Artistic teenager, Bay Kennish (Vanessa Marano) lives in a wealthy neighborhood with her stay at home mom (Lea Thompson), her ex-baseball playing dad (D.W. Moffett) and her older brother, Toby (Lucas Grabeel). After a school project reveals that Bay doesn’t share the same blood type with anyone in her family, she convinces her parents to have a genetic test. They discover that Bay is not actually their biological daughter and that she was switched at birth with another girl, Daphne Vasquez (Katie Leclerc). The Kennishs decide to meet the Vasquezs, a family that couldn’t be any more different than theirs.

Daphne’s mom (Constance Marie) is a single parent raising her daughter in a crummy neighborhood. That isn’t the biggest surprise, though. Daphne is deaf, having lost her hearing after getting meningitis when she was a child. Daphne can read lips and is an expert in sign language. As she proves to everyone in both families, she does not let her disability stop her from being an average teenager. In fact, throughout the course of the first season, Daphne’s struggles (young love, sense of identity, betrayal) are everything we’ve all been though, except that she can not hear.

When Daphne’s mom is at risk of losing her house and moving to Ohio, Bay asks her parents if the Vasquez family can temporarily move into the vacant Kennish guest house. Of course, you know Bay’s mom and dad are going to agree to this TV contrivance, but the writers allow for the revelation and this set up to come naturally, as opposed to rushing into it within the first half hour. I didn’t mind this direction in the show since I know there have to be allowances in order to set up future conflict and stories. Even my beloved Friday Night Lights was known to come up with some all too convenient TV set ups.

After the pilot episode pushes the two families together and does its best to introduce all of the important supporting characters, Switched at Birth slows down a little and allows for the characters to begin growing. This was especially true with Bay’s parents, who were a little too pushy and cloying in the pilot. Thompson, at times, is a little annoying in the show, but Moffett does a nice job as a father trying to do what’s best for his new, extended family. Marie is strong as Daphne’s mom and Grabeel continues to grow as an actor. Even though this is technically still a Disney project (Disney owns ABC Family), I feel that after Milk and with this series, he may finally be able to shed the High School Musical yolk he’s been wearing.

As for the two leads, Marano can be grating, especially when she’s trying to be a rebel. I wish someone would rein her in. Leclerc, on the other hand, is exceptional. If you’re wondering whether or not to watch Switched at Birth, I would give it a chance just to see this young actress perform. Although she is not deaf, like Daphne, Leclerc does suffer from Ménière’s disease, a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance to a varying degree. It is characterized by episodes of vertigo and tinnitus and degenerative hearing loss.

Switched at Birth: Volume One contains the first ten episodes from the first season, all of which aired this past summer. Included with the purchase is a Switched at Birth exclusive collectible iPod skin, containing some of the unique artwork that Bay tags on the side of houses. If you’re looking for a last minute gift for the teen in your house, or if you want an enjoyable, light way to spend some of your time off, I would recommend this show. Happy Holidays.

All good sitcom episodes have happy endings. So it stands to reason that the uncertainty over whether there would ever be a DVD release of the seldom-seen fourth season of The Donna Reed Show resolved itself like an episode of the show – cheerfully. The Donna Reed Show: Season Four – The Lost Episodes will be released through MPI Home Video Dec. 20, after having been originally slated for a Mother’s Day release earlier in the year.

One reason for the release is the enthusiasm of the show’s fans, which include two generations of viewers: those who followed it during its initial airing (1958-66) and those who discovered it in its decade-long run on Nick at Nite (1985-94). Both generations lobbied for the release of the fourth season, voicing their complaints on message boards and launching a campaign called “Bring The Donna Reed Show Season Four to DVD” on Facebook (the page is now deleted, but a related YouTube video survives).

Had this been an episode of the show, Reed’s fictional daughter, Mary Stone, would have probably played into the plot. But in this real life drama, it was Reed’s actual daughter, Mary Owen, who saved the day by making it her priority to make sure the fourth season of the show got released.

“It’s been a huge learning curve for me,” Owen says by phone from her home in New York. “But I feel it’s really important — I consider the show part of our American heritage and think it’s really important to keep the DVD releases going.”

To understand why the fourth season’s DVD release was delayed for over a year, some back story is in order.

First, it’s been up to Owen and her siblings to see that the show made it to DVD, since the rights to the show (or at least the first five seasons) are owned by them personally, not a media conglomerate. Owen’s mother and father (Tony Owen), who co-produced the show, had entered into a distribution agreement with the show’s production company, Screen Gems, way back in the 1960s. Since this was before DVDs or even VCR tapes were invented, there was no thought that there would be much of a market for the show in the distant future, so Screen Gems gave the show’s rights back to the family starting in 2003.

“When my parents died, we found out the show’s rights reverted back to us (children),” Owen explains. “I’m sure in their minds not only had they moved on, but probably never thought The Donna Reed Show would ever see the light of day again.”

For the first three seasons, Owen chose Allied Arts Alliance America (which became Virgil Films Entertainment) to put out the DVDs. “We signed up with them and we were really excited and the president is a huge fan of my mother’s career,” she says.

But she found she needed to change companies when producing the fourth season on DVD posed a challenge. Since the season had never been syndicated as part of the Nick at Night package, the episodes were disorganized and sometimes had to be pieced back together. Of course, it was the very fact that this season hadn’t been broadcast since the early 1970s that had fans of the show wanting to see it.

Why did Nick at Nite decide never to broadcast the fourth season (as well as the sixth and seventh)?

“I think because the show had a total of 275 episodes, they just didn’t want that much volume,” Owen says. “So somebody just made a decision to snip here and there and chose to broadcast mostly seasons 1, 2, 3, 5 and 8.”

After the release of the shows’ third season on DVD in 2009, “the market started tumbling down and putting out the fourth season was going to prove to be expensive because of the lack of syndication,” Owen says. So she chose to go with MPI Home Video which, she says, “has more experience with classic television.

