The sitcom Parks and Recreation wrapped up a few months ago and now the entire series is on DVD, along with season sets of Hart to Hart, The Facts of Life, The Last Ship and Falling Skies.
Parks and Recreation: The Complete Series (Universal/NBC/DVD, 2009-15, 20 discs, 125 episodes, deleted scenes, extended episodes, webisodes, audio commentaries, featurettes, bloopers, music videos, promos). Amy Poehler heads the cast in this sitcom about quirky small-town civil servants in fictional Pawnee, Indiana. Filmed like a faux documentary, a la The Office, its also one of those rare shows that got better with some tweaking after its brief first season.
Poehler is sunny and funny heading the cast as Lesley Knope, deputy director of the Parks and Recreation Department as the show begins, and the supporting cast is first rate: Chris Pratt (now a big movie star after Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World), Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Adam Scott, Aubrey Plaza and Rob Lowe, among others. (Each season is also available separately.)
Hart to Hart: The Final Season (Shout!/DVD, 1983-84, six discs, 22 episodes). This Thin Man variation stars Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as a wealthy glamorous couple that play amateur detectives, solving crimes for fun, aided by their valet (gravelly voiced Lionel Stander). This fifth and final season finds the couple getting help from tennis star Martina Navratilova and skating star Tai Babilonia. Other guests include Dorothy Lamour, Ray Milland and Adam West.
The Facts of Life: Season Six (Shout!/DVD, 1984-85, three discs, 26 episodes). This season the girls (Lisa Welchel, Kim Fields, Mindy Cohn, Nancy McKeon) continue working at Ednas Edibles, the gourmet food shop run by Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae), and in a two-episode story, a Florida spring break is disrupted by a hurricane. (This sitcom is a spinoff of Diffrent Strokes.)
The Last Ship: The Complete First Season (TNT/Warner/Blu-ray/DVD, 2014, two/three discs, 10 episodes, audio commentaries, featurettes). This TNT basic-cable dystopian series has a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Arctic when a pandemic kills off 80 percent of the world population. The crew of 200-plus is unaffected but now must find a cure to rescue what remains of humanity. (Season 2 begins June 21.)
Falling Skies: The Complete Fourth Season (TNT/Warner/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2014, two/three discs, 12 episodes, featurettes). Dystopian sci-fi series (with Steven Spielberg as an executive producer) about survivors of an alien invasion becoming resistance fighters. This season the aliens plans are explained for the first time as they try to harvest energy from Earths moon and enslave humans. Noah Wyle stars and Mira Sorvino has a recurring role this season. Hard to watch this and not think of the original V miniseries.
Walker: Texas Ranger: Standoff (CBS/Paramount/DVD, 1995). Feature-length season two double-episode Standoff (90 minutes) has Walker (Chuck Norris) and crew protecting a Mexican presidential candidate (Gregory Sierra) from assassins. Highlight: Walker dons a jetpack to reach the top of a high-rise building.
Gunslingers: Season 1 (AHC/Cinedigm/DVD, 2014, six episodes). Semi-documentary series from the American Heroes cable channel is a mix of authoritative talking heads and re-enactments with actors in profiles of Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickock, John Wesley Hardin, Tom Horn and the participants in the gunfight at the OK Corral.
Thunderbirds: The Complete Series (itv/Timeless/Blu-ray/DVD, 1965-66, six/eight discs, 32 episodes, featurette, PDF brochure). Gerry Andersons Supermarionation technique of combining marionette puppetry and scale-model effects informs this cult favorite, a sci-fi series set in 2065 as the humanitarian International Rescue crew, composed primarily of a former astronaut-turned-millionaire philanthropist and his family, undertakes precarious rescue operations.
The Beginners Bible, Volume 2 (StarVista/DVD, 1995, three episodes). Three animated shorts relating the stories of Noah and the Ark, the Creation, and the story of David and Goliath. Based on the best-selling childrens book The Beginners Bible, with a theme song from Kathie Lee Gifford.
Sabans Power Rangers Super Megaforce: Sky Strike (Lionsgate/DVD/Digital, 2014, five episodes). More adventures with the Power Rangers as they battle Professor Cog in five episodes (including the two-part Vrak Is Back) from the second Megaforce season (overall the 21st season of the Power Rangers franchise).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Pulverizer Power (Nickelodeon/Paramount/DVD, 2013, three episodes).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Search for Splinter (Nickelodeon/Paramount/DVD, 2003, three episodes).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: NYC Showdown (Nickelodeon/Paramount/DVD, 2003, three episodes). In addition to the live-action TMNT movies and series there have been three TMNT animated series. Pulverizer Power has three episodes from the third series, while The Search for Splinter and NYC Showdown compile episodes from the second.
