Friday, December 22, 2006

Upcoming (or not) DVDs

Bosom Buddies coming to DVD
Sure, that's good news and all...(really, I actually liked that show)...but what I want to know is when is somebody gonna get around to releasing Herman's Head on DVD.
Hey, get back here! I'm serious!
Over the years since its cancellation, this early-90's FOX sitcom has gotten a bad rap; its name becoming synonymous with cheesy, "high concept" sitcoms. True, this show, which revealed the thoughts and feelings of the protagonist, Herman, through cutaways to four characters supposedly living inside his head who represented his emotions, reason, anxieties, etc. , was what TV programming execs call "high concept." but its execution was not cheesy. To the contrary, Head was well written, well performed and funny, and deserves a chance to be seen again. Hell, if crap (yea, I said CRAP) like Family Guy warrants a new life on DVD (which led to its revival), then Herman's Head certainly does.
Another early and undeservedly short lived FOX sitcom that deserves a shot at a DVD release is Flying Blind, which I once described, in a column on this very same topic for The Atomic Tomorrow, as "a funny version of Dharma and Greg." Like D&G, Flying Blind concerned an uptight establishment type young professional falling for a free spirited artistic type, played in this case by the lovely Tea Leoni. One of the things that killed this show was probably its Sunday at 10:30 p.m. timeslot, shared with the equally ill-fated The Ben Stiller Show, which, it is significant to note, FOX never bothered to try to program after that season.
Among the best of shows that actually have been released on DVD recently are the inaugural seasons of Saturday Night Live and St. Elsewhere.
TV GUIDE once named St. Elsewhere the best drama in the history of television and they were not wrong. This innovative and involving series transcended the limits of the "hospital drama" genre to become something truly unique, and its release on DVD is long overdue.
The SNL set is the first time that an entire season, featuring episodes in their entirety, has been released on DVD. Previous SNL discs have been compilations of sketches grouped around the "best of" a particular cast member or frequent guest host, or a theme such as commercial parodies. While probably not every season deserves to be preserved on DVD or even remembered at all, the first five years and the work of the original Not Ready For Primetime Players certainly do.
Another classic series headed for DVD is The Odd Couple, which forever inextricably linked Tony Randall and Jack Klugman with Neil Simon's mismatched pair of divorced best friends.

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