“Season Four was never transferred to tape, so the digitizing is all from the original 35 millimeter stock,” Owen explains. “And there were a lot of missing end credits because of the way the original show ran. Originally it had a lot of sponsors and there were product placements in the end credits as well as in the intros. So it’s been a matter of finding the pieces and putting them all back together.”

Matching the various end credits to the right episodes became, she says, “kind of like a Sherlock Holmes investigation but luckily everything was found. MPI was incredible at finding everything. We’re so lucky — a lot of older shows weren’t that well cared for and a lot of stuff is missing.”

According to Owen, a DVD set for the show’s fifth season is already being planned and should be much easier to assemble since most of those episodes were syndicated. Sony holds the rights to the final three seasons of the show and Owen isn’t certain about whether those will come out on DVD.

But the fourth season DVD set, which contains 39 episodes spread over five discs, should be enough to keep fans occupied for a while. The episode that is likely to receive the most attention is Donna’s Prima Donna, which has Mary Stone forsaking college to start a singing career and debuting the song “Johnny Angel” on national television. The song, as released on the Colpix Records label, became a number one hit for Shelley Fabares, who starred as Mary.

The season four DVD package, Owen says, is also the first to feature bonus material, which will come in the form of interviews with both Fabares and Stu Phillips, the latter of whom founded the Colpix label, produced “Johnny Angel,” and then went on to work on another show that heavily featured pop music, “The Monkees.”

The season also featured a plethora of guest stars, including James Darren (another Colpix artist), Cloris Leachman, John Astin, Swoozie Kurtz and baseball great Don Drysdale.

To celebrate the launch of the new DVD set, MPI organized a reunion and tribute program featuring some of the show’s surviving actors (Reed passed away in 1986). The event was held Dec. 6 in Los Angeles’ Paley Center and was attended by Fabares, co-star Paul Petersen, Darren and Phillips.

Watching the “lost” episodes again on DVD left a big impression on Owen. “There are some poignant and subtly dramatic moments that are impressive and just make me think that it’s time again for ‘The Donna Reed Show,’” she says. “There are so many gentle lessons and great images about the American family, which I feel is not currently in the best condition.”

The Donna Reed Show’s depiction of the American family is what it’s best remembered for, and likely the reason viewers from two separate generations made it a hit. When the show started, it centered around the adventures of the four-member Stone family, which included Donna (played by Reed), her physician husband Alex (Carl Betz), their teenage daughter Mary and their precocious pre-adolescent son Jeff (Paul Petersen).

As the show progressed, that formula would be altered, with Paul Petersen’s younger sister Patty becoming a cast member when Fabares left the show. But it was the family-centric thrust of the show that attracted its initial flurry of viewers, who probably saw it was a reflection of their own lives when it originally aired.

Scroll ahead twenty years to the Generation Xers who rediscovered it in reruns, and you’d probably find they saw the show as an expression of what they would have liked their family lives to be like: harmonious, with an intact family unit and parents that actually cared and gave good advice to the kids.

The show’s purported “wholesomeness” drew its share of criticism over the years, as Donna Reed came to symbolize the stereotypical 1950s suburban housewife, with all the cultural baggage that comes with that image. Although there’s some truth to that, the show was never that simplistic. The dynamic between the characters was more believable than that of most other shows of its era, and it sometimes dealt with real life issues, albeit gently. Once in a while the show even tackled risky subjects like drug abuse, which was the central theme of the eighth season episode The Big League Shock.

The show was actually proto-feminist in some respects. Not only did it bear the name of its star, it was partly developed by Reed and invariably showed Reed’s character as being the backbone of the family – solving the problems, keeping things running. And while the show’s initial opening segment did picture Reed’s character as the standard “happy housewife” seeing her family off as they go out the door in the morning, later seasons showed her leaving for work as well.

That sounds like subversion of the norm of the 1950s and 1960s rather than the norm itself. All of which may have endeared it to its second generation audience, which was able to see the show as nostalgic, but not embarrassingly so.

“It’s been frustrating for me, especially when I was in college because the ’70s wave of feminism considered what she represented in the show to be pretty bad,” Owen says. “I felt like they were missing the fact that she was way ahead of her time. They had it completely wrong.

“My mother grew up on a farm,” she continues, “and in those days the work was equally divided between men and women. I don’t think my mother was consciously a feminist, but I think she naturally felt having worked early in her life and been part of the MGM film system that women were just as capable as men.”

By the time the show started, Reed was also a veteran film actress who had won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her role in “From Here to Eternity.” She and producer/husband Tony Owen had heavy input into the creative process of the show throughout the show’s run.

“Her creative input can be seen by the way the show was run,” Owen says. “Ida Lupino directed a couple of episodes and Barbara Avedon cut her teeth there, writing and directing episodes, and she went on to create (the 1980s female detective show) ‘Cagney & Lacey.’”

Some of the above issues might be familiar to viewers of more modern television, since they were raised in an early “Gilmore Girls” episode, That Damn Donna Reed. In fact, the small town world of Hilldale depicted on “The Donna Reed Show” isn’t so far removed from the town of Stars Hollow where “Gilmore Girls” took place – only there’s less irony and fewer references to pop culture.

“I think Donna Stone was a very modern character,” Owen says. “Within each episode she kind of went outside the boundaries of being a 1950s stay at home mom. And by the end of each episode she kind of comes back to that role. But I think she’s got a very modern quality, which is why it was so popular on Nick at Nite.”

