Two Awesome New Holiday DVDs

I love holiday episodes of TV series which makes me particularly excited for two upcoming DVD releases from the fine folks at Mill Creek Entertainment. First off, let me say how much I adore Mill Creek Entertainment. Besides Disney, they have got to be my favorite company putting out home video material today. They constantly have imaginative and unique titles on their slate, always at a very low beyond-reasonable price.

Holiday episode collections have become quite popular in the last couple of years, mostly with Christmas episodes but Mill Creek is getting ahead of the game with a fantastic looking collection of Halloween themed episodes of 13 different sit-coms. TV's Spookiest Halloween Episodes collects trick-or-treat fun filled episodes of a wide variety of sit-coms and offers them up in one neat package. What I'm really digging about this collection is the wide range of years this collection represents from early 60's (Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie) to late 90's (Mad About You, NewsRadio.) What's also impressive is the range of popularity of the series represented. Some obscure goodies like Square Pegs and Ned and Stacey are tucked in there along with The Cosby Show and Roseanne. To me, this collection is just about perfect. I'm not sure I ever need to watch an episode of That 70's Show, but all the others I can't wait to dig into, especially The Jeffersons, Square Pegs and The Facts of Life. This is just a solid collection I can't wait to add to my library.

Then we've got Mill Creek's Christmas edition of Holiday themed episodes with TV's Merriest Episodes. I already have an enormous collection of Christmas TV episodes on tape and DVD and I'm really looking forward to making this disc part of the yearly viewing traditions.  Again, there is a great variety as far as ages of the shows although this one is a little more heavy on the mid 80's to mid 90's. The collections two vintage episodes: Bewitched and The Flying Nun are the same episodes that appeared in Shout Factory's (also excellent) 1989 collection Merry Sitcom! But it does feature The Ellen Show, which was a great one season CBS sitcom that aired between Ellen's popular ABC sitcom and her huge hit talk show.

TV's Spookiest Halloween Episodes is released Sept. 16, 2014 and TV's Merriest Episodes is available October 14, 2004. Both have an MSRP of $9.98.

If Holiday episodes are you thing, there are also two new collections of The Dick Van Dyke Show out from Image Entertainment. Halloween Episodes Collection is available now and contains 4 episodes while Classic Christmas comes out October 7 with two episodes.

My Week In Movies - The One Where I Give Jack Black A Chance

Bye Bye Birdie (1963) I continue my mild obsession with early Ann-Margret with this staring vehicle which was designed to make her a movie star. It's a reworking of the popular Broadway show, brought to the big screen with two of it's original stage performers - the awesome Dick Van Dyke and the super awesome Paul Lynde. The cast also includes Janet Leigh and as himself, Ed Sullivan. The story follows the nation's heartbroken teenage girls as their singing idol Birdie (a bargain basement Elvis knock-off) has been drafted into the service and will be leaving showbiz. To celebrate his departure, Ann-Margret wins a spot on television to kiss Birdie bye-bye for all the girls in the U.S.A. There's plenty of dated material, but you simply can't beat the majority of the musical numbers in this film. Shot with a bright palate of colors, the zippy songs are fun and a joy to watch. Check out this super fun number on YouTube.

Gulliver's Travels (2010) As a general rule of thumb, I can't stand Jack Black. He's a one trick pony in my book, and I don't even like his one trick. There's only so many times you can use the word "awesome" in one 90 minute period before I've gotta jump ship. The only reason I came to see this film is because it is family-friendly and my kids wanted to see it. That being said, I rather enjoyed this silly reworking of the classic tale. Jack Black does use "awesome" and many variations of that word way too many times for one movie to hold - but it's silly story and good heart won me over. There is a great supporting cast including Jason Segel, Emily Blunt and T.J. Miller and not to give anything way but this breezy little movie plays by my number one rule for a good movie - end on a musical number! My biggest complaint is not with the movie itself but with the rental DVD we got from a Redbox. I kid you not, 9 1/2 minutes of unskipable commercials before the movie. I couldn't chapter past the promos, couldn't fast forward them, could not even jump to the menu. This is totally not cool! Among the mandatory viewing is a three minute Ice Age cartoon that no one should be subjected to under any circumstances. We saw it in the theatre before RIO and did not need to be forced to watch it again. It's one thing if the movie studios want to leave the bonus features off rental discs, but don't make me watch something I didn't ask for!

Ready To Go Surfing Again

I loves me some Blue Crush, the 2002 movie about female surfers. I also loves me some crappy made-for-DVD sequels to movies I love. So, I'm all in for this upcoming flick... Agee!

You "Auto" Get This DVD!

