One of the most unsettling scenes takes place then, when Haley interviews the head of the American Nazi Party, played with chilling diffidence by Brando. (Brando won an Emmy for this performance. ) Haley is also challenged by his fractious interview with Malcolm X (a gripping Al Freeman Jr. ). Jones launches his acting career playing Haley with nuance and heart, but with a humanizing set of his own demons. The four-disc set includes all seven episodes plus a compelling documentary, Roots: The Next Generations-The Legacy Continues, with interviews with Jones, costar and episode director Georg Stanford Brown and a still starry-eyed David L. Wolper, who understands the cultural impact of the two miniseries he helped bring to the screen. -A. T. Hurley.

Mobil Masterpiece Theatre's Heat of the Sun will delight fans of fine detective work. -Tara Chace.

Bean / Do It Yourself Mr. Bean VOLUME 3: (Episodes 11-14) Back to School Mr. Bean / Tee Off, Mr. Bean / Good Night Mr. Bean / Hair by Mr. Bean of London (+ bonus Sketches "Bus Stop" and "Library") Bean, Bean, maniacal nut / The more you watch, you bust a gut! First unleashed in 1989, this sketch series was embraced by PBS viewers in the United States. In the tradition of the great silent clowns, Rowan Atkinson created a character with universal and multi-generational appeal (the sketches have little dialogue and are driven by often ingenious physical comedy). Like Bart Simpson, the resourceful, mischievous, and sometimes malevolent Bean is the inner child incarnate who acts on the impulses polite society normally represses. Atkinson has described Bean as "a 9-year-old boy, with an apparent lack of worldly experience, but an ingenuity that is quite clever in dealing with problems presented to him. " These problems include not knowing a single answer on an exam, tactfully disposing of a revolting restaurant meal, changing into his swimsuit at the beach without first removing his pants, and, most hilariously, getting a turkey stuck on his head (a classic bit reprised in the ill-conceived 1997 feature film). Atkinson has enjoyed some mainstream success stateside. He was the nervous minister (". your awfully wedded wife") in Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the voice of Zazu in The Lion King. But he mainly enjoys cult status among British comedy aficionados as a founding member of Not the Nine O'Clock News and the star of the Black Adder series. Bean is his crowning creation. In addition to all 14 episodes, this generous boxed set contains previously unaired sketches, Comic Relief appearances, and a segment about Bean's creation, which serves as a nifty introduction for the uninitiated. It also contains a preview for the new Mr. Bean animated series. This seems redundant. As this collection hilariously demonstrates, Bean is already animated enough. -Donald Liebenson.

You will feel new strength and increased flexibility after your first Lotte Berk Method workout!.

The new Edmund is a career Army officer, but a scoundrel all the same. Shirking his duties whenever possible and taking advantage of any opportunity for undeserved reward, this final, deeply sour, and very funny Blackadder negotiates survival among a cadre of fools and dimwits. No small mention can be made of Atkinson's supporting cast, easily among the finest comic performers of their generation: besides Laurie and Richardson, Stephen Fry, Tony Robinson, and Tim McInnerny. -Tom Keogh.

Even when the events were anything but mundane-bank robbers, counterfeiters, TV commercials, game shows, golf dates with The Boss-the real story and the best jokes were about the reality of their lives and the realization that, because of marriage and friendship, they didn't really have it so bad after all. The chemistry between Jackie Gleason and Art Carney still amazes after all these years. Audrey Meadows's Alice is the perfect foil for Ralph, stern but sympathetic. And Joyce Randolph's Trixie? Well, let's just call her "earnest. " Still, for all of Norton's frenetic energy and Alice's wisdom, the show belongs to Ralph Kramden. Somehow, Gleason took a chauvinistic, paranoid, insensitive, scheming, bitter, loudmouth, underachieving bus driver and made him a hero to millions. -Marc Greilsamer.