New DVD Releases

90s DVD: Seaquest DSV - Season One now shipping!

patrickmondout — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:41:00 GMT

Seaquest DSV - Season One shipped yesterday on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a description from Amazon.com:
Travel to the spectacular undersea world of seaQuest DSV as all 23 groundbreaking episodes from the epic first season surface on DVD. The amazing adventure begins in the mid-21st century, as humankind expands its undersea colonization efforts and a tenuous world peace is enforced by the United Earth Oceans (UEO). In order to protect the fledgling underwater colonies from unknown dangers and hostile invaders lurking in the depths of Earth’s last frontier, the UEO recruits Captain Nathan Bridger (Roy Scheider) to command the high-tech battle submarine seaQuest and its diverse and eclectic crew. Along for the ride are a roster of stellar guest stars, including Charlton Heston, William 'Denny Crane' Shatner, Seth Green, Kellie Martin and Kent McCord. Now on DVD for the first time ever, with exclusive never-before-seen footage, the Emmy Award-winning seaQuest DSV is sure to make waves with thrill-seekers everywhere!

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70s DVD: Diff'rent Strokes - The Complete Second Season ships tomorrow!

patrickmondout — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:37:00 GMT

Diff'rent Strokes - The Complete Second Season ships tomorrow on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review of Season 1 from Amazon.com:
More than just a ratings hit for NBC, the Norman Lear/Bud Yorkin-produced Diff'rent Strokes was a pop-culture phenomenon, thanks largely to the wise-beyond-his-years performance of star Gary Coleman. And while the show has languished of late in syndication in a heavily edited form, Columbia's first-season set amends that situation by packaging all 24 uncut episodes on a three-disc set with some interesting extras. Launched in November 1978 as a mid-season replacement for the failed Joe Namath series The Waverly Wonders, Diff'rent Strokes vaulted to no. 27 in the Nielsen ratings; audiences responded to the warmth and humorous culture clash between wealthy Philip Drummond (Lear vet Conrad Bain) and Arnold and Willis (Coleman and Todd Bridges), the sons of his late housekeeper whom he adopted. Though Bain, Bridges, Dana Plato (as Bain's daughter), and Charlotte Rae (as housekeeper Mrs. Garrett) all delivered solid performances, it was Coleman's charm, his timing, and most of all, his catch phrase "Whatchoo talkin' bout?" that drew in viewers.

The series was so successful that NBC used it to launch or boost two other shows: The Facts of Life, which sent Mrs. Garrett to run a girls' school (its pilot, "The Girls' School," is episode 24 on the third disc), and the McLean Stevenson program Hello, Larry, which followed Strokes on the network (the two-part cross-over episodes are featured on disc 3). Though perhaps best known to current audiences for the unfortunate luck suffered by several of its cast members after the show's cancellation in 1986, this first-season set offers a pleasant reminder of the show's charms. The set is rounded out by two featurettes featuring interviews with many of the show's stars and producers (though Coleman is notably absent), and commentaries by story editor Fred Rubin. --Paul Gaita

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70s DVD: The Waltons - The Complete Third Season shipped today!

patrickmondout — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 04:31:00 GMT

The Waltons - The Complete Third Season ships tomorrow on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review of Season 2 from Amazon.com:
Year two of Earl Hamner's The Waltons still finds the original cast complete and the show humming along nicely on nostalgia for an earlier America, specifically the Depression-era 1930s, a time of sacrifice and family unity as The Waltons portrays it. The characters we came to know so well in season one (see The Waltons: The Complete First Season) continue to live in a spirit of cooperation and generosity, and with hope that a younger generation of Waltons will prosper and dream new dreams for everyone.

The 24 episodes included in this box set feature a number of very strong stories, including a handful of classics, all immersed in the series' typically old-Hollywood production values. (Several season two shows were directed by Waltons' star Ralph Waite.) Among the best is the premiere, "The Journey," in which the ever-noble, college-bound John-Boy (Richard Thomas) passes on a school dance and an important date to take an aging neighbor, Maggie Mackenzie (Linda Watkins), on a special, final journey. "The Separation" finds Grandpa (Will Geer) and Grandma (Ellen Corby) Walton feuding—even living apart--after the former crafts a secret plan to raise money to pay the family's electricity bill. (Their reconciliation is one of the series' most enjoyable and tender moments.) The memorable "The Thanksgiving Story" is a nail-biter in which John-Boy, facing a hopeful future as he awaits college and a visit from his girlfriend, endures a head injury in the family mill and must undergo surgery. Finally, "The Honeymoon" sees John (Waite) and Olivia (Michael Learned) finally taking their honeymoon after 19 years of marriage and seven kids. Throughout all the major storylines is a constant buzz of subplots concerning John-Boy's younger siblings—their joys and disappointments, first loves, accomplishments and relationships with one another. The Waltons never slows down, but it is capable of revealing the most delicate of feelings within shared or private moments. --Tom Keogh

