Sarah Michelle Gellar

Gross Pointe: The Complete Series - Sony Pictures - $29.95

The rare WB sitcom that was actually funny, Grosse Pointe combined the broad humor of creator Darren Star’s Sex and the City with the premise of his previous creations, the prime-time soaps Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place.

Set behind the scenes at a WB drama, the show ruthlessly satirized such WB fare as Dawson’s Creek alongside Star’s older shows. Characters include Irene Molloy as the bitch-off-camera lead (no comment), Kohl Sudduth as her bad-boy love interest hiding a receding hairline (no comment), and Lindsay Sloane as the meek best friend who, in the original version of the pilot, only got the job because of a powerful relative (again, no comment).

The off-camera storylines are funny enough, but the show-within-the-show gives Grosse Pointe extra bite; Sloane’s character falls into a coma with a "live or die" hotline sponsored by Subway, while Bonnie Sommerville’s naïve ingénue is rewritten from a hayseed cousin to a stripper/prostitute after her ex-boyfriend publishes nude photos of her.

A number of celebrities played themselves in guest spots, including Jason Priestley as Sudduth’s sex-addicts sponsor and Sarah Michelle Gellar (who wants a lesbian kiss with Sloane’s character). The WB’s audience didn’t know what to make of this, but thankfully Amazon.com has reissued the series in an online exclusive with commentary and a new interview with Star. The episode where Molloy gains weight to play Monica Lewinsky in an Oliver Stone film and actually becomes nice is worth the price of the set by itself.