TVSquad

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

I wasn't even aware that there was already a Fawlty Towers complete set out. Or maybe I knew it and forgot and didn't get reminded of it until I heard about the new remastered set that comes out tomorrow. I'm gonna get that.

I'm also tempted to get Vegas, just because I liked that show and haven't seen it in years. I hate these "Volume" sets though. Just give us the whole season!

• Black Adder - Black Adder 1, II, III, IV, and V (All remastered) and Ultimate Edition
• Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman - Complete Series (New package)
• Eleventh Hour - Complete Series
• Faerie Tale Theatre - Bedtime Tales and Magical Tales
  

In what must be a major slap in the face to Kelsey Grammer and the creators behind Hank, ABC is pre-empting the show on October 28th with the Halloween classic It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Wait, it gets worse. It's pre-empting the show with a repeat of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown from the night before. Granted, the previous night will be the expanded, hour-long version, but still...

Admittedly, opinions of Hank haven't exactly been stellar. Quite the opposite, in fact. While the show has not actually been canceled, it does not seem long for this world. Its only consolation is that it lasted longer than The Beautiful Life.

Kelsey Grammer will never be able to get away from Frasier Crane, much like Carroll O'Connor was never able to get away from Archie Bunker. It's a shame since Grammer is a better actor than that.

Like most people in the known universe, I grew up with Charlie Brown. In addition to watching all the TV specials, my family amassed a fairly large collection of the paperback Peanuts books and even a few nice hardcovers. Family friendly graphic novels, you might call them.

So I was pretty excited to learn that Warner Home Video was releasing a lot of the TV specials, both individually and in collections. On Oct. 20, the Peanuts 1970's Collection, Vol. 1 will hit store and cyber shelves in a 2-disc set. A nice publicist sent me an advance copy, so I'm happy to devote this week's Jane After Dark to this lovely set.

I'm always harping on all the sex and violence on TV right now -- often in shows that bill themselves as family friendly -- so it's really nice to have something you can watch with your kids that you know won't contain anything offensive or off-color. Not only that, the stories usually have a moral lesson, but they don't whack you over the head with it. It's more subtle, wrapped up in the humor and innocence of the stories and characters.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

Finally, a DVD release that I'm definitely, definitely going to buy: the new MST3K set! I'm also looking at the new Peanuts set because I don't have a complete collection of their holiday specials, but there have been a few of these collections released, so I'll have to figure out which one is the best one.

• Callan - Set 1
• Doctor Who - The Rescue/The Romans and Attack of the Cybermen
• Kath and Kim - Season 1

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

Hmmm...no idea why there's a new edition of Alias' season 5 coming out tomorrow. There was another version of the season already released, but it has been discontinued. I wonder if there's something different in the set that will tick off fans who bought that deluxe Alias Complete Series Set with Rambaldi Artifact a while back.

And the fourth season of Felicity too. Maybe it's J.J. Abrams' birthday?

• Alias - Season 5 (new edition)
  
• Ben 10: Alien Force - Season 1, Vol. 3
• Beverly Hills, 90210 - Season 7

Some say the most important job in the world is that of a teacher. And, really, we've all been placed under the tutelage of someone who was literally paid to provide education. But yet, so often, kids find themselves inspired by - and often in worship of - these individuals, young and old alike, who can play an integral role in shaping one's childhood and, some might argue, the rest of their lives.

Of course, that isn't always the case. Teachers can also be awful monsters whom we never forget for their ability to patronize, degrade, or humiliate us, often leaving one wondering if the man or woman in question took the job merely to torture students. This, naturally, can lead a kid to fantasize about how cool it would be to fall under the instruction of one of the following actors who, despite likely not possessing any type of teaching certification in real life, would probably be a blast to spend 40-or-so minutes on a daily basis.

I want to talk to you about a grass roots campaign to save Eli Stone. You see, I had this idea where fans of the program would send George Michael paraphernalia - CDs, MP3s, T-Shirts, programs, videos - to the executive mugwumps over at ABC in order to express their frustration that they were not picking up the back nine episodes of the series. It would have been similar in scope to the Great Peanut Campaign of 2007 that ending up (temporarily) saving Jericho.

Then I got to thinking, which is always a bad sign. While a campaign such as this could result in programming executives opening their minds for just a minuscule amount of time to the possibilities of continuin the series, I'm not too sure it would be worth it. Not 'worth' in the terms that the campaign would fall on the deaf ears of the tailor-suited wonks. I'm talking about 'worth' in what it would cost the fans of the show to get the materials and ship them out to send a message. We are in a recession, after all.

Here we are in the time of year of the holiday specials. And many of them are Peanuts specials. We've already seen It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and coming soon are A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (next Tuesday on ABC) and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Those are the good ones. What you're about to see if a bad one.

Whenever there is some hot, hip pop culture trend, you see everyone adopting it. That's why James Bond went into freakin' space in Moonraker. The damn success of Star Wars and other space films. It happened to Snoopy too, in It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown. Yup, Snoopy and Franklin and others donned sweats and break danced in this special from the 80s, as you can see in the video after the jump.

Hasn't The Simpsons already spoofed It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on one of its many "Treehouse of Horror" episodes? You would think it would be a natural for them and it would have been done years ago.

