Yeah, I know.  My neglect of URBMN means these Alliance Home Entertainment titles, if not already out, are coming very soon.  Hey, a few of you are actually purchasing these titles through my links, so I must be doing something right…that or Americans are cross-border shopping.

The titles for April to June 2011, plus a selection for August:

Yes, it’s another round of Alliance Home Entertainment’s Canadian TV-on-DVD releases.  There’s an increased reliance this year on relatively obscure shows with one-or-two-season runs.  The Adventures of Sinbad, The Outer Limits and other well-known CanCon quota quickies have been burned through, so Alliance has to reach deeper into its barrel.

With that in mind, here are Alliance’s February 2011 releases, plus a March 2011 release that hasn’t been formally announced:

Dead Man’s Gun: Season 1 (February 15, 2011) | Season 2 (March 15, 2011)
La galère: Season 3 (February 8, 2011)
Amazon: Complete Series (February 22, 2011)
The Adventures of the Black Stallion: Season 3 (February 22, 2011)
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven: Complete Series (February 15, 2011)
Total Recall 2070: Complete Series (February 22, 2011)

The packaging for Dead Man’s Gun is encouraging.  Alliance has finally realized how awful the six-disc Digipak it’s been using since 2010 is, and has opted for a multi-disc keepcase.  I hope this is a permanent change.

If you’ve been keeping score, Night Heat and Da Vinci’s Inquest haven’t been touched yet, while Total Recall 2070 and Amazon (a/k/a Peter Benchley’s Amazon) have.  Eventually, Alliance is going to have to get to Night Heat, just so I can end this running joke.  You can’t hide from the 1980s forever.

It’s been a while since I posted anything about Alliance Home Entertainment’s Canadian TV-on-DVD releases.  This listing consists of five new releases, two box set repacks, and one oft-delayed title.  To wit:

Andromeda: Season 5 (January 4, 2011)
C.A. Conseil d’administration: Complete Series (November 9, 2010)
Passe-Partout: “Coffret” (November 16, 2010)
TekWar: Complete Series (?)
The Adventures of Sinbad: Season 2 (January 4, 2011)
The Adventures of the Black Stallion: Season 2 (November 9, 2010)
Trailer Park Boys: “Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys” DVD | Blu-ray (December 7, 2010)

You will notice Passe-Partout‘s box set listed as “Coffret.”  From what I can tell, Alliance Vivafilm is re-releasing its Passe-Partout volume sets, packaging them as a collection.  At around $200, I can’t see a market for the set, even though Passe-Partout is encoded into the DNA of every French-speaking Quebecer born in the late 1970s and 1980s.

I question the wisdom of Alliance releasing the TPB special two years after its airdate.  I see no point in releasing Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day before the special that preceded it.  I guess Countdown to Liquor Day is a bigger commercial lure, being the third TPB film.  I don’t know.

As for The Adventures of Sinbad and Andromeda, they finish their runs on January 4, 2011.  This begs the question: which shows will Alliance mill through next?  I mean, the world is at the point where Airwolf‘s fourth season is worthy of release.

Seriously, the Vancouver season of Airwolf!  A lot of Airwolf fans count the fourth season as a separate show, but here we are.  It’s 2011 and you get to see tons of stock footage of a Bell 222, plus Barry Van Dyke!  Night Heat can’t come to DVD why?

You know the drill by now.  Tags are here and here.  Here are the new season sets of shows from the Alliance vaults, ’cause capitalism is as subtle as Kevin Thompson’s acting.

Andromeda: Season 4 (October 19, 2010)
Earth: Final Conflict: Season 5 (October 26, 2010)
F/X: The Series: Season 2 (October 26, 2010)
Les Invincibles: Complete Series (October 19, 2010)
Mutant X: Season 3 (October 26, 2010)
The Adventures of Sinbad: Season 1 (October 19, 2010)
The Adventures of the Black Stallion: Season 1 (October 19, 2010)
The Outer Limits (1995): Season 7 (October 5, 2010)

Koch Canada gave The Adventures of Sinbad a first-season release in 2004, then abandoned the title.  Not surprisingly, The Adventures of Sinbad will be quickly ground through the Alliance video mill, as the show only lasted two seasons.  I forget if the first season is the one where Sinbad and Doubar fight toilet paper in one episode.

The Alliance releases are finally showing signs of slowing down.  Earth: Final Conflict, Mutant X, F/X: The Series and The Outer Limits (1995) have been exhausted.  Andromeda has one more season to go.

The Adventures of the Black Stallion already has a complete series set out, through Echo Bridge Home Entertainment.  Echo Bridge Entertainment bought Alliance Atlantis’ international distribution arm after Alliance Atlantis was dismantled in 2007.

To be honest, The Adventures of the Black Stallion is the first redundant title Alliance has released in a while.  Echo Bridge is rereleasing the series in season volume sets right now.  Not a good move, for either Echo Bridge or Alliance.