I could not have been more excited when I heard the news that Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch was heading down the road to DVD. Good gracious, that is a fine animated program that I can't wait to get my hands on! I professed my love for Wheelie in a post four years ago and now in 2011 he's coming to DVD!

Warner Bros. is doing a great job of opening the flood gates and diving into the Hanna-Barbera vault to bring some great stuff to the screen that hasn't been seen in years. If I were to make a list of H-B shows I'd like to have on DVD, Wheelie would be at the top of my list!

Here's the write-up on the series from the Warner Bros. website:

Zoom into gear with Wheelie, the world’s greatest stunt racing car, and his girlfriend Rota Ree as they outmaneuver the sneaky motorcycle gang Chopper, Revs, Riser and Scrambles in this 3-Disc, 13-Episode Complete Series Collection! Not the smartest bike in the bunch, Chopper’s schemes range from scaring Wheelie with ghost cars at the car cemetery, tricking a trail bike into spying on Wheelie and cheating at a tractor-roping competition, plus many more shenanigans that never end well for the gang. Besides outwitting Chopper in these 39 adventures (3 per episode), Wheelie aids other vehicles needing a helping wheel, like a lost scooter, a sick tow truck and a stranded bulldozer. Honk for great family fun and motor to the couch for a night of drive-in entertainment!

I'm the first one in line for a good car pun, but I don't think I even get "motor to the couch".

Here's the super-catchy theme song and you can thank me later when you are humming it in your head all day!


Anyways, the DVD comes out next Tuesday and it looks like you'll have to order it online from the Warner Bros. Studio Shop. Or you could just come on over to the WWoB offices and we'll run it in our screening room!

Hey Vern, It's More Ernest on DVD!

Golly Bob Howdy, I have been waiting for somebody to release Hey Vern, It's Ernest! on DVD. Haven't you!? You know, the Emmy award winning Saturday morning show staring Ernest P. Worrell and all his buddies and alter egos!

Once again I'm sending kudos to the dudes at Mill Creek Entertainment for making this dream a reality. All 13 episodes of the wacky show will come in one handy dandy set for the unbelievable price of Ten Bucks! Can you believe that!? I can't wait to scoop up a copy and finally put to rest my grainy VHS copies that I taped in reruns off the old Family Channel back in the early 90's.


Each episode revolves around a central theme and is filled with quick skits and jokes from Ernest and his off-screen buddy Vern along with the rest of the neighborhood: Auntie Nelda, Dr. Otto, Sgt. Glory, My Father the Clown, Existo the Magician, Earl the Barber, and of course Chuck and Bobby.


My kids have seen a few episodes and they really enjoyed them. Can't wait to sit down and enjoy `em all once again. Hey Vern, It's Ernest! The Complete Series plops on DVD January 18, 2011.

And speaking of our good buddy Ernest, if there is some reason why you don't have all these movies in your personal DVD library by now - here's the perfect chance to pick them up. Mill Creek has licenced from Disney the rights to Ernest films #1, 3 & 4; Ernest Goes to Camp (1987), Ernest Goes to Jail (1990) and Ernest Scared Stupid (1991). They are all coming out, also on January 18, in a triple feature pack. (It looks like Disney has hung onto the rights to 1989's Ernest Saves Christmas.)

In Goes to Camp, Ernest is a handyman at a summer camp who helps the camp fight against some evil land developers. I love evil land developers! In Goes to Jail, our hero is a janitor at the fictional Howard County Bank where a wacky case of mistaken identity ends up with Ernest in jail. Like in real, really, really, really, really real prison. You know, the hoose-gow, the slammer, the joint, Alcatraz, San Quentin, Sing Sing! And Scared Stupid is the Halloween entry in the franchise which I have gone on about before on this blog.

Obviously, all three are really fun films. This new triple feature DVD might be worth the purchase for die-hard fans if the films are presented in widescreen. Only Camp and Christmas got a widescreen release when initially released to DVD in 2002. Next up, I'd like to see them do a triple feature set for the very excellent Ernest Rides Again (1993) along with Ernest Goes to School (1994) and the horribly embarrassing Slam Dunk Ernest (1995).

Vintage Christmas on DVD

I've been enjoying the holy heck out of this 4 disc DVD collection, Holiday TV Classics. The fine folks at Mill Creek Entertainment have gathered up 49 episodes of vintage Christmas television programing from the 1950's & 60's, slapped it on 4 DVDs and put it out for only $9.99 MSRP. If you pick it up at WalMart it's actually only $5.00!

I love old television, especially stuff produced for the holiday season. I wasn't around in the 1950's, but it seems that Christmas meant just a little bit more back then. I guess the country had been through some rough times and the holiday season was a really special time to slow down and appreciate everyone and everything around you. Anywho, this collection of old TV shows is great for someone like me who just loves the history of television. The footage on most of these shows is top notch and the audio is also fantastic for material that hasn't been remastered or probably preserved very well.