One of those episodes is Season 3’s Time of the Apes, which was a cheap Japanese television ripoff of Planet of the Apes,  and it’s just as bizarre as you’d think. Skits include a reenactment of the Scopes Monkey Trail featuring a cutout of Judge Wapner from The People’s Court and a song lambasting Sandy Frank, the American producer who brought this movie to the States.  This was one of the first episodes I saw, and it remains a favorite to this day. Extras on this disk are an informative introduction by Japanese monster movie authority August Ragone and the wraps for this episode when it was on The Mystery Science Theater Hour, a syndicated version of the show that split the movie in half hosted by Mike Nelson in full Jack Perkins mode.

Next is Mighty Jack, also from the third season. This is another movie cobbled together from episodes of a Japanese television show, also produced by the ubiquitous Sandy Frank. It’s a sort of secret agent James Bond-ish sort of mess that was either edited really badly by Frank or just never made much sense to begin with. This was another fan favorite episode for many, but I have to admit it’s probably one of my least favorite ones of the series. For some reason, the writers seemed to lean more heavily on drug-related humor this time, and I just don’t find those kinds of jokes very funny. (Of course, as little sense as this movie made, they may have had to do whatever they could to get through it!) This does however feature a favorite skit of mine, the pirate shanty “Slow the Plot Down,” which features the wonderful lyric, “We’ll make you a movie that’s long and immense / Way-hay, slow the plot down / Just give us a script that makes no friggin’ sense / We’ll try so hard to slow the plot down!”  Extras here include another intro by Ragone and a feature that gives Shout! Factory a well-deserved chance to toot their own horn: “The DVD Menus of MST3K.” Every time I’ve reviewed one of these boxsets I’ve raved about the imaginative animated menus contained on each disk that use sound bites from the episode and computer animation of the robots to create a skit similar to the ones on the show itself, and  this feature shows how much work is involved in putting these menus together.

The Violent Years from Season 6 is a story of a gang of girls out to get their kicks by robbing gas stations and brutalizing young men. This was written by Ed Wood but not directed by him, although you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. Also included is “A Young Man’s Fancy,” a short about a family’s fascination at the wonder of electrical appliances. Extras include interviews with Ed Wood’s girlfriend Dolores Fuller and his subsequent wife Kathy Wood, two women who also appeared in The Violent Years. This footage could not be new to this collection (especially since Kathy Wood died in 2006), but it still offers some great insight into Ed Wood and his life.

We finish with Season 7’s The Brute Man, about a deformed man who is out to kill the people he feels are responsible for his hideous condition. This also has the fun short Chicken of Tomorrow. This also features an introduction for the movie with MST3K writer and performer Mary Jo Pehl and two featurettes. The first is 1997′s The Making of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a special produced by the Sci-Fi Channel showing an entertaining, behind-the-scenes look at the show. There is a bit of footage from Hodgson’s stint on the show, but it focuses more on the later years. The second is a fascinating biography of The Brute Man star Rondo Hatton. It tells the story of how Hatton contracted acromegaly, a disease of the pituitary gland that grotesquely distorted his facial features and body, and how he found a way to take what advantage he could of the situation by playing a monster in horror movies. It uses pictures, movie footage, and interviews with film historians to relate Hatton’s tragic story, and it’s extremely well done. If A&E decided to do Biography episodes of B-Movie actors, I don’t think they could do a better job than this.

Included as always are those great animated DVD menus and great mini-posters of each of the DVD covers drawn by Steve Vance. All in all, this is another great collection of episodes with some especially good special features this time. As usual, this comes highly recommended by me!

Interested in buying something special for that TV lover in your family, something off the beaten path that isn’t getting tons of press in the mainstream media? I have a few TV on DVD suggestions for you- series I’ve come across throughout the year that are compelling, dramatic, thrilling, thought provoking and just plain entertaining.  All of these collections are available through Amazon.com. I’ve provided links to each.  Have a happy and safe holiday season! As always, thanks for reading Popdose!

DRAMA

Single-Handed, Set 1 (Acorn): Filmed on location in Ireland, this excellent procedural drama follows the career of disgraced Garda Sergeant Jack Driscoll (Owen McDonnell) after he has been transferred from Dublin to the rural Irish town where he grew up. He soon learns the remote community he’s been tasked with policing is rife with corruption and long-held secrets. While Jack tries to prove his worth in a community that doesn’t trust or have faith in him, he must also deal with the strained relationship with his father, the man who used to keep the town safe.Single Handed co-stars Ian McElhinney (Little Dorrit, Doc Martin) with guest star Caroline Catz (Doc Martin). Consider this the U.K. cousin to Justified. The 3 disc set includes three 2 hour movies.

Outcasts (BBC Video): Outcasts is intelligent, well paced science fiction that builds in tension with each episode. Set in the year 2060, the Earth has become uninhabitable. To save the human race, a group of pioneers travel to a far off planet similar to our own. They name it Carpathia. Establishing a base camp, Fort Haven, these brave men, women and children, try to adapt to the new world while also attempting to fix the errors that led to Earth’s slow death. Led by a democratic, secular president (Liam Cunningham), hard decisions are made in the name of preserving mankind. When a religious leader (Eric Mabius) arrives on the planet, he brings with him a rivalry with the President and many secrets that could tear apart the fragile civilization of Fort Haven. In addition to some fine writing and excellent acting (Daniel Mays and Amy Manson stand out), this series poses some interesting questions about redemption and human nature. Given a second chance, would humans resort to the same old politics, or would they really try to start fresh and create a better world? Part Star Trek, part Lost, and part old time western, this is one sci-fi series that isn’t silly and doesn’t insult your brain.

Friday Night Lights: The Complete Series (Universal): Anyone who reads Popdose knows how much we loved FNL. The show completed its series run earlier this year on Directv and NBC and the producers have done the right thing by compiling all five seasons in one special box set. For anyone who has hesitated to buy any of the past season releases, this is the way to go. You get all of the bonus features from all five previously released box sets, plus additional photos from the show. All of it is packaged in a nice box that makes this a great gift for any fan of the Dillon Panthers or East Dillon Lions.

