The TV Zone

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, WLIW’s “Visions of Ireland” scenic overview comes out on DVD today from Acorn Media (list price $25). The 75-minute widescreen single-disc release includes footage not seen in last year’s public TV premiere.

“Visions of Ireland” joins previous “Visions” releases flying over England, Scotland, Italy, Greece and other locales. WLIW’s latest production, “Visions of Austria,” premiered locally last Thursday and rolls out across other public TV stations this month.

Watch an Ireland DVD video preview here.

Now here’s a TV flashback to the time when New York was the center of the video universe, tiny as it was back then. In the late 1940s, as television was replacing radio in a smattering of American homes, nearly all network shows were produced in the city, and reflected the city’s sensibility and ethnicity.

The latter was the point in “The Goldbergs,” a rarely seen early tube familycom that makes its way to DVD April 15 from Timeless Media Group. Gertrude Berg wrote the show, which had originated on radio in the late ’20s, and also starred as Molly Goldberg, leaning out the window of her New York tenement to call her signature line “Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Bloom!”

“The Goldbergs” may have seemed familiar to New Yorkers, or maybe even stereotypical, but to the overwhelmingly Christian center of the country, this radio/TV family provided a rare early glimpse/earful of Jewish life and Yiddish language. The characters of Molly and husband Jake had started in Berg’s Catskills hotel skits as immigrants assimilating into American life, while still proudly retaining their own unique ethnic culture. The show’s radio run (1929-46) even included topical references to Krystallnacht and the Holocaust.

The TV version (run sporadically on four networks 1949-56) was more typically a warm family saga about parents and teens, with an ethnic slant, and its potential success was dampened when costar Philip Loeb was blacklisted in the anti-Communist frenzy. Because the shows were performed live from New York (except a final suburban season filmed for syndication; those episodes are coming to DVD), few have survived to be seen as the historical landmark for which they might be recognized.

You can see clips from the show at the bottom of this tribute page at the ever-tube-lovin’ site TV Party.

[UPDATED with photo and May 20 release date]

Nothing new to report on the Fox TV network return of The Further Adventures of Jack Bauer. But since it looks unlikely we’ll see anything “24” on-air till 2009, Fox Home Entertainment has stepped into the breach.

A tricked-out Special Edition release of “24” Season 1 is being reported at our favorite TV DVD site, TV Shows on DVD. Fans will remember the show’s initial set didn’t get many special features -- it came out back in 2002 right when networks/studios were starting to realize the $$ to be made (and promotional value to be found) by rushing out the previous season release before subsequent episodes resumed the following fall/winter. And that was before bonus material was being created along the way during production.

TV Shows on DVD is reporting new commentary tracks to be added for Season 1, along with deleted scenes and featurettes about the series’ genesis. This special "24" set should hit shelves May 20.

Formats come and formats go in home video. It looks pretty much as if HD DVD is on its way out now, according to today’s report that inventor Toshiba is primed to pull the plug. (Blu-ray remains in the high-def game.) But portable digital media continue booming on the iPod and similar devices, where downloads and podcasts keep us busy watching on the go.

Now add downloads on a disc, as the Fox home entertainment folks have with their new release of “Family Guy: Blue Harvest.” The animated series’ hourlong “Star Wars” parody special arrives on DVD bearing a duplicate Digital Copy of itself that’s ready to be loaded into your computer library for transfer to iPod or Windows Media Player.

When I finally found the time to try it out, turned out I hardly needed any time at all. You put the “Blue Harvest” Digital Copy disc into the computer, type in the serial number provided in disc-case documentation, and click a button. Two minutes later, the entire show has downloaded to your hard drive (in 640-by-480 quality). Then connect your iPod to that computer, press the transfer button, and 60 seconds later, you can watch anywhere.

Without Digital Copy, you could of course rip a regular DVD’s content and translate that onto a portable device using third-party software. But that’s a pain and requires some know-how. With a Digital Copy DVD, you’ve already got the content in two consumer-friendly, guaranteed-legal formats.

Other DVDs with pod-formatted Digital Copy content include “Live Free or Die Hard” and “Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix.”

Here’s a more detailed MacWorld report on the process. And here's the official "Family Guy" version.

Now you can show the kids and grandkids why that “father knows best” line is such a pop culture staple.

