I am – Hercules!!

After “Justified,” “Parenthood” is my favorite new series of last season.

The guy in charge of NBC’s new iteration of the 20-year-old franchise is Jason Katims, who simultaneously served as showrunner of the excellent “Friday Night Lights” (which itself has one last season to run on NBC). This “Parenthood,” set in Northern California, occasionally feels like the pricier, blue-state version of the West Texas-set “Lights.” It also reminds me a lot of the strongest storylines found in “thirtysomething.”

As has been widely reported of late, this “Parenthood” is actually NBC’s second run at turning Ron Howard’s superb 1989 Steve Martin dramedy into a TV show.

The hourlong version is more loosely based on the movie than was the sitcom. The Buckman clan has become the Bravermans. Black sheep Larry Buckman (Tom Hulce in the movie) is now womanizing Crosby Buckman (“Punk’d” refugee Dax Shephard), who seems to have more of a real career going than did Larry. Helen Buckman (Diane Wiest) is now Sarah Braverman (“Gilmore Girls” icon Lauren Graham), and Sarah’s ex is a rocker rather than a dentist. Changes abound, but every character from the movie seems to have a an easily identifiable counterpart in the hourlong.

Some trivia related to the half-hour sitcom version of “Parenthood” that hit NBC in late 1990:

* Leonardo DiCaprio played the sitcom version of Garry Buckman-Lampkin, embodied by Joaquin "Leaf" Phoenix in the movie version. In the 2010 version, a different version the character, played by Miles Heizer, is named Drew Holt.

* MTV's "Remote Control" host Ken Ober played Nathan Merrick, the sitcom version of Rick Moranis' Nathan Huffner character. The 2010 version is a stay-at-home dad named Joel Graham and played by Sam Jaeger.

* Joss Whedon wrote on the “Parenthood” sitcom two years before the movie version of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” marked his feature debut. Sarah Watson (“The Middleman”), whom I introduced to Whedon at a “Superman Returns” screening, is on the writing staff of the 2010 version.

The terrific cast includes also Craig T. Nelson (“Poltergeist”) and Bonnie Bedelia (“Die Hard”) as the parents of the parents, Peter Krause (“Six Feet Under”) and Monica Potter (“Saw”) in the Steve Martin and Mary Steenburgen roles, Sarah Ramos (“American Dreams”) and Mae Whitman (“In Treatment”) as teen cousins, and Erika Christiansen (“Swimfan”) as the family’s youngest mom and lawyering overachiever.

Like all Katims’ “dramas,” “Parenthood” is at its core a finely honed character comedy. I love the passive-aggressive means Crosby’s girlfriend uses to herd him toward compliance and commitment. I love the expressions on the faces of the stay-at-home moms following a crack the working mom makes to her dad (that an errant microphone inadvertently captures and amplifies). I love that NBC let most of the adults end up smoking their kids’ confiscated marijuana in a parking lot at the end of an episode. Given the well-mined subject matter, the series is good about subverting clichés. The two episodes NBC sent along for review had scenes I loved, but none I wholly disliked. (A rarity for any project.) And Katims – whose credits include “My So-Called Life,” “Relativity” and “Roswell” in addition to “Lights” – has a track record solid enough I can only imagine this already-sharp series improving now that the production of FNL is no longer dividing his attention.

The New York Times says:

… unexpectedly compelling … “Parenthood,” with its polished scripts and beautifully shot exteriors, seems like a last gasp of television past …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… what "Parenthood" lacks in edginess, it more than makes up in nuance. … has a talent pool and a pedigree that puts it in a class of its own. …

The Chicago Tribune says:

… Even when the show gets a bit melodramatic or overwrought, however, "Parenthood's" good intentions radiate throughout its many story lines. But do good intentions make for reliably compelling family drama? That depends on your tolerance for its frequent tonal shifts and occasional manic intervals. …

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… turns out to be a wonderful adaptation and revision of the original movie … If the two episodes NBC made available are any indication of the quality going forward, "Parenthood" would rocket to the top tier of family dramas on network television. That's because it does the near impossible for any extended-family drama: It manages to be poignant and funny without becoming ridiculously soapy and larded with cliches. … This is a series that seems to understand that family is complicated (though in this case, thankfully, not too dysfunctional, which has been a writing crutch in our modern times). The portraits of each are both adult in nature but gilded with humor.

