May 3, 2009

Canadian TV-on-DVD Roundup (May 3, 2009)

The complete Swiss Family Robinson series will come out June 30, 2009 through Image Entertainment.  TVShowsonDVD.com lists Swiss Family Robinson as a 1976 series.

There’s confusion about when the show debuted – it varies from 1973 to 1976.  I’ll defer to Wikipedia’s date of 1974.  The Wikipedia entry actually has sources.

This is the American release of Swiss Family Robinson, as Morningstar Entertainment released a series set in March 2007.  I assume the show is popular enough for Image Entertainment to release a similar set Stateside, Dove Family Approved logo and all.


Life with Derek‘s second-season set might come out August 11, 2009 through E1 Entertainment.  This is very early information, but I’m sure this set will come out.  Life with Derek has its fans and is part of a lucrative market.

For those who haven’t seen Life with Derek, it’s not like Hannah Montana or its clones.  As such, the show isn’t on the Disney Channel home page like Hannah Montanas I through IX are.  I refuse to believe people watch Wizards of Waverly Place.

Dumb aside: I’ve watched the Wizards of Waverly Place episode with the talking zit twice.  I don’t know why as I otherwise never watch WoWP.  It’s not even the best show on Disney Channel where an anthropomorphic pimple has featured.  Please don’t ask further about this.


Survivorman third-season box set art.  I assume this is the American release, as Canada hadn’t adopted the current Discovery Channel logo at the time of the announcement.

You know a show is popular when a King of the Hill episode bases a subplot – a Dale subplot, yet – around it.  Mind you, I prefer Mantracker to Survivorman.  I’ll be honest, I’ll watch a documentary on TVO before watching Survivorman.  All survival-oriented reality shows give me that “might be fake” feeling.  Television, you know?


Finalized list of extras for Corner Gas‘ sixth-season set.  It’s the final season, so buy the set and help restart Canada’s moribund economy!  Come on!  CORNER GAS!


The 2007 version of Flash Gordon comes out on DVD July 14, 2009 through Peace Arch Phase 4 Films.  It’s a Canadian-only set, so American fans will have to import the series for now.

From what I understand, Flash Gordon started off horribly and improved midway through the season.  The show is still a failure considering it’s Flash Gordon, the venerable grandfather of comic book sci-fi.  It won’t be until I’m 45, but there will be a good Flash Gordon television series one day!

As for Peace Arch becoming Phase 4 Films, I don’t see the point.  It’s not like the company will magically be better run due to the name change.  The change is about as pointless as Koch Entertainment becoming E1 Entertainment.  I’m sure VSC will merge with itself next week and become H831 Video Space Pow!  It seems to be the trend of the moment.


May 2009′s Acorn Media releases include a DVD compilation of Red Green Show-related specials.  Apparently PBS flogs the series like A&E Home Video flogs Monty Python’s Flying Circus DVDs.

This release is mainly for Red Green Show completists.  I’ll just wait for more season sets.  Maybe I’ll wait until the Dave the Barbarian series set with the talking z


Sun Media article about the Nature of Things: Visions of the Future two-disc set.  Wow, that news just slid by me.  Mongrel Media and CBC Home Video put the set out.

I don’t want to sound like an idiot, but did CBC advertise this heavily?  The Nature of Things is an institution more battered than even Marketplace, but David Suzuki is still a well-known Canadian icon.  I know of Mongrel Media through its release of Manufacturing Dissent and other documentaries, but it’s not a familiar face in the world of TV-on-DVD.

Mongrel Media/CBC Home Video will also put out India Reborn on May 5, 2009, if you’re into CBC documentaries.


Finally, here’s an American “newspaper” reference to Slings and Arrows‘ DVD sets.  I quote “newspaper” due to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer being an online-only news outlet these days.  Changes, aren’t they sweeping?

I’m amazed Slings and Arrows is so loved in America.  It never received that love in its own country, though that’s not surprising for Canadian television.

As a bonus, TV Guy’s opinion on the future of Canadian television.  I thought it was a good article, if a bit simplistic.  Your mileage may vary since, you know, Canwest.

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April 2, 2009

Canadian TV-on-DVD Roundup (April 2, 2009)

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!


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.


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?


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…


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.


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.


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.


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!

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