Now, I haven't watched all 49 episodes...yet. But so far what I've watched has been very enjoyable. Most of the original sponsor cards and announcements are still in place, and some of the shows still have their original commercial breaks still intact. The Bell Telephone Company sponsors Telephone Time, which I was expecting to be a game show but was actually a dramatic anthology series which ran on CBS for two seasons. The episode on this disc is called "A Picture of the Magi," a creative reworking of O'Henry's classic tale.

I, of course, also enjoyed a holiday themed episode of Date With The Angels one of Betty White's earliest network roles. The episode take place mostly in a department store and for my money there isn't a thing much more Christmasy than a 1950's department store at Christmas! From the looks of old movies and shows that I've seen, Toy Trains were the ONLY toys available to boys in the 50's.

There are plenty of shows that you have heard of before sprinkled among the set's 4 discs. There's several episodes of The Beverly Hillbilllies, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Dragnet and The Jack Benny Program. Holiday TV Classics is a real treat for the shows that you can't readily find on DVD...or VHS for that matter: Screen Writers Playhouse, The Paul Winchell Show, Dear Phoebe, and Racket Squad - just to name a few.

I watched the Lux Video Theatre episode, which I later discovered was a redramatization of the movie Holiday Affair. I also enjoyed discovering The Bob Cummings Show, which was racy for it's time but is now as tame as a Disney Channel Show (just more entertaining.)

This is a great collection of material that will provide nights of entertainment throughout the season. Look for Holiday TV Classics at WalMart in the $5.00 DVD section. At almost 21 hours of vintage Christmas television, that's around twenty three cents per hour for your entertainment dollar. Beat that!

Let The Halloween Cartoons Begin

Halloween is just a few weeks away and the kids and I have been in the mood to kick off the holiday special viewing season. So, this past weekend we decided to relax after a day of pumpkin picking and hay rides with the annual ritual of "Pulling Out The Halloween Videos."

We started things off with a screening of Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special, a good ol' fashioned CBS primetime offering from 1978. As with the majority of the Looney Tunes specials, this show mixes a handful of classic animated shorts with some newer low-grade animation to form one continuous half hour cartoon. Even as a young kid, the newer bits of the cartoon stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of the original masterpieces. Sometimes the new animation was just used to link together three or four complete cartoons, other times (such as the case with Howl-oween) the newer bits are sprinkled in and out the old cartoons to try and make it seem like one whole story. When the latter approach was used, the shows feel disconnected and choppy. Animation style, character design and voices change every couple of minutes and it makes viewing a bit difficult. It's a wonder why they didn't just collect a handful of Halloween themed shorts and air them in their entirty.

I was never really a huge fan of these chop shop Warner Bros. specials, but I watched them every time they were on because that's how we rolled back in the old days before VCRs and 24 hour cartoon channels. In more recent years, I kinda had a nostalgic yearning for some of these specials and have sought some out on video and DVD. Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special makes it's debut on DVD this year, having not been released since a 1994 VHS cassette. The special itself features clips and scenes from nine vintage shorts including Broom-Stick Bunny (1956), Hyde and Hare (1955) and Transylvania6-5000 (1954). One of my all-time favorite Looney Tunes shorts, Scaredy Cat from 1948, is also used luckily without too much interruption.

All in all, even though the show alters the original state of the cartoons the special is entertaining and promotes enough Halloween spirit to get everyone in the mood. The new DVD also features the complete short Hair-Raising Hare from 1946. This is the one where Bugs Bunny meets the giant orange-haired monster and does his nails. Good stuff and actually worth the price of admission alone!

In the mood for more classic animated shorts, we then popped in Tom & Jerry: Hijinks and Shrieks. I picked up this DVD at a yard sale a couple of years ago (they had it priced at $3 but I talked `em down to $2...suckers!) but we had never gotten around to watching it. This isn't an old TV special, but rather a collection of 7 top-shelf Tom & Jerry shorts from 1952 to 1965. The bad news is that only two of these shorts have anything at all to do with Halloween, the good news is that they are all pretty good cartoons. The amazing thing is that after 60+ years, these cartoons are still laugh out-loud funny to kids and grown ups alike! And quite frankly, there is no greater sound than hearing your kids crackup to pieces laughing at silly things like animals running into walls and cats getting their tail chopped off!

The two Halloween themed shorts, 1956's The Flying Sorceress & The Haunted Mouse from 1965 are both filled with sufficient levels of spooky fun to carry the other 5 titles into making this a fun collection for the Halloween season. A couple of the shorts were produced in CinemaScope and of course are presented here in pan and scan. I think a DVD of just a handful of cartoons presented in their widescreen glory for new television sets would not only be an awesome addition to the WWoB DVD library, I think it would be a big seller as well!

