I got an email through the Tim and Eric mailing list that made public a few very tantalizing details about an upcoming DVD collection of Tom Goes to the Mayor...

It's official: TOM GOES TO THE MAYOR DVD OUT SPRING 07!!!

-Season 1

-Season 2

-Commentary on every episode

-Tons of Special features (Making of, Married News, Deleted Scenes, Music Jukebox, Deleted Art Slideshow, and much more)

Now there are a few things here that are extremely good surprises. First, and most obviously, there is going to be a DVD release of Tom Goes to the Mayor. Which is--though I know a lot of people won't agree with me--a laugh riot.

Secondly, this isn't just the first season (which had, I think, 16 episodes...so it would have been a pretty full set...), it's also season two, which is currently being aired for the first time on Cartoon Network. Talk about fast turnaround.

And thirdly, commentary on every episode. I really and truly want to believe that this is entirely and one hundred percent due to me, as I have gone out of my way to hassle the show's creators about this. "Every episode," I said. "Every episode or I won't buy your damn DVD," I didn't add. But I did say "every episode." And apparantly they listened. I didn't even have to threaten them...I'm that intimidating when I'm being polite.

Making up the rest of the extras are some new features I can't say anything about until I see...except for the Making Of, which aired after "Vice Mayor," the season one finale...presumably it's the same special. Which was very funny. And marvelously edited. And we got to see the boys order a pizza.

So this should be a really great set, and it's already shaping up to be one of the "fuller" releases of an Adult Swim original.

Alright, alright...so what's Tom Goes to the Mayor? Well, it's a 15 minute "animated" program on Adult Swim that uses actual still photographs instead of animated characters (albeit treated to look as though they've been photocopied in blue*) about Tom Peters and his ongoing attempts to make life better for the citizens of Jefferton...with the help of The Mayor.

It's extremely--and intentionally--formulaic. Every episode begins with Tom Peters bringing his latest idea to The Mayor, who then hijacks the idea for his own ends (more out of childish excitement than any sort of selfishness, though) and, of course, brings the entire thing crashing down in a blaze of humiliation for all involved.

Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim have clearly given the show this rigid format on purpose...most likely for the many opportunities it gives them to experiment within their own boundaries, rather than always trying to transcend them.

Is it deep? Maybe. On repeated watchings there certainly does seem to develop a clear and well-rendered dynamic between Tom and The Mayor--not quite The Odd Couple, but more of what might happen when a pacifist and manchild try to change the world.

I've also heard some say that each episode is a "reboot" of the original situation in which Tom has a new idea and, in classic chaos-theory manner, the events of the episode then unfold entirely differently within the same framework. This, I'm convinced, is a load of crickets.

Of course, maybe Tom Goes to the Mayor is just an excuse for two very entertaining performers to get together and have fun, being sometimes painfully amusing in the process. And that's all the excuse it needs.

Spring 2007? Well, so much for a Christmas gift. But I'm absolutely positive it'll be worth waiting for.

Oh, and it's currently airing on Cartoon Network Sunday nights at 12:15 am. That's technically Monday. Want to fight about it?

* Satire: the only time a character appears in three dimensions is when he or she is on television.