Cheapest Blu GALACTICA Ever!! BREAKING BAD!! TORCHWOOD!! Cheapest GOLD MONKEY, KINGS And LIFE...

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The complete series set for “Babylon 5” spinoff “Crusade” (starring Gary Cole and Daniel Dae Kim), $59.98 in June and $37.49 last month, has plummeted to $13.87!! (77% Off!!)

“Birds of Prey,” which depicts the daughters of Bruce Wayne, James Gordon and Dinah “The Black Canary” Lance teaming up to fight evil, was $34.49 in 2010 and $28.99 in October. It’s now $13.48!! (69% Off!!)

ALL of the early “Columbo” season-sets have plummeted to all-time lows of $14.99 or less!! (63% Off!!)

The complete series set for the Apatow-scripted “Ben Stiller Show” (starring Bob “Better Call Saul” Odenkirk), $17.99 in February, has fallen to an all-time low of $7.35!! (72% Off!!)

New This Week

“Eagleheart,”a loose, inspired parody of “Walker Texas Ranger,” is the best original live-action series The Cartoon Network has produced, and comes darn close – rivaling even “The Venture Bros.” and “Lucy, Daughter of the Devil” -- to being the channel’s funniest original series of any stripe.

It could be the funniest thing Elliott’s been involved with since “Groundhog Day.”

The project comes from Conan O’Brien’s production company and was scripted by Michael Koman and Andrew Weinberg, veterans of “Saturday Night Live,” “The Colbert Report,” “Important Things With Demetri Martin” and “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.”

Elliott, who worked for O'Brien's "Late Night" predecessor David Letterman for years, first as a writer-performer on "Late Night" and later as a supporting player on Worldwide Pants' "Everybody Loves Raymond." This marks Elliott's first lead role in a sitcom since the 1990-1992 Fox series "Get A Life."

In the opener, “Get Worse Soon,” his lawman character goes to hilariously extraordinary lengths to avenge the deaths of some former partners.

The second, “Creeps,” may or may not have inspired SNL’s latest digital short:

The project mutated a great deal on its way to the small screen. Here’s how the Hollywood Reporter described it in 2009:

… centers on a low-level television executive sent to Texas to produce the action series "Eagleheart." He finds himself stuck in a never-ending power struggle with his temperamental star/creator/exec producer (Elliott), a veteran action star past his prime who uses the show as a soapbox for his right-wing politics and conservative paranoia.

That show was shot in 2010 but it’s NOT the final product that arrived in 2011. There is no television executive, and Elliot does not play an actor. All we get to see is what was originally to be the show within the show.

I'm sorry to learn the backstage elements have been excised, but I must say what survives is wholly DVR worthy.

Russell T. Davies’ “Torchwood” relocated from BBC America to Starz with a 10-episode story about what happens when everybody stops dying. Loads of American guest stars, among them Bill Pullman (“The Grudge,” “Too Big To Fail”), Lauren Ambrose (“Six Feet Under”), Mekhi Phifer (“ER”), Wayne Knight (“Seinfeld”) and Dichen Lachman (“Dollhouse”), join regulars John Barrowman and Eve Myles this season.

I didn’t get the opener in time to review it, but my eyebrow did go up when I learned the convicted rapist/murdered played by Bill Pullman would be set free just because it’s no longer physically possible to kill him via lethal injection. (Were he convicted in Texas, I could see state officials tossing his brain in a wood-chipper to see if that didn’t produce better results.) Also puzzling is how the murderer apparently becomes a renowned guru, even though it’s quickly established he’s far from the only guy who can’t be killed. No number of robots and spaceships make these developments remotely credible in my mind, but perhaps they play out on screen better than they sound?

The tepid reviews kept me from catching up with “Torchwood: Miracle Day.” I still hope to. Jane Espenson is involved. And other great writers, if more secretly.

HitFix says:

… I couldn’t help wishing that “Torchwood: Miracle Day” spent a little more time on the miracle and less on Torchwood. … The parts of “Miracle Day” just dealing with those unexpected consequences are both fascinating and fun. … But as an actual narrative about Torchwood - which in its early days was something of a British answer to “The X-Files,” by way of “Doctor Who” (where Captain Jack first appeared) - “Miracle Day” is much more of a mixed bag. … It aims high, and wide, and near and far, and if it doesn't hit all of its many targets, it hits several. And that's probably enough to justify the time and expense everyone put into bringing "Torchwood" more firmly onto American soil.