My prediction: you’re going to see Neon Rider and Bordertown very soon.  Mark my words.  These rush releases have their problems, but better this than letting the titles rot in archive hell.  I still want Night Heat.

Alliance Home Entertainment’s TV-on-DVD schedule is beginning to make me sick.  Among the new titles announced since my last post on this topic, six days ago:

Andromeda: Season 3 (September 14, 2010)
BeastMaster: Season 3 (September 21, 2010)
Earth: Final Conflict: Season 4 (September 28, 2010)
F/X: The Series: Season 1 (September 28, 2010)
Lexx: Season 4 (September 21, 2010)
Mutant X: Season 2 (September 28, 2010)

That’s six titles announced in a week.  The syndicated programming well is being drained faster than The Flash on heroin.

I knew F/X: The Series would soon come out.  To be honest, I tolerate that series more than the others mentioned in this post.  F/X: The Series is a cut-rate Mission: Impossible, but one gets sick of Kevin Sorbo and Daniel Goddard after a while.  Hell, I’m amazed I remember the name Cameron Daddo.

I’m curious to know where Alliance goes from here.  What’s next?  The Crow: Stairway to Heaven?  North of 60?  Night Heat?  Ray Bradbury Theater?  All signs point towards drama, the 1980s, comedies…anything beyond the fare Alliance is currently offering.

Seriously, Alliance, put Night Heat on DVD.  That show has a good reputation and a solid, if aging, fanbase.  Hey, Alliance Home Entertainment thinks TekWar will sell, so why not Night Heat?  That said, I expect The Adventures of Sinbad to come out by November.

I’m not going to link to the previous Alliance Home Entertainment DVD news items anymore, just tags (here and here.)  Here are the three newest Alliance releases, as well as a couple of French-language titles that aren’t being mentioned:

C.A. Conseil d’administration: Season 4 (August 10, 2010)
Les Parent: Season 2 (September 7, 2010)
Mutant X: Season 1 (August 31, 2010)
Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal: Season 3 (September 14, 2010)
The Outer Limits (1995): Season 6 (September 7, 2010)

Today is the first day I’ve been given access to the Alliance media website, which is how I read about C.A. Conseil d’administration and Les Parent.  The French-language shows are important to Canadian television, even if they’re of limited interest to those outside Quebec and Northern Ontario.

I wish Alliance would ease off the syndicated 1990s/2000s fare, though I admit those shows sell.  The Outer Limits and Relic Hunter are the hot sellers, The Outer Limits moreso than Relic Hunter.

I don’t know why The Outer Limits is so popular.  Either Americans are buying the sets, or The Outer Limits is more popular in Canada due to its long run on Global.

Either way, I’m not complaining.  The Outer Limits is one of the few shows Alliance is releasing right now that I actually like.  I can’t believe the whole run of the series will be out before the end of 2010.  I can’t say I foresaw this back in January.

Alliance Home Entertainment is continuing its TV-on-DVD clusterbombing, as mentioned here and here.  The titles being monetized for late June-August 2010:

Andromeda: Season 2 (August 10, 2010)
BeastMaster: Season 2 (August 24, 2010)
Earth: Final Conflict: Season 1 (June 29, 2010) | Season 2 (July 27, 2010)
Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town: Complete Series (August 3, 2010)
Lexx: Season 2 (July 20, 2010) | Season 3 (August 24, 2010)
Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal: Season 2 (August 10, 2010)
TekWar: Complete Series (August 31, 2010)
The Outer Limits (1995): Season 4 (July 6, 2010) | Season 5 (August 3, 2010)
White Fang: Complete Series (August 17, 2010)

Amazon.ca is very spotty with its updates.  Admittedly, I use its affiliates program to drum up sales, which is why pieces like this exist.  The entries are still shambolic.  Items listed “the outer limits ssn 5″ or “Lexx S3″ are not uncommon.  An Amazon offshoot should not be that unprofessional.

TekWar‘s release date has been pushed back three times by now.  It was initially set to come out June 13.  August 3 and August 10 release dates will not be met.  I wonder what’s causing the delays, since it’s been mentioned that this set will not include the made-for-TV films.

One thing Alliance Home Entertainment needs to do is revisit TV-on-DVD sets its predecessor company, Alliance Atlantis, abandoned.  Cold Squad and Traders are two such titles, abandoned after their first seasons.  AA sat too long on Da Vinci’s Inquest, a title Acorn Media has since capitalized on.

I actually can’t believe Alliance Home Entertainment is as active as it is right now.  That’s good.  While the company isn’t perfect, this situation is a lot better than when AHE quietly released the odd Trailer Park Boys season and a few other titles.  I’m in awe that it’s keeping to its clusterbomb title strategy.  I question why shows like White Fang, but the good with the bad.