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DVD THIS WEEK: Polyester cheese!
March 8, 2010 5:38 PM
Sometimes you just need to watch something awful. Shut down your brain. Let the recycled plots, banal dialogue and bad acting wash over you. Maybe even mock it madly, MST3K-style.
What you need is Matt Houston. The first season of ABC's 1982-85 private eye romp arrives on DVD this week as the ne plus ultra of the Aaron Spelling school of celeb-stuffed cheese.
Here it is in a nutshell: Mustachioed wisecracker Lee Horsley channels Smokey and the Bandit-era Burt Reynolds, playing a Texas oil gazillionaire moved to Hollywood to solve murders among his famous friends. He flies his own helicopter from his rodeo ranch, maintained by two dim-witted buckaroo buddies, to his in-town penthouse, replete with roof landing pad, living room hot tub, and a "state of the art" computer named Baby, employed as a fancy-schmancy slide projector to eyeball suspects.
Acting as sidekick is his big-hair babe Ivy League lawyer, played by Pamela Hensley with the kind of flouncy walk, hands-on-hips poses and linebacker shoulder pads that bring to mind nothing so much as a 1980s female impersonator. (Long live Divine!) Then there's George Wyner's nerdy in-house accountant-in-a-tizzy. And put-upon police pal John Aprea, whose oh-a-so-a-Italian mama runs a tacky restaurant that's Matt's home away from home.
In other words, Spelling & Co. regurgitate every cliche, stereotype, predictable plot and hackneyed line of dialogue they've ever encountered. Then they add sledgehammer musical/editing punctuation. Despite the clear implication that cute-named Houston operates in a glamorous world -- why, he drives a Luxxor! -- the sets are cheap, the costumes are tacky, and even Horsley's smirky jocularity feels cut-rate.
I mean, just look at his face in the photo. Don't you want to slap it?
And yet -- I can't stop watching. Set against today's TV dramas with all their would-be authenticity, Matt Houston's double knit polyester approach is mesmerizing. The plots don't even try to convey depth of character, and there's no textured B or C story, just the unbroken A-line of Matt following obvious leads in L.A.-L.A. Land. Thus does "eye candy" producer Spelling parade his latest Love Boat-ish guest list of old-time and not-quite-yet celebs with nothing better to do (Janet Leigh, Cesar Romero, Jill St. John, Sid Caesar, Troy Donahue, Sonny Bono and Zsa Zsa Gabor among the former; Heather Locklear and Tori Spelling among the latter).
And let's not forget all of his TV era's requisite bullet-dodging, random explosions, car/copter chases and other superfluous "action."
Matt Houston is so glossy and so stupid, it sometimes occurs to me this show might actually be arch self-parody.
And then I think, nah. That requires smarts. And if there's one thing Matt Houston ain't, it's smart.
Also out this week:
Scarecrow and Mrs. King: First Season -- By comparison, this is '80s sleuthing Shakespeare, pairing spy Bruce Boxleitner with dizzy housewife Kate Jackson.
Poldark -- Frankly, my dear, Robin Ellis doesn't give a damn as a British soldier returned from the American Revolution to all sorts of family/finance/romance adventure. 
Viewers of '70s Masterpiece Theatre loved the lush lust and period atmosphere.
Dalziel and Pascoe: Season One -- Hardboiled older cop and modern young partner play odd-couple investigators in well-sketched '90s Yorkshire.
The Beiderbecke Connection -- Britain's witty jazz-scored mystery/romance trilogy concludes: In this 1988 tale, teachers (and new parents) Jill and Trevor are asked to take in a mysterious refugee.
READ THIS: Oscar mania accelerates
March 2, 2010 9:20 AM
Just like the Super Bowl, there's always overkill when it comes to the Oscars.
Which take place this coming Sunday (8:30 p.m. ET on ABC), in case you missed the 7,000 promos, ads, pre-shows and other assorted hype/hoopla.
But this story about the Oscars caught my eye because it seems even wackier than usual. Who knew they had rules about which celebs could be in even the commercials of the Academy Awards telecast?
Turns out, there is such a thing as too much Jeff Bridges . . .
DVD THIS WEEK: Alice's TV wonderland
February 28, 2010 7:01 PM
Those wacky DVD distributors, always looking for a bandwagon to jump on. This week, it's the one led by Tim Burton's phantasmagorical movie Alice in Wonderland starring Johnny Depp, which hits theaters Friday.