TV’s archetypal 1950s family half-hour “Father Knows Best” gets an official authorized DVD release on April 1 -- and it’s no April Fools’ joke. High-quality distributor Shout! Factory has taken on the challenge of making star-producer Robert Young’s vintage title fresh again, as they’ve done with “That Girl,” “McHale’s Navy” and fellow family-values icon “Ozzie & Harriet.”

The Season 1 box set due April 1 includes not just the first 26 TV episodes from 1954-55 (the show had previously run five seasons on radio), but also new interviews with younger cast members, behind-the-scenes home movies, a bizarre unaired made-for-the-government episode called “24 Hours in Tyrantland” (Welcome to the cold war!), and more. It’s all on four discs at a reasonable list price of $35.

[Photo from Lauren Chapin’s web site, laurenknowsbest.com.]

Technically, this doesn’t qualify as Christmas TV, so we’ll give it its own category here.

KISSmas.

Gene, Paul and the boys go 24 hours straight on VH1 Classic Dec. 7-8, starting Friday night at 9.

It’s a stunt designed to sell their newest DVD set, “Kissology, Vol 3,” another compilation of KISS TV and concert appearances. Pre-order it online and get your holiday greeting read on the air.

The vault goodies lined up for the VH1 Classic marathon include footage from the “3” DVD, also concerts in Houston (1977) and Sydney (1980), the reunion “MTV Unplugged” appearance, and lots more.

And yet more holiday releases are hitting video shelves.

The Family Holiday (PorchLight, $15) – Kids, dogs and good clean fun: “Full House” costar Dave Coulier strives to become a family man to claim an inheritance.

A Perfect Day (Sony, $25, out Dec. 11) – Rob Lowe stars in last year’s TV movie as an ambitious author who needs to relearn the importance of family. With Christopher Lloyd.

The Christmas Blessing (Living Arts, $15) – Lowe shows up again in this “Christmas Shoes” sequel, starring Neil Patrick Harris as a doctor rethinking his life after losing a patient.

OK, who stuffed the ballot box? Muppet-related shows took home three TV DVD Awards this week. I love the furry fellas, too, but come on.

There are plenty of debates to be had over which sets won the prizes announced at Monday’s Hollywood soiree presented by Home Media Magaine. After judges determined the nominees, consumers voted online for their faves. The Best of Show prize went back to the judges, who honored the “Get Smart” complete series set -- rightly, since it was loaded with extras and packaged in a box that evoked the ’60s sitcom’s door-slamming montage.

Argue among yourselves over these further awards:
Best 2000s Series: “Heroes: Season 1” (Universal).
Best 1990s Series: “Seinfeld: Season 8” (Sony).
Best 1980s Series: “Fraggle Rock: Season 3” (Fox/HIT).
Best 1970s Series: “The Muppet Show: Season 2” (Disney).
Best 1960s Series: “Get Smart: The Complete Series” (Time Life/HBO).
Best 1950s Series: “Adventures of Superman: Seasons 5 & 6” (Warner).
Best Animated Series: “The Simpsons: Season 10” (Fox).
Best Children’s Series: “The Muppet Show: Season 2” (Disney).
Best Reality Series: “Survivor: Vanuatu” (CBS DVD/Paramount).
Best Variety Series: “The Best of Chappelle’s Show” (Paramount/Comedy Central).
Best One-Season Wonder: “The Dresden Files” (Lionsgate).
Best Miniseries or Made-for-TV Movie: “Roots: 30th Anniversary Edition” (Warner).
Best Foreign TV Series: “Doctor Who: Series 2” (BBC).
Best TV Documentary: “Planet Earth” (BBC).
Best Bonus Materials: “Lost: Season 2” (Disney).
Best Complete-Series Set: “M*A*S*H: The Martinis & Medicine Collection” (Fox), and “Get Smart: The Complete Series” (Time Life/HBO).
Judges’ Special Citation for Best Packaging: “The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series” (Starz/Anchor Bay).