The classic Peanuts show is one of the segments spoofed (it's called "It's The Great Pumpkin, Milhouse") on the annual Halloween episode of the show. The other segments include a Transformers spoof (the robots try to destroy Springfield, of course), and the segment I'm most looking forward to, a Mad Men takeoff. Seems that advertising agencies hire Homer to kill celebrities so they can make a bunch of money off of their likenesses. It's called "How To Get Ahead In Deadvertising." We'll see Homer falling off of a building a la Mad Men's opening credits.

As is often the case, the Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" episode will actually air after Halloween, on November 2. After the jump, a video retrospective of the show's Halloween episodes and a sneak peek at one of the scenes from the new one.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

I think I mentioned a week or two ago that it was good that I didn't have to spend any money on DVDs. Well, it looks like we're getting into a time when they're releasing something every single week that I want. This week it's Game Show Moments Gone Bananas, which looks like a lot of fun.

The first season of This American Life is finally out in general release after the Borders-only version from last year.

• Alvin & The Chipmunks - Alvin's Thanksgiving Celebration and Holiday Gift Set
• Ax Men - Season 1
• Boston Legal - Season 4
• Brothers & Sisters - Season 2
• CSI: NY - Season 4
• Cashmere Mafia - Complete Series
• Friday The 13th - Season 1
• Games Show Moments Gone Bananas
• iCarly - Season 1, Vol. 1
• Peanuts - Peanuts Holiday Collection
• Rob & Big - Season 3
• Samantha Who? - Season 1
• Schoolhouse Rock - Election Collection
• This American Life - Season 1
• Two and a Half Men - Season 4

We have a TV Royalty category here at TV Squad, and if there's anyone who worked in television and deserved the honor it's Bill Melendez.

Melendez was an animator for Walt Disney Studios in the 1930 and 40s, working on such classic movies as Fantasia and Pinocchio and Mickey Mouse shorts, then went on to make tons of movies, cartoons and commercials (he worked on many Bugs Bunny shorts and other famous cartoons) for well-known companies such as United Productions of America (where he was an animator on Gerald McBoing McBoing) and Playhouse Pictures. He then met Charles Schulz in 1959 and went on to animate (and often direct and produce) most of the Peanuts TV specials, including A Charlie Brown Christmas, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and many, many others. Many people don't know this but he was also the voice of both Snoopy and Woodstock (they didn't talk, of course, but he did all of the howls and other noises). He worked on TV versions of Cathy and Garfield too.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Coach - Season 3
• Cops - 20th Anniversary Edition
• Dragon Ball Z - Season 4
• Father Ted - The Holy Trilogy
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe - Vol. 1
• Peanuts - It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown (Deluxe)
• SpongeBob SquarePants - Home Sweet Pineapple/SpongeBob Goes Prehistoric
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Season 2, Part 1
• Walker, Texas Ranger - Season 4

I'll say right up front that I am a huge Charles Schulz fan. I think Peanuts is one of the most important things in the history of pop culture (not just comics, but in all of pop culture - film, literature, TV, music and art). It's the type of comic that's entertaining and fun for all of the obvious reasons but something that can also show you a little bit about how to live your life too. I mean, who doesn't like Snoopy or A Charlie Brown Christmas?

So I've been a little antsy about a new biography of Schulz that is coming out next week, Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography, by David Michaelis. It's a bio that supposedly gives a fuller picture of Schulz, including the sad, unhappy parts of his life. Now I see that I'm not the only one who is a little antsy about the book and a new American Masters that will profile Schulz too.

Jericho fans aren't just sending sternly-worded e-mails and signing petitions to save the show, they've also launched a 'Send NUTS' campaign that is really picking up steam. This fan website concocted the campaign after CBS announced Jericho's cancellation at last week's Upfronts presentation. The reason for the nuts is based on something a Jericho character, Jake, said when New Bern's commander asked him to surrender. He said "Nuts!" That also happens to be a famous response given by WWII Gen. MacAuliffe when asked to surrender at the Battle of the Bulge.

Fans have enlisted the help of a family-owned New Jersey nut company called NutsOnline, whose employees are working overtime to handle the sudden increase in demand for nuts. The business is taking orders and sending bulk shipments to CBS. As of Tuesday, nearly 5,000 pounds of nuts have been ordered and/or shipped. You can order here if you, too, think CBS is NUTS for canceling Jericho.

*Update: NutsOnline is donating $.10 on each pound of nuts shipped to rebuild Greensburg, Kansas, which was destroyed by a tornado earlier this month.

(S05E14) The up and down season of Family Guy continues, and I thought this one was a bit of a valley, rather than a peak. It had its moments, to be sure, but as a whole, it was somewhat lacking. Peter summed up my feelings for this episode pretty well with his quote after seeing the opening to Maude, "That was an ordeal."

That bit is a good example of what was wrong with this installment. Aside from the fact that it was a reference to a show that you have to be 40 years old, or a tv nutter, to get, it just wasn't funny. And no matter how long the song went on, it was never going to be funny. I found myself in much the same situation while watching tonight. I was just sitting and watching, waiting for it to get funny.