Prime Suspect: Series One and Two  (Acorn Video): Before the groundbreaking women cop characters on Homicide, NYPD Blue and The Wire, before Kyra Sedgwick battled office politics on The Closer, there was this seminal series starring Helen Mirren as DI Jane Tennison. Series One introduces us to the tough as nails woman, as she takes command of a high profile murder case that thrusts her into the media spotlight and upends her domestic life. At the same time she must combat sexism in the work place and prove that she’s every bit as worthy to be leading a squad room as the men who preceded her. The drama of Prime Suspect withstands time, thanks mostly because of the impeccable Mirren. Both series one and series two are epic long dramas that no way resemble the U.S. procedural that was supposed to be a remake. Mirren plays the role of a woman who is sometimes admirable, sometimes unlikable, but always in control. She’s superb and so is this show.

Everwood: The Complete Fourth Season (Warner Video): The beloved WB series was cancelled after just four seasons, primarily thanks to the WB/UPN merger that gave us the CW. Warner Brothers slowly released all of the seasons on DVD, much of it without the original music used for broadcast. Despite that minor disappointment, if you want to see a quality family drama, you should check out Everwood. Created by Greg Berlanti, who would eventually oversee Brothers & Sisters, the drama starred Treat Williams as a famous New York surgeon who moves his two children to a small Colorado town after the death of his wife. Playing his oldest son was Gregory Smith (ABC’s Rookie Blue). Other cast members include Emily VanCamp (Revenge), Chris Pratt (Parks and Recreation) and Scott Wolf (Party of Five). Lucky for the show and fans, Berlanti knew of Everwood’s untimely cancellation before completing the season four finale. He was able to write a conclusion to the show that was a fitting farewell. As a bonus feature on the Season 4 DVD, the original ending (which was also shot) is included.

Blue Murder: The Complete Collection (Acorn Video): Broadcast on ITV from 2003-2009, this critically acclaimed, smash hit British crime drama stars Caroline Quentin as DCI Janine Lewis, the top cop with the Manchester police force. While she runs things on her job, Lewis must also juggle the stress of being a single mom to four children. Quentin is outstanding in the show, which blends wit and warmth with gritty storylines. The Complete Collection brings together all 19 episodes of Blue Murder in a 9 disc set.

Big Love: The Complete Collection (HBO): Big Love, the controversial series starring Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin, may not have been the most consistent show, but it was always compelling television. This fictionalized account of a fundamentalist Mormon family studied the complex and often dark world of polygamy. Paxton and his three leading ladies made the characters real and sympathetic in what could have been a cartoonish show. After five seasons, Big Love went off the air this past March. The Complete Collection brings together brings together the series’ uniquely crafted story arc about modern day polygamists Bill Henrickson, his three wives (Barb, Nicki and Margene), and nine children as they struggle to overcome the myriad of challenges brought about by their beliefs, lifestyle and Bill’s entrepreneurial and political ambitions.  The complete collection includes the 53 episodes from all five seasons, plus all of the extra features from the individual releases that offer additional insight into the Henrickson family dynamics.

Queer as Folk: The Complete U.K. Collection (Acorn Video): Seen on the Ovation channel in the U.S., this groundbreaking series was the basis for the remake that later appeared on Showtime. Created by Russell T. Davies (Torchwood), Queer as Folk is a witty, daring and unapologetic look at gay culture that tackles universal themes of friendship, love and betrayal. Aidan Gillen (The Wire, Identity) stars as a rich, unrepentant man whose cockiness and charisma create trouble wherever he goes. Craig Kelly co-stars as his best friend, not so secretly in love with him, who often gets stuck cleaning up the messes. The complete series is contained on this 3 disc set from Acorn Video. Bonus materials include deleted and extended scenes with commentary, interviews, behind the scenes featurettes, and a twenty page booklet that includes notes from series creator, Davies.

COMEDY

Kids in the Hall: The Complete Series Megaset (A&E Entertainment): The Kids were the comedy equivalent of left of the dial music in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Although Lorne Michaels helped break them when their series debuted on HBO, they weren’t as well known as Saturday Night Live or In Living Color. Their brand of humor walked a fine line of edgy and dangerous, with the cast never wavering in their commitment to laughs. By the end of their series run they were on CBS, the equivalent of a big record contract, I suppose. But, like The Replacements, they were always the next big thing that never really caught on with the mainstream. The Canadian comedy troupe gave us five remarkable character actors in the form of Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. This megaset collects every single episode from their series along with the Kids miniseries from 2010, Death Comes to Town. There are an abundance of great special features. My favorite is the featurette that documents how the group came together and how they managed to remain friends after all of these years.

 How I Met Your Mother: Season 6 (Fox Video): This celebrated hit sitcom rebounded in its 6^th Season by refocusing the show back on the main characters and not the wacky situations the writers came up with (something they seem to have reverted back to in its current run). On this 3 disc set, the show gets closer to revealing the identity of the mother, but not before introducing us to the Captain, Zoey, The Blitz and Barney’s father (played John Lithgow).  Special Features include deleted scenes, commentary on selected episodes and several behind the scenes featurettes. Season 6 reminded faithful viewers why they fell in love with How I Met Your Mother in the first place and set up the end run of the show with laughs and heart.

Gavin & Stacey: The Complete Collection (BBC Video): One of the funniest and most charming comedy shows in the past decade, this BBC import is a romantic comedy that has universal appeal. Gavin is an average guy from England and Stacey is an ordinary girl from Wales. These two adorable characters meet cutely and quickly fall in love, much to the concern of the best friends (show creators, James Corden and Ruth Jones) and their respective families. But Gavin and Stacey can’t deny their hearts and soon they’re planning a wedding. Season One of Gavin and Stacey follows those wedding plans up to the heartwarming (and riotous) wedding day. Season 2 picks up after the honeymoon and sees the two love birds grappling with life as newlyweds and separating from their close families. Meanwhile, everyone else deal with their own intimate issues.  Season Three finds Gavin and Stacey starting a life in Wales, with the two of them trying to have a baby. Also included in the complete collection is an extended version of the Christmas Special, which showed Stacey’s family spending the holiday with Gavin’s. The cast of this show is top notch, comparable to Modern Family or Parks and Recreation.