Both Bugs Bunny's Howl-oween Special and Tom & Jerry: Hiijinks & Shrieks are available at Wal-Mart, Amazon and for rental from Netflix. Good stuff for your pre-Trick or Treat viewing!

Good Ol' Fashioned Peanuts Special on TV Tonight

With all this talk of Snoopy and the Peanuts gang here this week, we thought we would be remiss if we didn't mention the airing of an actual animated prime-time special tonight! Remember how exciting it used to be when there was a cartoon on at night? Tonight at 8:00 EST, ABC is airing Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown - a 2003 outing for the Peanuts gang. Produced after Charles Schultz' death, the storyline for this special is actually taken from a series of comic strips from 1967 and 1988.

Here's another dorky fact straight from Wikipedia: "Of note is the fact that Peppermint Patty refers to Snoopy as "the little kid with the big nose," which is in line with the content of Peanuts in 1967 when the original strips were drawn. In the actual strip, Peppermint Patty did not learn Snoopy was a dog until 1974 and never referred to him as a "kid with the big nose" afterwards."

The excellent DVD release of this show also features 1966's Charlie Brown's All Stars, which is one of my very favorite specials and I'll be happy to recite most of it word for word...if you like. And it also has It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown from 1992 which never aired on television. The DVD is out of print, but not hard to find...or you can just watch Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown tonight on ABC!

All Hail 80's Saturday Morning Cartoons

This promises to be one of the sweetest DVD releases of the year! Saturday Morning Cartoons 1980s is a two-disc set of old school animation set to be released May 4. Warner Bros. has already put out two volumes each of cartoons from the 60's and 70's, and now they are adding another decade worth of toons to the collection. Some of this stuff is super awesome; here we go:

• Mister T - I loved this show! Mr. T ditches the A-Team and instead travels around with a gymnastics team solving crimes. Oh, that's good stuff!

The Flintstone Kids - The Bedrock gang as little kids wasn't quite as fun as the earlier adventures but it was a law in the mid-80's to turn every franchise into a baby or kiddie version. It was still a pretty good show and the end of 20 years of Flintstones spin-offs.

The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley - Martin Short's SCTV/SNL character came to Sat AM in this pretty funny show which featured a great voice cast and some live action skits spun off from SCTV classics. I can't wait to see this one again!

The Kwicky Koala Show - Even though as a flat rule I hate koala bears, this early morning show was a real gem. A throwback to the cartoon shorts of decades earlier, Kwicky was produced by animation god Tex Avery - who did the original (and side-splittingly hilarious) Droopy cartoons.

Thundar The Barbarian - My tastes always leaned towards funny animal shows, I always loved this action packed fighting show with Thundar and a bunch of other pelt-clad dudes riding around on various winged creatures and saving the world from some pretty ugly bad guys. It don't get much better than this, folks!

The set also includes episodes of Chuck Norris - Karate Commandos (which I'm pretty sure wasn't actually on Saturday mornings, it was strip syndicated for afternoons), Dragon's Liar (the cartoon based on a video game that was also a cartoon), Galtar and the Golden Lance, The Monchhichis, The Biskitts (which I believe was syndicated to Sunday mornings), and Goldie Gold and Action Jack (which I remember nothing about except it had a really cool announcer!)

If you're not like me and don't have to have every major cartoon title on DVD in your own personal collection, you should also be able to rent the two discs from Netflix. I'll definitely be pouring myself a big bowl of dry cereal and vegging out with these Saturday Morning Cartoons real soon!

Yogi Yahooeys Fan For Life

An exciting treasure from the Hanna-Barbera vaults finally made it's way to DVD this week. Scooby's All Star Laff-A-Lympics Volume 1 features four episodes from the fondly remembered 1977 - 1979 Saturday morning series. This has always been one of my favorites from the guys at H-B and I was pretty excited to see the show get a DVD release. Judging from the cover art, Warner Bros. is hoping to ride off the immense popularity of Scooby-Doo. He's featured prominently in the show's opening segment and in most of the episodes but for most H-B fans Laff-A-Lympics stands out due to it's cast of dozens of cartoon superstars.

The Laff-A-Lympics is an Olympics style event, actually a parody of ABC's Battle of the Network Stars. In each episode, three teams compete in an assortment of athletic events at venues all over the world. The teams are: the Scooby Doobies - made up of Hanna-Barbera characters from half hour mystery shows like Scooby Doo, Dinomutt, Speed Buggy and Captain Caveman; the Yogi Yahooeys - featuring the gang from H-B's classic animated shorts like Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Wally Gator and Quick Draw McGraw; and there's the Really Rottens - who look similar to other Hanna-Barbera bad guys but are mostly all original creations for this show. The teams compete in different events and are awarded points throughout the competition. Of course, the Really Rottens always try to cheat and it always backfires on them!

