Recently I’ve been re-evaluating what gets included in these Canadian TV-on-DVD Roundups.  I removed all mention of Iron Man: Armored Adventures from the Roundups, as the only sign that the show was Canadian came from Wikipedia, not the world’s most accurate information source.  IM:AA is properly a French/Isle of Man show.  I apologize for the error.

I will still include industrials like Highlander: The Series, Inspector Gadget and Just For Laughs.  Highlander and Gadget were co-productions, while Just For Laughs is a Montreal-based festival with tendrils in Chicago.  I hate including them, but I do include as much proper CanCon as I can.  I’m even wondering whether Fear Itself qualifies for the DVD Roundups.

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Little Mosque on the Prairie‘s second season on DVD September 15, 2009 through Paradox Entertainment Group/E1 Entertainment.  I guess Morningstar Entertainment lost DVD rights for the show.  E1 is a better label, anyway.  The set includes a Dan Redican commentary track, among other random extras.

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Fraggle Rock‘s final season, as well as A Merry Fraggle Holiday (i.e., a Christmas compilation), coming out November 3, 2009 through Lionsgate.  The complete series is being reissued the same day, in proper bookcase format.

Lionsgate is now working directly with The Jim Henson Company.  HIT Entertainment has been freezed out of the picture, and I couldn’t be happier.  Fraggle Rock was treated shabbily by HIT Entertainment at the end, while the Lionsgate/Henson arrangement takes the fans’ complaints into account – better packaging, a stand-alone fourth season set, cheaper prices.  How can you not like that?

I think the Lionsgate/Henson arrangement is going to bear fruit.  Is a Dog City DVD set on the horizon?  Such a thing looks far more likely than it did a year ago.  Make it happen, JHC.

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Gord Lacey reviews Total Drama Island‘s season set.  This is a review of the American DVD set, obnoxious Cartoon Network logo adorning the box art.

Lacey quite likes the show, which I’m surprised by.  Then again, Total Drama Island/Action is one of Cartoon Network’s juggernauts, as well as being omnipresent on Teletoon.  If Fresh TV doesn’t subsume CN within a few years, I’ll be surprised.

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Reviewersblog.com “reviews” of Blood Ties: “The Complete Season One.”  As for the blog, it’s blatant content scraping from Amazon.com, just so you know.

I’m quite surprised this release is selling well, as it currently ranks #1,055 in Amazon.com Movies & TV sales.  It’s not a blockbuster ranking, but the set’s been out for a month and a half.  People are buying Blood Ties.

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Highlander: The Series‘ first-season Blu-ray set pushed back to September 22, 2009…possibly.  The only place to buy it right now is LegendaryHeroes.com.  Hell, buy a sword for yourself while you’re at it.  THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!  MOO! and stimulate your need for crap.

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Oh, I almost forgot, Flashpoint‘s first season on Canadian DVD and Blu-ray October 13, 2009 through Phase 4 Films.  That isn’t important, is it?

Highlander: The Series’ first season out on Blu-ray September 15, 2009, at least if one pre-orders the set through LegendaryHeroes.com.

Temporary package art for the Blu-ray set.  For Highlander: The Series‘ first Blu-ray release, “subtle” animated graphics fill bars left by the transition from full-frame to widescreen.

I think it’s a cheesy image, Super Game Boy meets the Quickening, but I’m not the consumer Davis-Panzer Productions is trying to impress.  Highlander: The Series is a cash cow, an immortal cash cow.  THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!  MOO!

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Press release for Inspector Gadget: The Go Go Gadget Collection.  Don Adams’ and Frank Welker’s voiceover talents are noted.  What, no Cree Summer?  Brain gets credit over Penny?  Eh, what can you do.  It’s a press release and you’ve already forgotten about it by now.