Robot Chicken: Season Five (Warner Video): The Emmy winning series from Seth Green, Matthew Senreich and Adult Swim continues with the absurd laughs in the fifth season. Twenty episodes make up this two disc set. The DVD allows for the uncensored humor of the series. Additionally, a couple of episodes on the Season 5 collection haven’t even aired yet. Special features include seven behind the scenes featurettes, on air promos, commentary on all twenty episodes and animatics. For Robot Chicken fans, the makers of the show never skimp on the extras. Additionally, the Blu-ray version of Robot Chicken Season 5 features alternate audio takes from various sketches throughout the season, while the DVD will allow fans to download an exclusive version of the “Blue Rabbits” song.

Barney Miller: The Complete Series (Shout!Factory): The complete series run of Barney Miller makes its debut on DVD with this nicely packaged set that also includes the first season of the Abe Vigoda spin-off, Fish. Many real life cops, as well as many of the creators of acclaimed procedural dramas, have sighted this comedy as a major influence. Hal Linden starred as the titular character, a beleaguered police captain with a motley crew of hard working detectives.  The series ran from 1974-1982, winning a Peabody, three Emmy awards and a couple of Golden Globes. There are 168 episodes contained on 25 (!) discs. Fans of quality television, as well as the longtime fans of this show, should rejoice. Bonus features include cast interviews, commentaries and commemorative booklet that features an excellent essay by former TV critic, Howard Rosenberg.

King of Cool: The Best of The Dean Martin Variety Show (Time/Life): The Dean Martin Show ran for nine seasons, airing on NBC from 1965 to 1974. Hosted by legendary entertainer Dean Martin, the unique variety and comedy show was a television pioneer. There were no rehearsals, no re-takes, and Martin simply just wasn’t a host behind a desk and a microphone – he took part in virtually all the segments, whether talking and singing with guests or performing a comedy sketch. King of Cool boasts 18 classic episodes of The Dean Martin Variety Show, featuring Dean and an impressive array of guests.  Among the guests featured are: a  young Bill Cosby from 1966, fresh off the success of I Spy;  Art Carney, Red Buttons, Sid Caesar, who each appear in several classic sketches with Dean; Ruth Buzzi, who at the time was a star on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In; plus Mickey Rooney, George Kirby, Flip Wilson, Jonathan Winters, Dom DeLuise, Jackie Mason, plus many others. Earlier this year Time/Life released a separate 6 DVD collection. King of Cool carries on with the quality of that earlier set and offers a window into a different era when TV allowed for variety shows like this one. For your grandparent, your budding rat pack cousin, or just to see how cool television could be, this one’s great to add to the library.

ANIMATION:

Shout Factory! has been releasing many of the great Nickelodeon animated series on DVD throughout the year. Already there are two seasons worth of The Wild Thonberrys available to purchase. The Wild Thornberrys was one of the most imaginative and delightful shows the network aired; that rare cartoon with a girl as the main character. Season One of Butch Hartman’s exciting Danny Phantom is definitely a great gift for anyone with a young boy or a kid who loves super heroes. The sleek design and witty dialogue made it a big hit in the early 2000’s.  One of my favorites was the gentle dramedy (in a cartoon no less) Hey Arnold! Unlike so many sitcom type animated shows, Hey Arnold! didn’t always go for the huge laughs. The writers invested a great deal in the characters, making them some of the most realistic drawn people on television. Season One is available.

Nickelodeon also had some crazy, loud, obnoxious cartoons, as well. Among them were Ahh! Real Monsters, (from the same people who brought you Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys) which followed a group of, you guessed it, monsters. Season One is available. The Angry Beavers and CatDog are a couple of sometimes bizarre, sometimes hilarious creations that are perfect for anyone who loves the old Roadrunner cartoons. Loud, colorful and sometimes shrieky, they’re also a lot of fun.

The Cleveland Show: The Complete Season 2 (Fox): This show continues to be my favorite from Seth McFarlane’s block of animation that is featured on Fox TV. Unlike Family Guy, and especially American Dad, I’ve always felt that The Cleveland Show has a little more warmth to it. True, the situations are every bit as ridiculous and rapid paced as it’s two cousins, but I believe the family in The Cleveland Show more than the other two hit shows. Season 2 features a return of Kanye West as Kenny West, proving once again that the superstar rapper really does have a sense of humor. The DVD set also includes plenty of amusing bonus features that should provide enough to watch as you’re digesting your holiday feast.

Robotech: The Complete Original Series (A&E): Long before the live action Transformers movies introduced giant alien robots to a new generation children (and fanboys), there was this sweeping animated sci-fi epic that delivered “mecha” to the masses. Robotech aired on U.S. television  in the mid-80s via syndication. The legendary space opera—one of the very first anime imports—helped to usher in the multi-billion dollar anime industry. A+E Networks Home Entertainment, working closely with original Robotech producer Harmony Gold, has released the influential series in a handsomely-designed 17-disc DVD collector’s set featuring all 85 re-mastered episodes of the  dramatic anime classic. Additionally, there are four exclusive bonus discs containing more than 10 hours of bonus content—much of which is new to DVD. Instead of enduring the loud, obnoxious Michael Bay sci-fi Transformers movies, check out this innovative and groundbreaking series.

