We're in the Golden Age of DVD Collections of Old TV Shows, we are! Here are some of the ones I plan to purchase when they come out. And note that some of these listings are linked to Amazon where you can advance-order them. If you do so through our links, this site gets a tiny commission…
- The Dick Van Dyke Show, Season 3 – My favorite TV show of all time. What can I say? And the third season was really when it started to get good. (The fourth season comes out a month or two later.)
- Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, Vol. 2 – I watch these on the Trio network which, despite rumblings to the contrary, is still available via DirecTV satellite. Amazingly, they hold up pretty well.
- I Married Joan, Vol. 1 – I don't know why but I always liked this old sitcom, which featured Joan Davis trying to be Lucy, and Jim Backus doing a great job of being Jim Backus. No link yet for purchasing.
- The Flintstones, Season 1 – And it was the best season, done when Hanna-Barbera was still laboring under the apparent delusion that they were doing this show for adults. It was on at 9:00 Friday nights and sponsored sometimes by Winston cigarettes. It was not a kids' show, though this kid sure loved it.
- SCTV, Vol. 1 – Just announced is a five-disc set that, happily, will not start with the crude, half-hour first seasons. Instead, they're going to start with the 90-minute shows, which are easily the best. And some of the best sketch comedy ever done on TV. No link yet for purchasing.
- The Amazing Spider-Man – This is the 1967 animated Saturday morning series. This six-disc set includes a mini-documentary on the history of the show, including interviews with Stan Lee and (as a supposed expert on such matters) Yours Truly.
- The Complete Jonny Quest – I also helped out with a documentary that will be included on the upcoming release of a DVD collection that features all 26 episodes of the 1964 Hanna-Barbera series created by Doug Wildey. No link yet for purchasing.
- The Jack Paar Collection – Shout! Factory, which is the company formed by the folks who used to be the nucleus of Rhino Records and Rhino Home Video. They have a three-disc set that includes the recent PBS special on Paar, three complete hours of the prime-time show he did after The Tonight Show, and some moments from what little of his Tonight Show work survives. No link yet for purchasing.
A complete collection of the prime-time Jetsons episodes was announced and advertised but it seems to have disappeared from the websites that were soliciting advance orders. Also, later this year we'll have the second volume of Rocky & Bullwinkle and the first of a show I worked on, Garfield and Friends. When they're getting down to shows I wrote, I have to think that eventually, every show that has ever existed will become available.