At least four TV versions of Alice are new on DVD, coming from networks, cable, even Britain. The choices span five decades, two chromatics, high-tech/low-tech, period pieces and contemporary settings, straightforward and reimagined.
Here's a look at the lot.
Alice (Syfy, 2009 miniseries) -- Another young-and-funky reimagining from the folks who brought you Tin Man. Caterina Scorsone (1-800-Missing) stars as a modern martial arts instructor who follows her kidnaped boyfriend through a magic mirror in a grimy warehouse. She lands in a creepy Big-Brother-ish urban environment (and nearby scenic landscape), created largely by CGI and peopled by commercially/politically motivated oddballs. They're played by Kathy Bates (Queen of Hearts), Matt Frewer (White Knight), Harry Dean Stanton (Caterpillar), Tim Curry (Dodo), and most notably, Andrew Lee Potts of Primeval as a hot young Hatter. While the computer effects work overtime, the overall impact feels less personal than Tin Man.
Alice in Wonderland (NBC, 1999 miniseries) -- When computer graphics were emerging, this Hallmark-filmed musical extravaganza paired them with Henson creatures to faithfully embody Carroll's Alice books. Tina Majorino of Napoleon Dynamite is surrounded by another all-star cast -- Martin Short (Mad Hatter), Ben Kingsley (Caterpillar), Whoopi Goldberg (Cheshire Cat), Gene Wilder (Mock Turtle), Peter Ustinov (Walrus), Miranda Richardson (Queen of Hearts). But it's the vibrant look that won awards -- Emmys for visual effects, costumes and makeup, as well as music score. (The production was directed by Nick Willing, who'd tackle Syfy's Alice re-think 10 years later.)
Alice in Wonderland (BBC, 1966 film) -- This one's almost as trippy as Jefferson Airplane's contemporaneous rock hit White Rabbit. Director Jonathan Miller opts for dreamlike surreality in author Lewis Carroll's original Victorian setting, using stark black-and-white cinematography and Ravi Shankar sitar music to make it even more exotic. The witty cast includes Peter Sellers (King of Hearts), Peter Cook (Mad Hatter), John Gielgud (Mock Turtle), Wilfrid Brambell (White Rabbit), Michael Redgrave (Caterpillar) and Leo McKern (Dutchess), in drag! This release has a bounty of bonus features -- insightful Miller commentary, Dennis Potter's 1965 dramatization of Carroll inspiration Alice Liddell, a 1903 Alice silent short, and more.
Alice Through the Looking Glass (NBC, 1966 studio musical) -- The networks once offered a sort of video theater, using the TV studio to stage original musicals and classic plays (Hallmark Hall of Fame was then done on videotape). This songfest brought together a showbiz assortment that included Jimmy Durante (Humpty Dumpty), Agnes Moorehead (Red Queen), Jack Palance (Jabberwock) and the Smothers Brothers (Tweedledee and Tweedledum), around young adult Alice Judi Rolin, all in Bob Mackie costumes. It all looks stagy now, but it was state-of-the-(mainstream)-art then. DVD extras include reminiscences by producer Bob Wynn.
If the TV Alice you remember had friends like Ringo Starr, Sammy Davis Jr. and Carol Channing, then you're thinking of CBS' 1985 Alice in Wonderland musical, which came out on DVD in 2006. This one was produced by disastermeister Irwin Allen, with songs by Steve Allen, and perhaps the all-starriest cast of all -- Ringo (Mock Turtle), Davis (Caterpillar), Channing (White Queen), Anthony Newley (Mad Hatter), Sid Caesar (Gryphon), Telly Savalas (Cheshire Cat), Red Buttons (White Rabbit), Shelley Winters (Dodo Bird), and another dozen. The DVD also includes the same crew's Through the Looking Glass second half, which adds Jonathan Winters (Humpty Dumpty), Karl Malden (Walrus), Ernest Borgnine (Lion), Merv Griffin (Conductor) and many more.
Finally, here's a video bonus -- Miller's BBC trip is clear in this clip:
NEWS FLASH: 'Max Headroom'!
February 26, 2010 6:56 PM
Should've known this would happen. I just duped a bunch of blurry old VHS-taped episodes with my DVD recorder. And now it's coming out on real, pre-recorded DVD. (Gotta try this trick with my other wants.)
