Car 54, Where Are You? comes to DVD, and TV Shows on DVD was there fir--uh, sec--uh, well, at least fourth or fifth

Great, great news came yesterday in this TV Shows on DVD item about one of the great sitcoms of all time finally hitting DVD. Only, it was not a secret that "Car 54" was coming in 2011, nor even what company was releasing it. If you only read TV Shows on DVD, yeah, this item was news. But the "rumor" (it seems demeaning to call it that now since it was true) was out there at places like Home Theater Forum for months.'

TV Shows on DVD is great at reprinting press releases, and lately it's been giving credit to the readers who do the legwork of finding tips on Facebook or whatever. But as far as digging out material on the more obscure shows that interest me, well, the site is useful as confirmation when the company wants to give it the official info, but many of the really cool releases of the last several years have leaked out long before TV Shows on DVD reported them.

On Home Theater Forum, there is a contentious poster who has a way of getting under people's skin sometimes, but you know what? He has great info, particularly about the smaller DVD companies like, say, Timeless, and he shares it when he can. When he posted that "Car 54" was coming, albeit based on secondhand info, I knew it was true.

The reason I bring this all up is because of this paragraph TV Shows on DVD appended to the press release of the "Car 54" Season 1 set:

NOTE: The formal press release posted above is ALL of the official information now available about this upcoming release. In past months readers have pointed us toward many rumors printed online about this item, and when we've turned to the studio to confirm such info, we were informed that they gossip was, by and large, not correct. For that reason we aren't going to point more readers to the wrong info that's floating around, but instead wholly concentrate our news posts on the factual information provided directly to us from Shanachie Entertainment. - TVShowsOnDVDTaken from: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Car-54-Season-1-Press-Release/14743#ixzz16k6evzgX

Maybe I am reading too much into this, but this strikes me as a bit self-righteous considering all the site did was run a press release. And what exactly was this "gossip"? Maybe I had read somewhere the whole season would come in one swoop. Well, this is only one season, so, yeah, that's sort of disappointing. But the fact is, people said the set was coming, and it IS coming. This is the only item listed on the site about this particular show. If TV Shows on DVD was getting tips about "Car 54," why did it run nothing? Maybe some bits of info were incorrect, but still, TV Shows on DVD didn't even confirm that at least the show was on the way.

It doesn't strike me as much of an accomplishment that now we get to read a press release directly from the company, and that the site spared us from harmful "gossip" for so many weeks. I didn't really want gossip, but an item on the status of this show would have been nice. You'd think that when the site was asking Shanchie about this "gossip," it might have asked something like this:

"Hey, uh, so is this show coming out next year?"

I get that TV Shows on DVD wants to make its official sources happy. The problem with that is, there are a lot of sets that we don't hear anything about until the producer wants us to hear about them. That approach works well for the manufacturer, maybe, but if you want to know what's coming up, you have to look elsewhere, even if you risk coming across some gossip.

Warner Archive$ $olve$ a problem

I've been reading for a while that the main reason Warner Brothers has been slow to introduce TV shows as part of its Warner Archives MOD DVD program is because the company is working on a solution to the massive amounts of discs needed to contain a series. Fearful that consumers wouldn't want to shell out the bucks for a set large enough to contain all the episodes of a long-running TV program, WB supposedly was working on a way to get more material on the burned discs to reduce the costs of season or series packages.

Well, worry no more, because Warner Brothers' crack technology team has found a solution: Instead of giving the consumer the whole show at a really high price, give the consumer less of the show at a really high price. Witness this item at TV Shows on DVD which reports the December 7 release of Cheyenne Season 2...you can't really be surprised by this next part, can you...PART 1.

In other words, why mess around with ways to give more value to the hardcore fans who will go to the trouble of buying Warner Archive DVDs? Nah, hell with that. Just go the Paramount route and charge a full-season price for half a season. Not only is the dollar value dubious, but buyers will have to wait longer to collect full series, to boot!

Now, Warners has not listed the price of this set, so maybe I'm wrong on this and the Archives will offer this at a reasonable price roughly equivalent to a fair market price for a full season. Yeah, maybe.

Karma strikes the Shark

Well, perhaps as a result of my bailing out on the planned Thanksgiving edition of Budget DVD theater, Verizonicus, the Roman God of Technology, saw fit to take out my router on that very holiday, disconnecting me from the Internet.

I discovered what was wrong Friday night, and a tech rep promised me a replacement AC adapter would be on the way for Sunday morning delivery. I found that time frame a little odd, given that it would require Verizon to do work on Saturday and UPS to do a delivery on Sunday, but since the lass said several times the part would come Sunday morning, I expected it to arrive...wait for it...Sunday morning.

