The Joy of Sets

On the third day of my Holiday Gift Guide
I showed more love of DVDs
Three sci-fi classics
Two horror remakes
And an FX drama you have to see!

Stargate SG-1 – The Complete Series Collection — Oh lord, I don’t know if you should watch it or bench press it, because this set is ginormous! 54 discs and 9900 minutes of interstellar space-and-military action from the effects bonanza that currently holds the record for the longest-running sci-fi series ever. Not too shabby, considering that the Richard Dean Anderson vehicle first blasted off on Showtime before jumping over to the Sci Fi network after five seasons. Throw in a few cast changes, about a gazillion warring alien races and knockout features on everything from the sets to the sci-fi convention culture and you have the sort of collection that could honestly consume an entire month. Not that there is anything wrong with that!
Buy it now!

Space: 1999 – The 30th Anniversary Megaset — So it’s 1975, I’m 6 years old and the idea that lunar condos and smart jumpsuits could happily co-exist by the year I turned 30 has me crazy pin-wheel-eyed. Wha-wha-wha?! The moon is going to become a toxic dump? The couple from Mission: Impossible will still be together? We’ll all have laser guns? TV dealt this guy a major blow when I finally made it to 1999 and none of this stuff had come true! But I’ve recovered and rediscovered the glory of Gerry Anderson’s British answer to Star Trek. Fare less corny than our Enterprise peeps, the show’s 48 episodes gathered here are (for their time) pretty damn lavish. Plus, Barbara Bain is a fox!
Buy it now!

Space: Above and Beyond — I don’t blame you for not remembering Fox’s blip of a series since I always thought they forgot about the show, too. Rescheduled more times than most of my dentist appointments (shut up, they never stop at just a cleaning!), the net roped The X-Files’ Glen Morgan and James Wong into whipping them up something to cash in on the Mulder-Scully-inspired sci-fi frenzy of 1995. But it never found its footing, nor did it ever interest me…until I saw the DVD set with a blurb by my awesome colleague Matt Roush. If he dug it, I knew it was time to check it out. And guess what? Matty was right! Set in like 2063 or something, the story of embattled U.S. Marines hunting the aliens who went all nuclear on one of Earth’s colonized planets is jammin’ with splashy effects, a cast—particularly the always underrated Rodney Rowland—that puts some other space operas to shame and a very now feel with its “is war the answer?” ideology. If Stargate is Trek with cryptic Egyptian motifs, S: A&B is Combat for the Quark crowd.
Buy it now!

And now for the Stocking Stuffers specials!

Rob Zombie’s Halloween — Trust me, I am a John Carpenter purist. There is nothing better than Jamie Lee Curtis in high-waisted bellbottoms and peril, OK? But this grisly reimagining from the Devil’s Rejects dude was, well, kind of killer. Far more visceral and cerebral than the original, we get a ton more insight into Michael Myers’ messed-up psyche and just as many screams. And while Malcolm McDowell is no Donald Pleascence, he does bring a certain ickiness to our good Dr. Loomis that leaves you wondering if maybe he didn’t have something to do with the masked maniac’s rampage.
Buy it now!


Black Christmas — Want a little Six Degrees of Sets? This remake of the 1974 slasher shizz pile was directed by S: A&B’s creator Glen Morgan and costars his wife Kristen Cloke, who just so happened to star in (wait for it) Space: Above and Beyond! Much like Halloween but not as cool, it’s all about an escaped nutjob who returns home on a holiday to get his kill on. That it also stars all-grown-up jailbaiters like Party of Five’s Lacey Chabert and Buffy’s Michelle Trachtenberg is just gravy for you horror pervs. Still, a fun entry in the Seasonal Scares department.
Buy it now!

Dirt: The Complete 1st Season — If you skipped out on this sordid little Courteney Cox cable drama last summer, here’s what you need to know: it just came out on DVD, it has one of the sexiest publicists ever and it’s must-see before the second season starts on FX this winter. Oh and you would be best served to just ignore whatever nastiness you may have heard about it. Sure, things start out a little too much, but by mid-season, you totally forget Monica Geller ever had any friends as Cox’s L.A. tabloid editrix Lucy Spiller beds a source, sells out a starlet and stands by her schizo photographer. And those are just the tame parts! There is also some serious skin on display (you will never look at Melrose’s Grant Show or his ass the same way again) and a finale twist that’s both startling and heartbreaking. Call me trashy, but that’s the sort of show I break plans for, you know?!
Buy it now!