Max Headroom has just been announced by the fine folks at Shout! Factory, the pop-culture preservationists who've brought us such wide-ranging treats as The Middleman, The Job, It's Garry Shandling's Show, thirtysomething, The Dick Cavett Show, Mister Ed and The Goldbergs (out March 16). Not to mention Kurt Russell's legendary Elvis TV movie (see review at right) and the crucial mid-'60s rockfest The T.A.M.I. Show (out March 23).
Max makes his move to DVD later this year -- in complete series form! -- after Shout assembles all sorts of bonus treats.
ABC's unique cyberpunk drama starred Matt Frewer, Amanda Pays and Jeffrey Tambor,
and aired 1987-88, after the success of the original synthesized M-M-M-Max on Britain's Channel 4 and America's Cinemax. Frewer plays both the sarcastic virtual wag and good-guy TV reporter Edison Carter, employed by Network 23 in a Blade Runner-esque world where hundreds of corporate-owned channels are ruthlessly battling it out to lure viewers.
Yes! It was fiction then!
Read the Shout press release for more on the show. And rejoice. This one is fun.
P.S. -- Complete Larry Sanders Show just announced, too! Shout, we love you!
WEIRD & WILD: Weekend wonders
February 26, 2010 12:54 AM
Maybe you're Olympic-ed out. Don't wanna hear any more about Jay or Dave. Couldn't care less about a marriage ref or any of TV's other current Big Deals.
I hear you. I, too, like to zig where others zag. (But apparently not enough to avoid invoking the cliche.)
Always on the lookout for the obscure, alternative or just plain weird to watch, I've spotted a few less obvious choices to help you while away your weekend.
The Gene Autry Show (Friday night at midnight ET through Sunday night at midnight ET, Encore Westerns) -- There's nothing quite so comforting 
as the predictability of these little '50s western half-hours with songs (Autry), silliness (sidekick Pat Buttram, later Green Acres' Mr. Haney), heroism (Gene and Pat), and the shoot-'em-ups that the pre-show rating label calls "mild violence." You can usually spot an assortment of character actors, too (James Best, Denver Pyle). And never knowing who you'll see adds that crazy degree of excitement we all need in life.
Human Target (Saturday 2-8 p.m. ET, FX) -- Keen Eddie/Boston Legal/Fringe fave Mark Valley is back as a sort of James Bond/Indiana Jones hybrid in this breezy actioner based on the comic book hero. He plays bodyguard by making himself the title character, and blithely escapes all manner of disasters while bantering to beat the band and barely mussing his hair. It's just the kind of mindless fun TV needs, so Fox is hyping it on its sister cable network with this catch-up marathon. (Not that there's anything to catch up on. No mythology, no numbers, nada.) You gotta love a show with both Chi McBride (Pushing Daisies) and Jackie Earle Haley (Shutter Island).
Beauty and the Beast: A Dark Tale (Saturday at 9 p.m. ET, Syfy) -- Here's another reliable genre wallow. Syfy's Saturday Original Movies are actually ratings sleepers, and that's because they're perfect weekend popcorn pix. In addition to the standard selection of animal invasions (Dinoshark), disaster flicks (Meteor Storm) and paranormalities (House of Bones), the channel is adding a new thread of "reimagined fairy tales," starting with this bloody catfight bodice-ripper. They're cheap treats, but if you're home Saturday nights, it's a cheap date.
Disease Detectives (Sunday at 8 p.m. ET, Discovery Health) -- Until this channel morphs into Oprahland next year, it's still providing some bang-up medical info. (When it isn't going gaga over sentimental stuff like Baby Week, which starts Monday.) Celebrate Rare Disease Day with this new hour portrait of a real-life House: Dr. William Gahl, head of the National Institutes of Health's Undiagnosed Disease Program. Don't be disappointed if he's a nice guy.
DVD THIS WEEK: 'Nurse Jackie,' 'Flash Forward,' more
February 21, 2010 7:30 PM
Flash Forward on DVD already? Yep. ABC Studios releases the first 10 episodes this week. Season 1/Part 1 hits shelves even before the "spring season" starts March 18 to complete what you and I would consider a full "season."
And they're not the only ones playing the split-season game. Also out now are the first 10 episodes of Stargate Universe, in an MGM DVD set labeled 1.0.
Two ways to look at this -- either you appreciate the chance to catch up on these shows before new episodes resume; or you're ticked off that DVD distributors seem to be double-dipping. At least the Flash Forward set includes a link to download a $15-off coupon for the eventual full-season set.
