I know, better than most, that DVDs (including Blu-ray) are pretty much yesterday’s news. I worked in that industry for many years, and it’s quickly going the way of the Fotomat. Not that it makes me happy, mind you. I like to own things. Streaming is fine, but I prefer to POSSESS the stuff I truly love. That sounds kind of weird, doesn’t it?
In any case, here are the complete TV series I’ve procured through the years:
The Sopranos
Deadwood
Homicide: Life on the Streets
LOST
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
The Young Ones
My So-Called Life
Seinfeld
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Get A Life
The Andy Griffith Show (B&W episodes only)
Saturday Night Live (original cast seasons only)
There might be others, but I think that about covers it. I’d like to add a few more to the list, including Freaks and Geeks, King of the Hill, I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, The Twilight Zone, and The Fugitive. Maybe even Perry Mason and Mannix. Also, I’d like to own every episode of Fernwood 2 Night, but it’s not available yet. At least not legitimately. And Green Acres! They only released the first three seasons. What in the pearl-handled hell??
Do you POSSESS any complete TV series? Which ones would you like to add to your collection? Are there any you wish they’d release, and haven’t? Tell us about it in the comments.
Also, do you still buy movies on DVD? I don’t. Not really. I have a few on my Amazon Wishlist, including Over the Edge, Falling Down, and this Jacques Tati collection. But I almost never buy movies. Maybe one per year? In fact, that might be overstating it. What about you? Bring us up to date on your DVD-buying habits.
And I know this one is quarter-assed, at best. But I live a life of sustained chaos. Give me a break. Sheesh.
I’ll see you guys again soon.
Have a great day!
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Babylon 5 and the new Battlestar Gallactica. Yep, I know I am a nerd. Move along.
Wacky Races
The shows I want don’t exist on dvd. I am thinking The Midnight Caller and Boston Common off the top of my head. One can usually find such things on YT or some other place. But – the quality is often sketchy of course. When I got Netflix a while back I tried to watch LOST again. I just couldn’t do it. I have noticed with this streaming stuff (I now also have Amazon Prime) you get one or two seasons of a show and then the rest are not there. At least that recently happened to me. I was all into Boardwalk Empire and the last two seasons cost more to stream than it does to buy a dvd. I own a few – Earth 2, The Highlander – that I can think of.
I got every episode of Matlock for Christmas. There are 195. I could watch them all in about 8 days. But then I would be dead.
I also own the 3rd Rock From The Sun collection. I met John Lithgow a few years back. He is very tall.
I’m currently volunteering at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Charlotte – like Goodwill, except they sell only furniture and kitchen cabinets, etc. There is a small coffee shop / bookstore attached to it, and that is where I work – I go through all the media that gets donated, sort out the junk, price it and put it on the floor to sell. LPs, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, the whole alphabet soup. It’s like being at Sound Warehouse again; I’ve come full circle.
My point is – entire DVD box sets come through there sometimes, and while it’s tempting to snag them all (at $3 – $4 a season, it’s hard to resist), I manage not to. Okay, I did get Square Pegs because $3.00, though I’m sure I’ll NEVER watch it.
I’m astounded at how many people still buy VHS tapes! They are priced 25 cents each, or 10 for $1.00. And we move hundreds of them a month. I did run into a little old lady in the coffee shop one day who confessed that she buys the tapes, watches them, then returns them through the donation slot. So that’s like being in a special circle of video rental clerk hell – putting out the same tapes over and over and over.
Does the little old bitty REWIND?
Jesus, Walter: right on the button. Six words. Each perfect. Nice.
jtb
http://dvdrewinder.com/
Square pegs, square pegs, square, square pegs
Always never quite right
Oh geez.
NCIS
House, M.D.
Dinosaurs.
Babylon 5.
Firefly.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Angel.
Blue Bloods.
The Rockford Files.
Probably a few others I can’t remember that looked promising but got cancelled the first season. Thing is, I don’t have an antenna on my TV. Just a PS3 that I mostly use to play shiny discs. Been that way since I shut off DirecTV five or six years ago.
otatv
hd
free
..jtb
My set of Farscape has been loaned out so many times I wish had a nickel. Box set of Due South and I love Lucy. My partial collection: Dream On, Green Acres, Get Smart, Bob Newhart too many to list. Now I stream or torrent.
Due South is also one of mine, and one of my favs. I also wish I had a nickel.