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TVOntario’s Get Ready For School DVD out since August 4, 2009.  I can’t believe it took TVO until 2009 to enter the world of consumer DVD, but it’s a start.  Yes, Polkaroo’s involved, although the godlike kangaroo mutant plays second fiddle to Gisèle’s Big Backyard.  Everyone does now.

Mongrel Media and TVO might each have a steady revenue stream on their hands, even if TVO entered the home entertainment game at a horrible time.  If the success of Get Ready For School leads to Eureka! and Prisoners of Gravity sets down the road, I’m all for it.  The story so far…

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Just for Laughs Volume 3: Launching Pad on DVD October 20, 2009 through Image Entertainment.  Just for Laughs is selling this set on the strengths of Jeff Dunham, Dane Cook, Ray Romano, Russell Peters and other profitable comedians.

Has it ever occurred to JfL to release the Andy Kindler State of the Industry Addresses in their entirety?  They would be the DVDs to own, rather than the CliffsNotes run-throughs of stand-up comedy material.  The Just for Laughs merchandising juggernaut will continue unabated, so here’s a praying mantis puppet to end this post.

The Gemini Award^®-winning (it pains me to write that) Chop Socky Chooks debuts on DVD October 6, 2009.  It’s a volume set, since kids’ shows are released that way.

The show’s minor Aardman at best, and it isn’t very funny or engaging.  It won a Gemini Award^®, though.  A show about martial-arts film archetypes in vaguely avian form?  I’m sure Chop Socky Chooks was better than Total Drama Island in 2008.  I also think a weak season of This Hour Has 22 Minutes outranked Kenny vs. Spenny.  The Gemini Award jurors just know quality.

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Monster Warriors: War of the Water World out August 25, 2009 through Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada.  Monster Warriors vs. Creepy Crawlers came out June 30, 2009.  Ah, the volume set, every kids’ show loves that format.

The show’s premise – 1950s movie monsters come to life via mad scientist – sounds fun.  Sadly, the show is poorly realized and Seán Cullen plays the mad scientist.  Cullen doesn’t go into stream-of-consciousness rants about his penis on Monster Warriors, but that’s hardly a small mercy.

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Show Me Yours: The Complete Series out November 10, 2009 through E1 Entertainment.

This is one of the more esoteric announcements I’ve seen in some time, as Show Me Yours is a sex-oriented Showcase dramedy from five years ago.  It’s nice to see more Showcase product out there, but where are Billable Hours and Testees‘ sets?  I haven’t seen Show Me Yours, but I’m sure it’s better than Monster Warriors.

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The rest of Heartland‘s first season out November 10, 2009 through E1 Entertainment.  That’s a speedy turnover in sets.  It makes me wonder why E1 bothered to split the first season.  Not that it matters, since I’m sure the two volume sets will be bundled a year from now.

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Flashpoint first-season box art.  The Flashpoint release is American-only, not that parallel releases are illegal to own in Canada.

At this point I’m supposed to point out Flashpoint star Amy Jo Johnson’s role on Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.  The Pink Ranger is her most notable role, after all.

There, I’ve made the reference.  Let me never speak of it again.

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Blood Ties “second”-season box art.  I could have knocked that “art” out in an hour via Photoshop.  It won’t stop the fans from buying this set, but everything about Blood Ties‘ “second” season screams quickie release.

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No Stargate news this week?  Good.

I haven’t done one of these Canadian TV-on-DVD entries for a while, purely since there hasn’t been much movement on that front.  I also grew disinterested with the “new box art for Season 1 of Flying Pig-Dog Hour!” entries on TVShowsonDVD.com.

In fact, TVShowsonDVD.com hasn’t been making with the truly interesting news as of late.  Sure, The Dana Carvey Show and American Gladiators, we all want that.  Was the world clamoring for more Brothers & Sisters and California Dreams, though?  Sheesh, give me Automan and Manimal.  I want to see Simon MacCorkindale fail to act, damn it!