Well, of course, you know that UPS, unlike Charles Kuralt, doesn't DO Sunday mornings. Heck, I thought I knew that. Well, that tech rep certainly didn't know that. Sunday afternoon, I called FIOS again and was told, "First and foremost, she never should have told you that."

(That has to be one of the worst phrases to hear in life, not just in tech support)

Hedging my bets, I had gone to a Verizon Experience store at the mall on Saturday and taken along a couple of failing remotes and the faulty (according to that first tech person) AC adaptor for the router. I told a guy the remotes were becoming less responsive, and he went to the back and got two brand-new ones, then handed them over, no questions asked.

Well, I was so delirious with the odd sensation of receiving instant gratification from a cable TV provider that I never even thought to ask for credit on my account or anything for the Internet. Plus, keep in mind, I thought I was getting a replacement part the next morning. But I did manage to tell the guy about the router/power supply issue, and he nodded his head knowingly, said something like, "Yeah, we get that a lot," then returned with a brand-new AC adaptor!

If I were thinking clearly, I could have said, "Hey, I don't get free HBO and Cinemax anymore," and he would have walked to the back and brought me back a bundle of those.

Unfortunately, that free adaptor did not fit my FIOS router, so it was useless, Still, I was a happy man Saturday (except for that part where Penn State lost), especially after discovering how well the new remotes worked. The standard fast-forward buttons hadn't worked well for the last few weeks, each requiring the strength of the Hulk and the contortions of Plastic Man to maneuver the button into doing that basic function. The 30-second skip button hadn't worked on either remote for months. Ah, but the new remotes let us fast-forward and skip away! So much for my conspiracy theory that FIOS disabled those buttons at the behest of the networks to force us to watch commercials. They have not done so...yet.

I got a whole lot unhappier Sunday morning, of course, when Tech #2 told me I could expect the part Tuesday morning, meaning two more days without Internet access, not to mention the many features of FIOS-TV (on-demand programming, program guide updates, etc.) reliant on connection through the router. Oh, well, at least the guy had the courtesy to not make fun of me for believing I'd get a package Sunday morning. At least, not till I hung up.

But there may well be a conspiracy to pay me back for skipping out on Thanksgiving's Budget DVD Theater, because as of late Monday night, I am still without Internet access, still without a functioning router, and I post this update from an undisclosed location. Fear not, I will be updating the blog this week, and someday, somehow, we'll get to Budget DVD Theater. You hear me, Verizonicus? I said, we'll get to it! Now send me that power supply!

This Week in DVD

The Expendables: From what I understand, this movie is basically PUNCH, KICK, BOOM, BAM, PUNCH, KICK...and so on and so forth. And for some reason, I'm OK with that in this case. I don't know why I want to see this particular dumb action flick, but I do.

Eat, Pray, Love: Back in the good, old days, before the whole notion of parody adult film titles became a cliched joke, we would have seen a decent version of this film called--well, I'll leave it to your imagination. Maybe there IS one; I haven't, uh, done the research. But it seems like these days, they don;t even bother trying, going with titles like "Not the [insert the pop culture phenomenon of choice here--or, wait, please pick a less suggestive verb than "insert"]" or "This Ain't the..." You get the idea. It would be a shame to see "Not Eat, Pray, Love," considering the wonders that could be done with this title, is all I'm saying.

Groucho Marx TV Classics: If nothing else comes out of this blog today--and I fully expect to live up to that potential--maybe someone can tell me what exactly is on this 3-disc set. Yes, I know there are "16 episodes of You Bet Your Life and two episodes of Hollywood Palace," as per the oft-quoted press release material that pops up everywhere, but WHICH episodes? Am I gonna spend 25 bucks for duplicates of the Shout Factory "Life" sets and one of the "Palace" episodes I already have, plus a few extras? I don't know if the "and lots more" promised in the blurb is enough to go on.

This is the frustrating thing about under-the-radar releases from smaller companies: The near impossibility of finding out solid info before the release, or even after it. As with some sets from Timeless, I just have to wait for some kind soul to buy the set, watch it, and review it on Amazon.

Kukla, Fran, and Ollie The First Episodes: Standard operating procedure in this column is for me to tout a cool-sounding DVD, then follow it up with words to the effect of, "Hope I get to rent it soon." Well, folks, this time I put my money where my mouth is and purchased a gen-u-ine real copy for my ownself of this new set. So how is it? Well, uh, I don't have it yet. See, you could not place an order till this week, so I just reserved my copy of this apparent limited edition earlier today.