The holiday discs just keep on comin' --

The Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1976 and The Johnny Cash Christmas Special 1977 (Shout, list price $15 each; out Nov. 13) – Three-quarters of Sun Records’ legendary “million dollar quartet” reunite on the ’77 disc: Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. (Elvis Presley had died that summer.) Roy Orbison, Roy Clark and The Statler Brothers are other guests with Johnny and wife June in an hour where only 10 of the 17 songs are holiday tunes. On the 1976 special, less than a quarter are Christmas-y, and the guests include Clark again, Barbara Mandrell, Merle Travis and Tony Orlando, plus the Rev. Billy Graham with “A Story of Christmas.”

Christmas Time in South Park (Comedy Central, list price $20; out Nov. 13) -- All seven faves, spanning 1997-2004, include "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo," "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson," "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" (original holiday song videos!), "A Very Creepy Christmas," "Red Sleigh Down," "It's Christmas in Canada" and "Woodland Critter Christmas."

More tube holidays hit DVD shelves this week.

A Wish for Wings That Work (Universal, $15; out Nov. 6) – Berkeley Breathed’s beloved 1991 Opus n’ Bill animated special finally comes to DVD. But the 24-minute special is all there is. No extras. No booklet. Nada. Wouldn’t it be nice if video distributors cherished a show like this as much as we do?

The Munsters Scary Little Christmas (Universal, $15; out Nov. 6) - Don't get too excited. This isn't the original '60s cast. It's a 1996 TV movie with "Tracey Ullman Show" stalwart Sam McMurray as Herman and Ann Magnuson as Lily. Not bad, though.

The Pink Panther: A Pink Christmas (MGM, $15; out Nov. 6) - The cool cat celebrates the holiday in a very cold New York City in 1978's half-hour special. (Disc also has "Olym-Pinks" and "Pink at First Sight.")

What else do you need? The new “Magnum, P.I.” Season 7 DVD release (Universal, list price $50) includes Frank Sinatra’s last substantial acting role. But you’d never know it from the packaging, which fails to mention Sinatra on both the slipcase and the inside episode guide.

Ol’ Blue Eyes guest starred in 1987’s “Laura” episode as a retired New York police sergeant who comes to Hawaii and enlists Tom Selleck’s local private eye to help him on what seems to be a missing-persons case. Sinatra was 71 at the time but still spry playing a hardboiled tough guy (with bad taste in Hawaiian shirts).

This seventh season was to have been the last for “Magnum, P.I.” which explains how the season finale seems to be a series finale. Magnum gets shot in the episode titled “Limbo,” and ends up in that divine locale with other spirits. Then CBS decided to order another year, so it all became a “near”-death ordeal. Nonetheless, fans consider this season one of the series’ strongest.

[Photo from MPTV.net: Selleck and Sinatra flanking costar Larry Manetti.]

The fourth annual TV DVD Awards are asking consumers to help determine which sets released over the past year are the best of the bunch. The awards, sponsored by Home Media Magazine, TVShowsonDVD.com, the Digital Entertainment Group and The Hollywood Reporter, will be handed out Nov. 12 during a gala dinner in Hollywood.

Voting continues through Friday, Oct. 26 at TVShowsonDVD.com. Remember -- you’re being asked to choose the best DVD treatment (video/audio quality, extras, packaging), rather than simply the best show.

Among the worthy candidates in 16 categories are such fine releases as “The Larry Sanders Show: Not Just the Best Of,” “Seinfeld,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Get Smart,” “The Simpsons,” “The Dick Cavett Show,” “Planet Earth,” “Doctor Who” and “Roots.”

More holiday releases are hitting shelves this week, including two sentimental TV movies, recent and vintage. Plus ’70s musical mayhem.

The Christmas Card (Genius, list price $15, out Tuesday, Oct. 23) – Last year’s Hallmark TV movie with the backdrop of the current war comes to disc for all the readers who’ve been writing in asking if this sentimental hit was available on DVD. Finally it is, telling of an American soldier (John Newton) touched by a holiday card from a stranger (Alice Evans), whom he then becomes determined to meet. Extras include a featurette about a real-life “card” story.

A Christmas Memory (Genius, $13, out Tuesday) – Truman Capote’s perennial holiday story of a lonely boy was remade into a 1997 CBS TV movie with Patty Duke. It’s less treasured than ABC’s 1966 Geraldine Page version (narrated by Capote himself), but that version is almost impossible to find on disc.

