Saturday, January 21, 2006

TV ON DVD - January 17, 2006

I know I'm late in posting this, but I am posting this.

Normally I don't talk about my poker playing here but this particular hand deserves to be immortalized online. I'd just made the money in a Freeroll Tournament on Full Tilt Poker. I had a very small stack so when I saw that my hole cards were AK (unsuited) I moved all in. I was called by two other players. The Flop came down as AK5, all clubs. The other two players went all in. One player had a pocket pair of 5s to make a Set (three of a kind) while the other had J of clubs - 6 of diamonds for a Flush draw. The Turn card was the Q of clubs, and the river was the 10 of clubs. Everyone had an Ace high Flush, but the guy with the worst hand of the three of us won the pot because his Flush was a Royal Flush. Amazing.

The Adventures of Superman: The Complete Second Season
- The major change in the second season of The Adventures of Superman was the replacement of Phyllis Coates with Noel Neill as Lois Lane. Certainly Neill is probably the most familiar version of Lois to most viewers - indeed she seems to have been the major model for the version of Lois who appeared in the comics - and this DVD set contains a documentary appreciation of Noel Neill featuring Jack Larson and Leonard Maltin. Otherwise the series continued with it's cheap effects and absolutely perfect casting of George Reeves as Clark Kent and Superman.

Doogie Howser, M.D.: Season Three
- Season three of Doogie Howser M.D. runs into the usual problem for a series of this sort. With Doogie aging and more importantly his high school friends graduating and going their own ways (specifically his girlfriend Wanda leaves for Chicago although the character remains in the series for this season) the qualities that made this series special start to go away. The older he gets the less special he becomes both as a Doctor and as the hook to hand the series on. It would only last one more year.

Fraggle Rock Down in Fraggle Rock
- I'm not entirely certain what's on this DVD - the Amazon.ca listing gives no details. Fraggle Rock was a very enjoyable series however and most episodes had something to offer.

Good Morning World
- Wow, this is an extremely obscure series to see coming out on DVD. From 1967 it starred Joby Baker and Ronnie Schell as a pair of Los Angeles morning DJs, and Billy DeWolfe as the station manager. About the only person from the cast who most people would know is this little blonde girl playing Sandy Kramer (whoever she might have been). It was Goldie Hawn in her very first role.

Lois and Clark: The Complete Second Season
- Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was a favourite series of mine, and the second season was a lull before the very bad storm known as season three. There were major changes: Justin Whalen replace Michael Landes as Jimmy Olsen, while Tracy Scoggins (as Cat Grant) and John Shea (as Lex Luthor) were dumped from the series entirely. The latter was probably a major mistake just because Luthor is so tied into the Superman mythos. There were changes behind the scenes as well. On screen, Lois became more enamored of Clark than of Superman, and the second season was the one in which the show began to have fun with the whole idea of someone hiding his identity by putting on a pair of glasses with the episode "Tempus Fugitive". Certainly this wasn't the show's worst season, and in fact there are some rather good episodes.

Mary Tyler Moore: The Complete Third Season
- The Mary Tyler Moore Show (or more correctly just Mary Tyler Moore) has to be regarded as one of the iconic sitcoms of the 1970s. The show broke a lot of new ground even though - at its base - it was something of a retread of The Dick Van Dyke Show with the split between the lead character's home life and work life, and the funny characters at both locations. The big difference of course was that Mary Tyler Moore was playing a single woman, and although there were attempts to give her a love life - and famously for a single woman in the early 1970s, a sex life that didn't include marriage - the show was mainly about her life in the male dominated work place and the female dominated home. Based on her parties, Mary was better at work. Season three sees the first appearances of Ted Baxter's girlfriend Georgette, although she doesn't become a regular fixture until the fourth season, along with the Happy Homewrecker Happy Homemaker Sue Ann Nivens.

Mr. Show: The Complete Collection
- Apparently - since I've never seen it I don't know for sure - Mr. Show (more correctly Mr. Show With Bob and David) was a skit series along the lines of Monty Python's Flying Circus. It ran for four years on HBO and featured Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. Apparently you either loved it or hated it The critics loved it, HBO hated it. This is a six disk set and basically collects the three sets that have already been released. In this particular case the if you've bought two of the setsyou should probably give this a pass but if you only have one, you might want to consider the box set since it is cheaper to buy this box rather than any two sets.

Old Grey Whistle Test, Vol. 2
- The Old Grey Whistle Test (the title comes from the notion that if a certain old grey haired doorman can whistle your song you have a hit) is one of the premier British rock music series. This BBC release features performances from The Who, Roxy Music, Joan Armatrading, Meatloaf, and Hall & Oates among others. If you like music, this is an absolute must.

Titus: Season 3
- This release wraps up Fox's controversial series Titus which was a semi-autobiographical series based on the life and family of series star Chris Titus. It's a thoroughly dysfunctional family portrayed by an outstanding cast which included Cynthia Watros and Stacy Keach. Apparently a number of episodes were banned by Fox, although none are available on this set. Definitely edgy, maybe a bit too much so.

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