Submitted by No-Pineapple9988 t3_10p55dd in television

I’ve heard a lot of answers for movies ( the Godfather Bluray bonus features , Hearts of Darkness, Dangerous Days, so forth) . What are your favorite documentaries/ featurettes/ commentaries on TV shows I should look out for ? I have heard No Half Measures from BB is pretty good and that there’s some good documentaries on Upstairs Downstairs ( the old British show)

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Dayofsloths t1_j6iatb2 wrote

The behind the scenes for breaking bad and better call Saul are fantastic, couldn't recommend them enough.

Best part of the breaking bad ones is what a shit Bryan Cranston is. Don't get me wrong, he's delightful, but he's constantly fucking with everyone and it's great.

One prank he would pull on Aaron Paul (Jessie) is pretending his character had been killed off. He'd go up to him, tell him how great it was working together on the show, and how he would do great things after leaving, only for Aaron to panic, rush to get the script, and find out he survives.

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No-Pineapple9988 OP t1_j6ig6r5 wrote

Bryan Cranston sound hilarious in that. Is it from No Half Measures or the regular featurettes on the individual discs?

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Dayofsloths t1_j6j228d wrote

Not sure, I saw it on YouTube and can't remember the source

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gatorgongitcha t1_j6id2b1 wrote

I remember Mad Men having some excellent features and commentary tracks.

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Quexana t1_j6ipiqs wrote

Recently? The YouTube "Bridging the Rift" series for Arcane.

I also really liked "What We Left Behind" which was a retrospective documentary about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

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inkista t1_j6kqmdu wrote

Commentary tracks on the Leverage DVD sets. John Rogers basically decided to make them showrunning master classes. And there's a commentary on every episode.

Followed by the commentary tracks on the 1980s Twilight Zone S1-S2 sets (S3 was a different crew with a different showrunner when the production moved to Canada). My only sadness is that they didn't get GRRM to comment on his episodes so we could hear the story of how the stuntman lost his nose on his adaptation of Zelazny's "Last Defender of Camelot". (I once asked him if that might be why Tyrion loses half his nose in the Battle of the Blackwater (in the books, not the show), and he grinned at me and said, "You might be right about that...")

But the Harlan Ellison commentaries are cherce and solo (he also badmouths Danny Kaye in "Paladin of the Lost Hour", which is fun), while all the other ones are group commentaries. My fave is the one on my favorite episode: "Her Pilgrim Soul" where Philip DeGuere (showrunner) and Wes Craven (director) hear how Alan Brennert came up with the plot [>!it's a ghost story, and Brennert's then-partner had died at the age of 25 of leukemia, and he heard her voice saying "I left you too soon, my darling."!<] and they go, "Man, if that was my connection with the story, I'd never be able to watch it!" Also the part where they admit to being two middle-aged men in tears on a re-view before doing the commentary.

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bangdazap t1_j6ifv2z wrote

I found the behind-the-scenes documentary The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys interesting. It looks at the making of Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys. The Battle of Brazil: A Video History is about another Gilliam film, Brazil, his struggles to release it in the US (the studio wanted a happy ending among other things).

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Iwoulddiefcftbatk t1_j6iy6df wrote

I remember the BSG podcast/DVD commentary that Ron Moore used to put out. Ron would let you know which scotch he was drinking and would get into some of the nitty gritty stuff from filming. Even now and again his wife would pop in. It was fun and he used to respond to fan comments from the Sci-fi message board.

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twbrn t1_j6iz7qe wrote

There's a one-hour documentary called "Chaos on the Bridge" which is all about the inception and first few years of Star Trek The Next Generation. It's a really fascinating look inside what was very nearly a trainwreck. Between Roddenberry being more than a little off the rails, and the sheer anarchy that ensued when nobody knew what to do, it's insane. One part talks about how the show had hired and fired over thirty writers just in the first two seasons.

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TheFlabbs t1_j6lqs8z wrote

When I see behind the scenes footage of E.R., it looks like they were having a genuinely great time - except for dealing with Noah Wyle, that guy was apparently a huge dick

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