The Waltons - The Complete Seventh Season
The Waltons - The Complete Sixth Season
The Waltons - The Complete First Season

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80s DVD: Remington Steele - Season 3 ships tomorrow!

patrickmondout — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 16:26:00 GMT

Remington Steele - Season 3 ships tomorrow on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review of Season 1 from Amazon.com:
Remington Steele's fusion of whodunit mystery and screwball comedy burst onto television in 1982. After struggling to get clients to hire a female detective, Laura Holt (sultry Stephanie Zimbalist) invents a fictional boss named Remington Steele, whose dashing manly name draws in work. But while protecting some South African jewels, Holt runs across a mysterious thief and con-man (an elfin, baby-faced Pierce Brosnan) whom her client assumes is the nonexistent Steele--and when the case is resolved, the accidental detective decides he likes the work and sticks around, infuriating Holt with his arrogant ways and tantalizing her with his dashing good looks. Murders may occur at a winery, an island sex club, or a college reunion, but just about every episode plunders plot elements from classic movies like Bringing Up Baby, The Third Man, and The Trouble with Harry (even the theme song was written by film composer Henry Mancini). The writers openly acknowledge this influence by having Steele use ideas he's lifted from movies to solve crimes. The constant allusions to old films should be annoying, but the show demonstrates such a rich affection for the classics that these tips of the hat actually mesh with Remington Steele's world.

Remington Steele has become best known as Brosnan's launching pad (he later become James Bond in GoldenEye and its sequels), but Zimbalist was every bit as crucial to the show's success; her mixture of glamor and toughness gives the show a distinctly adult sexiness and grounds Brosnan's boyish charm. The dialogue sometimes slipped from arch camp to sheer cheese, but even at its most ridiculous (say, a scene where Holt and Steele question homeless bums while dressed in formal evening wear) Remington Steele remains an eminently watchable show, thanks to zippy plotting and the chemistry between Zimbalist and Brosnan. Some episodes clearly implied that the pair had become intimate, yet that didn't defuse their attraction. Even when the stories became a bit silly, the mutual respect and desire between Holt and Steele never lost its sophistication. --Bret Fetzer

Remington Steele - Seasons 1-5
Remington Steele - Seasons 4 and 5
Remington Steele - Season 3
Remington Steele - Season Two
Remington Steele - Season 1

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70s DVD: Bob Newhart Show - Season 3 will be released tomorrow!

patrickmondout — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 16:43:00 GMT

Bob Newhart Show - Season 3 ships tomorrow on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review of Season 1 from Amazon.com:
In addition to inspiring a college drinking game that's never gone out of style, The Bob Newhart Show gave one of America's greatest stand-up comedians a perfect sitcom showcase. This wasn't Newhart's first TV show (following the success of his comedy albums, he hosted a short-lived variety show in 1961-62), but it was the first to transfer his wry, inimitable wit to an effective alter ego, and as mild-mannered psychologist Bob Hartley, 43-year-old Newhart found a sublime character conduit for stone-faced sarcasm that was biting but never malicious.

Living in a Chicago high-rise with Emily, his wife of three years and a third-grade schoolteacher (played with underrated smartness by Suzanne Pleshette), 40-year-old Bob divides his time equally between happy (but not too happy) domesticity and time at the office, where he employs a feisty and frequently lovelorn receptionist Carol (Marcia Wallace, who later enjoyed a thriving career providing voices for The Simpsons and other animated shows) who also works for Jerry (Peter Bonerz, who became a respected TV director), a bachelor dentist and Bob's best friend.

