Uploaded is a review of Durham County: Season 2 from Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada (the series is distributed by Well Go USA in the States), the Gemini-winning series that once again shows how weird Canadians are, and why we shouldn’t build our suburban snout-homes close to hydro wire towers.Those of you attending Rue Morgue’s upcoming Festival of Fear can also meet series creators and cast on Saturday Aug. 28th at 12:30pm. The hour-long panel discussion (hosted by CTV’s Richard Crouse) will feature actress Michelle Forbes, co-star Greyston Holt, series-co-creator & director Adrienne Mitchell, producer Janis Lundman, and co-creator Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik.
Other TV news:
Some may have heard that the legal headaches surrounding the original Bionic Woman and Six Million Dollar Man series for DVD release were sorted out, which is why there will finally be Region 1 releases of both series.
This far, Season 1 of Woman will debut Oct. 19 ($39.98 SRP), whereas the full run of Man will be available first as a Time-Life exclusive, much in the way Get Smart debuted. Hopefully it won’t take an eternity for the series to trickle down to standard retail outlets, because for those not willing to make that exclusive leap for this 40-DVD set, well, it’s not fair!
Coming out Aug. 31 is the complete series of Thriller (also Universal), starring Boris Karloff, and featuring some isolated score materials.
Image, who recently announced the Blu-ray debut of the original Twilight Zone: Season 1 for Sept. 14, will release Season 2 on BR Nov. 16 (also at $99.98 SRP).
Like Season 1, it’ll contain the same extras (including those isolated scores) from the DVD set, plus new material: 25 commentaries by author Marc Scott Zicree with some of the series writers, additional interviews (some archival), and 15 radio dramas.
Getting Zicree to provide commentaries makes sense, given the author / historian wrote the definitive series guide in 1982 (my copy is quite shop-worn by now), and each episode is a microcosm of the top talent that was around during the late fifties / early sixties, spanning composers, directors, writers, and actors.
Coming out via Shout Factory is The Complete Larry Sanders Show, which, like the bionic Man and Woman series, demonstrates video rights and legal bickering eventually get tempered with time. After the debut of Season 1, further seasonal Sanders sets were in limbo, so this is great news for fans of the acidic satire of late night talk shows. The monster set debuts Nov. 2 ($149.99 SRP), whereas those who sprung for Season 1 around 2007 can take gradual steps at the series’ acquisition via a separate Season 2 set ($34.93 SRP).
Shout Factory is also releasing something called The Psycho Legacy in a 2-disc DVD set Oct. 19 ($19.93 SRP), which is apparently a 90 min. doc on the franchise by Robert V. Galluzzo. I wonder if he acknowledges the TV movie / laughable attempt at a series, Bates Motel (1987), and the unrelated TV movie Psycho 4: The Beginning (1990) as part of the Psycho universe?
Lastly, Paramount will release a full series box of Tales from the Darkside Oct. 19, and War of the Worlds: Season 2 (sold separately, and in a Season 1 + 2 combo) Oct. 26. That may be the longest wait between seasons for any TV series. Season 1 of War came out around 2005, so that’s 5 years fans of this gory, mediocre show have had to wait.
I doubt Season 1’s been remastered, but it would be nice to see it cleaned up for DVD. Both War and the companion series Friday the 13th: The Series were shot on film and posted on video, and look terrible on DVD, which is either due to cramming too many episodes per disc, or broadcast masters that, during the TV’s evolution towards higher resolution, now look wringy, noisy, and smeary. That is the frank legacy of cheap eighties production budgets.
Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com
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