TVSquad

I know I'm dating myself, but I'm really looking forward to watching the second season of thirtsysomething on DVD.

The first season was released back in August, and I had a blast catching up with great characters like Michael and Melissa Steadman, Elliot Weston and Gary Shepherd. Season two hits DVD in January, thanks to the good folks at Shout! Factory, known for putting out great sets like the packed Freaks and Geeks collection and the recent Transformers "G1" collector's set.

Some people might only think of thirtysomething as "that '80s show about whiny yuppies," and that's fine. But the Emmy-award winning drama brings back a lot of great memories for me. As I mentioned before, I used to watch it with my mom, who I'm pretty sure related to Patricia Wettig's frustrated homemaker Nancy Weston and free spirit Melissa Steadman, played by Melanie Mayron. (As for my dad, I'm not ashamed to say that he's more of a Timothy Busfield type!)

I had forgotten how very funny The Dana Carvey Show was until several months ago when I decided to watch a bunch of episodes online. It may sound cliched to say, but I think this was an underrated show, ahead of its time, and would probably survive for a few more seasons today on Comedy Central or FX or FOX. I can picture that.

We won't get a revival, of course, but we now have a great DVD set (in stores today) to keep forever. All of the episodes are here (including one that didn't even make it to ABC), and a couple of good extras.

Sometimes it takes a few years to realize how funny a show was. I think that's what happened with The Dana Carvey Show.

It was on ABC for a very short time back in 1996, and even though a lot of people found it funny, a lot more people found it odd. Now the show is finally coming to DVD. Shout! Factory is releasing a two-DVD set on May 12 that will not only have all of the episodes uncut, the set will also include a bonus episode of the show that never aired.

I often compare this show to The Ben Stiller Show, and though I loved both shows, I think The Dana Carvey Show was tighter and put their ideas across in a better way. Not too many sketches from this show went on and on to ruin the joke. But that would be a good DVD to have: the best moments from each!

After the jump, a little piece of what you'll see on the DVDs (yup, that's Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert). AOL Video has more episodes.

Consider this your way-too-far-in-advance sneak preview at a future DVD extra for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 set for Shout! Factory. On January 17, MST3K creator Joel Hodgson and original cast member and writer Trace Beaulieu gave a crowd at M.I.T. a peek behind the scenes of the venerable sci-fi comedy show with their lecture, "The Design and Speculative Technology of MST3K," which they filmed to use as a future DVD extra.

For the uninitiated, Joel was the original host, was shot into space by evil scientists (Dr. Forrester was played by Beaulieu) and forced to watch (sing it with me, MSTies) "cheesy movies, the worst we can find." To help him handle the torture, Joel built four robot friends, two of which, Crow (also originated by Beaulieu) and Servo, watched the movies and made fun of them with Joel. Together, Joel, Crow, and Servo cut the best silhouette in show business (at least to comedy and movie geeks like myself).

But then, if you're reading this, you probably know all of that.

I think I'm getting spoiled by special DVD sets. I have a lot of "complete series" sets and anniversary sets, and many of them are these massive, well put together sets that seem to be really complete and perfect. I'm thinking of sets that I own for such shows as The Twilight Zone, The West Wing, Friends, and The Dick Van Dyke Show, as well as season sets in shows like The X-Files and The Simpsons.

I say we're spoiled because I think that even die hard fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 might be a little disappointed by the packaging for their new 20th Anniversary DVD set (there's two actually - a limited edition tin box and a regular set; this review is for the limited edition box in the pic above). Not for the content, but for the way it is put together.

Fans of the short-lived ABC comedy Sports Night were disappointed when the DVD set for the show came out in 2002. We were really happy that there was indeed a complete series set for the show, but there wasn't any extras in the set at all. No commentaries, no features, no interviews, no booklet. Some people even reported that the discs didn't work that well, that they would stop and start or freeze altogether on some DVD players (I have the old set and never had this problem). Fans were happy to have the show, but still wanted more.

Well, now we do. Shout! Factory has released a new 10th Anniversary set for the show, and all of the the extras that were missing in that set are here, and then some.

Last one this week -- I promise! We've got five copies of Stargate: Infinity - The Complete Series on DVD for five lucky, random commenters. The DVD is available in already available in stores.

To enter, simply leave a comment below before 5:00PM Eastern, Friday, May 23 telling us why you'd like to own this DVD set. As always, we'll randomly choose five winners amongst the eligible entries. Some other details:
Click here for complete Official Rules.

I'm talking about the American version of the show that ran for a short time on NBC several years ago. It starred Rob Schneider, Justine Bateman, and Ron Eldard. Remember it now? It actually ran for a season and a half before it was pulled.

Shout! Factory is releasing a 4 disc DVD set of the show, which will include all 22 episodes (including seven that never aired). No word yet on if there will be any extras or other features. As you can see from the cover of the box, where Rob Schneider is standing there naked but with a newspaper over his genitals (get it? naked people covered up!), the show was, um, hilarious.

It always amazes me when shows like this come out on DVD. Not a hit, but it came out recently enough and there must be some sort of cult buzz to justify a DVD release. It just makes me think of all the shows in the 60s, 70s, and 80s that lasted even longer but were too long ago and/or don't have that buzz that would make a company put the show out on DVD. Though I guess if shows like this keep getting released, the chances of those older shows coming out increases, so more power to 'em.

The set comes out on February 13.

I'll preface this by telling my fellow Home Movies fanatics that right now there's no guarantee this is ever going to happen, but according to an e-mail sent to Landstander, maintainer of the Home Movies Super Site, Shout! Factory, the company that produces the Home Movies DVD sets, wants to commission new episodes of the series for either download or as a straight-to-DVD type thang. The episodes would cost five dollars each. Episodes would run from fifteen to twenty-five minutes, and there would be about eight of them. It seems that at this stage the company is just putting out feelers to see if there would be enough people out there who would buy these episodes to make it a worthwhile endeavor. Home Movies is one of my favorite shows of all time, but it seems to me everyone involved, especially Brendon Small, has already moved on to new horizons. I guess we'll wait and see.

[via Adult Swim HQ]

Next Tuesday, the Shout Factory will be releasing a five-disc set of the first season of That Girl, the 1960s series featuring Marlo Thomas as a struggling actress trying to make her way in New York City. In the final season, she marries Phil Donahue. Wait, that actually happened in real life. My bad. Besides the thirty first season episodes, the set will also include the original pilot, as well as promos and two documentaries about the making of the television series, each featuring Marlo Thomas.