Survivor: Season One: The Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments (DVD)
Executive Producer: Mark Burnett
Hosted by: Jeff Probst

I have a confession to make. I watch Survivor. I’m not particularly proud of that fact, but in the end, I don’t really care what you think. I am addicted to watching it, and I don’t think there’s any harm in it. Besides, whether you want to admit it or not, you probably watch it as well.

It may not be highly intelligent viewing, but I find the show fascinating on many levels. Sure, it’s a big corporate sham being marketed and force fed to the masses, but that’s actually one of the reasons I find it so intriguing. The producers of the show are very good at what they do. It’s not very often that the final episode of a TV show inspires parties all across North America, and makes the front page of all the newspapers.

What is it about Survivor that has made it such a popular show?The producers would claim that the show has a message, and that it taps into some part of the collective human psyche; the drive to succeed or the instinct to survive or some other B.S. I think it has more to do with the fact that the competitors on the show are ordinary, and as a result, they are much more intriguing than a character on a soap opera could ever be. They represent something the average person can relate to, and they say and do things that could never possibly be scripted. Or could they?

As popular as it is, there are plenty of TV viewers who rather openly detest Survivor. In fact, I used to be one of them. Some of these people write the show off as being completely fake. It very well could be, but I just think they are missing the point. Survivor blurs the line between fantasy and reality, and that is part of the appeal.

I think some viewers might feel awkward about watching real people in physically dangerous, emotionally charged and intensely personal situations. Others may feel that “average people” do not deserve to be worshipped and praised like big celebrities. Then again, maybe some viewers are just jealous that they aren’t on the show themselves?

It took me a while to come to terms with my own Survivor obsession. My first reaction to the show was that it was utter crap; that it was a cheesy soap opera and the producers of the show had no limit to how low they would stoop. I too once felt like the show was below me, and almost insulting in a way.

The participants would clearly do just about anything for their five minutes of fame or a shot at winning a million dollars, so it seemed to me that the TV networks were kind of exploiting them. But somewhere along the line I realized that I was actually interested in what was going to happen from week to week. The characters all had their own idiosyncracies that made them fun to watch, and I didn’t care how low they stooped as long as I was watching when they did the stooping. I started to realize that if you’re dumb enough to try out for a show like Survivor, then you’re only getting what you deserve. And we, the rabid TV viewing public, will get what we deserve: pure unadulterated voyeurism.

Anyways, now that I have come to terms with my enjoyment of the show, I guess it’s time for me to tackle a slightly more difficult task: justifying my purchase of Survivor Season One: The Greatest And Most Outrageous Moments on DVD.

Don’t kid yourself, I knew that the Season 1 DVD was primarily a marketing ploy to get people watching Season 2 (just as the Season 2 DVD is conveniently being released now that the 3rd season is starting). I also knew that the supposed inclusion of previously unseen footage and scenes that had been “too hot for TV” was just a lame gimmick to get Jerry Springer audience types to buy it. We all know that the only nudity on this disc is the scene with Rich strutting around naked on his birthday… and who really wants to see that?

What I was honestly interested in was the behind the scenes stuff that this DVD was said to contain. How much of what we see on the show is real, and how much is fake? How do they come up with ideas for the challenges? Surely these are questions that any Survivor viewer must ask him or herself from time to time. I did not think they would reveal many of their production secrets, but I was definitely curious. I also wanted to catch up on some of the events from the earlier episodes that I had originally missed. Plus the DVD was cheap.

I’ll level with you: the DVD was a bit of a disappointment.

The main chunk of footage on the DVD has all of the episodes from season one squished into 2 hours of viewing. They broke it down into 16 basic segments, one for each person that was voted off every week. Each segment starts with clips from a contestant’s audition tape, and footage from their preliminary interviews. Then they show a few snippets of highlights involving that particular survivor (usually focusing specifically on reasons why they were voted off), and then the tribal council and final words for the week. Then we move on to the next survivor.

Occasionally, they stray from the formula to go into a little more detail on some of the key highlights from the first season. For instance, there are two separate segments on Kelly and Sue, first showing them as best friends, and then later as bitter enemies. There are also segments that detail Rich’s naked birthday romp, and of course, the bug eating contest, among other things.

My main complaint is that the whole thing doesn’t flow very well. The segments feel disconnected, and give no sense of the show’s progression. You don’t get to see how the contestants interacted as a whole because there is only an emphasis on showcasing each survivor individually, one at a time. I guess it’s only fair that each competitor gets their “five minutes of fame” on the disc, but we all know that certain contestants were more memorable than others. I can’t really think of any better ways to summarize the entire season in two hours, though, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain.

There also isn’t enough footage from the challenges. They tried to make up for this with a 2 minute collage of clips, but basically all you get to see is Rich doing his weird chicken dance, and Rudy looking like a dumbass when he can’t remember answers to any questions.

The footage from the original audition tapes was interesting to see, but I really think they should have made it available as a separate feature on the DVD. It kind of threw off the flow because the home video quality was quite jarring in comparison with the nice-looking video transfer that the rest of the broadcast footage has.

The behind-the-scenes stuff was moderately interesting, I suppose. Jeff Probst tells how he got involved with the show, and gives some inside info on the personalities of some of the survivors in real life. They also discuss the making of the tribal council set, which was really cool, because I didn’t even realize that it was a set. It’s this kind of trickery that can probably be found in other places of the show as well. If only they would let us in on the truth! It was also slightly interesting to hear from Mark Burnett, the executive producer of the show, if only to hear how the show all came about.

The rest of the DVD consists of point-and-click information that could very well have been contained on the original Survivor website. You get bios on each of the survivors, information on the geography of the island, summaries of the challenges, and tribal council voting results for each episode. While this type of stuff didn’t exactly sell the DVD for me, it does fill it out nicely. I’d certainly rather have it on here than not.

Now, while this DVD did disappoint me, it would appear to be a thousand times better than the second season one, which, has just been released. I am definitely not going to waste my money on the Australian Outback DVD, as it contains no behind the scenes features, no survivor bios, and basically no extras whatsoever. From what I have read, it is also missing a lot of important highlights from the individual episodes.

Plus, even though the second season may have had some memorable moments, I still think the first one was more entertaining, hands down.

For better or worse, Survivor has changed television as we currently know it. Reality TV shows are still bringing home big ratings for the networks, which is a dream come true for them, considering how inexpensive they are to make. It’s clear that this trend will not last forever, as people will quickly tire of being surrounded by “reality”, but I think when we look back, we will still see that it was no accident, that these shows connected with us in some way.

Out of the many, many reality TV shows currently on the air, Survivor will likely always stand out as one of the most memorable and one of the most compelling. This DVD may not be the best possible 2 hour summary of the show, but if you’re a fan, then you should know that it is the only one. Season One’s “Greatest And Most Outrageous Moments” are not particularly great, and certainly not outrageous, but I still think the DVD is worth owning, if for nothing else, then for posterity’s sake. Besides, no one has to know that you own it. I promise, it will be our little secret…– Sean