Well, it’s been quite a long time since I did a post about some classic TV shows hitting DVD recently, because there really hasn’t been a huge influx of new stuff for quite a long time. Add to that the fact that my collecting DVDs has really bottomed out over the past few months. I stalled on getting some more, for whatever reason. I still have a long way to go before my collection will be complete — in fact, if I had to guess, I’d say I’m about 1/3rd finished — but I just haven’t been paying much attention recently.
Anyway, there is a few things on the front that I’ll mention. The first one is that both the original Transformers and G.I. Joe are going to get a re-release in a couple of months. The stories behind both of them is a little interesting.
The original box sets for the Transformers animated series came out a long, long time ago. I’m not sure when, but it was way before even releasing TV shows on DVD became remotely popular. They sold them in two sets per season. By the time I started getting them (which was when there was still very little selection anyway), they were already out of print, and very expensive. I remember paying between $40 to $100 for each box set, and I actually got all of them but one box.
When I found out that there was a Transformers movie in the making (the first one), I decided I’d make a gamble. I figured that it would be an irresistible opportunity for someone to snatch up the rights for the old series and re-release the DVDs. Since I wasn’t really watching the ones I had, and they were in fair condition anyway, I decided to sell mine, figuring they would be re-released.
Well, the movie came, the movie went out of theaters, onto DVD, and not a peep about the TV show getting re-released. My gamble lost. I was really bummed, because they were so hard to find. By this time, I didn’t want to re-invest the money in tracking them down again, so I gave up on it. What I didn’t count on, though, was a sequel to the movie, and it looks like the TV shows are finally getting a proper release again. Right on. They’ll be out June 16th of this year.
G.I. Joe is another series that had the same problem — in fact, they were both released by Rhino, which got bought out by someone, or something. I don’t remember the story. A shame, because they were releasing a lot of retro stuff.
They originally got released on DVD way back when, but they never released the entire series. Just the first season and half of the second one (if I’m remembering correctly). These, though, I did manage to get all of them that were available.
The new release is gonna be out July 21st.
Now this one isn’t nearly as noteworthy, but it is singular in the sense that it’s been one series that has been highly anticipated to be released for a long time, and now it’s finally out: Mr. Belvedere.
The first two seasons are finally on DVD, and while this release is a bit dated already (I think it came out in March), I just finally bought a copy this week. I’ve been waiting for this one. I don’t remember much about this show, other than it was one of my favorites, and I laughed quite a lot when it was on. I can’t wait to get it.
I’m hoping the studio doesn’t stall on the releases for the other seasons. That tends to happen sometimes — they will release the first or second series, and then you won’t see anything for years. Kind of a bummer, and kind of strange when you consider how well the shows did back in the day. Growing Pains comes to mind.
The trend that I’ve been seeing recently though is that studios are releasing complete series boxes instead of individual series sets. I’m sure it saves them a lot of hassle, shelf-space and packaging that way. I’m not really sure how I feel about it. I don’t have any complete series box sets myself, and I’m used to buying them one by one. Oh well. Whatever.
Here’s one I wanna write about just because I can: The Smurfs.
My sister got me this one for my birthday this year, and I’m really excited. This was, growing up, one of those shows that I just never got tired of. I dunno why. Yah. No idea. I’d been meaning to get one for a while, and I just started watching it the other weekend. I was totally mesmerized and could not stop watching. That very rarely happens. So, looks like I’ll get to enjoy it all over again. Good stuff.
Ah, hmm, there’s actually a lot more I could write about than I realized. I think I’ll hold off for now, though.