Captain & Tennille: The Christmas Show (Retroactive, $15) – Don Knotts and Tom Bosley join the “Love Will Keep Us Together” couple and musical guests The Pointer Sisters in the color-crazed 1976 yule hour of their ABC variety series. Songs range from “Little Saint Nick” to “O Holy Night.” Optional C&T commentary!

E-mails arrive all the time from readers asking why their favorite sitcom/drama/TV movie doesn’t seem to be available on DVD. And I usually steer them toward the comprehensive website TV Shows on DVD, run for six years now by Gord Lacey, who’s become a great friend and source for me since founding it as a hobby (since turned into a career). Gord and site news director Dave Lambert are incredibly well-connected and consistently deliver informed scoop about tube properties heading to home video shelves.

Dave launched his new DVD Guy blog last week with a bang, explaining why we’re not seeing “The Bionic Woman” with Lindsay Wagner on DVD in conjunction with NBC’s new remake, or “The Six Million Dollar Man,” either. I emailed Dave, saying it sounded like the legal wrangles holding up the ’60s fave “Batman” [right], and apparently so did the rest of the universe. So now he’s posted another column explaining “Batman” and some other TV DVD no-shows.

Both his and Gord’s blog should get a wider readership now that the site has been acquired by TV Guide, whose editors were wise enough to keep Gord and Dave in place running things so expertly. Their URLs are definitely worth bookmarking.

Anyone who knows anything about me knows what a happy camper I am when the Christmas TV DVDs start coming in.

And it’s already a cool yule at the mailbox!

Among the new holiday releases hitting my desk:

The Flintstones Christmas Carol (Warner, list price $15, out Oct. 2) – This doesn’t come from the ABC series’ 1960s heyday. It’s a 1994 animated feature. But Flintstones fans have taken it to heart anyway, loving how Fred goes all method actor playing Scrooge in a local staging. Big bonus feature -- the 1965 “Flintstones” series episode where Fred subs for an ailing Santa.

Christmas Television Favorites (Warner, $40, Oct. 2) – This blue 4-disc hardcase package (similar to last year’s red “Original Television Christmas Classics” box with "Rudolph" and "Frosty") collects previous releases of eight animated specials. Topping the list -- the ’60s Dr. Seuss cartoon “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and the Rankin-Bass stop-motion favorite “The Year Without a Santa Claus” (with Mickey Rooney). The latter fave is also available in a new single-disc Deluxe Edition ($20) with bonus specials “Nestor the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey” (Roger Miller) and “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year” (Red Skelton), which also appear in the hardcase collection. Other specials there are “Frosty’s Winter Wonderland,” “Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July,” “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” and Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hears a Who.” Extras include two animation how-to featurettes and all the interviews/other goodies from last year’s “Grinch” 50th anniversary edition.

The House Without a Christmas Tree (CBS, $13, out Oct. 16) – The beloved 1972 TV movie stars Jason Robards as the widowed dad who’s still holding his wife’s death against his daughter, and thus denies her a Christmas tree. There is, however -- spoiler! -- a warm and fuzzy ending.

More Christmas TV DVD reports to come . . .

Start saving your pennies, spy fans. “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” finally comes to DVD -- its first official home video release -- via Time Life online orders to ship starting Nov. 27.

The official press release puts the price of the complete series set at an ask-Santa-for-it whopper of $249.95.

That’s for all four seasons of NBC's 1960s hit (105 episodes), in a special attache-case package, including such bounteous extras as new interviews with stars Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, the unaired pilot, a spinoff feature film, vintage home movies and awards show clips.

Fans can now order the series set here. (Individual seasons will be available at a later date.)

If you'd rather pick it up on store shelves, you'll have a bit of a wait. Warner Home Video says its retail release won't come till the fourth quarter of 2008.

Fall freshmen series “Chuck,” “Journeyman” and “Life” are available for free rental at Blockbuster. The chain’s video stores (and online rental queues) are stocking this "NBC New Fall Preview DVD" through Oct. 21.

If you’re time-pressed, watch ’em in this order: “Chuck,” “Life,” “Journeyman.” (I’ve seen them already.) NBC’s fall premiere week starts Sept. 24.

It’s the same sort of deal NBC offered last year through Netflix.

