Weeds’ longest (15-episode) season was the one that let hard-drinking Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins) in on the secret the rest of Agrestic, Calif., already knew: her widowed suburban MILF pal Nancy Botwin (Mary Louise Parker) is the town’s newest marijuana kingpin. The season also featured Zooey Deshanel (very briefly) as a kidnapping ex-girlfriend, one of the Olsen twins as a dope-dispensing Jesus freak, and Matthew Modine as a horny development mogul with a bad dye job. Loved the Christian stuff generally and young Shane Botwin’s brush with Majestic’s pro-life zealot summer school in particular.
And here’s a trend one hopes we see more of: As I type this, the DVD version is $25.99; the superior Blu-ray version is only $24.95.
Rescue Me’s fourth season saw Teddy get out of prison, Colleen start boning a musician, Jerry battle despair, Mike fall for a big-boned lady named Latrina, and Sean and Maggie dealing with marriage. Tommy sold his newborn and impersonated his Huey Lewis-lookin’ dead cousin. Co-creators Peter Tolan (“The Larry Sanders Show”) and Denis Leary are credited with the teleplays of eight of the season’s 13 episodes. Recurring guest stars included Gina Gershon, Jennifer Esposito, Susan Sarandon and Howard Stern sidekick Artie Lange.
Buyer beware! Get Smart: The Complete Series is not the entire 138-episode 1965-1970 NBC/CBS series; it’s the terrible 7-episode 1995 Fox sitcom that starred Andy Dick as offspring Zach Smart. Dick would emigrate to “NewsRadio,” which launched the same year.
Mannix was created by Richard Levinson and William Link, who also created “Columbo,” and developed by Bruce Geller, who created “Mission: Impossible.” (“Mannix’s” theme music was written by “Impossible” composer Lalo Schifrin.) The first, 1967 season was about a hard-boiled Armenian-American P.I. who worked for a huge Los Angeles detective agency that employed a “computer” to solve cases. Joe Mannix, one gathers, would routinely outwit the machine. In all subsequent seasons, Mannix daringly employed a black secretary and worked out of his own agency while the boss character played by Joseph Campenella disappeared -- all of which may explains why the first season of episodes hitting DVD today was never part of the show’s syndication package. Lead Mike Connor won an Emmy for the part and the show was nominated for a best drama Emmy twice. It ran from 1967 to 1975, anchoring CBS’ 10 p.m. Saturday timeslot, the one many still associate with Carol Burnett, for years. I’ve not watched one episode ever.
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