The Newark Star Ledger says:

… it’s smart and warm and knowing, and it casts its net so wide that at least part of it should connect with you. …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… executive produced by Jason Katims, who also wrote Tuesday's premiere and has been the guiding force behind "Friday Night Lights." But anyone expecting as nuanced a portrayal as the family of Coach Taylor on "Lights" may be disappointed. "Parenthood" is so over-stuffed with characters that depictions of the realistic, messy details of family life get squeezed out in favor of broader strokes. …

The Washington Post says:

… Packed with appealing actors (Peter Krause in the Martin role; Craig T. Nelson in Robards's paterfamilias role), this new "Parenthood" is boring, disorganized and weirdly missing the tender texture of its original source. …

The Boston Herald says:

… It’s a series that zips along in one direction, suddenly accelerates in another and veers out of control into a swamp of sugar and schmaltz. …

The Boston Globe says:

… a fairly promising ensemble dramedy … One advantage to the cross-generational approach is variety. “Parenthood’’ is brimming with characters and issues, one or two of which will probably engage your interest. …

USA Today says:

… Despite good intentions and a few good performances, too much of this Parenthood rings false — and almost all of it pushes far too hard. …

Variety says:

… a credible dramedy … Katims has worked magic with "Friday Night Lights," and some of the family drama here is certainly promising. Castwise, moreover, the bench is impressively deep. …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… NBC's sweet, extraordinarily well-cast dramedy is worth the wait. … Even if much of the show is pretty fantasy -- like those lights strung up over the picnic table that perfectly fits the entire extended family -- the Bravermans' story is one everyone can get into. "Parenthood," like the experience itself, is an evolving tale, and one worth watching.

The best part of the “FlashForward”
pilot is easily its first 18 minutes, which you can watch right here right now:



It’s a lot like the beginning of “Lost,” is it not? Guy wakes up confused and gradually discovers and deals with the cinematic mayhem that has risen up around him. There’s even a difficult-to-explain kangaroo subbing for the “Lost” pilot’s polar bear.

So that first part with the wreckage and the corpses? Well-copied.

But the “FlashForward” pilot was adapted not by super-successful writer-director J.J. Abrams, but by Brannon Braga (creator of “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and David Goyer (writer-director of “Blade Trinity”), who together previously created CBS’ “Threshold.” Which was not remotely as good or as successful as “Lost.”

Once the mayhem is dealt with viewers may start to notice two other major things that distinguish “FastForward” from “Lost”:

1) Everybody on screen is catching on to what’s going on a lot more slowly than the audience is. Which gets boring. And annoying.

2) None of the show’s many characters (or their flashforwards) is terribly interesting or engaging. At the end of the “Lost” pilot you were dying to know not only what was going on with Smokezilla and that bizarre French radio signal but also what the deal was with handcuffed Kate and evasive Charlie and the vaguely sinister Locke. Even less mysterious characters like Shannon and Hurley were so entertaining in their own ways that viewers were excited at the prospect of spending more time with them as well.

Less problematic for “FlashForward” is the fact that the “Threshold” series creators apparently took a couple liberties with the the sci-fi novel by Robert J. Sawyer, in which, thanks to a super-high-energy experiment gone wrong, everyone in the world passes out and experiences two minutes and 17 seconds of his or her own life 21 years in the future.

The TV version of the premise, maybe slightly less brimming with potential, puts the flashforwards only several months ahead, and nobody knows what caused them. In the final minute of the pilot we are given a clue of sorts, and it makes for a great ending. If you’re impatient and don’t mind spoilers you can find how here.

The date everyone flashes forward to, April 29, 2010, is a Thursday, and a key new episode of “FlashForward” is currently slated to air on that date. If this series gets that far against “Survivor,” “SNL Thursday,” “Bones” and “Vampire Diaries,” that episode will likely NOT be the season finale, according to Goyer.

In the flashforward experienced by the Joe Fiennes FBI character, the Fiennes character is seen investigating the cause of the flashforward. But even though everyone learns the exact future date and time of the two-plus minutes their memories will capture, no one in the flashforwards makes an effort to surround themselves with useful ballscore tables and/or stock market charts. So apparently the flashforward event paradoxically changes the timing of -- or eliminates -- the big communal flashforward. Or something.

“Lost” vet Dominic Monaghan is not in the pilot but does turn up as a superscientist later in the series. If you watched the clip above you may have recognized the doctor is embodied by Sonya Walger, who plays Penny Widmore on “Lost.”

Insufferable “Family Guy” mastermind Seth MacFarlane, who cameos in the pilot as an FBI man, is a horrible distraction. He uses for his “FlashForward” role the same obnoxious deejay voice he uses to play the dog in “Family Guy.”

