Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog was the best thing to come out of the Writer’s Strike – and honestly one of the best pieces of Internet or regular television produced in the last few years.

It’s a spectacular piece of work, and on Dec. 19th it will be available on DVD. The DVD is going to feature not only a regular commentary – but also a MUSICAL COMMENTARY in addition to some extensive making of material.

The DVD is available right now for pre-order and it’s only $9.99. This is seriously one of the best Christmas gifts you could give anyone – so what are you waiting for? ORDER IT or Bad Horse will trample your children.

We’re moving into the holiday break for television shows, and with the possibility of another strike looming, it’s time to reach into the DVD vault and find some TV from yester-year that’s worth watching again.

At the very top of that list for me is “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. I haven’t watched this show since it’s original run ended over 5 years ago. Recently, Wal-mart put the first 4 seasons on sale for $14.95, and Best Buy put the remaining seasons on sale for $19.95. Since my wife and I both loved the show when it originally aired, we decided to purchase them and re-watch the show.

Over the last few weeks I have been watching Season 1 and 2 of the series while I work, and I’m getting to watch the show with entirely new eyes now that I’m far removed from the high school life these early shows depict.

I’ll warn you now that there are a few stinker episodes in the first season, but this show finds is footing very quickly, and ascends to greatness faster than any series should.

We’re finishing up Season 2 tomorrow, and will be moving directly into Season 3 and beyond without stopping. This show is teen drama, comedy, and horror all wrapped into one…and all at its absolute best.

If you’ve never watched Buffy – then go grab the DVDs and get started. If you haven’t watched it in a while, this is definitely TV worth re-watching.

“That 70s Show” is a series that I didn’t get into until after the series went into syndication. I think it season 5 or so. For some reason I’d never checked it out, but after I found it – I can truly say that I’m sorry I didn’t see it from the beginning.

The series was an is a true classic of American sitcoms. Even at times when the writing of the show took a dip, or went in an odd direction, the cast of the series made it work, and created some really memorable characters.

Season 8 feels a bit odd, and the series did probably run one season too long, but its all worth it for that final episode…which was one of the best marketed series finale of all time. Topher Grace had left the series at the end of Season 7 – and I very clearly remember as my wife and I were watching it on the night it aired, we had not idea if he was going to show up or not. There had been no official announcement – and we didn’t know how it was going to end.

Needless to say, the ending was very satisfying, and well done.

This is one of those series that I will be adding the complete series to my collection. If you’re not sure if “That 70s Show” is right for you just check it out on FX…or The N…or ABC Family…or any of your local syndicated stations. It comes on about 8 times a day in my area…I’m sure you can find it on somewhere.

If you want it all in one place in a cool collector’s box, you can grab it when its released on October 14, 2008 for $199 (or less if you look hard enough).

Damages was one of the best shows on television last year…as a matter of fact, I named it the best new drama of 2007. If you missed out on this fantastic program, or if you fell in love with it as much as I did, this coming Tuesday is going to be the day for you.

On January 29, the FX drama comes to DVD and BluRay. Special features on both versions include Willful Acts: The Making of Damages, Understanding Class Action: Interactive Guide, Trust No One: Insight from the Creators and commentaries on select episodes.

If you missed out on this phenomenal show, I highly urge you to check it out on DVD. You can read what I had to say about it here.

The standard version starts at $49.95 and the BluRay version retails at $79.95.

That’s right – George Lucas has figured out how to sell the story of Star Wars a New Hope to you one more time – and of course – there are both standard and “Special Editions” of it.

On January 15th, the Family Guy special episode that kicked off the most current season of the series will be available on DVD. Keep in mind, this episode won’t be featured on any DVD box sets – this is your only way to get it.

While I’m not sure about the special features on the regular disk, the special edition features the following:

Special Features:
Commentary by Seth MacFarlane
“Once in a Lifetime: The Making of Blue Harvest” Featurette
A conversation with George Lucas
Blue Harvest Animatics
Family Guy Features: Star Wars Clips
Something, Something, Something Dark Side Teaser
PLUS: 3D Blue Harvest Fight Scene

Collectibles:
Collector’s T-Shirt (100% cotton, Black, XL)
3D Glasses
12 Collector’s trading cards (in same style as original Star Wars trading cards) that form a 3D scene on the back
20-page “Art of Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest” booklet including sketches, notes and a letter from Seth MacFarlane

This week Futurama returned from the cancellation hell that those idiots at Fox threw it into. The show has gained a huge following on Adult Swim since the cancellation, and is returning as a series of direct to DVD movies, and more episodes on Comedy Central in 2008.

