TVSquad

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

Why didn't somebody tell me that they were going to release The Guardian on DVD? I really liked that show. I don't know if the show is being released because Simon Baker and The Mentalist are a hit or if it has been in the works long before that, but it's a nice surprise.

• The Barbara Stanwyck Show - Vol. 1
• Battlestar Galactica - The Plan
• CBS News Sunday Morning - On The Road with Charles Kuralt: Set 1
• The Diary of Anne Frank - Miniseries

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

I'm really excited about the second season set for Mannix. The first season had Joe Mannix working for a high-tech investigation firm, which was fine, but the second season is when he becomes a private eye and hires Gail Fisher to be his secretary (yes, secretary: this was before women became "executive assistants"). If you like detective shows and have never seen Mannix (I don't think it's on TV much these days), check it out. It also has one of the coolest theme songs in TV history.

• Battlestar Galactica - Season 4
• Dexter - Season 1 (Blu-Ray)
• Doctor Who - The War Machines and Four To Doomsday
• Duckman - Seasons 3 and 4
• Frisky Dingo - Season 2
• Ghost Hunters - Absolute Best
• Laredo - Best of Season 2, Part 2
• Mannix - Season 2
• Tranformers Animated - Season 2
• Tripping the Rift - Season 3
• The Tudors - Season 2
• The Waltons - Season 8

I think this is probably the 50th or 60th post about TV theme songs we've done here at TV Squad, either lists of our own or stories about other lists on the web. But it's one of the great all-time TV debates among fans so it's good to revisit the topic every few months.

Paste has the latest list, their 40 best TV theme songs of all-time. Oh, we could talk about this for hours (and we probably will), but there are four thoughts that come immediately to mind after reading all 40 choices:

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• American Gangster - Season 2
• The Andromeda Strain - Complete Mini-Series
• CHiPs - Season 2
• Dante's Cove - Season 3
• The Dead Zone - Season 6
• Doctor Who - Beneath The Surface, Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea Devils, and Warriors of the Deep
• Fearless Planet
• Flavor of Love - Season 3
• Get Smart - Complete Series (1995 version)
• I Love New York - Season 2
• Mannix - Season 1
• Meerkat Manor - Best Of, Season 2
• Rescue Me - Season 4
• Storm Chasers - Perfect Disaster
• Weeds - Season 3

Welcome to TV Squad Lists, a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.

Everywhere I go, young people ask me the same question, "How did you finish that whole sandwich in one sitting?" Then, when we're all done laughing, they ask me how they can become a TV expert like myself. So, as a favor to you aspiring Dukes and Duchesses, here are ten things you need to be a TV Geek.

1. At least one TV over 40 inches
Not all homes are built to accommodate a flat screen or a rear projection TV, if this is the situation in your house ... move.

One of the saddest changes in the television landscape has been the disappearance of the theme song. They're really not that important to the people who create TV shows now (or the networks who want to get more commercials in). Lost has just a single note as their theme song, ER has changed and shortened their theme song, Jericho has static, and Heroes doesn't have a theme song or credits either.

Luckily, the shows that still have theme songs also have opening credits. Shows like The Office and Dexter all have theme songs and opening credits. They're classic TV openings. Of course, it's nothing like years gone by, where almost all shows had theme song and opening credits. The Onion has picked 22 that they feel fit their shows perfectly. I don't know if that is the same as "best opening sequences," but the choices are interesting, quirky, a little maddening, and they left out a few, as I'm sure you'll agree.

Veteran character actor Jeremy Slate - you might not know the name but you definitely know the face - died of complications from throat surgery last week in Los Angeles.

Slate was known for his movie roles in Girls! Girls! Girls!, Lawnmower Man, and Hell's Angels '69, but he was even more known for the massive amount of work he did on the small screen, starting in the late '50s. Slate was a regular on the 1960 series The Aquanauts, and had guest roles on many shows, including Route 66, Perry Mason, Dr. Kildare, Naked City, Have Gun, Will Travel, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Mr. Lucky, The Untouchables, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Bewitched, Combat, Tarzan, Bonanza, Ironside, Mission: Impossible, Mannix, Wonder Woman, The Wonderful World of Disney, and many others. Most recently he guest-starred on an episode of My Name Is Earl.

I remember him most from his two soap roles: he played Chuck Wilson, Asa's assistant, on One Life To Live for many years, and had a short-lived role as songwriter Locke Walls on Guiding Light in the mid-80s (he was involved with Alexandra Spaulding and her son Nick, if I'm not mistaken).

Lee Goldberg blames William Simon for turning him on to YouTube, and now I'm blaming Lee Goldberg for ruining the rest of my work day.

Goldberg has started a new blog, Main Title Heaven. It's a blog filled with clips of the opening titles to various TV shows, both old and new. Not just the most popular, famous ones (though he has stuff like Magnum, P.I., I Dream of Jeannie, and the original Battlestar Galactica), but also little gems you might not think of, like Banacek, Raven, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Man From Atlantis, The Magician, Seaquest, It Takes A Thief, and Mannix. He's gotta get that other version of the Flipper theme up though.

This site will suck up all of your time today and bring back a lot of memories. Hey, remember when TV shows actually had theme songs and openings?