TV DVDs are coming out fast and furious now that the fall season is immiment. (Newsday’s TV fall preview runs in the Sunday paper of Sept. 16.)

And it’s nice to see that even subsequent-season sets are including more extras these days, which hasn’t always happened in the past. (Still doesn’t for most vintage series.)

“Grey’s Anatomy” Season 3 arrives on disc today (the fourth season hits ABC’s air Sept. 27) in a “seriously extended” edition that includes four episodes presented with substantial unaired content, in addition to the usual array of deleted scenes and bloopers. Three commentaries are fun and informative: the season premiere with give-and-take between Chandra Wilson and “Private Practice” spinoff star Kate Walsh; the Ellis-is-lucid-again hour, discussed by on-screen mom and daughter Kate Burton and Ellen Pompeo, and “Desire,” with Sandra Oh. You even get to hang with Patrick Dempsey off-duty at stock car races. This wasn’t a great season, but featurettes like one on the Jane Doe character highlight what did work.

“Desperate Housewives” Season 3 hit shelves last week, with a featurette going behind the scenes of the matrimonial season finale. No commentaries here (might have been especially nice on event episodes like the “Bang” supermarket hostage-taking), but other featurettes summarize the season’s storylines and compare ABC’s “DH” with a South American version. Deleted scenes and bloopers, too. (Season 4 starts on ABC Sept. 30.)

Wow! When they say they’ve remastered the animation on “Gumby Essentials” (out today from Classic Media, list price $17), they really mean it!

It’s eye-popping how fresh these Art Clokey claymation originals can look as many as 54 years later. Clokey’s 1953 film-school project “Gumbasia” -- which was a washed-out relic in Rhino’s 2001 seven-disc “Gumby” DVD box (out of print) -- now looks as brilliant as a brand-new box of Crayolas.

And the 15 Gumby TV animations Clokey has chosen for this single-disc salute to 50 years on the tube -- five from the 1950s, five from the ’60s, five from the ’80s -- are now shiny-bright, too. The ’50s outings are even re-edited back to their original 11-minute length (from the halved 6-minute shorts we’re used to seeing).

Fans disappointed in the Rhino set’s soundtrack substitutions should be happier here with Gumby’s original music restored.

With “Gumby Essentials” widely discounted to the $12 range, it’s definitely a must-have.

(Watch “Gumbasia” here. Or enjoy a Gumby sampler.)

Take a sneak peek at this fall's upcoming HD DVD release of the first season of the original '60s "Star Trek."

These are the remastered episodes that have been airing in high-def in syndication (3:30-ish Sunday night/Monday morning on WNBC/4).

There's an 8-minute trailer streaming at the official Star Trek web site that shows off some of the interactivity enabled by today's high-definition disc technology.

Pretty cool.

The Season 1 set comes out Nov. 20.

“High School Musical 2” hits DVD shelves Dec. 11, in an “extended edition” including a musical number not shown in the Disney Channel premiere.

Extras announced by Disney DVD include backstage footage of rehearsals and, of course, the singalong version. Suggested retail will be $30 ($35 for Blu-Ray HD).

The DVD trailer is already up on YouTube.

[Photo above provided by Disney Channel.]

Here's the one Lucy fans have been waiting for:

A complete series set of all 194 episodes of "I Love Lucy" in one handy package!

Coming out Oct. 23 from CBS/Paramount video, the nine-season box -- featuring the shape of a heart, just like those syndicated show openings -- will contain everything the individual season sets did.

Plus -- and here's the big news -- we'll get some new extras that include a fully colorized version of the "Lucy Goes to Scotland" episode. Normally, we'd shy away from anything "colorized," but insiders in the TV DVD community tell us this new effort is the real deal, looking sharp and authentic rather than dull and washed-out like those 1980s colorization efforts that gave the process a bad name. Even Hollywood pros who are notorious sticklers for video quality say the computer programs and human expertise have now advanced to the point you might not know the show wasn't filmed in color in the first place.

Let's hope they're right. Younger viewers who won't watch anything in black-and-white might finally be able to savor Don Knotts' "Andy Griffith" episodes. And our own personal fave, "The Dick Van Dyke Show."

Or would seeing Lucy's flame-red hair and other colorful accoutrements just throw our appreciation off-kilter? Can't wait to find out.