The first season (of six, on CBS until August 1978) offered the same high quality as The Mary Tyler Moore Show (also produced by Moore's MTM Enterprises) and established many of the memorable characters who contributed to the show's enduring greatness. Bill Daily (late of I Dream of Jeannie) would thrive as the Hartley's divorced neighbor Howard (his uninvited "Hi Bob!" intrusions inspired that infamous drinking game), while married neighbor Margaret (Patricia Smith) would disappear by season's end. Among Bob's hilarious group-therapy patients, the miserable misanthrope Mr. Carlin (Jack Riley) was a comedic goldmine as the series progressed, but it's Newhart's own comic genius--including his perfected phone-call routines and deadpan reactions to everyday dilemmas--that remained the show's greatest asset. These 24 first-season episodes are remarkably consistent under the direction (mostly) of sitcom veterans Jay Sandrich and Alan Rafkin, and guest stars include Penny Marshall, Louise Lasser, Allen Garfield, Chuck McCann, and a host of other '70s TV stalwarts, all meshing nicely with one of TV's funniest ensemble casts. --Jeff Shannon

The Bob Newhart Show - The Complete First Season
The Bob Newhart Show - The Complete Fourth Season
The Bob Newhart Show - The Complete Second Season
The Bob Newhart Show - The Complete Third Season
The Bob Newhart Show - Seasons 1 -4

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80s DVD: Full House - The Complete Third Season now out!

patrickmondout — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 16:20:00 GMT

Full House - The Complete Third Season ships tomorrow on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review of Season 1 from Amazon.com:
Set in San Francisco, family-friendly sitcom Full House centers around the adventures of a widowed father, his three children, and his two best friends. Danny (Bob Saget of America's Funniest Home Videos) is a straight-laced sportscaster, Joey (David Coulier) is a fun-loving stand-up comedian, and brother-in-law Jesse (John Stamos) is an Elvis-obsessed rocker. Danny's children include 11-year-old D.J. (Candace Cameron), five-year-old Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), and baby Michelle (big-eyed future superstars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen). Created by Jeff Franklin (Laverne and Shirley), the show ran on ABC for eight seasons.

In the pilot, "Our Very First Show," Joey and Jesse, who are both looking for a place to live, move into Danny's townhouse after the death of his wife (who was killed by a drunk driver). The deal is that they'll have to help look after the kids. It's a task for which both men are ill equipped. The fun comes from the trouble the girls get into each week and the many messes Joey and Jesse create in their attempts to set things right--particularly when it comes to cooking, cleaning, and diaper-changing--but also from the cheesy 1980s styles on display, like Jesse's big hair, spandex pants, and string ties.

The Complete First Season includes all 22 episodes plus the original un-aired pilot with John Posey as Danny. (In Franklin's commentary on "Our Very First Show," he notes that Paul Reiser was also considered for the role.) Noteworthy guest stars include Phyllis Diller ("But Seriously Folks"), Stacy Q ("D.J. Tanner's Day Off'), and Candace's brother Kirk "Growing Pains" Cameron ("Just One of the Guys"). While Full House was never a magnet for major awards, the program developed a large following during its long run (while the house got fuller yet), followed by an even longer after-life in syndication. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Full House - The Complete Series Collection
The Lake House (Full Screen Edition)
Full House - The Complete Eighth Season
Full House - The Complete Fifth Season
Full House - The Complete Seventh Season

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80s DVD: Quantum Leap - The Complete Fourth Season - out today!

patrickmondout — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 23:33:00 GMT

Quantum Leap - The Complete Fourth Season ships today on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review from Amazon.com of Season One:
They'll be dancing (well, leaping maybe) in the streets now that the first season of Quantum Leap, voted one of the 25 best cult series ever by TV Guide, has come to home video, a decade after its final year (1994) on the air (the pilot episode was released on DVD in '98). And why shouldn't they? This is a show, called "an imaginative diversion" by one critic, with a good premise that's cleverly and skillfully conceived, written, acted, and produced--ample evidence of which is spread out over three discs, each containing three episodes (plus some fairly meager extras) from the first season.

Scott Bakula, in the role that made him a star, plays Sam Beckett, a scientist who's part of a time-travel experiment that "went a little... ka-ka." Unable to return to his own time, and aided only by Al (Dean Stockwell, whose rapport with Bakula is one of the series' most appealing elements), his cigar-smoking, peculiar-dressing, sex-obsessed, holographic "enabler," Sam "leaps" unpredictably from one time period and person to another, usually completely out of his element (as a pilot, a boxer, a cowboy, an English lit professor, even an elderly black man in segregated '50s Alabama) and always in a situation that needs to be "made right" before he can leap onward. Generous helpings of humor, drama, physical action, and sentimentality (this is TV, after all) keep things moving, as do references to many other classic films and genres (Driving Miss Daisy in "The Color of Truth," Casablanca in "Play it Again, Seymour," boxing in general in "The Right Hand of God") and what creator Donald Bellisario calls the occasional "kiss with history" (Sam crosses paths with the young Buddy Holly and Michael Jackson, among others). It doesn't all work, as Quantum Leap occasionally becomes too cute and facile for its own good. But that and the set's paucity of bonus material (limited to one passable featurette and brief episode intros by Bakula) are the only real shortcomings of a boxed set that will likely earn multiple spins in the DVD player. --Sam Graham