Episode two of “FlashForward” convinced me its showrunners had no idea what they were doing. If others felt the same way, it could explain why the series is not back this autumn.

Time Magazine says:

… I wish more attention had been paid to fleshing out the characters and generally bringing a fresher voice to the dialogue. (Someday, I want someone to bring a cool high-concept like this to a producer like Jason Katims, who can play it out realistically through rounded characters, as he did on Roswell.) … Do I Want to Watch Another Episode? Absolutely. But please work on making these folks as appealing conscious as they are unconscious.

USA Today says:

From its unsettling opening image to its startling final shot, FlashForward could be the best network movie you'll see this year. Now let's hope it's an equally good series. … may not keep you hooked for years or even months, but chances are good tonight's episode will bring you back next week.

The New York Times says:

… begins in such a spirit of bracing suspense that I am challenged to recall another pilot that lured me so quickly into addiction. … has the sobriety and charge of the best, early days of “24” but builds its tension more gracefully and feels reluctant to be get subsumed by its own philosophizing. And like “Battlestar Galactica,” its has a presumed message that is humanistic and uplifting: No single messiah can save us; it takes a village to save the world.

The Los Angeles Times says:

… a decent but not brilliant beginning. … Given the subject, it's almost appropriate how unusually difficult it is to get a fix on the show. The pilot is melodramatically eventful, though the dialogue can sound phony. But the show could go either way -- be kind of great or pretty awful, depending on what comes next, how the writers plan to explain this thing and whether we are going to have any fun on the way to the explanation. … we have seen a lot of doctors and FBI agents on TV -- four of the main characters work for the bureau -- and spent a lot of time on the streets of Los Angeles. We may need more than parlor tricks to take us out of that all-too-familiar world. My crystal ball remains cloudy on this matter.

The Chicago Tribune says:

… Elements that generally work in the two-hour pilot's favor -- a big budget, a flashy central concept and a handsome ensemble cast -- also work against it because those are the hallmarks of several ABC pilots that have crashed and burned in their debut seasons. … What "FlashFoward" lacks, at this point, is a Sawyer or a Hurley; don't look to this serious pilot for wisecracks or regular-Joe wisdom. …

The Washington Post says:

… Immediately apparent from the premiere of "FlashForward": The questions may prove more satisfying than the answers, a bad sign. … "FlashForward," with lots of flash-cut editing (oddly offset with long, slow dialogue scenes) and some eye-pleasing special effects, seems a show very much of today and today's version of tomorrow and maybe even tomorrow's version of today. But if it were a little less ditzy and a little more clear-cut, it might stand a better chance of seeing tomorrow itself.

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… enormously entertaining and there's mystery galore here, with an expansive cast, an unexplained phenomenon and the tantalizing premise … Here's hoping it stays strong and compelling as it heads to April 29.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… suspenseful, disaster-filled entertainment. But will what comes next be as entertaining? If only we could flash forward to find out. …

The Newark Star Ledger says:

Ambitious but not terribly engaging … An interesting idea, but placed in the middle of a bland cast of characters (including Joseph Fiennes as an FBI agent and Sonya Walger as his doctor-wife) and execution that lacks much urgency. …

The Boston Herald says:

… Every season there seems to be one water-cooler show everyone ends up talking about. “FlashForward” is it: Get in on the first episode. …

The Boston Globe says:

… Tonight’s episode is dramatic and well-paced, unfolding ominously and quickly explaining the issues at hand. The problem, of course, is the future. What “Lost’’ had on its side was a desert-island setting, plus a sprawling and quirky ensemble cast with a range of back stories to spin. … “FlashForward’’ is a good idea, and while that’s no guarantee of a good series, the first hour gives us reason to hope.

Variety says:

… Strictly grading the pilot, it's an intriguing, mind-bending concept that's mostly well executed, with a built-in payoff cleverly timed to coincide with the May rating sweeps. The bottom line is after one hour, there's a solid desire to see more, but not such wonderment as to proclaim unwavering fealty until the show peers a little farther down the road. …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… The investigation of this consciousness-shattering global phenomenon is assumed by the Los Angeles bureau of the FBI, which is a little like giving Mr. Kotter's science class responsibility for checking out global warming. (In Sawyer's book, particle physicists tackled the issue, but when was the last time you saw one of those on TV?) … Well-cast and full of expensive-looking special effects, "FlashForward" should hook a respectable number of viewers with its combination of surprise and suspense. …

An occasionally clever and intermittently trying family sitcom from the writing team of Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline (“Murphy Brown,” “Committed,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Lipstick Jungle”), “The Middle” stars Patricia Heaton as a too-busy middle-aged Indiana car-saleswoman mom.