One of the coolest aspects of the show was the guest cameos that pop up from time to time. In the four episodes on this collection there are brief appearances from Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble and Jabber Jaw. The other fun thing about this show is how much my kids got into it! They both really got behind the Scooby Doobies and were cheering them on and hooting and yelling like they were watching something on ESPN. Myself, I'm a life long Yogi Yahooeys fan so the line was drawn down the middle of our house and the kids took great delight in seeing their team squash mine. I really like when my children appreciate the simpler cartoons from the past.

I also have to add that "Laff-A-Lympics" is a totally great title! I'm a big fan of 70's programing that incorporates the words "Laugh", "Comedy", or "Smile" into their title.

Here's a rundown of who's who on the Laff-A-Lympics teams:

Here He Comes to DVD!

I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Mighty Mouse on DVD. The classic Terrytoons shorts that were produced in the 1950's and 60's were a major staple of my cartoon diet growing up and I've always loved the little guy. There were a few hard to find releases of the original shorts on VHS, but all-in-all just a handful of the library was ever made available. There were also two other series where Mighty Mouse appeared; The New Adventrues of Mighty Mouse & Heckle and Jeckle produced by Filmation ran for two seasons beginning in 1979, and there was Mighty Mouse The New Adventures which was produced by legendary adult animator Ralph Bakshi which popped up near the end of the 1980's. I love all three versions of the show, none of which have been on television in quite a while. I do have a few segments of each in the ol' VHS collection, however!

It's been reported that a nice deluxe DVD set of the original Mighty Mouse cartoons is scheduled to be released with a brand new CGI-movie that Nickelodeon is producing. In the meantime, in between time, it's just been announced that Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures! is going to show up on shelves on January 5, 2010. My least favorite of the three different shows, it's still a great show with a really warped sense of humor and plenty of jokes thrown at adults to make it even more fun. It will be a welcome addition to my DVD library.

When the show originally aired, some people were uneasy that a Saturday morning cartoon for kids was being produced by a studio that formerly turned out X-rated cartoons. Some media watchdog group accused the show of featuring a scene where Mighty Mouse snorted cocaine even though it was clear he was just smelling a flower. (I've seen the clip, he's smelling a flower!) Besides, why would Mighty Mouse need to do cocaine!? He doesn't need any drugs to beat up cats! He's Mighty Mouse!? Duh!

Peanuts From The 70's

• I'll be looking forward to getting my hands on this new DVD set at the end of next month. Paramount continues it's parade of releases from the Charlie Brown vault with Peanuts 1970's Collection Vol. 1. There will be two new specials added to my collection: It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown and Play It Again, Charlie Brown. Th two disc set also features these previously released to DVD titles:
• A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
• It's The Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown
• There's No Time For Love, Charlie Brown
• You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown
  

Fred Flintstone and George Clooney Want to Come To Your House

Any good blog worth it's weight in rocks nowadays has a giveaway of some sort to thank it's readers for stopping by. WWoB is proud to announce a contest that will put a few extra titles into your DVD library. And not just any DVD, but we're happy to share our favorite prehistoric cartoon family with you. We'll be giving away a copy of the 5 DVD set Warner Home Video Premiere Episodes Vol. 1! Five first episodes of television series, classic and modern, come packaged together for a trip down memory lane on the house courtesy of Wonderful World of Blog. There's "The Flintstone Flyer"; the first episode of The Flintstones to air in 1960. The set also includes another comedy classic from the same era, Gilligan's Island - the first episode was an hour long and filmed in black in white. There's also the feature-length first episode of ER and two more favorites. That's almost five hours of quality television entertainment!

So, what's the rub? All you have to do to win this collection of great television is enter our super simple Flintstone Celebrity Contest. If you remember on The Flintstones, real-life celebrities would often appear on the show but their names were "Flintstone-ized", for example the most famous guest appearance was Ann-Margret who danced with Fred and Barney as Ann-Margrock. Ed Sullivan became Ed Sullystone, Cary Grant was Cary Granite, Michael Jackson even appeared on a late 80's episode of Flintstone Kids as Michael Jackstone. All you have to do is zap WWoB an e-mail or leave a comment with a Flintstone name for a modern day celebrity. It can be anyone from entertainment, politics, sports...anywhere!

We'll pick one winner at random from all the entries received before 11:59pm on Sunday July 26, 2009. The winner will be picked at random and not based on the creativity of the entry, in fact you don't even have to send in the Flintstone name - you can just enter. We'll post the winner and some of the funny Flintstone celebrity names later in the week. Have fun!