Quantum Leap - The Complete First Season
Quantum Leap - The Complete Second Season
Quantum Leap - The Complete Third Season
Quantum Leap - The Complete Fifth Season
Quantum Leap - The Complete Fourth Season

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90s DVD: Northern Exposure - The Complete Fourth Season ships tomorrow!

patrickmondout — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 10:35:00 GMT

Northern Exposure - The Complete Fourth Season ships tomorrow (March 28, 2006) on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review of the 1st season from Amazon.com:
Whether it's a snowy nude sprint down Main Street, the mysterious appearance of a long-lost relative, or the improbable death of yet another of Maggie's boyfriends, life's never dull in the remote hamlet of Cicely, Alaska. Colorful characters and quirky plots propelled Northern Exposure into the hearts of millions of viewers, earning the CBS "dramedy" series seven Emmy awards between its 1990 debut and its demise six seasons later.

In season 1, we meet Dr. Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow), an urban New York yuppie who consents to four years of rural servitude after Alaska pays his medical-school tuition. Joel's fish-out-of-water adventures drive the show, but it's the quirky ensemble of characters--Chris, the DJ/philosopher (John Corbett), Holling, the bartender (John Cullum), Maurice, the town patriarch (Barry Corbin), Ed, the filmmaker (Darren E. Burrows), and Maggie, the bush pilot (Janine Turner), among others–-that keeps the series consistently entertaining. The town develops its own offbeat personality as well, a Mayberry-meets-Twin-Peaks blend of Native mysticism, Aurora Borealis-induced dreams, unlikely tales of long-lost family members, and rumors of a Bigfoot-like creature known simply as "Adam."

Northern Exposure provides a utopian escape--a place where life is interesting but never dangerous, everyone's insightful, the mystical becomes real, and nobody's burdened with a mundane 9-to-6 desk job. Cicely is a delightful place to visit, even if it's only for an hour at a time.

A mid-season replacement, season 1 consists of just eight episodes on two DVDs. Each episode includes 5-10 minutes of outtakes and deleted scenes. --Shane Burnett

Northern Exposure - The Complete Series
Northern Exposure - The Complete Third Season
Northern Exposure - The Complete First and Second Seasons
Northern Exposure - The Complete Sixth Season
Northern Exposure - The Complete Fifth Season

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90s DVD: Roseanne - Season 3 releases tomorrow!

patrickmondout — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 16:33:00 GMT

Roseanne - Season 3 ships tomorrow on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review of Season 1 from Amazon.com:
Roseanne burst onto the screen in 1988, when top-rated sitcom The Cosby Show exuded a smug Father Knows Best glossiness. In contrast, the blue-collar Conner family bickered with the offhand nastiness of real families, which didn't mean they loved each other any less. Front and center was Roseanne Barr (now known by the single name Roseanne), a former stand-up comedian who wasn't afraid to rock the boat (her fights with producers were legendary). When even the fat guys on sitcoms have svelte, hottie wives, it's hard to believe that this woman--overweight, abrasive, with a voice like a wood chipper--became top of the television heap. Roseanne spoke up for a kind of lower-class feminism; she didn't concern herself much with politics, but within the family she just as much in charge as her husband Dan (the ever-dependable John Goodman, Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski)--though in the final episode of the first season, she took a stand at her factory job that was half Norma Rae, half Cool Hand Luke. But most often the show turned the ordinary rituals of domestic life (putting the kids to bed, coping with visiting parents) into sharp comic scenarios. The stories were smartly hidden in a series of scenes that felt organic and unforced. The entire cast--one of the best ensembles ever, including theater veteran Laurie Metcalf (Scream 2) as Roseanne's sister Jackie; Lecy Goranson as eldest daughter Becky; Michael Fishman as youngest child D.J.; and especially Sara Gilbert (Poison Ivy, ER) as middle daughter Darlene--swiftly cultivated the mixture of comfort and tension that marks most family relationships. The result was a portrait of American family life that rang achingly, hilariously true.