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The complete Zeroman series out on DVD June 2, 2009 via kaBOOM!/Peace Arch.  I honestly never expected this to come out on DVD, although Teletoon shows frequently merit series sets.  Then again, Zeroman isn’t exactly Delilah and Julius or Cybersix.  Nothing could be Cybersix.

Zeroman isn’t the worst thing Leslie Nielsen’s ever done.  Liocracy, Dracula: Dead and Loving It and 2001: A Space Travesty are all worse than Zeroman, although that’s damning Zeroman with faint praise.  At this point, Leslie Nielsen should retire the deadpan humour he used to be so good at with Airplane! and The Naked Gun.

Ron MacLean and Don Cherry have recurring roles on Zeroman, as do Ryan Reynolds and Kevin McDonald.  Did I mention Zeroman was shit?  At least the show’s animation was surprisingly decent.

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Corner Gas‘ sixth season set will come six weeks after the show’s series finale airs.  The June 9, 2009 release will have the retrospective behind-the-scenes filler It’s Been a Gas and “footage of the final read-through,” at least according to CTV press bumf.  Not a bad deal, especially since CTV is pimping Corner Gas‘ final episode out.  It’s Canada’s greatest-ever mainstream comedy series.  Canada will fall apart when Corner Gas ends, right?  Won’t it?

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Corner Gas II, also known as Little Mosque on the Prairie, will see its second and third season sets come out in the fall of 2009 through Morningstar Entertainment.  The information comes from CBC Shop, so let’s just vouchsafe that the discs will come out.  After all, if The Collector can come out on DVD…

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In a related segue, The Collector‘s second season set comes out May 26, 2009 through Morningstar Entertainment.  I’m rather surprised The Collector sold well enough to merit a second-season DVD set.  It just goes to show you how people like certain Canadian programs, but CityTV aired The Collector.  Murdoch Mysteries and Less Than Kind fans know CityTV is where Canadian shows go to die.

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Acorn Media releases Murdoch Mysteries‘ first-season set on June 16, 2009.  There are many hardcore Murdoch Mysteries fans out there, so I have a feeling this will sell well.  Why is it that an American company can cherry-pick shows like this and gain a reputation for quality releases?  If Acorn Media snaps up Less Than Kind, I’m going to lose my shit.

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Blood Ties “Season 1″ out June 2, 2009, while “Season 2″ might come out September 2009.  The reason I quote the seasons is that the show aired worldwide as a 22-episode season.  Lifetime split Blood Ties in two seasons for U.S. consumption.  Eagle Vision is releasing this since, you know, strong fanbase.

Yeah, another Canadian show’s home entertainment rights snapped up by an American company.  If nothing else, Peter Mohan stands to make serious bank off the DVD releases.  Vampires are trendy these days, so he might as well profit from the trend.

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Critical Mass Entertainment and Anchor Bay Canada released another Hilarious House of Frightenstein DVD set on March 31, 2009.  It’s an Igor-centric compilation, for those Fishka Rais fans.  It’s hard to fault Anchor Bay for putting the Frightenstein comps out, since they come out with some regularity.

If Critical Mass gains DVD rights to Maniac Mansion, John Hemphill fans are going to have an epileptic seizure.  Watch, I’ve now set in motion events that are going to culminate in Maniac Mansion season sets, at least in my mind.  After all, I am Turner Edison.  You think “Cameron Archer” is a real person?  Bullshit!

Press release for Tripping the Rift‘s third-season DVD set.  I wonder why Anchor Bay’s bothering to sell this to non-fans.  Sci-Fi blew through the third season.  Teletoon currently airs the series every night at 11:30 PM, which is the ass-end of the Detour block.  I think the marketplace has made its decision on Tripping the Rift by now.

Also, here’s more Tripping the Rift box art.  The box art claims “…more fun than a fifty-kronig lap dance!”  Like Chode, the blurb lies.

