Posted Jul 3rd 2009 1:04PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, Animation, Reality-Free
Thank the late-90s gods for the existence of
Daria and praise be to the supernatural entities responsible for DVDs. For the first time ever,
Daria will be available on DVD.
We feared it couldn't be done, but it's going to happen! I can hear sour-faced now-20-somethings celebrating now. Yes, they're quiet, but they're definitely excited. Keep it cool, guys, keep it cool.
Continue reading Excuse me? Daria finally coming to DVD
Posted Jun 30th 2009 3:05PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Programming, TV on DVD, Reality-Free
We've talked a lot about this before, the shows we love that haven't been released on DVD for one reason or another. Now
PremiumHollywood.com has chosen the 26 shows, A to Z, that they bought on the shiny little discs.
It's a great idea, though I don't understand why they call the list "cult TV" when it has shows on it like
L.A. Law and
Eight is Enough. Some good choices here though. I would have chosen
Ed,
Private Eye,
Something So Right,
Shannon's Deal. A lot of shows that I never thought would be released on DVD are now getting released, so every year my dream list gets smaller and smaller.
You?
Posted Jun 29th 2009 6:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.I've been trying to figure out which
Swiss Family Robinson is being released this week. It's not the 1960 movie with James MacArthur, and it's not the 1975 series that starred Martin Milner, Helen Hunt, Willie Aames, and Cameron Mitchell. It's at 1976 series from Canada. Not sure if I've ever seen that.
Another blast from the TV past:
Parker Lewis Can't Lose!
- Eastbound & Down - Season 1
- Entourage - Season 5
- Eureka - Season 3
- The IT Crowd - Season 2
Continue reading New TV on DVD releases this week
Posted Jun 29th 2009 4:29PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free
About a month ago, I mentioned my
television summer project.
The West Wing was such an excellent series that I stampeded by way through the episodes and am done already. In fact, if you summed up the quality of every reality show on television, it wouldn't come close to the quality of
The West Wing (thus furthering the argument that writers are mandatory for good television).
I agree with most of the critics that the series took a drop in quality in Season 5. With the departure of Sorkin, the characters began to make decisions that seemed inconsistent with the first four seasons (I'll write more about that in a separate article). Seasons 6 and 7 saw an upswing in quality, mostly due to the change in the whole premise of the show (making it about the Presidential Election rather than the Presidency).
The West Wing was a very deep and intelligent program and probably better than we deserve. Next up: Aaron Sorkin's other television contributions,
Sports Night and
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
Posted Jun 28th 2009 10:17AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, Weeds, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
This week in
Jane After Dark, I took a short break from
The Wire, but don't worry, devoted
Wire fans! I'm watching season three right now, and already writing next week's column in my head.
Since I'm covering season five of
Weeds for
TV Squad, I thought I'd better get caught up on season four. I'd watched episodes here and there, but not the entire season from start to finish. I just finished the last episode and have to say the series certainly took a turn in a different direction.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: Weeds, season 4 - Nancy goes to the dark side (of Mexico)
Posted Jun 22nd 2009 6:03PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.I can't think of another DVD week where there's so much that I don't want to buy. So few new releases, and nothing that really screams out "buy me." OK, maybe the Tom and Jerry set could be fun, but for some reason I was never into that series of cartoons. For my animal battle cartoons I'm more a Sylvester/Tweety and Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote fan.
- Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern - Collection 3
- Ghost Hunters - Fans Favorite Investigations: Special Edition
- The Girls Next Door - Season 5
- Monster Squad - Complete Series
- Mr. Troop Mom
- Reba - Season 6
- Tom and Jerry - The Chuck Jones Collection
Posted Jun 20th 2009 3:16PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV Royalty, TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
As John Howard noted in the comments in
last week's Jane After Dark column, I really haven't talked much about Omar yet. I just finished season two of
The Wire, and to be honest, most of my thoughts right now revolve around the Sobotka clan.
First of all, how stupid was Ziggy? The guy's always been a live wire, and you could see the bad karma building throughout this season, with him flashing money around, showing off his Italian leather coat, and going a little bonkers with the stolen Mercedes. Things were bound to go bad for him, and they did just that when his deal with Double-G went oh so wrong.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: The Wire - Season two ends, the Sobotka clan crumbles
Posted Jun 15th 2009 6:06PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.I haven't jumped on the Blu-ray wagon yet. I know, I know, it's supposed to be "better," but I have all of these individual season sets that aren't Blu-ray and I don't know if I want to get rid of the older ones (or sell them) and get new ones. They'd really have to have a ton of extras (and ones that I'm interested in) on them for me to get them. A better picture doesn't really excite me. So I won't be getting the
Lost sets being released this week.
But I'm on board for season 2 of
Burn Notice!
- Burn Notice - Season 2
- Everwood - Season 2
- Family Guy - Vol. 7 and 100th Episode Celebration
- Generation Kill - Mini-Series (Blu-ray)
- House of Payne - Vol. 4
Continue reading New TV on DVD releases this week
Posted Jun 14th 2009 10:03AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, TV on DVD, Reality-Free, British TV
Torchwood creator and executive producer Russell T. Davies told the British press Friday that the fourth season of the sci-fi show is ready and waiting, depending on how the show's third mini-season ("Children of Earth") performs.