This 1950s "children's" show enchanted me in its all-too-brief appearance on Shout Factory's "Hiya, Kids" collection. At first glance, it's a primitive puppet show, but, wow, from what I've seen, the discussion is thoughtful, provocative, even sophisticated in its way. I can't wait to get these episodes, produced courtesy of the Burr Tillstrom Trust, and I hope more are on the way. And thanks to the DVD's producer for--here's a novel idea--actually detailing the contents of the set, including specific episode titles.

I'm Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix: Real or fake, I don't really care to spend a week with Joaquin Phoenix, let alone a whole year.

Who? I'm asking you the name of the movie.
Who?
YOU. I'm asking you, what's the name of the movie.
No, WHO.
I'm asking you...
(It was either this or a reference to Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart's short-lived WWF stint as the masked Who, which seemed nothing more than an excuse for similar exchanges on TV)

Sherlock Holmes Archive Collection Vol. 2: So I guess if Volume 1 isn't on Netflix yet, I shouldn't hold my breath for Volume 2, huh?

Brooks on Books: several entertainment books

Some quick takes on entertainment-related books I've read recently, none of them particularly new or newsworthy, but, darn it, I read 'em:

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher: This sort-of memoir is disappointing, but maybe I shouldn't expect too much considering the author says early on much of her memory is shot from electroshock therapy to treat her bipolar. The book, she also admits, is basically adapted from her one-woman show, and much of these stories probably work better on a stage. As a reading experience, it's scattershot and way too brief. But it has some laughs, and I wish the best for Carrie Fisher.

TV Guide Fifty Years of Television: This is a gorgeous, massive coffee-table book that probably still shows up at remainder outlets around the country. It's arranged sort of like an old "TV Guide" magazine, with sections devoted to each day of the week, and it consists mostly of big pictures from the archives, accompanied by small insets of vintage mag covers of the photo subject. The text isn't as important, but it gets the job done. There are also a few layouts of nothing but reproductions of old mag covers. It's a great book for any old-school TV fan, especially at a discount.

The Showrunners by David Wild: I bought this for a buck at a used book sale, and, boy, was it worth it. Wait, that sounds like a backhanded compliment, doesn't it. "The Showrunners" is a bargain at that price, but then, what isn't? Wild's book about the creative minds who "run" (basically executive produce, but from the creative side--that is, actually working) network TV shows is almost 20 years old, but it's still a fun and useful read.

Wild is a prolific magazine writer, and this book, though it integrates all of its subjects by purporting to cover a season of television, often reads like a series of magazine profiles. But it doesn't matter. Wild draws some great quotes from his subjects, and through these profiles, he does paint a revealing picture of how shows are built from the ground up, then maintained throughout the grind of a production season.

Wild's look at the 1998-1999 season covers shows like "Friends," "Seventh Heaven," "Seven Days," "The Norm Show," Cupid," and "NewsRadio"--an intriguing mix of series that endure, series that are forgotten, comedies, dramas, plus a mix of the various personalities involved. Most compelling is Wild's portrait of NewsRadio's Paul Simms, who was scarred by showbiz battles even before enduring a season in which his established show was left to twist in the wind by NBC management even as his new pilot (also covered here) was also strung along by the network.

Even if you don't care much about the specific shows that get the ink here, you'll enjoy Wild's book if you are interested in the behind-the-scenes aspects of network television. "The Showrunners" depicts both the creative process and the experience of dealing with the "suits," and it's loaded with amusing anecdotes and details.

Budget DVD Theater UPDATE

Last week I made a big deal out of the pending return of Budget DVD Theater, coyly announcing I had picked the selection but not yet re-watched it. I declared it was the perfect turkey for a Thanksgiving Day post.

Well, hold the turkey this year, friends (Me, I prefer ham, and I am especially thankful my mother-in-law will offer the swine as well as the fowl). Instead, may I offer you a spot of...weasel?

The sad truth is I have not yet screened the Budget DVD Theater turkey, as family and work commitments have kept me occupied--and, OK, maybe I'm still a little reluctant to actually sit down and watch the thing again for the first time in years. I will try to do so tonight, but I am not sure when I can actually deliver Budget DVD Theater--though I expect to at least get some other stuff up this holiday weekend--so I make no more promises.

In the meantime, I offer these clues about the selection:
1) It is old
2) It is black and white
3) It is < or = 30 minutes

Stay tuned, and Happy Thanksgiving!