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Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World gets a second-season set.  Cuppa Coffee Studios animates the series, so this counts as Canadian.  I find Rick & Steve unfunny and pedantic, so naturally it’s a good fit with the Tripping the Rift news.

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The Best Years‘ first season out March 10, 2009 through Koch Vision.  I’ve seen bits and pieces of the show and I’m not crazy about the series, just like I’m not crazy about most shows set in college.  Nevertheless, Global gave the show a fair shake last season, so it’s worth a look.

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Two Stargate SG-1 direct-to-video films, The Ark of Truth and Continuum, are being rebundled by Fox for a March 3, 2009 release.  Standard DVD and Blu-ray versions of the films are affected by the rebundling.

If you’ve bought the two films separately and/or pre-ordered the Blu-ray version of The Ark of Truth, this news has to be a piss-off.  No doubt the repack will sell well, Stargate being the newest deathless sci-fi franchise with a strong fanbase.

Hmm, maybe I should review one of the films and mention how I’ve never seen a full episode of Stargate SG-1 prior to seeing said film.  Throw in a comment about how Richard Dean Anderson sucks and that’s sure to piss off a lot of people!  My God, I’ve found my reviewing formula!  I’M A GENIUS!

Tripping the Rift Season Three on DVD in early 2009!  This release, of course, makes Tripping the Rift: The Movie completely superfluous.

Considering Tripping the Rift‘s third season was buried by both Teletoon and Sci-Fi, why didn’t Anchor Bay put out the complete third season to begin with?  Why would anyone pay for the same lousy T’Nuk-is-ugly and Chode-McBlob-likes-Six-fucking-him jokes twice?

For those fans willing to rebut me with “you seem to know so much about the show” comments, I reviewed Tripping the Rift: The Movie and watched maybe five minutes of a few random episodes.  You’re kidding me if you think the show has actual depth.  What a waste of Stephen Root and Maurice LaMarche.

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Super Dave’s Super Stunt Spectacular Volume 1 box art!  I hate posting articles about box art, but the art’s fairly good here.  I like the shark in the top-left corner.

Bob Einstein looks a bit sickly, though.  I know he’s in his mid-sixties by now, but there’s something not right about the way he looks.  If that’s airbrushing, sheesh, at least use an older Super Dave picture.  He looks almost Roy-Orbison-in-1988 pancakey.

Super Dave – Super Stunt Spectacular: Volume 1

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Box art for The Border Season One.  Honestly, that’s awful box art.  Not only is it a bunch of heads backdropped by some blue, the artwork looks strangely unprofessional compared to, say, jPod.  Usually VSC has at least half-decent box art, but not here.  All that motion-blurred text…ugh.

The Border: Season 1

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The Starlost complete series set has been delayed by VCI until November 4 – no reason, VCI just felt like it.  Every time I see that logo for The Starlost I keep thinking “Coneheads.”

In other news, The Starlost is already being sold at amazon.com for half its list price.  It’s the price of the future…TODAY!

The Starlost: Complete Series  

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On a personal note, I recently posted to Canuxploitation.com‘s forums about the Canadian TV-on-DVD Roundup.  I don’t think I need to explain what Canuxploitation.com is about, but think Jon Mikl Thor films and Prom Night.  Hell, just think Jon Mikl Thor.  He’s a cottage industry in himself.

I’m already #1 or #2 at Google.com on the subject of Canadian TV-on-DVD, and I think sweetposer.com may be the first site to talk extensively about the subject.  Sure, there’s a hometheaterforum.com topic about Canadian TV-on-DVD releases, but this site may have set a trend.  Whether this translates into people actually reading sweetposer.com remains to be seen.

Life With Derek first-season DVD set.  When I contacted Zoltan Varadi of KOCH Canada about updating my contact information and availability of the Terminal City box set, I was sent a press release concerning this show.  I haven’t seen Life With Derek so I have no comments good or bad about this release, but there are far worse shows being given box sets.

