# Good DVD commentaries **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078 "2017-06-28T19:23:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/1 "2017-06-28T19:23:36Z")
What are some DVD commentary tracks you’ve really liked or found interesting? I’m mainly thinking in terms of movies and TV shows but am open to other sources. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/2 "2017-06-28T19:26:27Z")
The Lord of the Rings movies have two each that I’ve heard. One is with the cast, which is very funny and informative. The other is with the director and writer, along with some other key production people popping in, and is very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/3 "2017-06-28T19:29:13Z")
Adam West and Burt Ward on the DVD of the 1966 _Batman_ movie. They sounded like they were having fun reminiscing about doing the movie and the TV show. They brought up a very good point I’ve always wondered about. If Robin was too young to drive the Batmobile, why was he allowed to pilot the Bat-Copter? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/4 "2017-06-28T19:34:47Z")
_Spinal Tap_ In character. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/5 "2017-06-28T19:57:21Z")
The DVDs I have of Citizen Kane and Casablanca have commentary tracks by Roger Ebert and his comments help to explain why these films are significant. (For one thing, Citizen Kane was as much a special-effects movie as any superhero film that comes out today.) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/6 "2017-06-28T19:59:36Z")
_Firefly_ kind of set the standard for me, before _Lord of the Rings_ came out. _Firefly_ commentaries have various combinations: director/actor, multiple actor, writer/actor, director/producer, so you’re getting various viewpoints as you go along. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/7 "2017-06-28T20:05:45Z")
Here’s a weird choice–[_Can’t Hardly Wait_](http://www.ratethatcommentary.com/detail.php/58). Also interesting in a technical sense are the commentary tracks for _Ghostbusters II_ and _Muppets From Space_, which use tricks with the subtitle channels to produce MST3K-style overlays of the commentator’s silhouettes over the bottom of the video. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/8 "2017-06-28T20:08:50Z")
The ones on the Simpsons and Futurama DVD’s are great. Worth rewatching every episode. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ecks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ecks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ecks)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/9 "2017-06-28T20:44:15Z")
I’ll second the in character Spinal Tap commentary. Weird Al’s commentary on UHF was quite good, and extremely comprehensive. He thanked the owners of the apartments they borrowed for the filming, for example. The Venture Brothers commentaries are usually completely off topic, but great fun to listen to. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/10 "2017-06-28T20:53:38Z")
Roger Ebert’s _Citizen Kane_ commentary. Great technical details and historical perspective, among other things. ---
**Author:** ![pieceoftheuniverse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7993a0/32.png) [@pieceoftheuniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pieceoftheuniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/11 "2017-06-29T16:46:34Z")
_Dr Horrible’s Sing-along Blog_ has the commentary in song. Definitely worth a listen. I bought the DVD for _Muppets from Space_ purely because the commentary was done in Shadow-Rama (the same technique as MST3K). The movie is only so-so, so any time I watch it, I always watch it with the commentary on. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/12 "2017-06-29T16:54:25Z")
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commentary on Total Recall is particularly entertaining. He literally narrates all the action as it’s happening. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/13 "2017-06-29T17:10:00Z")
The few commentary tracks on the Sopranos DVDs are excellent. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/14 "2017-06-29T17:14:14Z")
I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that the film _Ask the Dust_ has my all-time favorite commentary track, by director Robert Towne, who is best known for writing the screenplay for _Chinatown_. Towne, who grew up in and loves Los Angeles, made _Ask the Dust_ as a sort of homage to L.A., and the commentary is less about the film than it is about the city, its history and Towne’s reminiscences. The movie is just O.K., but the commentary is one of the great L.A. stories. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/15 "2017-06-29T17:17:43Z")
> [@YamatoTwinkie](#): > > Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commentary on Total Recall is particularly entertaining. He literally narrates all the action as it’s happening. It’s like an 8 year old re-enacting the movie with his He-Man action figures for his friends. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/16 "2017-06-29T17:32:28Z")
Some fun ones–not a lot of deep insights but more like a friends reminiscing with humorous stores about making the movie: [Used Cars](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081698/) with Robert Zemeckis and Kurt Russell [Sideways](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375063/) with Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church [Night of The Creeps](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091630/) with Jason Lively, Jill Whitlow, Steve Marshall, and Tom Atkins. [Paul](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1092026/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/17 "2017-06-29T17:37:48Z")
I really enjoyed the commentaries that J Michael Straczynski did for Babylon 5. Lots of good background info, interesting to hear how the show was put together, fun to see him point out where sets were reused, etc. The commentaries by the cast? Ehh, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/18 "2017-06-29T18:25:14Z")
Krusty: Let’s do this quick. After this, I gotta record 27 seasons of DVD commentaries and I remember _nothing!_ ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/19 "2017-06-29T18:29:20Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > The ones on the Simpsons and Futurama DVD’s are great. Worth rewatching every episode. The bad news is, Fox decided to stop releasing DVDs after Season 17. (Season 20 was released at the time, but without any extras.) The good news is, if you can get FXX on your cable system, you can access the site that has the Season 18 & 19 episodes with commentaries. Another good commentary: the first Robot Chicken Star Wars special has a number of commentaries on it, including one with George Lucas’s two kids. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078/20 "2017-06-29T20:17:50Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > _Spinal Tap_ > > In character. My choice too. Ad-lib, in character(s), no less. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-dvd-commentaries/790078.md?page=2)