Roseanne's first season was solid from the start; few shows have had such an immediate grasp of their ideal tone and rhythm. Roseanne may have been a little stiff in the first few episodes, but she developed her chops quickly. By only the third episode, in which Roseanne and Dan run into a divorced friend at a restaurant and do some impromptu evaluating of their own married life, Roseanne was already exploring the psychology behind the wisecracks. By episode 6, set in a bowling alley, Roseanne begins to truly inhabit her character, growing more physically and emotionally expansive (she herself singles out this episode as the one where she started to have fun). Roseanne was never afraid to share the spotlight; Goodman, Metcalf, and the kids all had central roles in one episode or another, and one of the most striking episodes focused on Roseanne's coworker Crystal (the underrated Natalie West), whose husband had been embedded in concrete while working on a bridge. This black comic premise gave way to surprisingly touching grief when old secrets emerged. Guest performers like George Clooney (a semi-regular in the first season), Ned Beatty (as Dan's father), Estelle Parsons (an insidious turn as Roseanne's mother), and Fred Thompson (as a domineering supervisor) always had meaty material to work with. Simply one of the best sitcoms of all time. Caveat: the set uses the episodes as they were shortened for syndication, not the originally broadcast versions that were 2-3 minutes longer.--Bret Fetzer

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70s DVD: Bewitched: The Complete Third Season now available!

patrickmondout — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 11:22:00 GMT

Bewitched: The Complete Third Season ships tomorrow on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review from Amazon.com of Season One:
My stars! The first, and perhaps most magical, season of Bewitched still casts an enchanting spell. For escapist fantasy, this series, no doubt inspired by the play Bell, Book and Candle, broke significant television ground. The Stephens were sitcoms' first mixed marriage. Advertising executive Darrin Stephens (Dick York) was mortal, and wife Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) was a witch. According to a retrospective segment included on this four-disc set, the Stephenses were also the first couple to sleep in one bed! And Samantha's mother, Endora (the venerable Agnes Morehead), and father, Maurice (Maurice Evans, most popularly known as Dr. Zaius in the original Planet of the Apes, were TV's first separated couple. Surely, Darrin did for advertising what Dick Van ***'s Rob Petrie did for comedy writing. And nose-twitching Samantha certainly gave Mary Tyler Moore's Laura Petrie a run for the money in the sexy suburbanite sweepstakes. This high-concept series' saving grace was that Darrin insisted that Samantha not engage in any "hocus-pocus." But in this first season, she would be compelled to use her extraordinary powers to right social wrongs (such as derogatory-witch stereotypes in the Halloween episode "The Witches Are Out"), champion the underdog (a lonely boy whose overprotective mother won't let him play baseball in "Little Pitchers Have Big Fears"), or to restore a troubled boy's Christmas spirit ("A Vision of Sugar Plums"). Or, she might just want to turn the tables on an insulting former girlfriend of Darrin's (the pilot, "Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha").

York and Montgomery had palpable chemistry. They also received able support by a stellar ensemble of character actors. Alice Pearce and Marion Lorne would earn Emmys for their signature roles as busybody neighbor Mrs. Kravitz and dotty Aunt Clara, respectively. George Tobias portrayed oblivious. long-suffering Abner Kravitz, with David White as Darrin's boss, Larry Tate. In today's more PC climate, Bewitched may offend the "ban Harry Potter" crowd. But for baby boomers especially, this inaugural set will happily conjure up vintage television memories. --Donald Liebenson

Bewitched - The Complete Sixth Season
Bewitched: The Complete First Season
Bewitched - The Complete Second Season
Bewitched - The Complete Fourth Season
Bewitched - The Complete Fifth Season

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80s DVD: Murder, She Wrote - The Complete Third Season ships today!

patrickmondout — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 12:15:00 GMT

Murder, She Wrote - The Complete Third Season ships today on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review of Season One from Amazon.com:
There are two audiences for this DVD compilation of the first season of the enormously popular TV series Murder, She Wrote. The first enjoys the classic pleasures of the pre-forensics "whodunit," stories in which murder was not so much a crime as a logic puzzle; the joy here lay in how skillfully a writer could misdirect you. Murder, She Wrote--in which mystery writer Jessica Fletcher constantly stumbles across dead bodies in every setting imaginable, from a San Francisco drag show to a football field--doesn't have the elegance of an Agatha Christie or Rex Stout mystery, but the show was efficient at laying out its clues and cunningly used the audience's familiarity with television itself (the relative star power of the guests, the need for a dramatic high point before every commercial break, etc.) to mislead and manipulate. And of course Angela Lansbury, as Fletcher, was an ideal television presence: Warm and friendly, but with just a hint of the fierce, steely will she revealed in The Manchurian Candidate. Lansbury drove the show through an impressive twelve seasons (for which she received twelve Emmy nominations), plus multiple TV movies after its cancellation.

