I don't think anyone's announced it yet anywhere but we are about to see the release of the first season of Saturday Night Live in one boxed set…reportedly the first in what the folks behind it hope will be season-by-season releases. One does wonder how sales will be on Season 6, the "Jean Doumanian year." On the one hand, that's the year everyone hates. On the other, it's the year that you rarely get to see.
No word yet on when the first set will be out but I'm told that Columbia House, which sells DVDs on a membership deal, is already advertising the thing. I'm going to guess that if the first one does well, they won't go season-by-season in order but will start releasing some of the later seasons in a hurry.
TV Shows on DVD, which is the best place on the web to learn what's coming out on DVD, is reporting that there's been a minor alteration on the new Addams Family, Volume 1 set. At two points in the episodes, Morticia was (past-tense) heard singing, "It's So Nice to Have a Thing Around the House," a parody of "It's So Nice to Have a Man Around the House." This has been omitted from the DVD, reportedly because the issuers were unable to clear the song.
Music clearances are a problem in DVD Land. They're the reason we probably will never see unexpurgated releases of WKRP in Cincinnati or Solid Gold or several others. Those programs used too many popular records that would have to be cleared…and by "cleared," let's understand that it often isn't a matter of not being able to get the rights. It's often a matter of not being willing to pay what the rights holder is asking for permission. In a few cases, it's even a matter of not being willing to pay anything. A friend of mine is now assembling a proposed DVD collection of an old TV show and he's been told by his bosses, "If it's gonna cost us an extra cent, cut it out." Needless to add, if and when the set does materialize, the excuse for the omissions and alterations will be, "We were unable to clear certain songs," not "We're cheap bastards."
(For clarification, I should add that I have no idea if cheapness was at work with the changes on the Addams Family DVD, or if those who've contemplated some of the others are being niggardly. I just know that stinginess is sometimes the operative reason on these things and that no one likes to admit it.)
Also, elsewhere on TV Shows on DVD, we learn the following: There are releases now of Whose Line Is It Anyway? in two versions — censored and uncensored. You'd assume that the uncensored versions restore all the bleeps and visual-fuzzing that occasionally occurred in the shows when they ran on ABC. And you'd be wrong.