Don't be surprised if this half-and-half tactic becomes more common, especially now that the broadcast networks are picking up on the cablers' strategy of hyping a "season" premiere -- even if it's a resumed "spring" or "summer" season that's actually a continuation after a long hiatus. Breaking seasons into two parts has turned out to be a prime promotional opportunity to tempt viewers who want to be there from what they think is the beginning. Except it's not.
Fans do complain, as they did with the split Battlestar Galactica 4.0 and 4.5 DVD sets, and with the recent Glee Vol. 1: Road to Sectionals release. But they buy, too.
Also out this week:
Nurse Jackie: Season 1 -- Edie Falco's caustic Showtime dramedy about a self-assured but also self-destructive NYC nurse hits both DVD and Blu-ray Disc, at the same list price. And that's a trend we like a lot. (Showtime does this with Weeds, too.) The BD release looks sharp in high-definition, of course, but doesn't have added extras beyond the DVD goodies -- commentaries with Falco and the show's writers, plus behind-the-scenes interviews with both those creators and the type of real-life nurses the show portrays. So its equal pricing is both fair and welcome.
Night Court: Complete Third Season -- Markie Post arrives as everybody's favorite public defender in this cartoony courtroom farce from NBC's renowned '80s adult sitcom slate (Cheers, Taxi, et al). When Post joined the cast (following flame-outs Paula Kelly and Ellen Foley), creator Reinhold Weege's mix of 
outrageousness and sentiment hit its stride. Her punchy perkiness (and Princess Di fixation) plays briskly off arrogant prosecutor's John Larroquette's obsessions with sex and status, completing the show's central triangle with hippie judge Harry Anderson. But the cast changes aren't over yet. Cranky senior Florence Halop, who assumed the female bailiff's role after originator Selma Diamond died, would herself pass away after this season. The cast finally locked in with Season 4's addition of deadpan comic Marsha Warfield. Among Season 3's top episodes: visits from Carl Ballantine as Harry's magician idol, Mel Torme as Harry's music idol, Dan's sex-changed fraternity brother, his new "little person" boss, and Brent Spiner (Star Trek: The Next Generation) as a surreal hillbilly.
WATCH THIS: Catch up to the Olympics on-demand, online, downloads
February 18, 2010 2:01 PM
Oops, missed something big from the Vancouver Olympics? You can always try to catch it on one of NBC's myriad broadcasts across its network (NBC) and cable channels (USA, CNBC, MSNBC, Universal HD, Universal Sports).
Or you can grab the video gold anytime, in several ways -- digital cable on-demand, online replays, and free/pay downloads.
TV on demand
Many cable systems have Olympic footage stacked up, awaiting the command of your digital-service remote.
My Comcast system, for instance, offers dozens of free Olympics picks via On Demand through the digital cable box. Start by choosing the Top Picks category, then scroll down to 2010 Winter Olympics. Click to peruse choices like Best of the Day, Meet Team USA, Figure Skating, Speed Skating, Hockey, Board & Freestyle, and more. (Comcast On Demand also offers online search to see what's available.)
Inside those categories, you've got your choice of U.S. competitors, winners, crashes, analysis, music-video montages and more, even last week's Vancouver opening ceremonies or 2006 Torino highlights. Clips range in length from 1 minute to 1-hour-plus. There's HD, too.
Online
NBCOlympics.com hosts action galore, including live streams and full-event replays, so long as you input your collaborating cable system/location. (Video playback also requires the Microsoft Silverlight plug-in.)
Full replays are online for most sports, including hockey, skiing and snowboarding. Some offer a choice between NBC's familiar "as seen on TV" packaging or -- wait for it -- raw on-site coverage without broadcast announcers (yay!), but with ambient audio plus all the graphics and super slo-mo.
Live event streams are slated to include every hockey and curling match. That means live-as-it-happens video even of events NBC isn't interested in (like Canada-Sweden curling).
Myriad other video choices include Daily Recaps, Features & Profiles, Venues & Courses, and Most Popular clips. That last one is where you'll find the likes of Shaun White's double McTwist 1260 and skating's flashy pink pony, Johnny Weir.
Downloads
NBC is loading up iTunes and Amazon On Demand with Olympics footage, most of which you'll pay for. Short roundups are free -- Top 5 Athletes to Watch, bios of biggies like Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn, various sports' video glossaries and scene setters. But actual event action is usually $1 or $2 a pop.
At least many downloads tend toward generous lengths -- the men's figure skating short program is nearly 2 hours. Season Pass is also available on iTunes -- $5 for figure skating, for instance, and $13 for hockey.