OK, that’s it. Gotta go help my gal Bizzy find a man-melting holiday-party ensemble. Next week: What Santa had better have under the tree for me if he plans on seeing another Christmas.


Until then, don’t hog the remote and remember, whenever you hear a bell ring, Pepito the Wonder Chihuahua gets his tummy scratched!

OH! And go vote for Clash of the Choirs' Team LaBelle , aaight? Bring it, Philly!

On the second day of my Holiday Gift Guide
There are more TV shows on DVD
That ya’ll need to find under your tree!

Like…

The X-Files: The Complete Collector’s Edition—Now, I wouldn’t call myself a collector, but I dug this show in a big ol’ way. And how could you not? David Duchovny has never been cooler, Gillian Anderson gets hotter as the seasons go on (the red hair simmas down, too) and the mythology is relatively easy to follow. And this set? Forget. About. IT! When they say “complete,” they ain’t messin’ around. Each season has a “making-of” featurette, there’s a 60-page episode guide and the deleted scenes are to die for. Oh, and the "Fight the Future" movie is in there, so you get the whole continuity thing. Honestly, this is one of those sets that every company should check out when planning full-show releases. Just be careful. Once you start sorting through the 201 episodes for one of those couch-devouring “favorite moments” screening binges, you may lose time faster than an abductee. Trust me, last weekend is gone and the truth about where it went is really out there.
Buy it now!

NewsRadio — All five seasons are available. Go get them, give them to someone you love and then ask if you can borrow them. Simply one of the most underrated sitcoms of the ‘90s and the best way to remind yourself of why Phil Hartman will always be missed. Also, a great chance to see the last time Maura Tierney cracked a smile before moving on to meaner pastures at ER.
Buy it now!


The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson—Remember when NBC at 11:30 didn’t suck? When Johnny was the man of the late-night hour? Sure, that was like a gazillion years ago, but the Heeere’s Johnny: The Definitive DVD Collection from the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson is absolutely timeless. A treasure for anyone who ever begged their parents to stay up late so they could see the funny skinny guy’s monologue, the set is both stunningly mastered and jam-packed with the types of TV nuggets that will be beloved way after Leno’s done Jay-walking or whatever it is he does these days. (Honestly, I had to look away back in 2003). And since the writers’strike has pretty much crippled late-night these days, how great would it be to have this massive trove to fill in the blanks? Must-see moment: Bette Midler’s penultimate-episode appearance. Classy, cute and unforgettable. Just like Johnny.
Buy it now!


Beverly Hills, 90210 Season 3—Most folks remember this as the year that “Donna Martin graduates!” but I will forever adore this just-released season as the one where Brenda embraced the dark side. Burned by the Dylan-Kellly dalliance and totally petulant in her perfectly Doherty way, the Minnesota spitfire utters my favorite 90210 line of all-time after learning of the betrayal. “I hate you both. Never talk to me again!” Oh my god, it’s like dirty talk. And I have to watch it at least once a week, because the doctors say I’ll die if I don’t.
Buy it now!

The Best of Crank Yankers—Because I loves me some cussin’ puppets, this single-disc collection is a sinfully delicious godsend…and a prime example of why we can never have enough Tracy Morgan, Sarah Silverman and Wanda Sykes. More than 50 bits of their potty-mouthed muppets-on-Meth letting their plush fingers do the walking, the set is even more of a hoot than the Comedy Central versions because it’s UNCENSORED!! That means no bleeps when Special Ed makes his demented “I got mail!” call or when Gladys rings up in some unsuspecting sap to rail at him for doing her wrong. So $@*% Santa and his “naughty” list. If you know someone with a raunchy sense of humor (hello, Andrew Fabian), this here needs to be stuffed in their stocking.
Buy it now!

OK, so you have your homework. Go get your friends and family some nifty DVD sets before they sell out and you’re forced to give slipper socks again.

Next week: The Gift Guide that keeps on giving goes three-for-three. Until then, don’t hog the remote and ease up on the eggnog. That shizz is nasty.

On the first day of my Christmas gift guide,
My true love of TV DVDs
Is what I want to share with thee.

So hark your heralds and deck your halls later, people. We’ve got more box sets than all those maids a’milkling and drummers drummin’ combined to cover this month. And nothing makes the season brighter than a shiny pile of TV shows, no matter who’s on your gift list.