Archer: The Complete Season 1 (Fox):From the mind of Adam Reed, creator of Sealab 2021, comes this very adult action/comedy animated series that airs on FX. Staring the voices of H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Jessica Walter, Judy Greer and Chris Parnell, Archer follows the exploits of suave secret agent, Sterling Archer (Benjamin). Considered one of the world’s most dangerous spies, Archer’s field work fending off assassins and terrorists is nothing compared to the dangers he faces with human resources, his ex-girlfriend and his mother (who also runs the top secret agency he works for). Archer is raunchy, sexy, funny as hell and uses a slick animation style that recalls 60′s comic book cool. Season 1 has been on DVD for most of this year and is a great introduction to this cult favorite. Season 2 is expected to be released early in 2012.

The Adventures of Tintin: Season One (Shout! Factory/Nelvana): “Great snakes!” This is one of my favorite releases of the year. Before you head to the movie theaters to see the Steven Spielberg directed Tintin movie, be sure to get this animated series from the early 90′s. Adapted from the series of graphic novels by artist Herge, The Adventures of Tintin uses his original stories as the basis for this exciting adventure show. 13 half hour episodes make up the 2- disc set, two of which, “The Secret of the Unicorn” and “Red Rackman’s Treasure,” were used for the Spielberg film. Tintin is an intrepid young reporter who, along with his faithful dog, Snowy, gets mixed up with smugglers, drug dealers, pirates and cults. The animation is all hand drawn and appears to have been done when production companies were still using cells and cameras instead of computers. The storylines are a little more mature than the typical fare you’ll see on any of the kids networks. There are guns, deaths, kidnappings and, in the case of Tintin’s friend, Captain Haddock, quite a bit of alcohol consumption. However, if you’ve shown your kids any of the Indiana Jones or Transformers movies, then theses episodes should be okay for them. Thoroughly enjoyable and my highest holiday recommendation for animated TV series on DVD this year.

At six hours (apparently, the original British version was seven), this is a dense piece of television viewing. At times there are so many characters and British intelligence jargon being tossed around that you’ll need the DVD insert that provides a breakdown of the principal players and a glossary of the terminology. To a casual viewer, I can imagine this would be a little intimidating; this is not one of those made-for-TV movies that you can have on in the background while you’re cooking dinner or reading the latest No Concessions on Popdose. However, if you put in the time, Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy is quite rewarding.

The series begins when British intelligence agent, Ricki Tarr (Hywel Bennett), learns that there is a mole, codenamed “Gerald,” working in the highest level of British intelligence, also known as the Circus. It can only be one of four men, so tracking down the double agent must be a covert mission and one handled by a man with just as much influence and experience as the four men running the Circus, who are Percy Alleline (Michael Aldridge), the director, and his deputies, Bill Haydon (Ian Richardson), Roy Bland (Terence Rigby) and Toby Esterhase (Bernard Hepton). Any one of these men could be Gerald and it’s up to Smiley to bring him to justice.

All of these potential traitors were Smiley’s colleagues until a botched mission in Hungary cost Smiley and his boss, Control (Alexander Knox), their jobs. Now sidelined and divorced, the aging Cold Warrior is approached by Lacon (Anthony Bate), a civil service officer at the Circus, to head up the secret operation. Smiley brings in Peter Guilliam (Michael Jayston), the head of the “scalphunters” (aka the guys who do the dirty work like assassinations and burglary) to be his right hand man. Together, these two hunt down Gerald and uncover a labyrinth-like plot of deceit, lies and murder.

My (very) brief plot assessment gives you the facts. The storytelling jumps back and forth from the past to the present, sometimes even flashing back while you’re in a flashback! If you happen to look away, you could lose valuable information that is pertinent to the outcome of the story. If you happen to look away you also could miss some incredible acting by Guinness, Richardson and the rest of the impeccable cast. Because of the length allotted for this adaptation, there are many pregnant pauses that allow the actors the opportunity to react and think, something rarely seen in modern television. I can’t tell you how many times I was mesmerized by Guinness as he  just listens to someone and lets us, the viewer, watch Smiley contemplate. Anyone interested in masterful acting need only watch Guinness as Smiley.

While the plot is very complicated, there is also a lot of emotional depth in the film, especially with Smiley. It’s revealed early on that his wife, Ann, had an affair with Bill Haydon. Many of the people he encounters view the failure of his marriage as one of Smiley’s shortcomings as a man. His enemies are constantly getting a little dig in, asking, “How’s Ann?” Each time her name is mentioned, you can see the dagger pierce a little deeper.

The DVD is a solid transfer of the original film stock. Since this was made-for-television, you can tell that the budget wasn’t too high. At times, the night scenes are particularly grainy, and others there are dust marks and scratches on the print.  You shouldn’t let these minor flaws discourage you from checking out this miniseries, though. The Oldman feature film must have major cuts to the plot to allow for its feature running time. This 1979 miniseries is the only cinematic version of Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy that covers most of the novel’s content.

Bonus features include production notes and filmographies. The most interesting feature is an lengthy interview with author, LaCarre. In it he calls this adaptation of Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy one of his favorites to be made from his books. Sounds like a ringing endorsement to me.

As any fan of this show will tell you, while this series is clearly aimed at young boys ages 6-11, it’s so well done that fanboys of any age or gender should have no problem enjoying it. The animation by Film Roman is sleek and modern, the voice acting- featuring many of the best voice over actors in the industry- is superb, and the storytelling allows for a great deal of character development. All of this is amazing for a half hour television series, animated or live action, considering the amount of action and plot in each episode, as well as the number of characters being juggled.

The roll call in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes includes Iron Man (Eric Loomis), Captain America (Brian Blossom), Thor (Rick D. Wasserman), the Hulk (Fred Tatasciore- a role he’s owned for nearly ten years), Ant Man/Giant Man (Wally Wingert), the Wasp (Colleen O’Shaugnessey), Hawkeye (Chris Cox) and Black Panther (James C. Mathis III), as well as appearances by Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D (Alex Desert). That, my friends, is a lot of characters to deal with thirty minutes. However, the writers, directors and artists behind The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes seem to pull it off without any trouble.