(One big caveat: iTunes hasn't been especially timely about getting the action up and available. And their slate isn't necessarily complete. As of Thursday afternoon, Feb. 18, only 3 hockey contests were posted, though 16 games had been played. Amazon On Demand is no better.)
SITE TO SEE: Network shows, coming back or not?
February 18, 2010 11:12 AM
Now's the time when viewers start wondering if their favorite network shows are going to get renewed. Turns out The Hollywood Reporter isn't just wondering, they're laying odds.
And the trade paper's numbers can be surprising. Less than 50-50 for 24? More than 50-50 for Heroes? How about newbies like Human Target? And long-runs like Smallville and Supernatural [photo above]?
THR's Live Feed blogger James Hibberd lays out the reasons why or why not each show is likely to survive into fall. They're even color-coded at his TV Series Survival Chart, broken out into categories like Safe, OK and Endangered. See if your faves rate salmon or aquamarine.
DVD THIS WEEK: Vintage game show sociology
February 15, 2010 2:06 PM
Today's culture is so celeb-saturated that we know everything about everybody famous, and start to wish we didn't. Yet "regular" people have almost ceased to exist. Every ordinary American now seems to be appearing on a "reality" show or rehearsing for one. The boy and girl next door are so ready for their close-up that we only see "unaffected" when an actor affects in it performance.
That's why I'm so addicted to Mill Creek's four new budget DVD sets of vintage game shows. They provide snapshots of both the famous and the nameless back when television was younger and people were less intense about it. The guest stars feel more glittery yet more genuine, and the ordinary players feel not self-consciously "real" but truly authentic.
Password in its 1960s prime-time version proves the pinnacle in this sociological spectator sport -- and it's also an engagingly timeless game, at least in the straightforward way it's played in the 30 episodes in The Best of Password. (Mill Creek's new 3-disc set is the re-release of a 2008 BCI set that quickly disappeared from shelves.)
Two celebs pair up with two contestants trying to guess a secret word. One member has to give the other member one-word clues, as teams alternate, to make his/her partner guess it before the other team does. That's it. It's the Wheel of Fortune of its day in its simplicity and its play-along irresistibility. But it's also more elegantly sophisticated. No gimmicky prop wheel or light-up letters. (And, thankfully, no Vanna.) No contestant squealing or audience shrieking. Plain set, plain desk, even a plain host: laid-back Allen Ludden, who comes across charming and witty simply by remaining in the moment.
The stars and the players are just as plain -- people coming direct from the Manhattan studio to your living room, with a relaxed amiability, without seeming intent on presenting a slick image. Sammy Davis Jr. bops all over the place, too wired to sit still. Jane Fonda, barely out of Vassar and still lacking a public persona, nervously tries too hard to play well. Johnny Carson, pre-Tonight Show fame, comes off as an up-and-comer, reserved yet coolly self-assured. A young Woody Allen is awkwardly, adorably Woodyish. Betty White, who'd just gotten married to host Ludden, looks about to jump his bones any second. (Some reputations are well-earned.)
It feels timeless because there's so little production to it. Just black-and-white videotape, without frantic jumpcuts or flashing graphics, with a static pace and quiet moments. Regular folks just act regular, and celebrities try hard to help and harder not to look dumb. Who knew young Nancy Sinatra was so sharp? Who expects Elizabeth Montgomery to digress with "God bless you" when an audience member sneezes?
There's a naivete and even a touch of raggedness to the proceedings -- small mistakes are left in -- yet there's also the opposite of the condescension today's TV often seems to feed us. Password trusts the audience to be at least as smart as the players -- which, of course, we are, shouting better clues at the screen than the celebs can come up with. It all feels adult and aspirational in a way that makes me wonder why some network doesn't try something as simple as this now. Talk about standing out in a frenzied marketplace.
For all the relative class of Password, I'm also endlessly fascinated by the naked conumerist greed celebrated in The Price Is Right, which the Mill Creek set serves up in two flavors through 26 episodes. Four episodes of the black-and-white '50s-'60s original are hosted by Bill Cullen, another genially laid-back everyguy, sitting on a spare set interviewing a panel of price-bidding everyman contestants clearly chosen for their slice-of-Americana appeal: giddy housewives, traveling salesmen, switchboard operators. (The other slice-of-life comes in the way these parades of "modern" products reflect their now-quaint era: rec-room "bachelor" bars, spinet organs, reel-to-reel "stereophonic" tape recorders.)