For your sci-fi friend…
Star Trek: The Next Generation Holy Starship! The complete series in one Borg-tacular cube may be too much for even the most geeeked-out Trekker. 49 discs, 176 episodes, Picard doing all sorts of “Make it so.” It’s stunning. And quite powerful, lemme tell you. Having never watched the show back when it was on because, you know, I was out doing messed up stuff to ruin my life, the phenomenon escaped me. Well, no more! I now get what the big whoo hoo is about with this one and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Not that I’m booking a trip to one of those conventions in my near future, but I’m not judging anyone who is.

For your sassy, fast-talking gal pals…
Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series For seven seasons (some great, some eh), Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel were the zippy, quippy and uber-cutesy Stars Hollow mom-daughter team to beat. Just like pizza and some sex, even when they were bad, they were still pretty damn good. And trust me, there were some lean hours over the Girls’ run (if you think I’m blaspheming here, ask Ausiello what he really thinks of the finale's Rory-Logan split). Overall, though, this set—42 discs bearing 153 quip-filled episodes, all bundled up in a faux doll carrier—is a GG fan’s dream come true. And the Complete Guide to Gilmore-isms included in the set proves that the series was, in fact, loaded with more great lines than should be legal on network TV.

For your slutty, fast-dancing boy pals…
Queer As Folk: The Complete Series Oh, roll your eyes somewhere else, prudes. This Showtime groundbreaker is the perfect antidote to the myth that gays lose their mojo the older they get. Because not only does the storytelling improve exponentially over the five seasons, so do the performances. Even Hal Sparks, who I could swear, spends the first 22 episodes with a perpetual Charlie Brown frown, had me rooting for his everyhomo Michael Novotny by the time the Pittsburgh posse signed off. That 90% of the cast shows up (guess who skipped?) for the bonus-feature reunion chat is a testament to the family that was built by show no other network was brave enough to tickle, i mean, tackle. Just be warned that the skin is on display at every turn, twist, bump and grind, and that Gale Harold’s bitter pounce-toy Brian Kinney never ever lightens up. So don’t expect him to get all warm and fuzzy. That dude doesn’t even do hot and hairy, mmmkay? Oh, and yeah, the package is delicious. All white box, sleek lines, minimal imagery. In the words of Sharon Gless’ tacky PFLAG mom Debbie, it’s @%*!ing gorgeous! (See also the British original. The accents are tough, but the cast rocks.)

For your buddy with the best taste in crime dramas…
The Wire BEST. SHOW. ON. TV! Seriously, this is not something to joke about, guys. Dense, complicated and completely cliché-free, this salty, sophisticated look at Baltimore’s mean streets and messed-up politics could not be better. Each of the four seasons available on DVD now (the fifth and final year debuts on HBO in January) are mini epics that can both stand on their own and fit into an even greater whole. If you know anyone who gets their kicks from labyrinthine storytelling, plots that don’t get wrapped up in 55 minutes and earthy, unflinching portrayals that reflect what’s really going on out there, these titles are so totally what they’re gonna want under their tree.


OK, that should keep your shopping list tight for now. So get out there, grab ‘em up and wrap ‘em up. It’s the season of giving, after all!

Next week: More knock-out stocking stuffers. Until then, don’t hog the remote and check out my girl Rhoda’s Survivor: China blog!

Welcome to my column about The O.C., bitches! OK, I promise, last time I ever use that line in any variation. But I had to this time because The O.C.- The Complete Series box set hits the shelves this week and I’ve got none other than the master, Josh Schwartz, talking about the show, the set and the new gigs he’s got that ya’ll need to get with if ya ain’t already.

OK, I am loving Gossip Girl.
Cool!

But first, we must talk about The OC box set.
Yes, we do. [Laughs]

What did you get to do with The Complete Series set that wasn’t in the previous seasons?
Well, the first thing I got to do was really dorky: I finally put the first season in wide-screen, which had never been done before. But mostly, it’s the idea of having the entire series in one cool looking box.

The box is gorgeous.
The box is gorgeous. It’s like four years of your life—and of my life—in one box and we loaded it up with bonus features, scenes, behind-the scenes stuff, bloopers, commentaries, there’s an Atomic County cartoon you could only get on mobisodes that’s now available. There’s a documentary. We just loaded it up with stuff.

How much commentary do you do?
Umm, I have about five or six episodes. [Co-executive producer] Stephanie Savage and I did a long interview that’s also in the booklet, kind of revisiting the run of the show.

