TORONTO — For all intents and purposes, Judd Apatow is in the DVD business just as much as he's in the movie business.

The influential funnyman behind such big-screen hits as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up" and "Pineapple Express" is known for packing his DVD releases with behind-the-scenes bonuses and off-set extras, and says he considers the additional perks as integral to his filmmaking endeavours.

On Tuesday, his latest venture "Funny People" comes out on DVD with single, two-disc and two-disc Blu-ray versions that add as much as six hours to the Adam Sandler dramedy.

"I see it as the same thing - when I am in pre-production on the movie I'm also doing pre-production meetings about the DVD Blu-ray release," Apatow says in a recent interview from his office in Santa Monica, Calif.

"I see these Blu-rays as the new comedy albums so, in addition to the movie, I'm thinking, 'OK, well, what do we put on the Blu-ray? Maybe we can convince James Taylor to record a few extra songs and we can do a little mini-concert and maybe we can do some extra songs with Jon Brion and we can put those on the DVD and I'll edit all the old phoney phone calls and we'll make a documentary.'

"I find it really exhilarating to always try to make the best DVD ever. And so with this I thought, 'Let's make the most comprehensive comedy film DVD that's ever been made."'

"Funny People," stars Sandler as a famous but lonely stand-up-comic-turned-film-star who learns he's got an untreatable blood disorder. He hires a young upstart, played by Vancouver's Seth Rogen, to be his personal assistant and whipping boy, and decides to try to jump-start his stand-up career and win back his now-married ex-girlfriend, played by Apatow's wife, Leslie Mann.

The premise lends itself to a seemingly endless array of star cameos including comics Paul Reiser, Ray Romano, Andy Dick, Norm MacDonald and Carol Leifer, and music celebs including Taylor, Brion, Eminem and RZA.

With that many heavyweights on set, it was inevitable that a lot of good stuff would end up on the cutting room floor, notes Apatow, who includes a selection of deleted scenes on the two-disc set. But that didn't stop him from going beyond the script to shoot extras specifically for the DVD release.

"I knew I was going to shoot a lot of stand-up so I thought, 'Why don't I invite friends to come do stand-up everytime we're shooting on film and I can ask them if they want to be on the DVD?' So people like Russell Brand and Patton Oswalt, Sarah Silverman, and people like that came and did sets."

It's partly thanks to DVD that Apatow's acclaimed, and long retired, TV shows continue to find audiences. His high school comedy "Freaks and Geeks" barely lasted a season in 1999, but launched the careers of Rogen, Linda Cardellini, Jason Segel and James Franco. Years later, Apatow says he still feels a duty to find an audience for the critical favourite.

"Everytime I make a TV show I think, 'Even if we get booted quickly, we'll be on DVD forever' and that's what happened with 'Freaks and Geeks' and 'Undeclared' and 'The Ben Stiller Show,"' says Apatow, whose next film is tentatively titled "Get Into the Greek," and stars Brand, Jonah Hill, P. Diddy, Elizabeth Moss and Rose Byrne.

"Everytime I make a movie with Seth, or Jason Segel or James Franco, one of the first things I think of is, 'If this movie does well, more people will buy "Freaks and Geeks" on DVD!"'

The "Funny People" DVD includes theatrical and extended versions of the film, commentary tracks for each, a gag reel, an extended scene from the fake sitcom "Yo Teacha!," a documentary about the making of "Funny People" and a mock documentary about Seth's grating rival Randy (played by Aziz Ansari of "Parks and Recreation").

Die-hard fans will also appreciate old clips gleaned from Apatow's high school radio show and a prank phone call made by a young Sandler when he and Apatow were struggling comics and roommates.