I'm still trying to catchup on DVDs. The following were recently, or relatively released, released and deserve a look.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The Complete Sixth Season (Fox Home Entertainment, 3 discs)
Season six of The Mary Tyler Moore Show is now available. One of the most popular sitcoms in television history (it ran from 1970 - 1977, 168 episodes), the show boasts an incredible cast including: Mary Tyler Moore, Ed Asner, Ted Knight, Gavin MacLeod and Betty White. Join Mary, Lou, Murray and Ted in the WJM-TV newsroom for another season (24 episodes). In season six there is lots happening including Lou's ex-wife is getting married, Mary moves into another apartment, Ted may get a job as a game show host and Ted and Georgette get married. This season also features the famous episode of Chuckles the Clown's Death - "Chuckles Bites the Dust." More than 600 minutes of good comedy.
Guest stars in season six include Penny Marshall, Mackenzie Phillips, John Ritter, Dabney Coleman and Betty Ford.
Moon (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, rated 14A)
An interesting sci-fi flick is Moon starring Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell, an employee of Lunar Industries - a company that mines most of the Earth's energy on the dark side of the moon. Bell is nearing the end of his 3-year-long contract and he longs to return to Earth and his wife and daughter. On the moon he is kept company by the base's computer - Gerty (voice of Kevin Spacey). Bell's growing sense of paranoia increases when an accident leads to a disturbing discovery.
Special features include commentary with writer/director Duncan Jones and producer Stuart Fenegan as well as creating the visual effects.
Glee: Season 1 Volume 1 Road to Sectionals (Fox Home Entertainment, rated 14A, 4 discs)
I didn't think I'd like Glee, a show about a school glee club, but I was wrong. Glee is an entertaining, funny show with a good cast. Season one Volume one contains the first 13 episodes of the show including the Director's cut of the Pilot where Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), a Spanish teacher at William McKinley High School, attempts to improve the school's floundering glee club. Schuester wants to return the less than popular, often ridiculed, club back to its glory days. Unfortunately, there are many roadblocks that have to be overcome.
Impressive musical numbers with good plots and characters make Glee an entertaining show that reminds me a little of the TV show Fame. Special features include behind-the-scenes featurettes, audition videos from the cast as well as cast versions of popular songs. Guest stars include Josh Groban (episode three - "Acafellas".)
Casablanca (Warner Home Video, Blu-ray Disc, rated PG)
This classic film which features Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) as resistance leader Victor Laszlo's (Paul Henreid) only hope of getting out of the country and away from the Nazis who are after him. To complicate matters, Victor's wife is Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) Blaine's ex-lover who broke his heart. Will Blaine help out, or will bitterness get in the way?
Casablanca won three Academy Awards including Best Picture. Fans of the 3-time Oscar-winning film will be interested to know that the 1942 movie is now available on Blu-ray Disc "with a new high-definition transfer".
Lots of bonus features are also part of this new release and include commentaries by Roger Ebert and historian Rudy Behlmer, an introduction by Lauren Bacall, additional scenes and outtakes, documentaries, featurettes, an audio bonus and more!
Stargate Universe SGU 1.0 (MGM Home Entertainment, rated 14A, 3-disc set)
Another popular TV show on DVD is Stargate Universe SGU 1.0 which features a new story from TV's longest running Sci-Fi series - Stargate SG-1. This show (which is also available on two-disc Blu-ray) contains the first 10 episodes of the series (more than 400 minutes) which finds a group of people stranded billions of miles from Earth aboard the ship "Destiny." These people were fleeing an attack and now must find a way to return home. Actors include Robert Carlyle, Brian J. Smith, Justin Louis, David Blue and Jamil Walker Smith while original cast members Richard Dean Anderson and Amanda Tapping also make appearances. Ming-Na, Lou Diamond Phillips, Louis Ferreira, Alaina Huffman and Elyse Levesque guest star.
Lots of bonus feature which include an extended version of "Air" - the pilot episode, audio commentaries and more.