Anatomy of an Entertainment Center

I saw posts similar to this on some other blogs and had to take a stab at it myself!This is my entertainment center! To me, the focal point of it is my video collection. I have been an avid collector of video since 1987. At one time my video tape collection consisted of 2,400 different movies and programs spread out over close to 900 tapes. After changing my address a few times in the early 2000's, I thinned out the collection a great deal but I've never lost my love of VHS...and then DVD. I've tried to reel it in a bit over the last few years but I still have enough DVDs and tapes to open up my own Blockbuster store!


The photo above does not represent my entire video collection, nor is it where I do most of my film and TV watching. This is the former Playroom of the house, that I shared with the kids toys. We recently moved the Playroom to an upstairs room and we've made some additions to our living room that make it the prime spot for viewing. The TV here in the playroom is a 20" RCA that I got for Christmas when I was a senior in high school....19 years ago. The set still works great! However, now the screenings happen on a 42" widescreen set in the living room. Just a few weeks ago we dropped Comcast cable in favor of DirecTV with HD, plus we got an HD DVR in there. I topped it all off with a new HD-up conversion DVD player and surround sound. Yes, it's all pretty sweet! But let's take a look at the movie collection...

This is the main portion of my DVD/Video collection. (I refer to it as "the archives") I'm all about sorting titles into different categories. I worked at four different video stores in my younger days, it's ingrained in me. Let's dig in: Top Shelf is Disney Parks VHS (easily my favorite tapes to collect) and some other older Disney clamshell videos including the original 1990 Little Mermaid box with the naughty cover! Also up there are a collection of Disney Parks DVDs. Some of them you can get for free from the Disney World website, others are souvenirs from the parks.

The next double-layered shelf features all the Walt Disney animated features in order of theatrical release. After that I have the majority of the theatrical films produced by the Walt Disney television animation department, as well as some classic Disney shorts compilations and a few other odds and ends from Disney. On the end are the complete set of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures and the first volumes of DuckTales and Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers. The line of videos stacked on top are the (almost complete) line of Direct-to-video sequels that Disney churned out over the last decade and a half. There's also some space up there to stash new DVDs that I haven't officially put into the archives yet.

Moving down to the DVD rack, the top rack is filled with the Walt Disney Treasures line. I have 27 out of the 28 volumes released. I'll get that last one soon enough. (For fans of the series, Yes - I have all the tins the sets came in. I've got them all in a box down in the storage room. I tend to dip into these DVDs quite a bit and got tired of messing with the tins everytime I wanted to watch one.) After the Treasures is a collection of Walt Disney's work on television and the entire slate of Pixar movies (minus The Incredibles).

Next is an entire shelf of Disney live-action pictures, starting with 1950's Treasure Island and moving all the way down to Herbie Fully Loaded from 2005. Under that collection I have my very favorite (non-Disney) films that I have on DVD. As you can tell, I obviously collect Disney - but I try to be a little more selective when it comes to non-Disney fare. But, here is where you'll find all of my favorite movies from A to Z. Well, actually A to L, the next shelf down has M to Z.


The bottom shelf in the DVD rack houses some animation titles, Muppets, television, documentaries, and the Peanuts collection.


This space is in the actual entertainment center, which I've devoted to television series and animation box sets. I've got the whole run of ALF, The Flintstones and Sledge Hammer. I'm keeping up with The Muppet Shows seasons as they are released. Behind these DVDs, are some older VHS tapes - some rare like Big Bands in Disneyland and The Hanna-Barbera All Star Comedy Ice Review.

Here's more DVDs and videos that haven't found a home yet. They are stacked on top of my DVD recorder and a surround sound system from 1994 that still kicks. It's got 40 year old speakers connected to it! Underneath you can see some homeless VCRs, a DVD player and -thank you very much - a laserdisc player. It still works if you have 25 minutes to kill getting the player to read a disc. Oh, and there's a crate full of laser discs just out of frame. (That's another post!)

In another section of the room, I have this shelf full of Disney VHS tapes. I love hunting at yard sales and flea markets for good ol' Disney tapes - and this is where I keep them. The bottom shelf has got some real rare stuff like Disney Educational Productions and a copy of the never released to video Song of the South.

Out of sight, under my TV is relics from my original video collection. Most of this stuff is taped off television, but I've got some real gems hidden in these tapes. This collection goes four rows back on both levels. The less organized side has some move VHS and also some DVDs that I just don't have room to display. It took me a long time to realize that all my movies didn't have to be visible all at once. Baby steps....

Eight drawers full of more VHS. There's some good movies in here that haven't made it to DVD yet, and a bunch of old stuff I got off the Disney Channel before they started airing Zach and Cody 14 times a day. I've also got in here my own personal contribution to the entertainment world, every episode of my public access cable show plus a couple of short films and video tapes of plays I wrote and produced.

