Saturday, July 28, 2007

Mini-DVD Review: Tales from the Crypt - The Complete 6th Season (July 24); Solomon's Weekly Rant: Summer Sucks on TV Land and Nick at Nite

Welcome to another edition of mini-DVD reviews! Today we take a look at Warner Home Video's Tales From The Crypt -- The Complete Sixth Season. Tales From The Crypt of course is the popular '90s HBO series...that was spooky but cool. See skees53's mini-DVD review of Tales From The Crypt -- The Complete Sixth Season:

Tales From The Crypt -- The Complete Sixth Season (Warner, $39.98) brings the Cryptkeeper back to tell fifteen more spine-tingling stories that are guaranteed to give you nightmares (well, if that kind of stuff actually scares you, that is). The set contains the 15 episodes of the series that aired on HBO in the 1994-1995 season on a three disc set. Among these episodes include tales of a predatory lawyer learning a rough lesson, psychiatric patients that are being treated unfairly getting their justice, wives getting a little bit of revenge, harvesting the souls of the dead, and more. And the guest stars are pretty impressive, including Catherine O'Hara, Rita Rudner, Isaac Hayes, Hal Williams, Debbe Dunning, Wayne Newton, Corey Feldman, Hank Azaria, Ben Stein, and John Lithgow. And if that isn't enough, Alfred Hitchock and Humphrey Bogart mysteriously come back to life to do an episode... well thanks to computers... in the episode "You, Murderer." I also love this episode because of the introduction to the episode, where the Cryptkeeper becomes "Fearest Gump" and offers Alfred Hitchcock a "shockalet" while sitting next to him at a bench!
The set comes in double slimcases and the video and audio quality are perfectly fine, with English subtitles to go along with the episodes. The runtimes for the episodes are all over the place, going as low as 20 minutes to as high as 27 minutes, but this kind of fluctuation is somewhat normal for premium cable programs. The set doesn't exactly go all out when it comes to the special features, but there is one: a Virtual Comic Book special feature of "Whirlpool." Basically, this is a 15 minute story from the original comic book that the series was based upon, which could have potentially been boring, but isn't because the Cryptkeeper actually reads the story and gives an introduction, just like an episode of the television series. It is actually kind of fun to watch. I think all of you boils and ghouls will just scream about this set!
-- Reviewed by skees53
(4/5 stars)

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Solomon's Weekly Rant
Saturday, July 28, 2007
"Summer Sucks on TV Land and Nick at Nite"
By Solomon Davis

I recently watched the latest episode of TV Land's new original series Back to the Grind this past Wednesday night featuring actors Marla Gibbs and Sherman Hemsley doing the actual job they did on the sitcom The Jeffersons.
Before the show started, I asked myself, "Why is Sherman Hemsley being featured?" I wondered that because he was never really seen working at his job on The Jeffersons and not only that he was the owner of the chain of dry cleaners and never worked at the cleaners. TV Land didn't know this before putting this program
together? Even with the goof of having Hemsley featured on this show, I found it to be flat out boring because once again people at TV Land can't think out the box and entertain its viewers. Wouldn't it have been FUNNIER if they featured Sherman and Marla Gibbs not being able to do their fictional jobs? At least that would have created some water cooler talk like, "wow I thought Sherman would do well working at a dry cleaners." So the fact that we know Marla Gibbs can do housekeeping and Sherman can work in a dry cleaners now what? TV Land needs to go back to the DRAWING BOARD and come up with another original programming idea because this show just didn't make sense.
Nick at Nite's Wall to Wall Summer Marathons are really a REPEAT-THON since the last half of the marathon is a repeat of the first half which means that if you start watching at 9pm make sure you grab the remote at 1am because it will be nothing new to see. Why does Nick at Nite have to repeat a 4-hour marathon when the network can just have a 9pm to 1am marathon and air regularly scheduled programming? Nick at Nite's marathon style is like going out to dinner and a movie with friends from 9pm to 1am and then turn back around and go to the same restaurant for dinner after having going there earlier in the evening. Are they thinking about the people in this country who work the 3pm to 11pm shift and feel that they would be more interested in watching TV from 1am to 5am? So maybe the first half of the marathon is for the viewers who work 9am to 5pm because they figure it's no way we would be awake after 1am. So if that is the case then what about Friday nights when the day shift viewers are OFF the following day? That's something else they didn't think about when coming up with the idea of this wall to wall "pointlessthon."
So basically both Nick at Nite and TV Land is not doing a good job this summer in pleasing the viewers and we will just have to see what happens in the fall because both networks have given us nothing to smile about this summer season.
TV Land's original programming was just the worst and fell a couple of notches down on the entertainment scale since airing the Mr. T self-help series, I Pity the Fool. That series kept viewers tuned in for 30 minutes unlike the TV Land's Back to the Grind which keeps viewers tuned out. And the Nick at Nite repeat-thon is something we will have to deal with the rest of the summer by just tuning in at 9pm or 1am so we won't see a repeat schedule. They should change the title of the marathon weeks to "Back-to-Back Marathon Week: The Repeat Edition." And TV Land should rename its original shows "Waiting for the Fall
Programming."