Without the CD, there would be no (same size, looks alike) DVD. And without that, the average house wouldn’t have such a wealth of vintage tube on tap to watch whenever we want.

This BBC news story celebrates the compact disc’s 25th birthday by providing such wonderful facts as the very first commercial music CD. (Do you know what it was? Answer below.)

Also in the story is the interesting observation that the audio CD thrived thanks to its single, open standard -- none of that destructive VHS/Beta rivalry or NTSC/PAL incompatibility. Any CD you buy anywhere in the world should play anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of video DVDs, with the world’s different TV engineering standards and the distributors’ control-freak region coding. Now the Blu-ray/HD-DVD battle is slowing the purchase of high-def video players, scaring consumers wary of betting on the wrong horse, Beta-style.

The CD will always be historic for starting us down the digital entertainment path, offering a clarity, ease of use and storehouse of info that DVDs (and now high-def discs) have only expanded upon. Learn more about the original development of the compact disc here.

Sure, the CD may go the way of vinyl records and VHS tapes someday -- perhaps someday soon. MP3s and other hard-drive/flash-stored entertainment are already challenging the disc’s preeminence. With video on demand becoming familiar in digital cable, users don’t have to store anything, just electronically click to see/hear a title or a genre/format transmitted from the system's head-end whenever they want.

Oh, that initial CD? “The Visitors” by ABBA.

As the legends of TV talk keep departing this realm in alarming numbers, fans of Tom Snyder in particular should do a very peculiar thing.

Obtain the DVD set “KISSOLOGY Vol. 2: 1978-1991” (out this week from VH1 Classic, list price $35).

Within its three biographical discs of rock-and-roll-all-night lies a hilarious encounter between said “Tomorrow” show host and four dudes tricked out in pseudo-space gear and outrageous makeup, all laid helpless by the giggles.

Except, of course, for KISSmaster Gene Simmons, who slumps sulking in his chair for reasons he explains in another of the DVD’s delights, optional audio commentary, looking back now on NBC’s 1979 late-night tête-à-tête.

“He was the Barbara Walters -- bigger than Barbara Walters,” today’s imperious Simmons says of the expressive Snyder, who would have loved hearing that before he died July 29. “Important entities would sit there and they would sort of delve into the what-is-it-that-makes-this-thing-tick, who-are-these-people. So we were honored to be on the show.”

Guitarist Ace Frehley was, in fact, so honored that he got completely blitzed, and acted plastered, which Snyder loved, beseeching Ace to describe his “outfit.”

“I think this outfit is self-explanatory. I’m a plumber,” Frehley deadpans before another burst of mirth. “Listen,” replies the talkmeister devilishly, “I’ve got a little piece of pipe backstage I’d like to have you work on.” “Tell me about it!” blurts Ace, dissolving into convulsive cackles.

“When [Ace] would have a few -- gallons,” Simmons drawls in commentary, “he would turn into a happy guy. The result is kind of a grumpy old man who used to stick his tongue out” -- that would be Simmons -- “and a bombed guitar player.”

It’s laugh-out-loud hysterical. God help the closed-captioners trying to transcribe all the antic crosstalk dialogue. (Yes! It’s captioned this time!)

Why doesn’t everybody strip-mine TV history the way these KISS sets do so deliciously? The highlight of last year’s three-disc “KISSOLOGY Vol. 1: 1974-1977” was another talkfest artifact: the rockers’ ultra-early ’74 appearance on daytime’s amiable “Mike Douglas Show.” As KISS’ Paul Stanley recalled in commentary, “Mike Douglas pretty much made Merv Griffin look like Ozzy Osbourne.” But it was Douglas’ cohost that week, mature Catskills comic Totie Fields, who memorably looked beyond Simmons’ skull-and-crossbones leather and flesh-veiling makeup to call the Israel native “a nice Jewish boy. You can’t hide the hook.” That surreal clash of cultures -- what did Douglas’ housewife viewers make of KISS at a time even rockheads weren’t sure what they were? -- was supplemented on Vol. 1 by other classic tube excerpts. “The Midnight Special.” “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.” And the showbiz bizzarerie of the 1976 “Paul Lynde Halloween Special.” (Quips the fey Lynde, “Just what I’ve always wanted -- four kisses on the first date!”)

