Just Shoot Me! [TV Series] (DVD)

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In the half-hour sitcom "Just Shoot Me!," George Segal plays the publisher of Blush magazine, which numbers among its employees his anti-glamour daughter Maya (Laura San Giacomo), a wise-cracking assistant named Dennis (David Spade), a hypersensitive womanizing photographer named Elliot (Enrico Colantoni), and former model and current alcoholic-in-training Nina (Wendie Malick). Though the show was originally pitched as a single-character series spotlighting San Giacomo, the scripts pulled it in the direction of ensemble comedy. The series ran for seven years and started quickly, with six first-season episodes airing in March 1997 and earning a #12 Nielsen rating. But the public's interest tapered off, and it wouldn't crack the Top-30 again until the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons.

Sometimes the viewing public gets it right, and I think they were right on the money with this show. It's not in the same league as classic white-collar workplace comedies like "WKRP in Cincinnati," or "Murphy Brown," but it's still an engaging ensemble sitcom. Like "Spin City," it's consistently better written and performed than shows like "NewsRadio," which are played more broadly. This one also has style, with the magazine cover and headlines serving as thematic segues throughout each episode.

Fans were probably ready to shoot Sony Pictures, though, because the studio released Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD way back in summer 2004. Now they're finally getting around to releasing the third season. The show really doesn't have a basic premise as much as it does a basic cast of office personalities whose contrasts provide as much of the humor as the plots that are offered in self-contained episodes.

This season there were 25 of them, and they're contained on three single-sided discs and housed in two slim clear-plastic keep cases tucked inside a cardboard slipcase. The episode titles and brief descriptions are listed on the back of each case:

1) "What the Teddy Bear Saw." Finch thinks he's scored when Jack asks him to go to his house to check on a new nanny he ends up having sex with . . . until he realizes Jack had a security camera in the room they used. Now he has to try to get the tape. Meanwhile, Nina joins a cult.

2) "Steamed." Jack tricks Maya into getting a neighbor in the Blush building to move, just so he can install a steam room . . . not the daycare center he told her he wanted.

3) "The Mast." Finch thinks Nina has an imaginary alter ego; meanwhile, Maya learns what a big gorilla her father wasn't, years after her favorite Halloween memory.

4) "Funny Girl." The games are on when Finch claims that women are incapable of playing good practical jokes, and Maya accepts his challenge. And Jack starts to think he's looking old enough for a little plastic surgery remedy.

5) "Two Girls for Every Boy." Finch tries to set up Maya with another woman to satisfy his own fantasy. Meanwhile, Jack's plea for people to treat him like everybody else gets a little out of hand when Elliott and Nina start feeling comfortable hurling insults.

6) "The Withholder." When a woman takes advantage of Finch, it's Elliott to the vengeful rescue. In another sideplot, Jack and Donald Trump bet that the loser of a weight-loss wager has to wear a dress their next golf outing.

7) "Puppetmaster." Maya dates a kiddie show host and becomes convinced he's using his puppets to send her messages on national TV. Meanwhile, Nina invests in a nightclub and Elliott confesses to something he wishes he wouldn't have.