a slipcover that has a velcro'd cover with an animated pop-up design. The discs all have the same full-frame main menu design, which lists the names of the shows on that DVD. There are no audio options, no scene selections and no subtitles, though the discs do have closed captioning.

The Quality
Quality is not the word to use in describing the full-frame transfers in this set. Some of the shows, like "Over Your Head" and "The Bookkeeper," aren't half bad, with a crisp image, bright colors and a clean, mostly blemish-free presentation. But most look like someone dubbed a VHS tape onto DVD, and the most recent shows, including "Sledge-o-Matic.com," look worse than your average home movie. On the less impressive shows, video noise and haloing are the main problem, but nearly all look very soft, and lack in detail, though the color is decent. Obviously, the older shows suffer worse, but the newest shows are so bad they make the older shows look like HDTV.

The audio is delivered in Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks, and most of them are pretty clear. But once again, the most recent shows suffer from bad recording or bad encoding, and are very low in volume as a result.

The Extras
You'd think that they'd want to give you a reason to double-dip on this set, but like "The Smashing Watermelon Collection," there's not an extra to be found.

The Bottom Line
Less than a year after the previous set was released, Anchor Bay has gone back to the well, adding three more shows to the package, but little else. If you're a hardcore Gallagher fan (are there many?), this has to be frustrating, as you'd have to repurchase 11 shows to get the final three. But should anyone be surprised that the studio that has pioneered double-dipping would stick it to the fans? If you haven't purchased the older set, these DVDs are far from great, with no extras and an inconsistent video presentation. As I quickly learned, if you've seen one Gallagher performance, you've seen almost every Gallagher performance, and watching too much Gallagher will quickly make you hate him. Approach this set with caution no matter your interest in this messy comedian.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.