“KISSOLOGY Vol. 2” covers a longer period of time and a broader swath of territory. This one unearths TV appearances from Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal, in addition to ABC’s “Fridays” rock-out. Add in CNN and MTV coverage of the band, led by veejay J.J. Jackson’s chat during the 1983 “unmasking” where they revealed their faces sans makeup. Simmons and cofounder Stanley recently sat down to provide fresh commentary on it all, bluntly assessing their youthful behavior, the band’s evolution, and various missteps along the way.

The vintage clips remain the most priceless (though a crisp widescreen European cut of their NBC TV movie “KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park” is a hoot of its own). The “Tomorrow” show finds Stanley recalling how the Queens boys “started out playing in Amityville, Long Island, and we always said, ‘This is the Garden. Every night.” Even then they knew they were making what they already called “KISStory.” Now it’s satisfyingly amassed and interpreted for all to savor.

Hey, didn’t these guys ever visit Merv Griffin?

Call me crazy, but I thought there were women on “Saturday Night Live,” too. Maybe not, considering the content of next Tuesday’s new boxed set of previous best-of DVDs. Included are releases devoted to regulars Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell, plus guest hosts Steve Martin, Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken.

No Gilda Radner. No Molly Shannon. No nobody with breasts.

Sigh.

It's official: The much sought-after "Twin Peaks" TV-movie pilot (which did NOT appear in the Season 1 DVD set) will indeed be part of "Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition" due out Oct. 30 from CBS/Paramount.

Ownership of the movie-length premiere was different than that of the series' two ABC seasons, so fans have been scrounging around for years trying to find copies of David Lynch's original brainstorm. The pilot was released by itself in 2000, in the early years of DVD before most consumers had players, and quickly went out of print. The first season came out from Artisan in 2001, while the second season [art at right] didn't arrive till this past April from CBS. The "Gold Box" will include all 29 episodes plus both the U.S. and Europe versions of the pilot.

Other extras in the 10-disc set include new bonus content (interviews, rare footage, cast reunion, fan festivals), collectible items, and four new making-of documentaries.

Read the full press release by clicking "Continue" below.

If you enjoy “30 Rock,” but not enough to plunk down season-set money, then Universal has a cheaper option coming your way. Tina Fey’s NBC comedy arrives on DVD this Sept. 4 in three varieties: Season 1 set ($50 list price for 3 discs), partial-season Vol. 1 ($27 for 2 discs), partial-season Vol. 2 ($27 for 1 disc).

DVD distributors think consumers are leery about plunking down $50-80 for full-season sets, and more willing to spend in smaller chunks. Other series are hitting shelves only in split seasons, including "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” “Perry Mason” and the imminent release of the 1960s hit “The Fugitive.”

Starter discs are another tactic to get the price down. Distribs have separately released the first disc or a couple of episodes from season sets of shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “24.” They’ve also released one-disc best-ofs to test the waters for full season sets of series including “Welcome Back, Kotter” and “Drew Carey.”

Open Channel D -- “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” may finally be making its way to DVD. After various announcements, cancelations and rights wrangles, TVShowsonDVD.com is reliably reporting a fall release from Time Life. They say it’ll be a complete series set, all 105 episodes, similar to Time Life’s acclaimed “Get Smart” box, with bunches of bonus features.

Read it all here.

There was just too much great stuff. That’s what ace DVD producer Paul Brownstein found when he started mining the archives of the vintage 2-inch videotapes of “This Is Tom Jones” -- 63 variety hours produced 1969-71 for ABC and featuring some of the 20th century’s top performers alongside the Welsh sex-and-soul symbol. (Full DVD review in Tuesday’s Newsday here.)

“Ray Charles got moved to a later set to make room for more music” in the initial three-disc release, says Brownstein, who did find ways to include segments from eight shows spotlighting the likes of Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin [pictured below] and Joe Cocker. Subtitled “Rock ‘n’ Roll Legends,” the first “This Is Tom Jones” set hits store shelves Tuesday from Time Life, with a followup release (possibly later this year) planned to showcase “legendary performers” like Charles, Sammy Davis Jr., Bobby Darin, Tony Bennett and Johnny Cash.