The Blu-Ray box sets of The Tudors‘ first two seasons have been delayed until November 25.  This doesn’t affect the DVD version of the second-season box set, which is still coming out on Remembrance Day.  The American DVD release of The Tudors will have other Showtime hits tacked onto the set, just in case you’ve been living in a garbage bag and don’t know what Dexter is.

ReGenesis first-season DVD set.  I never watched this show, but it has its fans and it’s good to see this come out.  Koch and VSC tend to grab the choice titles, and I have a feeling this will sell well.

TVShowsOnDVD.com links to the frightenstein.com boards concerning a new Hilarious House of Frightenstein box set.  This is being put out by CRiTiCAL MASS Entertainment and Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada.  Wait, is it Starz Home Entertainment Canada now?  Whatever, at least it’s a Canadian release.

As a special bonus, David Lambert of TVShowsOnDVD.com thanks someone whose name sounds very familiar to me:

Our thanks to reader Sean Palmerston for tipping us off about this

Sean Palmerston?  The writer for Exclaim! and Unrestrained!?  Alright, he’s a Hamilton boy and Hilarious House of Frightenstein was shown on CHCH back when it had a soul, so the connection isn’t that far off.  I never thought I’d see Sean Palmerston’s name referenced at TVShowsOnDVD.com.  He’s branching out.

Bruce Kirkland puts over a few Canadian TV-on-DVD sets, including Corner Gas, Durham County and Terminal City.  I don’t see how Corner Gas is “out-of-mainstream” since that show is the most successful Canadian sitcom since Trailer Park Boys, but whatever.  Duckman and Robot Chicken are recommended, so Kirkland has some semblance of taste.

Class of the Titans Season One, Volume One?!  The show has its fans, but why split the season like that?  This isn’t like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe where each season has at least 65 episodes, so I don’t understand the strategy.

I think Class of the Titans is a fairly silly series – descendants of Greek heroes fight mythological monsters controlled by some higher power.  Replace the hero spawn with teens who can turn into dinosaurs.  Swap “mythological monsters” with “mutated animals.”  Replace “higher power” with “shapeshifting velociraptor.”  There, you have DinoSquad.  People have been abusing the basic building blocks of adventure cartoons since forever.

A 6teen set.  I actually like this show, although I’m not crazy about it since I’m not part of its target audience.  The characters on 6teen have personalities beyond their initial stereotypes and talk like actual people some of the time.  6teen‘s not perfect – very few shows have correctly depicted the lives of teenagers, and the characters on 6teen are all mallrats.  The show’s more fun than Class of the Titans, but that goes without saying.

Here’s a set I missed for the first Canadian TV-on-DVD post.  It concerns Durham County, a show that appeared on The Movie Network in 2007 before being given a run on Global earlier this year.  I should really check that show out one of these days.  It sounds good.

Funny how Anchor Bay’s Canadian division is putting this out.  I wasn’t even aware Anchor Bay had a Canadian division.  I’m out of the loop.

Various recent Canadian children’s shows have DVDs out – Di-Gata Defenders, Ruby Gloom, Grossology and Jane and the Dragon.  I’m not crazy about any of these releases, although I can’t comment on Grossology and Ruby Gloom since I haven’t watched those shows.

Di-Gata Defenders, though?  It’s like Digimon meets Avatar with anything that made those two shows watchable bled dry.  That show needed the lead characters to transform into dragons.  They could have fought evil Internet viruses controlled by an evil Steve Wozniak!

My word, I think I just described the plot of Code Monkeys!

This isn’t specifically related to TV-on-DVD news, but io9.com has an article up asking whether The Starlost was the worst science fiction program ever made.  The complete series DVD set came out September 30 through VCI.  The show aired on CTV during the 1973-74 season and is one of Harlan Ellison’s ill-fated excursions into television.

Amazon.com has this at $45, which sounds exorbitant.  Wait a year, I’m sure The Starlost will be at least half off by then.