Parks and Recreation: The Complete Series (Universal/NBC/DVD, 2009-15, 20 discs, 125 episodes, deleted scenes, extended episodes, webisodes, audio commentaries, featurettes, bloopers, music videos, promos). Amy Poehler heads the cast in this sitcom about quirky small-town civil servants in fictional Pawnee, Indiana. Filmed like a faux documentary, a la The Office, its also one of those rare shows that got better with some tweaking after its brief first season.
Poehler is sunny and funny heading the cast as Lesley Knope, deputy director of the Parks and Recreation Department as the show begins, and the supporting cast is first rate: Chris Pratt (now a big movie star after Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World), Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Adam Scott, Aubrey Plaza and Rob Lowe, among others. (Each season is also available separately.)
Hart to Hart: The Final Season (Shout!/DVD, 1983-84, six discs, 22 episodes). This Thin Man variation stars Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers as a wealthy glamorous couple that play amateur detectives, solving crimes for fun, aided by their valet (gravelly voiced Lionel Stander). This fifth and final season finds the couple getting help from tennis star Martina Navratilova and skating star Tai Babilonia. Other guests include Dorothy Lamour, Ray Milland and Adam West.
The Facts of Life: Season Six (Shout!/DVD, 1984-85, three discs, 26 episodes). This season the girls (Lisa Welchel, Kim Fields, Mindy Cohn, Nancy McKeon) continue working at Ednas Edibles, the gourmet food shop run by Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae), and in a two-episode story, a Florida spring break is disrupted by a hurricane. (This sitcom is a spinoff of Diffrent Strokes.)
The Last Ship: The Complete First Season (TNT/Warner/Blu-ray/DVD, 2014, two/three discs, 10 episodes, audio commentaries, featurettes). This TNT basic-cable dystopian series has a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Arctic when a pandemic kills off 80 percent of the world population. The crew of 200-plus is unaffected but now must find a cure to rescue what remains of humanity. (Season 2 begins June 21.)
Falling Skies: The Complete Fourth Season (TNT/Warner/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, 2014, two/three discs, 12 episodes, featurettes). Dystopian sci-fi series (with Steven Spielberg as an executive producer) about survivors of an alien invasion becoming resistance fighters. This season the aliens plans are explained for the first time as they try to harvest energy from Earths moon and enslave humans. Noah Wyle stars and Mira Sorvino has a recurring role this season. Hard to watch this and not think of the original V miniseries.
Walker: Texas Ranger: Standoff (CBS/Paramount/DVD, 1995). Feature-length season two double-episode Standoff (90 minutes) has Walker (Chuck Norris) and crew protecting a Mexican presidential candidate (Gregory Sierra) from assassins. Highlight: Walker dons a jetpack to reach the top of a high-rise building.
Gunslingers: Season 1 (AHC/Cinedigm/DVD, 2014, six episodes). Semi-documentary series from the American Heroes cable channel is a mix of authoritative talking heads and re-enactments with actors in profiles of Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickock, John Wesley Hardin, Tom Horn and the participants in the gunfight at the OK Corral.
Thunderbirds: The Complete Series (itv/Timeless/Blu-ray/DVD, 1965-66, six/eight discs, 32 episodes, featurette, PDF brochure). Gerry Andersons Supermarionation technique of combining marionette puppetry and scale-model effects informs this cult favorite, a sci-fi series set in 2065 as the humanitarian International Rescue crew, composed primarily of a former astronaut-turned-millionaire philanthropist and his family, undertakes precarious rescue operations.
The Beginners Bible, Volume 2 (StarVista/DVD, 1995, three episodes). Three animated shorts relating the stories of Noah and the Ark, the Creation, and the story of David and Goliath. Based on the best-selling childrens book The Beginners Bible, with a theme song from Kathie Lee Gifford.
Sabans Power Rangers Super Megaforce: Sky Strike (Lionsgate/DVD/Digital, 2014, five episodes). More adventures with the Power Rangers as they battle Professor Cog in five episodes (including the two-part Vrak Is Back) from the second Megaforce season (overall the 21st season of the Power Rangers franchise).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Pulverizer Power (Nickelodeon/Paramount/DVD, 2013, three episodes).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Search for Splinter (Nickelodeon/Paramount/DVD, 2003, three episodes).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: NYC Showdown (Nickelodeon/Paramount/DVD, 2003, three episodes). In addition to the live-action TMNT movies and series there have been three TMNT animated series. Pulverizer Power has three episodes from the third series, while The Search for Splinter and NYC Showdown compile episodes from the second.