Brownstein is used to big names like that. His TV DVD credits include acclaimed sets for Sonny & Cher’s 1970s showcase, “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and the “definitive edition” of “The Twilight Zone,” for which this self-proclaimed “raider of the lost archives” scrounged up more extras than anyone knew existed -- not just new commentary tracks by cast and crew members, but also old audio recordings of lectures by creator Rod Serling, radio versions of episodes, isolated music scores, vintage commercials, etc.

Souping up the “Tom Jones” set was easier because Jones owns the rights to his shows and has a vested interest in preserving them. (Studios don’t always show the same care for their myriad properties.) Lucky Jones fans, they get to compare two stagings of his 1969 show with Stevie Wonder and political comic Pat Paulsen: one taped for Britain on the PAL video system, the second for the States in NTSC. Pushing the “angle” button on the DVD remote switches back and forth between the two tapings done on two consecutive days. Tom and Stevie duet slightly differently, and Paulsen’s comedy routine is somewhat “cleaned up” for American viewers. Other special features include vintage promos and interviews, along with Jones’ informative new intros and recollections by Sir Tom, still a hot charmer at 67.

What’s not on the set, sadly, is the episode with classic performances by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. “Neil Young denied the publishing. Himself. And he didn’t even write the song in question,” fumes Brownstein, who often sees wonderful footage thwarted by music rights permissions and payments. Young “just blanket does not allow his songs to be licensed,” so far as Brownstein knows. (The producer hopes to get that episode onto public TV somehow, “because on PBS we won’t have to clear the music, and America can see Tom Jones sing with CSNY.”) Brownstein says he also had “incredible footage of Tom and [Broadway star/songwriter] Anthony Newley. But do I get to put that in, or do I get to put in The Who? At the end of the day, it was how many songs could we afford to put out.”

At least The Who appear, though it’s in a black-and-white kinescope, filmed long ago off a TV monitor airing the original color broadcast. “The color tape is missing,” Brownstein laments. “I think the color footage was probably given to them when they did [The Who film] ‘The Kids Are Alright’ in the ’70s and it just never came back. We scoured all the vaults and different archives.”

Brownstein is doing the same thing now for the Smothers Brothers, whose legendarily controversial variety series “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” -- yanked by CBS in 1969 in the wake of censored songs and sketches opposing the Vietnam War -- is set to come out on DVD later this year. He’s got a head start this time, too: Brownstein already produced episode-specific interviews with Tom and Dick Smothers in 1992 for the show’s repeat run on E! cable. Those fresher-at-the-time recollections will find their way onto disc, creating their own valuable archive for future historians to raid decades down the line.

NBC has snuck its canceled NYC-filmed suspenser “Kidnapped” back onto the schedule.

But it airs late Sunday night after midnight on most NBC stations -- not exactly a primo slot. And it doesn’t air on WNBC/4 at all. Fans might let the station know what they think about that. (Antenna users can try picking it up late Sunday/early Monday at 2:15 a.m. from WVIT/30 in Connecticut. In HD, no less.)

Unaired episodes starring Jeremy Sisto, Delroy Lindo, Dana Delany and Timothy Hutton started being fed by the network last night, and continue this Sunday night, July 1, with the “Front Page” episode, seventh of the 13 filmed.

Luckily, this is only one way to watch “Kidnapped” on your TV. You could also buy the complete-series DVD, and avoid the commercials.

Full episodes are no longer streaming online, though NBC’s “Kidnapped” site offers video interviews, backstage footage and episode highlights, along with a plot “dossier.”

This week’s DVD & Beyond industry summit hosted by Home Media Magazine has handed its 3rd annual DVD Critics Award for best TV DVD to . . .

Two sets! There was a tie between the complete-series boxes “Get Smart” and “M*A*S*H: Martinis & Medicine Collection.” Also named a winner, for best packaging, was “Six Feet Under: The Complete Series,” with its artificial-turf top creating a sort of faux gravesite.

The other awards went to movie DVDs, including the “Superman Ultimate Collector’s Edition,” “Forbidden Planet” and James Bond releases.

Read all about it here.

Baseball fans and tube nostalgia nuts have something to look forward to. The 1959 TV series “Home Run Derby” hits DVD July 10 in the first of three summer-release volumes from MGM Home Entertainment.

Legends like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and