“Bender’s Big Score” is their first feature length DVD…so…how does it stand up?

The Movie

I’m not even going to begin to recap the plot of the movie for you. I’ll hit a few highlights, but if you want to know the whole story, you’re going to have to buy the DVD.

The movie opens with a nice, stiff jab at Fox, then moves right into the plot. The gang all end up getting Spam after they give out their email addresses at a nude beach (you know, like you do). Also at the beach, they discover that Fry has a tattoo of Bender on his ass. The tattoo and the spammers lead to a time traveling adventure that covers thousands of years, and plays fan service to the audience like no money has ever done before.

All the major stuff is hit upon, including appearances by almost every character you can think of. Leela and Fry’s relationship (or lack there of) is a central focus of the film, and they even manage to work in a space opera styled battle with Solid Gold Death Stars at the climax of the film.

I’m not a hardcore Futurama fan. I’ve seen several episodes, and I’ll flip over to it when there’s nothing else on late at night, but I don’t have the show memorized, and I haven’t seen every episode. Even at my level of interest, I caught most of the in-show references, and even if I missed some – they weren’t distracting.

This is a really good space opera comedy, even by itself. It takes just about every cliche in the history of Sci-Fi, and somehow makes it all seem fresh and funny. The plot is a bit complicated at times (although it wraps up nicely at the end), and there is a secret about one of the characters that I figured out about half an hour before they revealed it – which was a slight negative. I wish it had taken longer to figure it out, so that the 15 minutes they spend explaining it wouldn’t have seemed so dragged out.

The only real negative I can say about it, is that it is clear where the movie will be broken up into episodes. They tried to hide it, but it’s very clear where those breaks will be, and that makes it feel like 3 episodes of a series at times. That can sometimes make it feel a bit dragged out – but, I was laughing the whole time, so I can’t complain too much.

8 out of 10

The Video

I watched this on my HD-DVD player which upscales the video to 1080i, and I have to say, the movie looks beautiful. The animation is not quite on par with the Simpson’s movie – but it looks very close. If there has been any reduction in budget on the show, it doesn’t show on screen. This thing looked great.

9 out of 10

The Extras

The DVD is filled with extras including the standard stuff like a commentary, deleted scenes (in storyboard format), the script, character designs and things like that. Where this goes the extra mile with features like a live reading of the Futurama comic books by the cast, an Al Gore specific special feature which a promo for an Inconvenient Truth feature Al and Bender, a Futurama math lecture, and even an episode of “Everybody Loves Hypnotoad”.

I’m a sucker for documentaries on DVDs – and I really wish this had one – but there is certainly a ton of stuff here to keep you entertained.

If you buy the DVD at Best Buy, you get an extra bonus disk as well that features some Animatics, and a preview of the next Futurama DVD – “The Beast with a Thousand Backs” – and it’s worth getting the bonus disk just for that preview. It’s in black and white and it’s mostly just animation roughs with the audio added – but it clearly shows that the next Futurama DVD is going to rock just as hard as this one did.

8 out of 10

The Packaging

The one thing I really don’t like about this is the packaging. I really hate the thinness of it, and the special effect cover. I imagine the packing (except of the special effect piece of plastic) is designed to be “greener”, which is fine…I just don’t love it.

Although the disk being a solid gold Death Star is pretty awesome.

7 out of 10

Final Thoughts

If you’re a fan of Futurama run – don’t walk – to you local store and buy this DVD. If you’ve never seen Futurama before, this probably isn’t the best place to start, go buy at least the first season on DVD first.

I really loved this DVD. Far more than most episodes of the show. It has everything that makes Futurama great in it, and I have very little negative to say. This is simply a MUST HAVE for any Futurama fan.

Final Score: 9 out of 10

Here is your complete list for all new TV on DVD for the week of October 23rd, 2007.

Aquaman – The Complete Collection
The Christmas Card (TV movie)
The Company – Mini-series
I Love Lucy – Complete Series
Jupiter Moon – Set 1
The L Word – Season 4
Mind of Mencia – Season 3 Uncensored
Monarch of the Glen – Season 7 and The Complete Collection
NCIS – Season 4
Route 66 – Season 1, Vol. 1
The Sopranos – Season 6, Part 2
Tales From The Crypt – Season 7
Veronica Mars – Season 3
Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea – Season 3, Vol. 2
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – Vol. 1