The other audience for Murder, She Wrote: The Complete First Season consists of viewers for whom names like Bert Convy, Dack Rambo, and Barbara Babcock send waves of guilty pleasure down their spines. The promotional materials for this boxed set make much ado about brief appearances by stars-to-be like Andy Garcia (who appears briefly as "1st White Tough" in the pilot TV movie) and Joaquin Phoenix (who's around 10 years old and still going by the name Leaf), but every single episode is a festival of B-, C-, and Z-grade celebrities from the 1970s and '80s: Claude Akins, Tom Bosley, Jeff Conaway, David Doyle, Samantha Eggar, Lynda Day George, Morgan Brittany, Belinda Montgomery, Gabe Kaplan, and Lyle Waggoner, just to name a handful. Some of these names may be forgotten, but their faces (and scenery-chewing performances) will spark a Proustian rush of television memories. --Bret Fetzer

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70s DVD: Columbo - The Complete Fourth Season ships tomorrow!

patrickmondout — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:58:00 GMT

Just one more thing, the 4th season of Columbo ships on DVD March 14, 2006. Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review of the 3rd season from Amazon.com:
Oh, just one more thing, mystery mavens--get ready to be mystified and entertained by the award-winning third season of Columbo, starring Peter Falk as the rumpled but unbeatable Lieutenant. Having taken home Emmys for outstanding limited drama and lead actor in its '71-'72 debut season, Columbo was again named best drama for its third season ('73-'74). The reason for the repeat success? The formula remained the same: intelligent, engaging scripts and direction, guest performances by top actors, and, of course, Falk at center stage as Columbo, the most unlikely of supersleuths, but unquestionably one of the sharpest (the role would later earn Falk three more Emmys between 1975 and 1990). The 10 episodes compiled in this two-disc set again feature top talent from film and television: directors include veterans Jeannot Swarc and Boris Sagal, as well as actors Nicholas Colasanto (better known as Coach from Cheers) and Ben Gazzara (Falk's frequent co-star in the films of John Cassavetes), while the season's scripts feature contributions from Stephen J. Cannell, Steven Bochco, and Larry Cohen. And in regard to co-stars, Falk matched wits with the likes of Donald Pleasance, Martin Sheen, Vincent Price, Robert Culp (in one of four turns on the series), Jose Ferrer, Ida Lupino, and in two novel but effective casting choices, Johnny Cash and hard-boiled mystery scribe Mickey Spillane. And there's even a bonus feature in the form of an episode of the spinoff series Mrs. Columbo, starring Kate Mulgrew as the Lieutenant's oft-mentioned better half. In short, it's 11 hours of solid sleuthing for armchair detectives. --Paul Gaita

Columbo - The Complete Third Season
Columbo - The Complete Fourth Season
Columbo - The Complete Fifth Season
Columbo - The Complete First Season
Columbo - Mystery Movie Collection, 1989

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80s DVD: MacGyver - Season Five ships tomorrow - order now!

patrickmondout — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 04:10:00 GMT

MacGyver - Season Five ships tomorrow on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review from Amazon.com:
Like James Bond--but without the high-tech gadgets--Angus MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) is one of those rare beings who can avert any crisis without mussing a hair. (The rest of us should be so lucky.) In the pilot alone, the secret agent dismantles a missile using a paper clip and fashions a rocket thruster out of a pistol. Is there anything MacGyver can't do? As the first season of ABC's long-running adventure series proves, the answer is a resounding no. MacGyver's secret: the everyday items he "finds along the way," like matches or gum wrappers, and the ingenuity to put them to a myriad of uses (a background in physics and chemistry doesn't hurt). Unlike Alias' Sidney Bristow, he isn't a multi-linguist, a martial artist, or a master of disguises. Wits are MacGyver's weapon of choice.