John
I have Due South. I forgot about that one. I wish they would release Northern Exposure with the original music. That is why I have never bought the dvds.
Hear, hear. I own all the seasons of NX (the set that came in the puffy jacket novelty sleeves), but the music is so bad as to be distracting at times. There were one or two outfits that sold a bootlegged set of the whole series on DVD with original music, but the price didn’t seem worth it.
The only TV Series I own all the episodes to is “Corner Gas”.
That’s probably my favorite show ever and it came out on right at the time I had money to burn on shit like that.
I’d like to get all the Beavis and Butthead episodes, with music videos, but I don’t think that will ever happen. I would also like to have all the MST3K on hand, but that probably won’t ever happen either.
We still buy DVDs all the time, just movies though. We just bought “The Martian” yesterday. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime. I don’t want to have to hope a streaming service has what I want to watch. I’ll get all geared up to watch something, and then find out I have to pay an additional fee to watch it. Fuck that, I’ll just buy it and know it’s there to watch whenever the hell I want.
———-
To plug myself:
My latest album is complete. Listen to it you bastard.
http://heavyrecord.com/musicians_and_artists/npftd_-_vacillating_dances
I just started watching Corner Gas a few weeks ago. I have found almost all of the first few seasons on YT.
Yeah, I’m into atoms. What of it? Homicide: Life on the Streets was pretty close to as good as TV got. Also have complete Seinfeld, Due South, The Wire, Slings & Arrows, The Closer, Larry Sanders, House, many others, including most of Ken Burns. It’s come to this: I’m too lazy to go downstairs to refresh my memory.
John
You’d think I’d know the name of my favorite show, but I reread my comment for a change and discovered I don’t. “Street”, as serious Al Giardello fans know for damn sure, is singular. Don’t fuck with Gee.
Lt. Giardello: “A desk!? Is that all you can think about? There’s your desk. Now I want to see lightning come out of your ass.”
I have all the Billy Jack films on dvd. I got the whole deal for 4 bucks at a Dollar Store.
One Tin Soldier rides again!
The only series we own is Firefly, short and sweet. I also used to buy concert DVDs and music documentaries all of the time because those actually get rewatched, but they’re getting more and more difficult to find.
Our Stevie Ray Vaughn would be worn out…..if it had grooves.
oops, sorry Stevie I left out an a.
That is mostly what my dvd collection is – concert films and music documentaries.
Lost, Heroes, The Shield, Sons of Anarchy and Veronica Mars. I started acquiring the Walking Dead but lost interest.
Arrested Development. Everything else is available on demand through DirecTV/Netflix/Amazon Prime. In fact, Arrested Development is available on demand, too… but I bought the DVD’s before all this streaming started happening.
I wonder if Jeff Lebowski pumped his fist in the air when he heard of Glenn Frey’s passing?
Hey, the Dude was having a bad night, and the man WAS playing “Peaceful, Easy Feeling” fer cripe sakes. Every man’s death diminishes me, but this one’s a close call.
jtb
I actually heard a live human say the exact line, and he hadn’t seen the movie. “Man, I hate the fuckin’ Eagles.” Although my boy was talking about football.
I don’t understand how a man who is clearly culturally attuned can bring a child into the world and fail to make sure he’s seen The Big Lebowski.
“My boy” being a figure of speech. This was a co-worker; I kind of lost track of him after he was convicted. Of course any child of mine would have been thoroughly indoctrinated with all manner of Coen Brothers, Firesign, Vivian Stanshall, etc.
And I thought it was Don Henley who must die, not old Glenn. “A house that has no Mojo Nixon, there’s a house that needs some fixin’.”
I heard on the radio this morning that Glenn Frey was pretty pissed that the Dude hated the Eagles and would get into Jeff’s face every time they met. Jeff tried to tell him it was his character who hated the Eagles, man, not Jeff in particular. Don was OK with it but Glenn simmered a slow burn for yeats.
I have The Prisoner, Connections, Crime Story and Star Trek: Enterprise. I know the critics didn’t care for STE, but the characters are mostly likable and some of the stories are OK. And I like seeing how they made the tech look futuristic and old fashioned at the same time. I might also have The Ascent of Man, but like jtb I’m too lazy to go downstairs and look.
I have Amazon Prime, but I don’t have a TV “smart” enough to use it; it’s a 27 inch tube that I got from Costco in the late 1990s. Not to mention the creaky old DSL internet, which isn’t fast enough for such things. And I do still buy discs because even if I get FIOS one day, Netflix et al have already established a history of taking down shows. I’d hate to depend on them as my “library.” Possession of a disc means I can still watch it regardless of what those companies do.