Coronation Street Volume 4: 1966-68 (E1 Entertainment, 2 discs rated PG)
The latest volume (Volume 4) of Coronation Street (on TV since 1960!) episodes from the 1960s is available on February 23 from E1 Entertainment. This 2-disc set from 1966-68 contains eight episodes of the incredibly popular show from Britain that is shown on the CBC here in Canada. This set introduces Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) as well as regulars Ena Sharples (Violet Carson), Annie Walker (Doris Speed) and Ken Barlow (William Roache). For those that have been watching this show since the sixties, this set includes the train crash where Jack, Ena, Elsie and Lucille go missing.
More than 190 minutes of black & white TV of this entertaining "soap" from the UK for Corrie fans!
Pie In the Sky: Series 1 (Acorn Media, 3 discs)
I didn't know if I'd like Pie In the Sky. After all, it involves a detective inspector who wants to retire and open a restaurant. Didn't sound like my kind of TV show. What it had going for it was that it was from the UK and I thoroughly enjoy British television. So I gave it a try - and I'm glad that I did. Pie In the Sky is a good mystery series featuring Richard Griffiths as Detective Inspector Henry Crabbe - a man who after 25 years in the police force wants to retire and open "Pie In the Sky" - his dream restaurant.
Episode one sees Crabbe getting shot while on the job and, for him, this is the last straw. He wants to retire to open his restaurant. Unfortunately, the force doesn't want to let him go so Crabbe becomes a part-time detective and a part-time chef/restaurateur. Crabbe's wife Margaret (Maggie Steed) isn't so sure that combining cooking with sleuth work is a good idea. Fortunately, Crabbe is very good at both and, with some help from his friends, can run a great restaurant while solving important crimes.
Pie In the Sky: Series 1 features the first 10 episodes of this lighthearted, entertaining mystery series that ran from 1994-1997.
Have Gun - Will Travel: The Fourth Season Volume One (Paramount Home Entertainment, rated PG, 3 discs)
Those who like westerns, especially from the golden age of television, will enjoy Have Gun - Will Travel, a half hour western starring Richard Boone as Paladin, a nice guy who helps people, preferably without violence. But when violence is required, Paladin is good at it. This show ran from 1957-63.
I enjoyed this show which I hadn't seen before. Have Gun - Will Travel: The Fourth Season Volume One contains the first 19 episodes of the show's fourth season. Paladin offers many services including that of detective or bodyguard and he works out of the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco.
Guest stars in this set include Robert Blake, George Kennedy, Jack Albertson, Peter Falk and Brett Somers. This DVD set will be available in March.
Matt Houston: The First Season (Paramount Home Entertainment, rated 14A, 6 discs)
Another DVD set available in March is Matt Houston: The First Season. Matt Houston was an hour-long crime drama that lasted three seasons on ABC from 1982 to 1985. Lee Horsley was Matt Houston, an oil tycoon from Texas who becomes a private investigator in California. Houston's friend, C. J. Parsons (Pamela Hensley), a lawyer, helps Houston in his crime solving exploits.
Season one sees Matt Houston helping various people including his former girlfriend, a publisher who is in danger and a football player accused of killing his coach. Even Matt Houston himself is accused of murder in season one!
The 23 episodes in this six disc collection features such guest stars as: Jill St. John, Heather Locklear, Fred Biletnikoff, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Britt Eklund, Dick Butkus, Janet Leigh, Cesar Romero, Hope Lange, David Cassidy, Norman Fell, George Takei, Barbi Benton, Sonny Bono, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Werner Klemperer, Alan Hale Jr., Dick Sargent, Martin Landau and Markie Post.
Little Mosque on the Prairie: The Complete Third Season (E1 Entertainment, rated PG, 3 discs)
This popular and funny CBC sitcom pertaining to Muslims and Christians living together in the prairie town of Mercy is currently in its fourth season. Season three is now available in a 3-disc set from E1 Entertainment. Season three sees Rayyan accepting J.J.'s marriage proposal, Mercy gets a vegan store, Yasir is offered the job of building inspector and Rayyan and J.J.'s wedding day has arrived.
Special features include audio commentary of some episodes, webisodes, gags and deleted scenes.
News, commercials, sitcoms and movies all made his eyes water—good, bad, trivial. A man surviving a building fire. Another in hospital after a car veered off the road.
Posted by: Plumbing | July 31, 2011 at 02:48 PM