One more shelf....some more good ol' VHS. More of my favorite movies, most of which I haven't upgraded to DVD but there's a few in there that I just can't seem to part with even though I've got digital copies.

In conclusion: No, you can't borrow any of them. It's doubtful I'll ever get around to making a copy of anything for you. Yes, you can come over whenever you want and watch something!

More Snoopy From The Vault

In a few weeks we'll be treated to more goodies from the Peanuts television specials library. Set to release April 7, is Snoopy's Reunion a 1991 special that isn't quite up to par with the majority of the cartoons Charles Schultz worked on. First of all, it's one of only two Peanuts specials to not include Charlie Brown's name in the title. Second, this animated special drops the sophisticated dialogue found in previous shows and concentrates on the cuteness factor. Snoopy returns to the puppy mill where he was adopted from and is reunited with his sister and brothers. Kids are sure to enjoy it...I know mine will as they love anything filled with puppies.

But I did say this DVD is a treat...also included on this disc one of my favorite Peanuts specials: the 1984 time capsule It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown. For those of you who don't remember (or know what I'm talking about) a few years after the very sexual film Flashdance was a hit at the box office, CBS aired this Charlie Brown and Snoopy take on the box office hit. It's totally dated, and kind of stands out from all the other Charlie Brown cartoons, but it's a good one! There's some really good songs in it. (In fact, somewhere around here I have the soundtrack on cassette tape!) There's even a breakdancing scene which of course features Franklin - the only black member of the Peanuts gang. When Snoopy takes the spotlight and performs a dance similar to the one in Flashdance, the film makers even went to the trouble of hiring and filming Marine Jahan, the dance double for Jennifer Beals, to use as reference footage while animating Snoopy. Flashbeagle is certainly an odd and off-beat choice to release so early on in the roll out of Peanuts titles, but I'll be glad to replace my beat up ol' VHS copy with a shinny new DVD.

I also found out that come July 7, Warner Bros. is putting out Peanuts 1960's Collection. This will be a 2-disc set that serves up the first six of the Charlie Brown specials, which happen to span the years 1965 - 1969. The shows included in this set are:

• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Charlie' Brown's All-Stars
• It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
• You're In Love, Charlie Brown
• He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown
• It Was A Short Summer, Charlie Brown.

The first four of these cartoons have been released to DVD before, although they will feature better picture and sound than their initial digital releases. The last two listed are new to DVD, and two of the titles from the whole Peanuts library that I've been most looking forward to seeing again. Hopefully, the price of this set won't be too high to justify rebuying four of the shows.

The Way Cartoons Were Meant To Be Seen

One of the many sad things about the state of the world our children are growing up in is the lack of Saturday Morning Cartoons. Saturday morning was just about the best part of the week for any child growing up in the 60's, 70's or 80's. Before the days of 24-hour Nickelodeon and 52 other channels showing cartoons half the time, Saturday mornings were the only chance kids had to watch shows made for them. If you have kids, you owe it to them to pick up at least one of these two new super sweet DVD sets coming out in May.

Saturday Morning Cartoons are two disc sets featuring some awesome shows gathered from several different production companies and studios and assembled together in one spot to recreate the pure joy of Saturday mornings of past. And these discs are gonna feature some truly great shows.

The first volume covers the 1960's. The lineup is to include Top Cat, Peter Potamus, Secret Squirel, The Flintstones, Porky Pig, Quick Draw McGraw, Jetsons, Marine Boy, Space Ghost, Herculoids (holy crap I loves me some Herculoids!), Frankenstien Jr. and the Maggila Gorilla Show. Good Stuff!


The 70's volume has got some of my all-time favorites making their DVD debut. How awesome is going to be to watch a little Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch?! Such a great cartoon! Then we'll top that off with some Roman Holidays. Classic!! Plus there's some other jems like Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Speed Buggy (how awesome is he?), Josie and the Pussycats (I've got the whole series on DVD...but I'll still watch it here), Yogi's Gang, and how about some Amazing Chan and the Chan Gang for ya. There's also Jetsons, The Tarzan/Batman Adventure Hour, Hong Kong Phooey, Scooby Doo and the Funky Phantom.


Can you say: Awesome!?!


As the cool kids say, these DVDs drop May 19th. They are available for pre-order on Amazon.