Repo Man is always intense.
Maybe Netflix will make a show that crosses The Prisoner with Repo Man.
Harry Dean Stanton driving a Lotus 7 while firing blanks. Now that I would pay to see.
That would be great.
I love James Burke; I have Connections on VHS and Connections2, Connections3, and The Day the Universe Changed on DVD. I also bought the early Connections audio books on cassette tape and listened to them while I spent much of the eighties on airplanes and in hotel rooms.
I loved Enterprise. Season one and three were great. I think season two was a mistake and thats what killed the show. Once viewers leave its hard to get them back.
The Sopranos
The Little Rascals
the complete HBO George Carlin specials.
George Carlin! Fantastic! It’s been two or three years since I drove on a parkway, but I park in a driveway every day.
McHale’s Navy, Sopranos, Deadwood, Seinfeld, Rome, Band of Brothers and The Pacific. The only other DVDs I own are music. I have at least fifty and they range from Stevie Ray Vaughn to The Talking Heads.
you have many I want including Lost & Curb. I have My So-Called Life on VHS… does that count now that I can’t watch it?
I still like DVDs, even though I know they are probably going the way of the dodo. Complete series that we own? We have a ton, because I generally don’t like what’s on TV now. Here is just a smattering:
-Gilligan’s Island
-Hogan’s Heroes
-Andy Griffith Show (only the B&W–like Jeff. The series came off the rails after Don Knotts left!)
-I Dream of Jeannie
-The Dick van Dyke Show (hands-down, probably some of the sharpest television writing ever!)
-Star Trek Voyager (all but the last season.)
We also have a fairly large collection of cartoons from the 1940’s and 50’s (Warner Brothers, Tom & Jerry, Droopy, etc.) If a cartoon doesn’t have dynamite, anvils or something from “Acme” in it, it generally isn’t funny to me.
I guess I’m just an old coot stuck in the past!
We’re light in the TV DVD market.
-Gilligan’s Island
-Sid & Marty Krofft’s Land of the Lost
-WKRP in Cincinnati (without the original radio songs, unfortunately)
I am ever so slowly culling all of my media ‘atoms’. My hundreds of CDs went out the door about 10 years ago in a complicated series of transactions at the used CD store – 40 in; 10 out. 60 in; 12 out, 100 in, 16 out, etc until they were all gone.
I missed the DVD trade in boat. I traded in about 50 for maybe $20 and then just gave the rest away. I have about 40 left, mostly stuff for the kids. I used to have the complete series of:
Alias
Deadwood
Wire
Sopranos
Homicide
NewsRadio
Home Movies
Lost
Finally, like the CDs, I’m slowly working through the books. Every year, I have a few fewer books via trade-ins at the used book store, but it’s taking forever. I don’t read as much as before and it’s harder to see those bookshelves with my book ‘trophies’ get empty. I thought I’d jump on the Kindle train, but it hasn’t happened yet. Used books are just so cheap and like I said, I don’t read as much anymore.
Anyway, my house has way less clutter now and I don’t miss my music or movies at all. I have Netflix and I must have 250 hours of stuff I want to see piled up in my favorites list.
I like to watch things on TV
I watched it for a little while
I love to watch things on TV
I have over 3,000 cds now. I don’t go for the streaming music deal.
“I like to watch.” . . . Chauncey Gardiner
I was waiting for this reference. Thanks JTB.
Also the title of a 1982 adult film.
I don’t have many, and what I do have haven’t been watched in some time.
Firefly
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
Heroes
Greg the Bunny
Breaking Bad
Emergency
Deadwood
John Adams
Band of Brothers
Generation Kill
Chappelles Show
I’m sure I have more those just stick in my mind.
The West Wing
Gilmore Girls
Castle
The Big Bang Theory
The Mentalist
Sex and the City
I have “Jack of All Trades” and the first season of “Oz” on DVD. One day, I hope to add “Farscape”, “Herman’s Head”, “The Adventures of Briscoe County, Jr.”, “Xena”, and “Ashe vs. Evil Dead”.
Adam-12, on Beta. Yes, I still have my Beta machine. I also have the DVD’s, except season 7. never found them locally.
The Prisoner (on Beta, and also on VHS, taped off TV because series on DVD was not yet a thing and ordering a PAL set from Britain back then wasn’t going to happen).