The guy who played the janitor in “Scrubs” plays her quarryman husband. SNL vets Brian Doyle-Murray and Chris Kattan play co-workers at her dealership.

USA Today says:

… Going forward, the show would be wise to cut back on the narration. Still, The Middle is precisely the show ABC should be doing: a smart, amusing sitcom that understands the damage cutbacks have done to folks in the middle. …

The New York Times says:

… Though the troubled economy is only glancingly mentioned in the show, it colors the landscape, and that makes Frankie’s ill-founded optimism all the more amusing. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… Like "Hank," "The Middle" is no Next New Thing; indeed, both shows argue for the opposite, for the pleasures of the known, of craft and of watching people who know what they're doing do it. …

The Chicago Tribune says:

… "The Middle" hits its comedic targets often enough, but its main problems is that it overdoes the quirkiness a bit and it also airs on the same night as ABC's "Modern Family," a new comedy that is much sharper. ...

The Washington Post says:

… smart and funny … Sort of a cross between Erma Bombeck, Donna Reed and "Thelma and Louise," and a triumph for Heaton. …

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… shows signs of not only being funny and kooky but also having the faintest bit of heart … what makes "The Middle" a pleasant surprise is that the series itself is eccentric and funny in unexpected ways, not just the kids. …

The Newark Star Ledger says:

... Wacky things happen in "The Middle" — including a brief show choir sequence that threatens to turn the show into an accidental lead-in for "Glee" on another channel — but some of the better gags are smaller and more knowing. … Heaton is less shrill than she could sometimes get on "Raymond," and she and Flynn and the kid actors all play well together. …

The Boston Herald says:

… not since “Roseanne” has there been a sitcom so honest about the stresses of a working-class family. It may be the first comedy (outside of the farcical “Married . . . with Children”) in which parents struggle with their disappointment with their children. With time, “The Middle” could rise to the top. But will viewers looking for escape want to watch?

The Boston Globe says:

… has some genuine promise, as a kind of “Malcolm in the Middle’’ family farce. … Heaton would benefit by taking her acting down a notch or two. In the pilot, she’s using the big gestures and loud delivery usually reserved for shows performed before live audiences. …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… should provide a warm and dependably funny chunk of ABC's Wednesday night of comedy.…

Variety says:

… neither distinctive nor consistently funny enough to stand apart from the ranks of TV's great unwashed, despite Heaton's game efforts. … appropriately falls somewhere in the middle, in a zone where the immediate challenge has less to do with being flown-over than flipped-away from.

The stars of “NCIS Los Angeles” are Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J, who play Navy secret agents, and the Linda Hunt character may very likely be based on “The Incredibles’” Edna Mode.

It’s interesting how everybody in the show seems to know what an NCIS is. I know I’d have no idea were it not for the Mark Harmon hourlong. Perhaps an “NCIS” show airs in the universe these characters exist in as well? And is there an Air Force Criminal Investigative Service out of which someone could fashion a series?

It’s heavy on gunplay and punching and creaky banter that’s in not a lot of danger of making anyone laugh.

USA Today says:

… not the season's most exciting show. It's a serviceable hour that takes the NCIS formula — a light tone and a lot of banter wrapped around a fairly rudimentary investigatory plot — and transfers it to a special, undercover NCIS division in Los Angeles. Nothing more, but also nothing less. …

The New York Times says:

… the pilot rises just far enough above its sometimes tired trappings to make you curious about Week 2. The presence of Ms. Hunt, in her first regular television role (she had a recurring part on “The Practice”), is a special bonus. She brings a sweet gravity to everything she does, like tucking in Callen when he sleeps at the office rather than going home to his seedy beachfront motel. It’s exactly the right note for a lighthearted drama, if that’s the kind of show you’re trying to make. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… Although much is familiar -- is it me or has the whole team-shrink-insta-diagnosis gotten old? -- that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The crime is intriguing and multifaceted, its resolution requiring a nice balance of street smarts and lots of gunfire. But as with the original "NCIS," the emphasis is on the characters of the team. …

The Washington Post says:

… isn't innovative or brilliant, but there's some kind of joy to be had from watching the parts of the machine fit together just right and operate slickly and smoothly. …