Volume 3, Iron Man Unleashed, follows the 6 episode story arc of the Avengers facing off against Baron Zemo and his Masters of Evil, and then having to defend the earth from a full-scale alien invasion led by Kang the Conqueror, the time-traveling menace bent on destroying all humanity. Volume 4, Thor’s Last Stand, picks up where Volume 3 ends, with Hank Pym (aka Ant Man) building Ultron, the ultimate robot, and Pym’s creation trying to end all humanity (notice a trend here). After defeating Ultron, the Avengers then must battle Thor’s evil half-brother, Loki, who is trying to unleash Asgardian armies on Earth.

Volume 3 has six half hour episodes on a single disc, while Volume 4 has seven. Each comes with an animated in-episode comic book experience that has facts about the Avengers and the Villains that they battle. It stinks that there is no word when the second season of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will begin. However, together with the first two volumes, there is plenty of entertainment here to keep fans happy until the new episodes roll out.

Barney Miller

Perhaps that’s what made the show popular when it was on the air for eight seasons. People could relate, especially in the depressed late 70’s. One look at the sad sack mug of Abe Vigoda as Fish, or to hear the sardonic voice of the late Jack Soo as the beloved Yehemena, and right away you think, “I know these guys.” What also made Barney Miller stand out amongst other sitcoms was its multiethnic cast. Besides Japanese Soo, African American, Ron Glass, as ladies man, Harris, and Gregory Sierra as Puerto Rican Amanguale, brought a dose of realism to the sitcom. Moreover, the series brought humanity to characters otherwise portrayed as lower class citizens on television, such as prostitutes and homosexuals. In fact, Dino Natali portrayed Officer Zatelli in the later seasons, one of the first positively portrayed openly gay characters on American television.

Most of the episodes took place in the squad room, with some scenes in Barney’s office, just off the main room. This one set gave the show a theatrical feel in the early episodes, until it found it’s true voice and pacing. Once it hit its stride, Barney Miller quickly became a groundbreaking American sitcom. As the series continued and its popularity grew, Sierra left to pursue other interests using his new found fame, and Vigoda got his own spinoff. Barney Miller didn’t miss a beat, though, when it brought in Steve Landesberg as the smartass, Dietrich, and Ron Carey as Officer Levitt.

Of course, the glue of the show was Linden, as the calming influence, Miller, in what could sometimes be a hostile workplace. He always knew how to reach the men in his department, what to say to get them to understand the people who wandered in and out of the 12th Precinct. Barney made this world of crime and punishment a little more humanistic. If there was a lesson to be learned, usually it was Barney who taught it. That’s not to say that his life was easy. Throughout the course of the series he separated from his wife, giving the character a little more dimension than just the good cop that he was.

As I child, I didn’t get into Barney Miller until its run was winding down, so most of what I saw from the early years was in reruns. Still, I don’t recall the first season at all, in which Barney’s wife, Liz (Barbara Berrie), was a visible presence on the show. After that first year, the execs realized that the strength of the show lay in the squad room and the interaction between the cops and the criminals. I can’t say that they were wrong. Berrie is a wonderful actress, but the domestic scenes just took away from the flow of the show.

Shout! Factory has released the complete series on DVD, bringing all 168 episodes on to disc. It’s a mammoth collection and a huge undertaking for any television fan to sit through every episode. But it’s worth the time if you can make it. This is the first time that most of these episodes have appeared on DVD. Barney Miller: The Complete Series comes with a wealth of exclusive bonus features. These extras include new interviews with Linden and Vigoda; the series’ original pilot, The Life and Times of Barney Miller; commentaries and interviews by series writers; a collectible commemorative booklet filled with vintage photos and featuring an essay by former TV Critic Howard Rosenberg; and season one of the show’s spinoff, Fish. The set also includes the standout retrospective episode that pays tribute to Jack Soo, whose passing in Season 5 led the cast, both in and out of character, to salute their beloved colleague.

I’m sure it ages from the ‘60s to the present as well. Not a lot of ‘60s television has aged well. The episode of My Three Sons I watched today, which was filmed in 1966, the first season of The Monkees, feels like it was written by cats and sent it from outer space. It’s bizarre how foreign and fake it seems. And yet The Monkees, a show that was conceived in cynicism in order to bait young viewers and imitate A Hard Day’s Night with an American (pre)fab four, that’s the one that’s full of joy, not to mention excellent pop music and some extremely groundbreaking techniques. The Monkees still works because we recognize its tropes—it was the blueprint for music videos, because the flying-by-the-seat-of-their-pants creators worked in loose, chaotic, fun film language that became the visual equivalent of rock n’ roll. MTV, and all hip, quick-cut, youth-oriented entertainment that followed, happened and continue to happen because of The Monkees.

(Side note: MTV was an extension of a Nickelodeon music video show called Pop Clips, which was created by…Mike Nesmith. Of the Monkees.)

The Monkees is split into two DVD box sets, released in late September by Eagle Rock Entertainment. So many goodies and bonus materials here. Both sets have commentary from various and assorted Monkees and episode directors (even frequent Monkees-revisiting holdout Nesmith shows up), as well as trivia pages specific to each episode, which is fun and nerdy. Oh, and then there’s the stuff to work the Monkees completists up into a tizzy. The season 1 box has the long, lost, and fascinatingly awkward, very rough pilot episode (with vocals on the songs laid down sung by their songwriters, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart) and some cereal commercials the Monkees starred in. The second season set includes 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee, a bizarre, satiric, and highly experimental TV special the band shot in 1969, well after the series had cancelled and they’d agitated for more creative control. This is the first time you can get that on DVD.

