Boxed-set DVDs of television series are so popular and prevalent these days that it might seem like everything is out there to be bought and savored.
But it isn't. Some shows on DVD have vanished after only the first season was released on disk, and others have yet to come out at all.
I've been dying, for example, for more of "Twin Peaks." The movie-length pilot was released six years ago, and the rest of season one came out a year later, but that's it. Season one of "The Larry Sanders Show" came out four years ago, but nothing since. And while "The Wonder Years" was one of the first series to make an appearance on DVD, with two best-of six-episode sets arriving in 1998, nothing else has followed - and fans who track down those original releases may be sorely disappointed.
"Those episodes don't have the original music," says Gord Lacey, founder of the Web site www.TVShowsonDVD.com. The high fees required to secure music rights is what held up the release of such shows as "Miami Vice" (recently released by Universal) and still complicates any potential boxed sets of such music-heavy series as "EZ Streets" and "China Beach."
Lacey's site, launched five years ago, has more than 237,000 registered users, many of whom request the series they'd most like to see on disk. According to Lacey's data, the five series most-requested for release are, in order: "Beverly Hills, 90210," "JAG," "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.," "The Wonder Years" and "The Facts of Life."
Lacey tells the Daily News the surprisingly popular "JAG" is rumored to be released later this year - and "Brisco," Lacey's favorite, finally will be released in July, probably due in no small part by feverish lobbying from Lacey.
"Once 'Brisco County Jr.' comes out, I'm shutting the site down," Lacey jokes. He adds, though, that he still longs for the release of other fairly obscure personal favorites, such as "Vengeance Unlimited," "Cupid" and "Brimstone."
Two out of three ain't bad ("Brimstone"?) - but when it comes to pining for obscure TV shows not yet out on DVD, I'm afraid I'm even more of a loner.
"Twin Peaks," for example, has been requested by 1,898 of Lacey's registered TV fans. Another big one on my wish list, "thirtysomething," gets 1,268. But the more shows I asked Lacey to rank, the lower his totals - and the louder his laughter.
"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"? Only 596 other fans, apparently, are looking for that Norman Lear soap spoof. Jay Tarses' "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd," starring Blair Brown? Only 373 other votes for that brilliant dramedy. "Honey West," with Anne Francis and her ocelot? Just 322.
And on the really low end, the Thurberesque "My World and Welcome to It" got only 179 votes, while the PBS classic "Great American Dream Machine" earned only seven. And the mid-'70s CBS series "Marshall Efron's Illustrated, Simplified and Painless Sunday School," other than my query and support, got no votes at all. Not even from Efron. ("You're including that?" Lacey asks incredulously.)
Others on my wanted list are, I suspect, more popular objects of desire. Other than a six-episode compilation in 2000, "Ally McBeal" hasn't been released, but Lacey suspects that with Fox's announced release of season one of "Boston Legal" this May, other David E. Kelley series soon will receive the boxed-set treatment. If that includes "Picket Fences" as well as "Ally," I'd be doubly happy.
Another test release, the first season of "Hill Street Blues," has done well enough for Fox to schedule a second season quickly. According to Lacey, that bodes well for the eventual release of one of my all-time favorite shows, "St. Elsewhere."
Season one of "Mission: Impossible" could be out, Lacey predicts, to coincide with the home-video release of the third Tom Cruise "M:I" movie. As for "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," Lacey says there's no word, but there's definitely a demand. I'd add "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E." Maybe that's just me.
But no matter how loudly Lacey laughs, I don't think so.
Finally, that reminds me - what about "Get Smart"? When will that be released on DVD?
Would you believe ... later this year? That's the rumor, anyway. And if it turns out to be untrue - sorry about that, chief.
Get a Life needs to be released on DVD!!!
It's a dog eat dog world & I'm wearing milkbone underwear.
