Posts Tagged ‘DVDs’

Two TV Artifacts From My Misspent Youth

Thursday, September 25th, 2014

There are two forthcoming TV show DVD sets that hearken back to the days of my youth:

Recommended without qualification is the complete WKRP in Cincinnati with the original music restored. If it wasn’t the greatest sitcom of the late 1970s/early 1980s, it was certainly in the top 5.

A bit more qualified recommendation for the complete 1960s Batman. Every significant dark, gritty Batman of the last 30 years (from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight to the Christopher Nolan trilogy, and even the Tim Burton movie) has been largely in reaction to this show’s campy tone. The show is very much a product of its time, but retains a certain charm for just that reason. Plus the cast of villains (Burgess Meredith, Vincent Price, Julie Numar, Frank Gorshin, etc.) draws from some of the very best character actors of the time.

I’m sure either might make swell Christmas presents for someone you know…

Two Things Dwight Might Like

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

I mentioned one of these to Dwight at the Saturday Dining Conspiracy and chanced across the other.

Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York by William Grimes. This got a very favorable review in National Review (the print edition; alas, the review does not seem to be online).

Shackleton – The Greatest Survival Story of All Time (3-Disc Collector’s Edition). I actually chanced across this Kenneth Branagh DVD in my nearest Blockbuster’s going out of business sale, and was pretty much the only thing there that wasn’t crap, overpriced, or overpriced crap. Alas, the copy had too many scratches on it to take a chance on it even at $3.99, so I gave it a pass. Since Dwight is into Great Age of Exploring books, I thought I would mention it. And Branagh has been great in everything I’ve seen him in. (Then again, that may only be Henry V and Hamlet…)