Considering you have Chuck and Gossip Girl going on, I can imagine you didn’t have the time to go and rewatch four years of The O.C. again…
Ahhh, I get very nostaligic. The other day I was flipping through the TV the other day and landed on SoapNet repeat of the Tijuana episode. And I got extremely nostalgic, remembering where I was when I wrote that episode and the whole thing. It was very emotional.

So, where were you when you wrote it? Because that was a huge moment for the show.
Yeah, that was our episode where I think everything coalesced. If you were to ask me what episodes completely exemplified The O.C., Tijuana is definitely one of them. I was in my office on a Saturday night in the summertime, writing, with Stephanie with her arms crossed, making sure that I didn’t get up until the script was finished at 3 o’clock in the morning. [Laughs] Now we’ve switched roles and I do that to her on Gossip Girl.

To keep her in line?
Mmm hmmm.

What other episodes would you say were perfectly O.C.?
I knew as soon as I said that you would ask me! [Laughs] Hmmm…well, certainly the pilot. Tijuana, umm…jeepers, I gotta go through these.

Did you just say jeepers?
I did. I am not afraid to say jeepers.

Oh, before we go on, congratulations on Gossip Girl being possibly the first show to get the term “WTF” on the air.
[Laughs] It’s been a lifelong dream of mine.

I had to rewind the "Bad News Blair" episode on TiVo to make sure I wasn’t tripping.
[Laughs] We also managed to get “fustercluck” on the air.

Yes!
As for The O.C., there were also some holiday episodes we did well. Thanksgiving, “The Goodbye Girl” where Anna leaves. “The Rainy Day Women” in season 2 is a favorite of mine…the Seth and Summer “Spider-Man” kiss. The Chrismukkah episode in season 2 and that year’s finale, although it’s more on the darker, melodramatic side. I think that episode had a good O.C. quality to it. A lot of what we did in season 4, to me felt like a return to some of the lighter, romantic comedy-based stories and not as much of the melodrama…

Do you feel that was because of the smaller cast? You sort of stuck to the core characters in that final season.
Yeah, we stuck with the core cast and for me, I felt like maybe things got a little overcooked in season 3. You know, you’re trying to top yourself and eventually, you can go over the cliff with Johnny. So I think in season 4 we wanted to scale back the number of characters and really dig in to the ones we had and lighten the tone. The Ryan-Taylor romance did a lot to accomplish that. And I think it was the fourth episode of season 4, that’s a particular favorite of mine. I also like the sort of alt-world Chrismukkah episode and I was really pleased with how the series finale turned out.

That was such a great ender.
Thanks!

Honestly, for those of us who had stuck through some of the stuff—like you said, season 3, which was tough to get through—the series finale was such a nice payoff.
Well good. Because that was the idea for the whole season. I mean, I was really glad…we knew we were in a tough slot, ratings-wise, but they gave us 16 episodes and I really wanted to make them episodes that really helped bring the show back to why people watched it to begin with. And that’s why I wanted to get back involved with the show for that season as well.

The finale’s last scenes, with Ryan in the house, flashing back…
Yeah! That’s how we all felt, all of us who worked on the show.

Who did you most enjoy writing for?
Oh boy. You know, I loved writing [this show]. I wrote a ton of the first season and still quite a bit of the second season and I loved writing for everybody. You really start to anticipate how performances will be delivered and every character was so distinct, you know? You’d write a scene with Caleb and Sandy Cohen in it and those two felt so distinct from writing a Summer-Marissa scene. Seth-Summer scenes were always really fun to write, Seth-Ryan scenes, and I always loved a good father-son talk. That being said, though, Julie Cooper may have been the most fun to write.

She was the most fun to watch!
She could do anything and I don’t think Melinda Clarke got enough credit for how great her performance was on the show.

I’m waiting for her to turn up on one of your new shows.
I know. Believe me, I’m waiting for the right part for her. We just had [Rachel] Bilson on Chuck, which was a lot of fun.

She was great. Any chance of her coming back?
We’ll see. I think when she first did it, she was like “well, I just got off a show, so I’ll just do a couple of episodes.’ But then afterwards, she was like ‘that was really fun!’ We have the whole O.C. crew working on Chuck.

That’s great.
Yeah, we’ve kept the whole family together.

Although it’s kind of weird that they’d be working on a show that is so different from The O.C., when you have Gossip Girl…
That shoots in New York, so it’s a whole new crew for that one.