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… does well is what all CBS procedurals do well - bring mostly believable, semi-pulse-pounding justice to bad guys by the end of the hour with some action, a dose of humor and the weekly, methodical unpeeling of each character's private onion skin. …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… Tonight's series premiere shows a greater emphasis on characterization and building a team that bonds through generic teasing and banter. … It's a decent team of diverse but largely expected types. "NCIS: Los Angeles" will rise or fall in the coming weeks depending on how well the writers build on what are essentially blank palette characters …

The Newark Star Ledger says:

… The problem is that Chris O’Donnell and Cool J aren’t naturally funny, nor do they (yet) have the kind of obvious on-screen bond that Mark Harmon and Michael Weatherly display in the same respective roles on the parent show. So most of the humor feels like a show that’s trying too hard, except when we’re watching the great-yet-tiny character actress Linda Hunt as the boss of NCIS’s Los Angeles field office. Hunt doesn’t have enough to do in the premiere, but her enthusiasm and amusement about getting (or having) to say lines like, "And, of course, it’s encrypted!" are infectious. …

The Boston Herald says:

… The team solves the case not so much through dogged detective work but through convenient guesses. Call it crimesolving through exposition. It’s one way to speed up an hour, and there is one effective twist late in the premiere. … [LL Cool J] and O’Donnell don’t have the buddy chemistry perfected, but they might mix in time. …

The Boston Globe says:

… It’s all about the crimes, the technology, the guns, and, mostly about not having - or wanting - to think too much.…

Variety says:

… O'Donnell and Cool J have credible chemistry, and it's nice to see Linda Hunt as their boss. Beyond that, no investigation is necessary to grasp the formula. …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… Chances are, it will enjoy some serious audience flow. Also, a similar dearth of Emmy noms. … The plot is thin, and some of the performances are threadbare. There are flashes of Los Angeles landmarks but no real attempt to give the show a Southern California vibe. Except for the occasional flash of recognizable scenery, this could be "NCIS: Lubbock." …

The first-season set comes in both DVD and Blu-ray.

Even the “Twilight” fanatics could be leery of “The Vampire Diaries,” my pick for last fall’s worst new series.

A drama about a high school girl who falls for a handsome 200-year-old bloodsucker, “The Vampire Diaries” is adapted by screenwriter Kevin Williamson (who earlier created The WB’s “Dawson’s Creek” and “Glory Days,” ABC’s “Wasteland,” and The CW’s “Hidden Palms”) from the 1991 young adult novels by L.J. Smith.

My suspicion is the CW execs knew its snoozy, ridiculously predictable pilot was nigh unwatchable, just as they knew their jobs might be forfeit if they didn’t have a teen vampire series – any teen vampire series – on the air before “New Moon” hit cinemas.

A sample of the Williamson “wit” that litters the pilot: “I couldn’t stand another day of the ’90s,” one 200-year-old vampire tells another 200-year-old vampire. “That horrible grunge look did not suit you.”

The New York Times says:

… There’s an engrossing moodiness to Mr. Williamson’s latest venture, but one he conveys without annulling the pact he long ago made with himself never to let his cheekiness go undetected. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… Let the other franchises sniff with disdain at moldy old genre conventions, "The Vampire Diaries" stacks them up like corpses in a mausoleum and dances howling on the roof. … It may not be art, but it's as much fun as an ice-cream social in a cemetery, complete with the rustling chill of crows' wings overhead and the eerie outline of the campus cutie with strange vermilion eyes emerging from a sudden swirling mist.

The Washington Post says:

… Anemic and wimpy when compared with HBO's bloodlusty "True Blood," or even network TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997-2003), "The Vampire Diaries" doesn't even have a heart through which a stake could mercifully be driven. CW's version details the dull, dull doings of the world's clammiest vamps, who may flash fangs and skulk around in dark cemeteries (ever see a bright one?) but who come up fatally flat in terms of mayhem and menace. Naturally there's a youthful, teenage angle to the skulduggery -- a bid to cash in on the "Twilight" phenom -- but the pacing is arthritic …

The Toronto Globe and Mail says:

… sadly predictable. … when the show tries to make you gasp by hurling projectiles at cars' windscreens not once but twice in the space of its first few minutes, you have to wonder how it is going to produce any chills beyond Episode 2. … reeks of old folks sitting around the boardroom table looking to program something to draw young ones. Not hard to analyze why the eroticized vampire might appeal to youth – at that age, the notion that sexual attraction is potentially dangerous rings very true – but every demographic deserves something better than boilerplate horror.

