tv on dvd

Come on, get happy! Oh, the power to bewitch that is incarnate in that horribly catchy theme song is but part of the paranormal cunning of this singing family in flare pants. Watching these 25 episodes from the show’s debut season, which kicked off in September 1970, one becomes aware that The Partridge Family actually … more…

“Feel the power of attorney!” screams Harvey Birdman, cartoon lawyer, and you will, my friend, you will. The entry in Cartoon Network’s late-night Adult Swim ransacks the cartoon world for legal cases, and the butts in the witness chair belong to a rogue’s gallery of sketchy characters — Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, Fred Flintstone, … more…

Forget “Who shot JR?” It’s “Who’s testifying against Blake Carrington at the murder trial of his son’s homosexual lover?” here in this, one of the earliest primetime soap operas and a primo example of the overbaked glitz, dizzy glam, and enormous shoulder pads that dominated early-80s entertainment. It’s slow moving, even for a soap opera, … more…

If there can be said to be an “on a mission from God” genre of dramatic television, then Highway to Heaven inaugurated it with its 1984 debut, now reproduced in all its saintly glory on DVD. This is not challenging drama, and to call it melodrama is being kind — this is comfort TV of … more…

This 15-year-old series holds up extremely well today, with a level of sophistication and a surprising wisdom that ranks it among one of TV’s better explorations of adolescent angst. The delightful Neil Patrick Harris (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) brings clever insight to Doogie, 16-year-old doctor and all-around boy genius, and through 26 … more…

If government conspiracies and supernatural chic were all the rage on the air in the 1990s — it seems you couldn’t go wrong aping The X-Files — then The Pretender was the show for those who wanted a kinder, gentle top-secret black-ops drama, one without all that uncomfortable paranoia and existential unease. Jarod (the androidlike … more…

It’s Souped-Up Car for the Poor Guy, a reality show for young swains desperate to impress the world with their wheels but too destitute to pour twenty thousand bucks into their automobiles. And so descends fairy godrapper Xzibit, a “hip-hop impresario and car enthusiast” who, with the help of the “world-famous” body shop (who knew … more…

Jamie Foxx’s recent Oscar win for his terrific performance in Ray is sure to bring a wider audience for his earlier sitcom… and that’s too bad, because even small doses of this minstrel show are enough to spoil the memory of his more recent and far superior work. Constituting an embarrassing carnival the likes of … more…

“The Mystery of Pirate Cove.” “The Secret of the Jade Kwan Yin.” “The Flickering Torch Mystery.” “The Secret of the Whispering Walls.” Oh my god, oh my god, ohmygod! The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew helped make me the nerd that I am today — not just the books, though I had a big long … more…

This exercise in stream-of-geeky-consciousness insanity and slightly disreputable animation manipulation defies explanation — you’re either in the cult, or you’re not — but here goes nothing anyway. Once upon a time, in the 1960s, there was a Hanna Barbera cartoon called Space Ghost and Dino Boy, which was quite bad and which hardly anyone remembers … more…