Produced by Henry Winkler (Arrested Development), The Complete First Season includes all 22 episodes from 1985-1986 (alas, there are no extras). MacGyver is joined by Phoenix Foundation director of operations Pete Thornton (Dana Elcar), who is introduced in "Nightmares." Also, his grandfather, Harry Jackson (John Anderson), makes his first appearance in "Target MacGyver," while friend Penny Parker (Teri Hatcher of Desperate Housewives) makes hers in "Every Time She Smiles" (they will appear more frequently in future seasons). Other notable guest stars include Joan Chen (The Last Emperor) in "The Golden Triangle," Nana Visitor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) in "Hellfire," and John De Lancie (Star Trek: The Next Generation) in "The Escape."

MacGyver ran for seven seasons and was followed by two made-for-TV movies in 1994, Lost Treasure of Atlantis and Trail to Doomsday. In 1997, after a short-lived series for UPN (1995's Legend), Anderson landed the lead in an even longer-running series, Stargate SG-1, based on the sci-fi extravaganza with Kurt Russell.

MacGyver - The Complete Fifth Season
MacGyver - The Complete First Season
MacGyver - The Complete Final Season
MacGyver - The Complete Sixth Season
MacGyver - The Complete Third Season

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80s DVD: Three's Company - Season 6 now available!

patrickmondout — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 17:24:00 GMT

Three's Company - Season 6 ships tomorrow on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Here is a review of a previous season from Amazon.com:
Ah, the simple pleasure of flagrant sexual innuendo! Three's Company, a 1970s sitcom about a guy pretending to be gay so his prudish landlord will let him live with two female roommates, became a top-rated show thanks to jokes and allusions that seem startling explicit even now. Such nudge-nudge wink-wink ribaldry would never have made it on the air were it not for star John Ritter, whose charisma was demonstrated most clearly in the show's rocky fifth season. Ritter's co-star Suzanne Somers, her ego swollen from sex symbol celebrity, demanded more money than her co-stars and swiftly got axed (though she still appears in the opening credits for the rest of the season). Her replacement Jenilee Harrison never developed the same chemistry with the other two actors, yet the show maintained its high ratings--proving how much the show rode on Ritter's shoulders (though one positive side effect of Somers' departure is that co-star Joyce DeWitt got more to do, as she was a fine comedienne in her own right).

Three's Company was the most farcical show on American television, taking silly scenarios--for example, Jack Tripper (Ritter) finds himself obliged to cook three different dinners in three apartments; or, in order to date his landlord's sexy niece, Jack pretends to have a twin brother named Austin--and pushing them until getting in and out of a room became a fight with the laws of physics. When Chrissy's cousin Cindy (Harrison) joined the cast, her character's clumsiness multiplied the slapstick (one particularly elaborate bit traps Jack in an ironing board). The cocktail of physical mayhem and an endless parade of tight-fitting short-shorts and skimpy nighties (19-year-old Harrison, a former professional cheerleader, was the season's main eye-candy) could have felt lewd and sleazy (imagine, with a shudder, if upstairs neighbor Richard Kline had been the show's star)--but somehow, no matter how craven or lecherous Jack behaved, Ritter remained likable and even inexplicably innocent. Three's Company's scripts weren't always comic gold--over the 22 episodes in this season, sexual misunderstandings pile up like bodies in a WWII movie--but Ritter dependably squeezed out laughs without ever seeming desperate. His relaxed persona, combined with sharp comic timing, made him one of the most enduring television personalities of all time. This box set also features interviews with the producers and with Harrison; nothing surprising gets said, but Harrison--after some ill-advised face-lifts and collagen injections--looks like a frightening caricature of Angelina Jolie. --Bret Fetzer

Three's Company - Season One
Three's Company - Season Two
Three's Company - Season Five
Three's Company - Season Four
Three's Company - Season Three

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80s DVD: The Cosby Show - Season 2 ships tomorrow!

patrickmondout — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 16:39:00 GMT

Season 2 of The Cosby Show ships tomorrow on DVD! Support this site by getting it Amazon.com!

Season 1 on DVD was a major disappointment for true fans of the show. The producers of the DVDs made the inexcusable decision to release butchered versions of the episodes that were used in syndication, wiping out about 8%-10% of the content of each (allowing syndicators to show additional commercials). The great news is that the season 2 DVD set will feature uncut and unedited episodes, making this set of this classic show the one to get.

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