The New York Times says:

… a letdown. … the show has been slowed down this season and stretched out to fill those 10 hours, which means we spend too much time thinking about the story as it develops into a not very interesting allegory involving health care, death lists and big pharma. …

The Los Angeles Times says:

… the trip from the U.K. to the U.S. has certainly taken a toll on the "Doctor Who" spinoff, "Torchwood." Having jumped, after three seasons, from the BBC to Starz, "Torchwood" is, in many ways, a shadow of its former self. … With any luck, subsequent episodes will find a sharper, cleaner stride. All the elements are there, it's just the alchemy that seems a bit off.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

… mixed results in its early episodes. … The first hour pounds away at this premise to the point that some viewers might want to shout at the TV, "Yes, we get it, no one's dying!" The plot pace picks up in episodes two and three, the only other hours available for review at deadline. … It remains to be seen whether "the end of death" is a concept that can carry "Torchwood" through a full 10 hours of television.

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

… The performances and characterizations are all top-notch, and the action sequences, especially in the first episode, are crisply directed. Newbies won't notice it, but veteran Torchies may feel there's something missing in the new "Torchwood," especially as a follow to "Children of Earth." To some extent, maybe it's that American bureaucrats aren't as much fun to hang out to dry as their British counterparts. …

The Boston Herald says:

… Despite the sci-fi twist, “Miracle Day” is a humdrum “24” rip-off, with CIA moles out to frame the good agents and a global conspiracy led by the hoariest of opponents. … Because you and I remain decidedly mortal, I suggest you spend your precious moments elsewhere. …

The Boston Globe says:

… beautifully explores all the big and little consequences of the death of dying. … The story line is expertly structured, especially after the first hour’s exposition, as potential explanations emerge and the pieces begin to fit together. And the writers maintain an all-important sense of humor, not just with the one-liners among the team members but with shrewd social satire.

Variety says:

… That this latest sci-fi tale -- a 10-parter subtitled "Miracle Day" -- doesn't fully measure up to its predecessor does little to diminish its offbeat charm, with a small army of loyalists likely to shout "Hallelujah!" at the mere glimpse of its intrepid leads. …

The Hollywood Reporter says:

… It’s difficult to guess at which audience may find Torchwood: Miracle Day compelling enough to stick it out. Die-hards might not like the American infiltration and newbies might sense there’s more wink-winking and missing back story than they can handle. But when Torchwood gets the balance right (the rising paranoia, cults, rewritten rules of human behavior), it becomes a rousing, enthralling half-breed. The vote here is to not only give Torchwood: Miracle Day a chance, but to ride out the bumpy parts and put some faith in Davies’ unique take on storytelling.

The 1986 ABC TV version of “Starman” replaced Jeff Bridges with “Airplane!” icon Robert Hays and took place 15 years after John Carpenter’s acclaimed 1984 movie. It was about the Starman and Scott, his teen son, and their cross-country search for the missing Jenny Hagen. Christopher Daniel Barnes, who went on to play Greg in the “Brady Bunch” movies, played Scott Starman.

The series has its own Lt. Gerard in the form of George Fox, a government UFO investigator determined to put Starman & Son in custody. When the Starmen finally caught up with Jenny at the end of the series’ first and only season, she was played by “Buck Rogers” vet Erin Gray.

“Bob” , launched in 1992, was Bob Newhart’s 33-episode third CBS series, following the much longer-lived “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart.”

I loved the show. It was written and produced by Bill Steinkellner, Cheri Steinkellner and Phoef Sutton, three of the main writer-producers behind “Cheers.”

The first and second seasons felt almost like two different series.

In the first season, Newhart’s character Bob McKay was a greeting-card artist recruited by a massive conglomerate to revive his 1950s superhero “Mad Dog” as bloodthirsty vigilante. Cynthia Stevenson played McKay’s single daughter Trisha and Lisa Kudrow recurred as Trisha’s best friend Kathy Fleisher. Kathy’s dad was played by “Newhart” regular Tom Poston.

Stevenson and Kudrow stuck with the show during season two but McKay got a new job and an all-new set of co-workers. The “Mad Dog” comic was cancelled at the end of season one and season two saw McKay recruited as president of Schmitt Greetings, a greeting card company. Betty White joined the cast as McKay’s boss and “Justified’s” Jere Burns played the White character’s resentful sales-manager son, who wanted McKay’s job.

Reviews were great and ratings were good until CBS moved the show from Mondays to Fridays for its second season.

TV-on-Disc Calendar

Last Week
BBC Natural History Collection Vol. 1 (Blu-ray)
The Bravest: The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
CatDog 1.x Vol. 2
Combat Hospital 1.x
DeGrassi 11.x Vol. 1
Eureka 4.5
I, Claudius: The Complete Miniseries