Charlie Brown Beyond the Holidays

When you think of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts you probably don't think of "stories". In fact, the problem is most people associate Charlie Brown and Snoopy with Halloween and Christmas and that's about it. When I was younger, I read lots and lots of Peanuts books. I pretty much read anything I could get my hands on. I read compilations of the daily comic strip and I read book versions of the numerous television specials. While the daily strip provided a laugh every day, if you read everyday or read them collected in book you'd find great stories being told like the time Lucy buried Linus' blanket in the backyard and Linus dug up the whole neighborhood looking for it. The animated Peanuts television specials offered a more narrative venue for Snoopy and the gang. While I love the holiday specials, I'm equally as fond of a number of the animated half-hours that didn't have anything to do with a holiday. Sadly, most of these specials have fallen through the cracks and haven't been seen on television in decades, yet alone a DVD release.

So I couldn't be more excited for January 29, 2009 when You're A Good Sport, Charlie Brown breaks the mold and becomes one of the first non-holiday releases from the Peanuts Vault (which is located in Snoopy's dog house, of course). This awesome 1975 tale tells the story of when Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty enter a motocross race against a mysterious challenger known only as The Masked Marvel. If you don't all ready know, look at the DVD cover art pictured here and you can probably guess who the Masked Marvel is! (I love this show so much is was even mentioned in a 1998 episode of The Ed South Show.) And if adding this great show wasn't cool enough for my DVD library, the disc also sports You're The Greatest, Charlie Brown. This is an equally awesome Peanuts outing which debuted in 1979 and has Charlie Brown entering a Decathlon in the Junior Olympics. Can-Not-Wait-my friends! Don't be a lame grown-up...this is an hour of solid television entertainment you should reconnect with!

An Ernest Deal

Check out this sweet little deal I kicked off the New Year with: Six Ernest tapes on 2 DVDs! The real gem in this collection for me is "Your World As I See It," which is a collection of short films spotlighting various other characters Jim Varney created. I've only ever seen bits and pieces of this on YouTube so it's a blast to be able to add it to my collection. Second is "Hey Vern, It's My Family Album," a mid-80's TV special that Varney produced for Tennessee area stations. I've seen this film at least three dozen times and my VHS copy (which is a copy off of a rental) has seen better days so it's nice to upgrade this to DVD. Then you've got "Ernest's Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2" which are both often visited tapes in my library. They both contain about an hour's worth of vintage Ernest commercials from all over the country (but mostly the south) and some behind the scenes footage as well. Replacing my well worn copies of these two tapes with digital copies is also well worth the price I paid. Rounding out the collection are the last two Ernest feature films "Ernest Goes to Africa" and "Ernest in the Army" neither in the same league as the first five Ernest movies, but both way better than the seventh film "Slam Dunk Ernest."

How much would you expect to pay for such a fine collection of classic entertainment? Well, this beauty only set me back five bucks! Now playing at your local Wal-Mart bargain DVD bin. It don't get any better than that. KnowhutImean, Vern?

Insert Your Own "Pink" Pun Here

Here's another great animation DVD that goes beyond the call of duty. It would have been easy for MGM to release the cozy 1978 television special A PINK CHRISTMAS on a DVD of it's own, much as they had done with the VHS release. But instead not only are we treated to the Pink One's Christmas outing, we also get 1981's PINK AT FIRST SIGHT (a romance themed half hour that aired near Valentine's Day) and the very obscure PINK-LYMPICS, which was produced in conjunction with the 1980 Winter Olympics. This last film is a real treat as it only aired once and never received home video treatment. It's so obscure that I myself only learned about it's existence last year.

But of course the centerpiece of this collection is A PINK CHRISTMAS, which besides for a choir of children singing, is a completely wordless half hour story adapted from O'Henry's "The Cop and the Anthem". (I was in a high school play of "The Cop and the Anthem" so I feel a little more connected to The Pink Panther. Isn't that lame!?) In this longer than usual adventure for the Pink Panther, Pink has trouble finding a meal on Christmas eve, so he decides to get himself arrested so that he can spend the night in jail with a hot meal. The film is a great little holiday special packed with heart and warm songs of the season.

This DVD is Going to Rock! (get it?)

OMG! Seriously, like this is the greatest news of a DVD release since the invention of the DVD player. The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show was the first of 10 spin-offs to the original Flintstones prime time series. Debuting on Saturday mornings on CBS in 1971 and then reruning for most of the 70's and 80's in various forms of syndication, this series picks up with the Flintstones and Rubbles a few years after the original series. In it, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are teenagers who love to cruise around Bedrock with their friends Penny, Wiggy, and Moonrock and get into all sorts of adventures. The grownups (Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty) were usually featured in a secondary side story.

Ok, I used to watch this show alot. Like, really alot! Even though I haven't seen this show in years, I'm sure on March 18th when this DVD comes out and I sit down to watch all 16 episodes, I'll remember each and every one! I LOVED this show as a kid! Honestly, I wish we could skip Christmas and go right to March 18, 2008 so I can get my hands on this awesome DVD set!