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… in a word, awful, no matter your age or gender. … "Melrose Place" looks like "I, Claudius" compared with "Vampire Diaries," which plays out like a viral marketing campaign from overly worried Midwestern mothers about the influence of vampires on youth culture. Even if you love HBO's "True Blood" and "Twilight" is calling the younger ones, you will never want anything to do with vampires again after this series. Wait - not true. You will want all the extras who played vamps on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (which was great, by the way, and not to be blamed for this lackluster cousin) to return en masse to eat the cast of "Vampire Diaries," plus any remaining scripts. …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… this is not smart teen TV along the lines of "My So-Called Life" or "Freaks and Geeks" -- but those satisfied by a supernatural soap should be sated. …

The Philadelphia Inquirer says:

… First with Melrose Place on Tuesday, now with The Vampire Diaries tonight at 8, the CW demonstrates a commitment to recycling that would be laudable if it were bagging bushels of bottles instead of inflicting warmed-over drivel on young TV viewers who deserve better. … Vampires are all the rage these days, but, on TV at least, HBO's True Blood has pretty much cornered the market on new-age, grown-up vamps. And nobody's ever going to match the youthful mythology and fun of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. …

The Boston Herald says:

… This is “True Blood” minus the gore, the suspense, memorable characters, dialogue and story. It just might be the show to bury the vampire craze. …

The Boston Globe says:

… definitely doesn’t have the script and style that made “Buffy the Vampire Slayer’’ stand above most supernatural series, nor does it have the cinematic vibrancy of “True Blood.’’ The pop allusions (to Carson Daly, Alfred Hitchcock) and the fog-machine-based production design are flat and unambitious. But “The Vampire Diaries’’ nonetheless satisfactorily opens up yet another TV world of heightened youth, where blood-sucking is a metaphor for a whole range of fears and desires. …

USA Today says:

… The books Vampire is based on predate both True Blood and Twilight, but you can't watch tonight's premiere without feeling tonal reverb from both, with every CW soap from Dawson's to One Tree Hill thrown in for good measure. The pieces are amusingly rearranged, but even the teen girls for whom the show is designed will recognize them as old, maybe even as old as the show's dueling blood brothers. …

Variety says:

… slick but slight … unless you're a teenage girl, "Twilight" is vastly overrated, and based on that comparison, this series could honestly run on the slogan, "We suck less." …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… Bottom Line: A little too much cheese for my blood. …

The first season set comes in bothDVD and Blu-ray.

The year after CBS debuted “The Twilight Zone” to great success, NBC countered with “Thriller,” a weekly crime/horror anthology hosted by Boris Karloff. It was hailed by Stephen King as the best series of its kind and I think Harry Knowles likes it too. Robert Bloch, who wrote the novel “Psycho” and went on to script the “Star Trek” episodes "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", "Wolf in the Fold" and "Catspaw," wrote for the series.




Herc’s Popular Pricing Pantry

The “Futurama” volumes fell this week to what may be an all-time low of $16.49 each!!


A season of “Twilight Zone,” $62.49 last week, is now $29.99!!


Every episode of Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone” can now be had on DVD for $141.99!! That works out to Less Than $28.40 Per Season!!


“Columbo” season sets, $37.49 in February and $30.99 in July, are momentarily $15.99-$17.99 Each!! An A-plus cop show.


Warner Bros. has loads of movies at $2.25 or less each.

TV-on-Disc Calendar




Last Week
Ax Men 3.x
Ben 10: Alien Force Vol. 8
Flight of the Conchords: The Complete Collection
Gangland 5.x
Ghost Hunters International 1.x Vol. 2
Gossip Girl 3.x
The Great Rift: The Complete Series
The Great Rift: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
The Hard Times of RJ Berger 1.x
Kavanagh Q.C.: The Complete Collection
Lost 6.x
Lost 6.x (Blu-ray)
Lost: The Complete Series
Lost: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
NCIS 7.x
NCIS: 7-Season Pack
90210 2.x
The Patty Duke Show 3.x
Pawn Stars 2.x
Sandbaggers: The Complete Collection
The Simpsons 13.x
The Simpsons 13.x (Blu-ray)
The Sweeney 3.x
The Sweeney 4.x
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever
Top Chef 6.x
The Universe: Our Solar System (Blu-ray)



This Week

Brothers & Sisters 4.x

Foyle's War Vol. 6

FlashForward: The Complete Series

House 6.x

House 6.x (Blu-ray)

iCarly: iSpace Out

Judy Garland Show Vol. 5