During a screening of the third series' premiere episode ("Day One"), Davies said he knows where he wants to go in
Torchwood's next run. That's good news for fans, as there's every reason to expect that "Children of Earth" will do well both in the U.K. and in the U.S. -- where it out-rates the show that inspired it (
Doctor Who) on BBC America.
Davies, the former executive producer of
Who, also gave
Torchwood fans reason to rejoice when he said he'd be willing to keep knocking the show out for 10 years if the viewers stay tuned. No word if show stars like John Barrowman and Eve Myles would be willing to stay on board into their middle age.
Continue reading Davies says Torchwood's season four is ready to go
Posted Jun 13th 2009 5:30PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free
This installment of
Sketch Comedy Saturday is less about you pining for new episodes of
Saturday Night Live and more about me having an excuse to use this old image of Stephen Colbert with a puppy. It makes me sick, it's so adorable. Unfortunately,
The Dana Carvey Show wasn't just twenty-some minutes of Mr. Colbert nonchalantly holding baby animals, but it was still a pretty funny program.
Continue reading Sketch Comedy Saturday: The Dana Carvey Show
Posted Jun 13th 2009 2:06PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
I'm three episodes into season two of
The Wire. I tried watching it online as Usama suggested in last week's
Jane After Dark comments (thank you for that awesome site!), but decided to just buy the DVDs, because I stop and start a lot and need easy access to it. So I looked around town and found a fairly reasonably priced season two at FYE. It's new; no one seems to have any used sets, which makes me think - as you all have suggested - that no one ever gets rid of their DVDs of
The Wire. They keep them around to watch again and again. I'll probably just buy each season as I work my way through the series.
And speaking of starting and stopping,
The Wire does not get any easier to watch while doing something else at the same time. Whenever I try to do that, I end up replaying those parts again, because there's way too many subtleties to be only half-paying attention.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: The Wire season two - on the waterfront with Amy Ryan
Posted Jun 9th 2009 12:04PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Industry, TV on DVD, Reality-Free, Comic-Con, Dollhouse
Fox is
releasing an exclusive, limited-edition Dollhouse DVD set for this July's Comic-Con in San Diego. The full details about the Comic-Con set still haven't leaked, but you can pre-order a similar limited-edition DVD or Blu-ray Season One set from
FoxStore.com starting July 6.
Those sets will only be on sale through July 20. Fox is making 5,000 of the numbered sets, which will include a special Comic-Con faceplate and a "lenticular letter" by show creator Joss Whedon. The sets available at Comic-Con will most likely feature some extra goodies.
If you're a
Dollhouse fan heading to the big show in July, I highly recommend picking one of these up and hanging around the hot dog vendors in the late afternoon. That's where I spotted Mr. Whedon during last year's Comic-Con. The man is very fan-friendly. He was nice enough to chat with me for a bit and even pose for a picture. Unfortunately, I went home without an autograph. I didn't have any copies of his
Buffy or
X-Men comics for him to sign, and I was too timid to ask him to sign my man breast. (Ah, opportunities lost.)
Posted Jun 8th 2009 6:07PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.I sometimes enjoy watching
Judge Judy, but it's one of those shows that I can't possibly imagine owning the DVDs. Once is enough for me. But if you're really into the show, there's a 2-Pack set being released this week.
But I have to get the
Get Smart DVDs at some point. That's the only show being released that I have any interest in.
- The Cleaner - Season 1
- Corner Gas - Season 6
- Danny Phantom - Season 3
- Father Knows Best - Season 3
- Get Smart - Season 3
Continue reading New TV on DVD releases this week
Posted Jun 7th 2009 3:31PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
I just watched the last episode of season one of
The Wire.
You guys are right. It's good stuff. Most of season one was pretty slow-going, but things started to kick in during the last few episodes, about the time Greggs got shot.
As in
last week's Jane After Dark column, I'm still a bit lost on exactly what's happening, but that doesn't seem to really matter. The characters are so interesting to watch. It's almost like you're watching a documentary about the real thing, rather than a scripted TV show. I took the suggestion of some of you and started watching with the subtitles on. It really does help!
I noticed that
Alan Sepinwall is also blogging on The Wire -- and writing a masters thesis on each episode. He even has two different versions -- one for newbies and one for veterans. I'm the anti-Sepinwall, just trying to grasp the storyline and get the basic gist. But I did read his newbie editions and found them helpful.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: I'm still watching The Wire
Posted Jun 3rd 2009 2:02PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Web, Interviews, Reality-Free
It seems no movie is safe from Kevin Murphy and his former
Mystery Science Theater 3000 comrades as they mock flicks full-time for Rifftrax.
Murphy,
RiffTrax writer/commentator and forever Tom Servo on the Satellite of Love of the original movie-mocking show famous for tackling B-movies, regularly joins fellow
MST3K alums Bill Corbett and Michael J. Nelson to record a series of commentaries on classic and significantly less than classic flicks. Their targets range from
The Happening and
Twilight to
Raiders of the Lost Ark and
Star Wars - all available for $4.
The site just released perhaps the most challenging riff, deliberately taking on what many people consider the greatest film of all time,
Casablanca.
Many movie fans -- even those who enjoy Rifftrax -- object to mockery of such iconic work, but Murphy points to the sites' motto: "We don't make movies. We make them funny."
Continue reading Kevin Murphy sings the praises of MST3K, Rifftrax and mocking classics
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TV Squad previews NBC's new shows (part 1)
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TV Squad previews CBS's new shows