On The Buses.
Big Bang Theory,
The Mentalist,
Bones,
CSI,
NCIS,
CSI:New York,
Stargate:SG1,
Stargate:Atlantis,
Matlock,
Columbo,
Nero Wolfe,
Sliders,
Star Trek TOS.
I’m pretty sure there’s more, but I’d have to get up to go look, and-eh,who has the energy? When I was young and poor, TV Seasons on DVD was something I always bitched about not being able to afford, so now that I’m old and not-as-poor, I buy ’em. Still buy movies, too. I can watch my favorites over and over, so why not. I still have shelves full of VHS tapes, and a VCR, too.
You sound just like my brother except his name isn’t Cathy.
I, too, strongly prefer all the stuff I own to have a physical representation or hard copy, such as a CD, DVD, record, or book. I guess because I am a “visual person,” my brain needs to see the physical item in order to register and remember that I even own it. Too many digital books and movies and music have gone unread/unwatched/unheard because I simply do not remember that they are available to me.
As for DVDs, I’ve got all seasons of Burn Notice on DVD. Best show ever!
I have all the episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then a handful of single-season shows like Firefly, Jack of All Trades, The Adventures of Brisco County Junior, Wonderfalls, etc.
I have all episodes of Buffy I think. I don’t really see the point, pretty much whatever you want is available online, 2-clicks away. How many times can you watch the same TV series? And where do you find the time? Additionally, 480 content is painful to watch today. I do have 1000’s of CDs, music is better for repeat consumption than TV/movies IMO, and I too like to physically own the content and artwork.
Limey, et al,
While there can be spirited debate between the vinyl advocates and the compact disc fans about the relative fidelity of those two music storage/delivery systems, even my 65-year-old ears can distinguish a significant quality falloff between CD and MP3, particularly at the extreme low and high ends of the AF spectrum. When Hendrix plays Third Stone from the Sun, I want to hear the quantum fluctuations he’s playing as he approaches Earth. I DON’T want to hear the audio replica of a damaged 1974 Volkswagen transmission that MP3 tries to sell me.
As much as I love my iPod Nano and listen to it 2-3 hours a day, I rarely use it for music. If I listened to the Eagles, I might use it to listen to the Eagles — how much could it hurt? — but I don’t listen to the Eagles.
John
I even like to think I can hear the difference between CD audio and analog, what with being a young whippersnapper under 60. Generally mp3s are very noticeably worse, although it depends very much on how the mp3 was made; some sound OK. Those “musical” greeting cards are horrible – even a non-nerd can hear the quantization noise. I will deal with the quality issues for things like old radio shows, but I hold music to a higher standard.
But what the hell; my left ear is shot, between the aircraft and the quad machines.
And 480 content is fine, if your display is 480.
I bought the complete Seinfeld series that came in a refrigerator box. After several years tucked away in our entertainment center, my wife decides it is taking up too much room and throws the box and booklet away (yes, without telling me). I still have the DVDs, but it was one of the most shocking events of my life. Sympathy please? 🙁
I assume you decided your wife’s shoe collection was taking up too much room, and thinned it out while she was away?
My only complete boxed sets are Bean and Arrested Development. Arrested Development is filled with more genuinely funny writing than anything else I know. It’s only three short seasons, so it’s possible to pull them out and watch them all in a few days. There are additional seasons done exclusively for Netflix, but after watching one or two episodes, it didn’t feel true to the original so I stopped. Anybody have an opinion one way or another about the Netflix episodes? Did I give up too soon?
A few ful ones
The Shield
Deadwood
Veronica Mars
Buffy
The Boonedocks
Bought a few singles over the years, $5 bin at Walmart, a gold mine. Well gold in amongst a load of crap.
That almost sounds like “panning for gold in an open sewer.”
The Toledo Mud Hens are celebrating Opening Day April 7, with a Beer Bash, a rooftop party, and a competitive team in the experienced managerial hands of Lloyd McClendon, ready to take on the rival Louisville Bats. The Bats are looking for a left-handed first baseman and a much better team name, but they DO have until April to get their shit together.
Slugger John
The obvious name would be Louisville Sluggers. Just as obvious, they thought of it and didn’t use it. Probably some licensing thing.
Firefly (that one seems to be fairly popular around here) , Fawlty Towers, Red Dwarf, and Are You Being Served. We got hooked on Britcoms when we didn’t have cable or satellite and watched PBS on Saturday nights.