And then there's the Bob Barker version, seen here in all its nametags-and-Technicolor glory, from the 1972 premiere to 1975's first hourlong episode and then his 2007 finale week. Barker comes from a different host genus, being more smooth than affable, and Price itself has moved into the era of glossy production. The sets are gaudy color circuses, and the varied games are much more intricately devised than the earlier bidding contests. By this time, TV had decided it was desperate to KEEP us interested, as opposed to simply being interesting enough to watch. For me, here, there's less sociology to assess.
But there's plenty on display in Mill Creek's Match Game set, from the 1970s CBS color version with host Gene Rayburn leering over six randy celebs supposedly trying to match a sentence's missing word to that suggested by a contestant. But the show's focus, of course, quickly settled into celebs making as many double entendres as possible, while behaving as if rowdily drunk/stoned/gonzo.
With six celebs per show, Match Game relied on a regular roster of star nuts -- Charles Nelson Reilly, Brett Somers, Richard Dawson and other recurrent rowdies (Betty White, Fannie Flagg, Bill Daily) -- whose behavior would become legend. Reilly was bitchy, Somers was snotty, Dawson the "good" player who actually helped contestants win. But more fascinating are the visiting celebs -- from William Shatner to Jamie Lee Curtis -- who variously fit right in with the wildness, struggle to keep up, or seem baffled by it all. Who's stoned? Who's confused? Who isn't even sure where they are? Ah, the '70s.
(The Match Game set also includes the 1962 pilot of NBC's original and much calmer black-and-white daytime version, plus a Brett Somers interview and other extras.)
Dawson stars again by hosting his own show in Mill Creek's All-Star Family Feud set -- a veritable bounty of '70s star-sighting as the casts of two shows play each other, trying to match the most common responses to poll questions. Feud, too, was a loosey-goosey affair, and these All-Star episodes provide the added bonus of seeing stars outside their controlled habitats, interacting as themselves rather than their characters.
The competing casts include those from Dallas, Dukes of Hazzard, WKRP, Barney Miller and oldies like Gilligan's Island, Brady Bunch and Leave It to Beaver. There's even vintage soap from General Hospital. But the players aren't always their show's "stars." The Welcome Back, Kotter crew, for instance, features Mrs. Kotter and some late-run Sweathogs you forgot existed. (Nice names from Barney, though.)
Mill Creek's game show sets play today as more than just amusing viewing or nostalgic memories. They're little time capsules of past pop culture eras -- encapsulating their day in a way that I wonder whether any of our own TV shows will deliver decades later.
The password is . . . cool.
Also new on DVD:
The Patty Duke Show Season 2 -- These '60s familycom episodes hold up. Even better, a new featurette deconstructs how split-screen filming enabled the teenage Duke to play "identical cousins" Patty and Cathy.
DVD NEWS: TV shows (not) on DVD
February 10, 2010 4:35 PM
Why isn't Batman out on DVD?
Or Max Headroom?
Or The Wonder Years?
Or China Beach?
Our good friends at TV Shows on DVD have answers to many questions like these in a handy What's the Hold-Up? posting at their Facebook page.
The reasons tend toward a few familiar obstacles -- music rights (too expensive, too tricky to obtain), ownership squabbles (one company might control the characters, while another controls the produced program), and also, for those shows stalled after partial DVD release, just not enough initial sales to keep more sets coming.
Bianculli and I have known TSoD's Gord and Dave for years, so we can vouch for both the reliability of their info/sources and their personal devotion to TV on DVD. For two guys who weren't journalists by trade when they started (back in 2001), they've become a couple of the most intrepid reporters we know.
So bookmark TV Shows on DVD, if you haven't already. They're on top of upcoming releases and TV DVD trends -- even opportunities for fans to interact with studio executives, as in this heads-up about an upcoming online chat with Warner Home Video.
Be sure to vote at the site for shows you'd like to see released on DVD -- the studios do pay attention.
(Six of the 14 shows on my list eventually got released! And a seventh, Jim Hutton's 1970s Ellery Queen is said to be on its way.)
So please join me in lobbying for The John Larroquette Show [photo], Nothing Sacred, Now And Again, Bakersfield P.D., The Powers That Be and The Incredibly Strange Film Show.
And take the time to share your faves here, so other readers can lend their support. We gotta gang up on 'em to get the good stuff . . .
