Sealab 2021 - Season 3

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

The last of the shows voiced by the hilarious and talented Harry Goz appear on this set, and that alone makes it worth the price. The first of the newer shows with the new Captain Shanks character (voiced by Harry Goz's son, Michael Goz) are also very funny, although it is clear in some places that the writers had as much trouble adjusting to the changes they were forced to make as the fans. As most fans know, episodes after the ones in this set take a serious down-turn in writing quality, so much so that it is hard to believe they were produced by the same people. So, if you found the early Sealab 2021 absolutely hilarious, be sure to buy this set because it contains the last of the comedy gems in the series. There are extras on this set, including two unaired episodes and some commentary, although the extras tend to be hit or miss in quality as in previous sets depending on your taste. But, whether or not you like the extras, you'll love the episodes. Recommended!

If you like the off-beat humor of Williams Street productions (ATHF, Space Ghost Coast to Coast), I think this is their best work. I actually remember the original SeaLab cartoon, which even as a youngster I thought was really lame. Taking the original and having the characters say the ridiculous things they say is sheer genius. Some of the scenes I played over and over and just kept laughing. If you have an off-beat sense of humor, this is for you. Or you might try waiting to see if they show any more episodes on Adult Swim, but they haven't in a long time. That's why I purchased this; I had seen most of them, but really wanted to see them again.

In Disc 1, you get to see cannibals, Murphy turning into the Bar-Bo-Bot robot, Murphy turning into a mad dictator, snobby actor Beck Bristo being a jerk to the crew and several nuclear deformities and explosions. However, you'll also see how Tornado Sacks replaced Captain Murphy as Murphy apparently went off to fight in the Great Spice Wars. In real life, the guy who did the voice of Murphy died due to a terminal, rare form of cancer oddly enough according to the special features of Season 2 (not on either disc for Season 3).In Disc 2, you'll see rapping Hesh become "The One," at another one of Debbie's weddings with an alternate version in the special features, Stormy's humerously ignorant rants about politics (in Special Features) and...that's about it for the good stuff on Disc 2.The biggest thing wrong with Season 3 is an overall lack of Captain Murphy. Even though the voice actor for Murphy died in real life, the replacement character just doesn't seem to stack up to Murphy's wackiness. Tornado Sacks (again, replaces Murphy), is a southner meant to be the typically un-realistic, loveable idiot that only exists way too often in Hollywood productions. Tornado is more of a typical and mediocore character than he is a funny one and Tornado's stereotypical, cowboy foolishness just ends up being a poor substitute for Murphy's oblivous and yet totally hilarious insanity. There just always seems to be something missing when Murphy disappears after Episode 4.Dispite an overall lack of Murphy and the average Tornado, many of the episodes of Season 3 still have a lot crazy plots with tons of chaos going on that seem satisfying enough for me to say that Season 3 was just a descent season for SeaLab 2021. Season 1 and 2 were better, but I'd say 3 is just worthy enough to add to the collection.

When Harry Goz left the series, I refused to watch it anymore. It felt sacrilegious to watch a show I coveted without my favorite character.But, you know, after being forced to watch several episodes of Seasons 3 and 4, I have come to realize that the show was still really, really funny; and even when they were "jumping the shark," they still went out as only Sealab could.Let's face it. Old people like me only have Aqua Teens left, now. :/

The first few episodes, which still have Harry Goz (Capt Murphy) and Erik Estrada (Marco), are really good and funny. These include Tourist Season, Red Dawn (one of my favorite Sealab episodes), Meet Beck Bristow, and I Robot Really.There are then 2 episodes without Capt Murphy (Harry Goz died) and Marco (Estrada's apearances on the show became less frequent for some reason) which are decent; these 2, Frozen Dinner and Splitsville, are both funny but clearly suffer from not having Capt Murphy or Marco.The rest of the episodes feature Tornado Shanks as the new captain (voiced by Goz's son). ASHDTV and Chalkboard Jungle are both funny but again are just not as good as episodes from earlier in the series; they are showing signs of the new "direction" the show takes in later episodes.This new "direction" is clear in the rest of the episodes on the DVD. They are just plain stupid. Rather than having humerous situations and dialog like the show used to have, they resort to totally random stuff in an attempt to be funny. The "jokes" are more blunt and they really kill them.I know some people like these types of jokes and find the new episodes funny, but I don't. To me, the new Sealab episodes have the same problems as the new Family Guy episodes they've started showing again on Fox and the newer Simpsons episodes (like season 11 on). Hard to explain - you either know what I'm talking about because you feel the same way about these shows or you don't.