Gotcha. And are you flying back and forth from L.A. to New York now?
Stephanie flies back and forth more than I do. I’ve done it a couple of times. But all of our writers, for both shows, are in L.A.

When The O.C. started. there was all sorts of talk about Seth Cohen being your alter ego. Was that even close?
In the beginning it was. He was certainly my way into the show. You know, I hadn’t watched a lot of teen dramas before.

Seriously?
Yeah. I had watched a lot of ‘80s teen movies, but I hadn’t really watched 90210 or Dawson’s Creek. I certainly, of course, knew what they were, but I wasn’t a devotee of the teen-genre television series. So Seth was really my way into that world and a little bit of my point of view of that world. But then obviously, it became so much more about Adam [Brody] and his performance and what he brought to that character and the road that character goes down over the course of show. You know, 92 episodes obviously can’t all be autobiographical.

Did you have a Ryan growing up?
[Laughs] Ha ha. I didn’t, but I think we all…I think the wish-fulfillment of the show, one of the aspects, is that Ryan gets a family. But a big part of the show that we found was with how many [people] identified with Seth…and the [fantasy] of having an instant best friend-slash-brother-slash-bodyguard.

Now, working on something like Gossip Girl, I guess people expected the same O.C. vibe. But you seem to have stepped away from that. Obviously, there is still humor, but it’s not that emo-humor.
No, that’s actually more in Chuck, weirdly. [Laughs] Any episode that ends with a guy pining for the girl and that girl is Rachel Bilson and The Eels are playing, you know? But with Gossip Girl, obviously there were a lot of comparisons to The O.C. when we first started. But whatever attracted me and Stephanie was what made the show different rather than what made it similar. The tone of the show is entirely different. You know, in the pilot of The O.C., Ryan’s on a pay phone, which would never even occur to the characters of Gossip Girl. It just feels more contemporary. Obviously, New York gives it a much different feel, it has a more gothic kind of quality to it…tonally and in terms of the characters, they’re very different. But I think both shows take a sort of epic view of adolescence and high school.

Having grown up on the East Coast, does Gossip Girl feel a bit more familiar to you?
No. This is a world that is equally alien to me as Orange County [Laughs]

At least with it being East Coast-based, you don’t have to worry about the cast getting too tan.
Yeah, we don’t have to put tanner on them, either. [Laughs]. Of course, now we’re trying to do Christmas in New York and thanks to global warming, we have no snow!

With this strike going on, how far will you get into the season?
We’ll have 13 episodes of both shows. And as soon as the strike is over, we’ll be right back at it.

Whatever happened to your proposed O.C. follow-up, Athens?
Athens was…not a bad idea for a show. It was a bad idea to try to do a show then. We did 27 episodes for the first season of The O.C., it was the only job I’d ever had and I had done a lot of the writing. So the idea of trying to do a new show in the second season was too much to take on at once. But I learned my lesson and now have figured out how to do two shows at once.

After The O.C. blew up and you were branded Fox’s wunderkind, did Hollywood come running with movie offers?
Yeah. I mean, definitely I have had the opportunities to write movies. I was working on a movie, actually to direct [one] when these two shows happened. And to tell you the truth, with movies you need to have a different kind of patience. And every time I had to be patient with a movie, if there was a waiting period, I would kind of lose interest and go ‘well, that would be a good idea for a show.’ But I’ll get back into movies, I hope sometime soon. I just like the pace of television and it’s harder to find movies about the kind of stuff I like to do.

I would imagine.
And also, the fun thing about TV is that you get to find a whole new group of actors.

And let me tell you, Zach Levi is great on Chuck, too. Totally different than anything I remember him being on in the past.
Exactly, yeah.

In fact, that’s very similar to your situation. Chuck is totally different than what we know you as.
Right. But I think there is definitely a tonal through-line between The O.C. and Chuck, as well as Gossip Girl. But in very different ways. They both draw on different elements of The O.C.

Probably because you have very smart characters setting the tone.
Well I won’t argue with you on that one. [Laughs]

Well, Seth was very smart, Sandy was smart, even Ryan. And don’t get me started on Taylor, because I adored that character.
She was great.

All the kids on Gossip Girl are well-educated and Chuck is obviously brilliant. So it’s almost like, the smarter these people are, the more enjoyable they are to watch.
Well good, because they are definitely more fun to write. And I’m lucky to have worked with a lot of smart writers over the years—much smarter than me—on all three shows, and they probably have more to do with heightening the IQ level.

