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.

New Halloween Special Worth Checking Out

 I don't really get Hoops & Yoyo, the stars of several Hallmark cards and other products, but my kids think they're hilarious. Hoops & Yoyo Ruin Christmas is a 2011 special that my kids watched so many times they almost burned a hole in my DVR if that was a thing you could do to DVR's. Last year, Hallmark Channel debuted Hoops & Yoyo's Haunted Halloween which I have to say was really good. In the show, Hoops & Yoyo get trapped in a mall overnight on Halloween and all sorts of spooky stuff happens to them. If you can get over the cheap computer animation, the show is filled with plenty of good gags, a little bit of satire on the state of shopping malls nowadays and a good dose of holiday fun that we just don't see on TV enough at Halloween time.

The half hour special bows on DVD this year. You can pick it up at Walmart and Target for $5.00, it's also available at many Hallmark Gold Crown stores. If you're a fan of Halloween specials - it's worth picking up. It will also probably air again on CBS and The Hallmark Channel. Keep an eye out in the listings as we get closer to the holiday itself!

Here's a promo for the show from last year. (Ignore the air date)