A handful of people online have complained that neither the Monkees episodes or bonus stuff were re-mastered, or that the transfer is poor, but frankly, I don’t really care, because of the breadth of material. I like that it’s a little grainy—some of this stuff is extremely rare and quite old, and it’s just excellent that somebody kept this stuff around in a vault in the first place. All told, it’s a great time capsule and one of the few things that parents and children could watch together and be equally entertained.

Identity

Hawes plays Superintendent Martha Lawson, the head of a special identity theft task force whose profile is rather large in the press and amongst the police force. Her boss still questions whether creating the identity unit was a good idea and Lawson is constantly trying to prove that her group of cops is one essential to fighting crim in the 21^st Century. Her team consists of Tessa (Holly Aird), the resident computer expert; DC Rodriguez (Elyes Gabel), a street smart cop; and the cocky and straight laced DC Waering (Parkes). Waering cares deeply about Martha and the team and will not stand for rogue behavior threatening the survival of the unit.

Waering’s has reason to be concerned because Lawson has brought it DI John Bloom (Gillen), who’s spent the previous fifteen years working undercover. Bloom is the epitome of a wildcard. He comes to work whenever he pleases, is quick to dismiss the input of his fellow officers, and clearly has some withdrawal issues stemming from his most recent assignment. Waering doesn’t trust Bloom at all. Meanwhile, Lawson is constantly worried that she made a huge mistake bringing him aboard.

While the team works cases that involve some relatively standard cop show plots, it’s Bloom’s story arc that makes the show compelling television and definitely worth your time checking out on DVD. During the final minutes of the first episode, we learn that Bloom had infiltrated the Turkish mob. Although he’d completed his assignment, he hasn’t cut ties to that world because he is in love with the mob boss’ sister. Thus, Bloom keeps returning to his identity as a Dublin money launderer in order to see her. As hard as he tries to run away, Bloom keeps getting pulled into criminal underworld. As much as Identity is about the crime of identity theft, the show is also about Bloom’s tortured soul and his attempt to figure out who he is and how he can survive without his two lives colliding.

The first few episodes of Identity were compelling, with superb acting by Gillen and Parkes. These two seemed destine to face off the minute you meet them. Hawes once again makes a fine police hero, as she did is Ashes to Ashes. Luckily, she gets to wear better clothes this time around. The final three episodes have great thrills and plenty of tension; it makes you wish the show hadn’t been cancelled after just six episodes. ABC is developing an American version of the show. One can only hope that they draw from the richly drawn characters of the original.

The DVD release by Acorn Video has very limited bonus features, just cast bios and text interviews with the three leads. It’s a bit of a letdown, but beggars can’t be choosers. I’m just happy to have been introduced to this series.

Modern Family

Created by Christopher Lloyd and Steve Levitan, Modern Family adopts the same documentary style of television like The Office and Parks and Recreation. Like those comedies, the pacing is rapid and the jokes so plentiful that viewers are rewarded after multiple viewings.  The wring of Modern Family is sharp, catering to the strengths of the shows impeccable cast. And man, what a cast: Ed O’Neill, Julie Bowen, Ty Burell, Sofia Vergara, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet – all of them have offer realistic, albeit heightened portrayals of parents in the 21^st Century. But the parents are not the sole stars of this show, as Rico Rodriguez, Ariel Winter, Sarah Hyland and Nolan Gould all shine brighter than any of the tween stars you’ll find on Disney or Nick.

At its best, Modern Family melds the insanity of family life together with the rewards and sentimentality that comes with having a close bond with your relatives. My favorites of season two included “Halloween,” in which Claire (Bowen) goes over the top decorating the house and trying to create the ultimate Halloween experience. She pulls the entire family into the fold, not just her husband, Phil (Burrell) and kids, but her brother, father and their respective families. When they all want to ditch her Halloween house as quickly as possible, Claire breaks down and delivers a poignant speech that adds more depth to her character and explains why she’s so high strung. The aftermath of this moment is what makes Modern Family so special. Everyone comes together for Claire and her dream Halloween night is saved.

Another excellent episode full of surprises is “Boys’ Night,” featuring guest appearances by Philip Baker Hall as a cranky neighbor and Nathan Lane as an old friend of Cam (Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Ferguson). The highlight of the episode involves Cam, Mitchell and a group of their friends out for a rare night together. When Jay (O’Neill) unexpectedly shows up at the same restaurant, Cam is mortified, positive that his father will embarrass him with his typical prejudicial comments. As the boys start to get liquored up, Jay shocks the hell out of everyone, and the audience, when he opens up about Cam and loving his son. Jay also ends up hitting it off with Nathan Lane and has to go on a “date” with him the following day.

Finally, “See You Next Fall,” the penultimate episode of season two, features excellent work by Winter and Hyland. Alex (Winter) is set to deliver the Valedictorian speech for the graduating class of her junior high. She is prepared to rail into her classmates, the kids who mocked her and made her feel like an outcast. But Haley (Hyland) steps in and offers big sister advice that is both hilarious and, in her own dim way, kindhearted. The episode also features O’Neill at his best, trying to hide the fact that he got botox.

I believe that Modern Family’s appeal stems from its focus on domestic life rather than the work place. Many viewers have been turned off by the tone of many comedies, those with the snarky and constantly sarcastic characters.  Modern Family seems like the safe alternative. The humor can get raunchy and crude, but it’s the show’s heart that makes it so appealing and such a hit. After rewatching season two, I’m confident that this show will be be a long- standing hit for years to come.

The Blu-ray release comes with a bounty of special features. They include: Deleted Family Interviews, Deleted and Extended Scenes”Strangers on a Treadmill” – Episode Table Read, Mitch’s Flash Mob, “Imagine Me Naked” Music Video, Gag-Reel, Modern Family Holidays, Waiting for Oprah, Chatting with Steve Levitan, At Home with Modern Family,