Agree or disagree with Solomon? Discuss it here.

DISCLAIMER: Remember, Solomon is not the voice of SitcomsOnline. He is just stating his opinions and does not reflect what SitcomsOnline says or thinks. It is just his 'View' but it is always quite entertaining.


Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Tuesday, June 6

none scheduled

Complete TV Listings


Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of June 5)

Tuesday, June 6

  • Mayim Bialik (Call Me Kat/The Big Bang Theory/Blossom/Molloy) - Catch Mayim on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
  • Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle/The Louie Show) - Bryan is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
  • Nicole Byer (Grand Crew/Loosely Exactly Nicole) - Nicole appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
  • Oliver Hudson (Splitting Up Together/Rules of Engagement/My Guide to Becoming a Rockstar) - Oliver and his sister Kate are guests on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
  • Mark Consuelos (Alpha House/Hope & Faith) - Mark appears on Watch What Happens: Live at 10pm on Bravo.
  • Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face/Russian Doll) - Natasha talks about Poker Face on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your listings.
  • Mädchen Amick (Freddie) - Mädchen breaks down what's coming up on the series Riverdale on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your listings.
  • Poorna Jagannathan (Never Have I Ever) and Richa Moorjani (Never Have I Ever) - Poorna and Richa give the Tam Fam the scoop on the final season of Never Have I Ever on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
  • Yvette Nicole Brown (The Mayor/The Odd Couple/Community) - Yvette appears on a repeat of The Jennifer Hudson Show, so check your local listings.
  • Ron Funches (Loot/Poweless/Undateable) - Ron is a guest on a repeat of The Jennifer Hudson Show, so check your local listings.
  • Luna Blaise (Fresh Off the Boat) - Luna talks about Manifest on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am.
  • Patricia Arquette (High Desert) - Patricia talks about High Desert on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
  • Tammy Townsend (K.C. Undercover/Sherri/Rock Me, Baby) - Tammy discusses her starring role in the new BET+ series Average Joe on Sherri, so check your local listings.
  • Eva Longoria (Telenovela) - Eva will be on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am.
  • Melissa Joan Hart (Melissa & Joey/Sabrina the Teenage Witch/Clarissa Explains It All) and Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster/Sabrina the Teenage Witch) - NBC's Today catches up with Melissa and Soleil in the 9am hour.


New on DVD/Blu-ray (January-June)

Cheers - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Gimme a Break! - The Complete Series (VEI) Kate & Allie - The Complete Series (VEI) Mayberry R.F.D. - The Complete Series Night Court (1984-1992) - The Complete Series

01/03 - Andy Richter Controls the Universe - The Complete Series (2023 Release)
01/27 - Master of None - Season Three / The Complete Series
02/21 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Complete Season Nine / The Complete Season Ten
02/28 - Growing Pains - The Complete Series
03/28 - Rick and Morty - Season 8 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
04/04 - South Park - The Complete Twenty-Fifth Season (Blu-ray) (DVD)
04/18 - Blondie - The Complete 1957 Television Series (Blu-ray)
04/25 - Cheers - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
05/23 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Complete Season Eleven / The Complete Season Twelve
05/23 - Go On - The Complete Series
05/23 - Kate & Allie - The Complete Series (Universal)
05/29 - Gimme a Break! - The Complete Series (VEI)
05/29 - Kate & Allie - The Complete Series (VEI)
05/30 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 1 (Blu-ray)
06/13 - Mayberry R.F.D. - The Complete Series
06/13 - Night Court (1984-1992) - The Complete Series
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