Digital Digest: More of The FBI from Warner Archive; Diagnosis Murder and The Mod Squad Complete Series Releases

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Digital Digest: More of The FBI from Warner Archive; Diagnosis Murder and The Mod Squad Complete Series Releases

Welcome to Digital Digest! As we mentioned last week, we're working on revamping this weekly feature into something new, and we hope to have that very soon! In the meantime, we're back with our abridged version of Digital Digest with all of your news, a preview of Tuesday's releases, and our Follow Me feature. Let's get going!

DIGITAL NEWS

Warner Archive seems to be one of our few sources of "good news" on the classic TV front lately, typically delivering the news on the date that the product ships... and this week, the "good news" from them came in the form of a new release of the series The FBI. On Tuesday, Warner Archive released The FBI - The Complete Sixth Season as an online exclusive. As has become a typical practice for the studio, of course, the MOD product has been released in a "limited" pressed DVD edition, so these are not DVD-R copies of this release. We hope to have a review of this release soon as part of our regular reviews.

Canadian studio VEI has been bringing us some great complete series releases in the past few years of abandoned series, and for the past year, they've been talking about releases of Diagnosis Murder and The Mod Squad. Of course, VEI has also never really been able to give much in terms of a firm release date on anything (likely due to being a smaller studio that has to deal with a lot of outside production), but this week, they finally announced that both of these releases will be ready to ship next week! On Tuesday, fans will see Diagnosis Murder - The Complete Series and The Mod Squad - The Complete Series. Both releases are also available to order on amazon.com, however the releases purchased on there are not expected to ship for another month, and come at a much higher price.

Speaking of earlier releases, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman is coming to DVD in December, as we all know. But Shout! Factory is letting fans get those DVDs a month earlier if they order them directly from the Shout! Factory website. Expected to ship on or before November 5, you can get in on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman - The Complete Series a month before everybody else does.

UPCOMING WEEK PREVIEW

Tuesday (October 22) is a light release date, with a trio of "best of" releases from MPI. The releases include The Doris Day Show - Best of Collection, Family Affair - Best of Collection, and The Mothers-in-Law - Best of Collection. Also, as we previously mentioned, VEI will begin shipping Diagnosis Murder - The Complete Series and The Mod Squad - The Complete Series on Tuesday.

FOLLOW ME

Who to Follow: Patricia Heaton (Twitter), "Actress, Wife and Mother to four incredible boys..."
Claim to Fame: Patricia Heaton started out as a stage actress and slowly evolved into television when she picked up a role on thirtysomething, where she appeared for six episodes. She followed up with roles in three very short-lived sitcoms, with stars including Linda Lavin and Delta Burke, but her big break came in 1996 when she was cast as Debra Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond. After that, she went on to the (mostly panned) Fox sitcom Back to You in 2007, but her fortunes increased once again when she was cast in the starring role on the ABC series The Middle, a role that she has comfortable held since 2009. While she is no stranger to controversy on Twitter
Pick of the Tweets: "I love that you can watch TV while you iron (yesterday it was Jane Eyre) and not feel like a couch potato." (July 16, 2013)

That's all for this week. Until next time, keep it digital!

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Monday, August 19

The Neighborhood - "Welcome to the Climb" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When Gemma decides to fire a teacher at her school, she’s unprepared for the aftermath. Also, Calvin gets a surprise when he faces off with his newspaper carrier.

The Big Bang Theory - "The D&D Vortex" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When the gang finds out Wil Wheaton hosts a celebrity Dungeons and Dragons game involving William Shatner, Joe Manganiello, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kevin Smith, deception and betrayal are the path to make it to the one open seat.

The Big Bang Theory - "The Conference Valuation" (CBS, 9:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When Penny and Bernadette go to San Diego for a pharmaceutical sales convention, Wolowitz is in charge of the kids. Also, Sheldon finds a book on experimenting on kids, and the guys plus Amy make a day of it.

Mom - "Jell-O Shots and the Truth About Santa" (CBS, 9:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Bonnie pushes Christy to mend her relationship with Violet (Sadie Calvano), and Adam prepares for the grand opening of his bar.

I Ship It - "Somewhere Magical" (The CW, 9:30PM ET/PT)
Ella seizes the opportunity to work as a personal assistant to a writer for "Superstition," her favorite TV show; Ella's fantasies begin to collide with reality in unexpected ways, in both her creative life and love life.

In The Cut - "Lucky Charmed" (Bounce TV, 9:00PM ET/PT)
Jay buys Cheryl a necklace for her birthday, not knowing it was stolen; when the police want it back, Jay must devise a plan to return it before she finds out.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of August 19)

Monday, August 19

Billy Eichner (Friends from College/Difficult People) - Watch Billy on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Issa Rae (Insecure) - Issa appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:34pm on NBC.
Dax Shepard (Bless This Mess) - Dax is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Tom Hanks (Bosom Buddies) - Tom appears on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
D'Arcy Carden (The Good Place/Barry), Henry Winkler (Barry/Out of Practice/Monty/Happy Days) and Bill Hader (Barry) - D'Arcy, Henry and Bill are panelists on Lights Out with David Spade at 11:30pm on Comedy Central.
Rebel Wilson (Super Fun Night) - Rebel chats with the ladies of The View on a repeat on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Bryton James (Family Matters) - Bryton appears on a repeat of The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
Charlie Barnett (Russian Doll) - Charlie is a guest on a repeat of The Real, so check your local listings.
Bella Thorne (Shake It Up) - Bella appears on a repeat of ABC's Strahan & Sara at 1pm.
Donald Faison (The Exes/Scrubs/Clueless) - Donald talks about Emergence on Access Live, so check your local listings.
Melissa Peterman (Reba/Working Class/Baby Daddy) - Melissa guest co-hosts Access Live, so check your local listings.
Patti LaBelle (Out All Night) - Patti opens up about her 22-year battle with diabetes on a repeat of The Dr. Oz Show, so check your local listings.