So you don’t find yourself having to tweak a lot of the scripts? Especially on a show as high-concept as Chuck...
I’m really lucky on Chuck that I have the most unbelievable group of writers and they are all really talented. And on Gossip Girl, I have Stephanie, who I know and I trust—we share one brain at this point—and she just knows this world and what young women especially are looking for. We have a great partnership on that show.

Were there any storylines you guys didn’t get around to that you wanted to do on The O.C?
We always kicked around the idea of what would have happened if we had gone for some more conventional re-imaginings of the couples? You know, if Seth had ended up with Marissa? What if Ryan had a brief run with Summer?

Well that’s why I asked the question. I remember in those Anna episodes, it felt like something brewing between her and Ryan.
There was. We also talked about Anna and Luke as a way to keep both of those characters around. And I think one of the things I learned from doing the show was if you have characters that are popping as well as Anna was, or Luke was, find a way to keep them and use them rather than send them off and bring in new characters with the hope that they have the same staying power. It’s harder as the show goes on to bring in new characters.

The cast solidifies and we don’t want to see new people.
Exactly. And that was a good lesson for me.

Aside from the re-imagining of the couples, in retrospect, would you have killed off Caleb?
Caleb, you know…it’s always hard to kill of any character. Believe me I still wonder about the Marissa thing. I mean, I know what it did in terms of helping us creatively reinvent the show in season 4, but I certainly wrestled with that one for a while. Caleb was a great character, he served a great purpose…it was certainly a blow to the adult world when we lost him. But I also think [his death] helped get a lot of other stories going. That one wasn’t for naught.

And you know you would have been strung up if you had put Julie with Sandy.
Yeah, that couldn’t have happened.

Now, what kind of deleted scenes are in the box set? Is there old stuff we haven’t seen that’s just going to blow our minds?
It depends on how easily your mind is blown. [Laughs] How is that for a non-answer? I actually don’t have the full rundown of all the scenes we included, but there is a lot from all four seasons. You’ll get to see how weird we willing to get but not put on the air.

What was it like, having the show take-off so fast at the beginning? I mean, I still remember the immediate buzz of those first six episodes.
Oh yeah, we came out of the gate really, really strong. The harder learning curve came a few seasons in, but it was an amazing experience. We got to be the underdog, then the show caught on really fast. And I think people who thought the show was one thing realized it was something different. Then there was a backlash and then there was a creative renaissance. So we got the whole run of a show, of what you could want, all in four years.

And once you get the backlash, you know you’re arrived.
Exactly! Now I’ve seen that other great big shows had to go through that, shows much bigger and greater than The O.C., I’m like ‘OK, backlash is kind of a compliment.’ And the greatest gift of all is to be able to learn this on a show that people actually enjoyed. I think for the time it was on and the audience it was speaking to, it left its mark.

Do you ever need to hear that Phantom Planet ever again?
[Laughs] You know, that was a happy accident the way that song fell in to the show, but it became such a signature part of The O.C. And you have to think, every time I had to watch a cut of the show and the main titles credits, I have probably heard that song 1700 times. But I will always listen to it with fondness. What’s weird for me is that when we started shooting Gossip Girl, the cast said to me ‘are we gonna get soundtracks? Can we have a main title like The O.C.?’ and I thought, 'oh my god, I am now doing a teen drama with teenagers whose teen drama they grew up on was The O.C.' I feel very, very old. [Laughs]




Next week: The Holiday Guide kicks off!

Until then, don't hog the remote!

I know last week I said this column would be all about The O.C., but seeing how so many of us are off for the rest of the week, I figured, let’s hold that ‘til next week when we’re all back at work and trolling the web. Instead, I offer you one last pre-Thanksgiving batch of shows on DVD you can’t help but be grateful for.

Veronica Mars All three seasons, all wondrous in their own way and all the Kristen Bell you need to know that the woman is a star. The only downside is the lack of gratitude one might experience at the CW’s cancellation of this prime property.

Bones Let me put it this way: this show is a scream. And if you’re not hip to season 3 running on FOX right now, get there and grab the first two seasons available on your way. David Boreanaz may actually be the funniest handsome man on TV right now. And Emily Deschanel? She’s grown on me. Give her a shot, people. House isn’t Tuesday night’s only great show. (Oh and check out my q&a with Boreanaz in the Dancing with the Stars double-issue …he’s a pip!)

The Batman and Teen Titans Obviously, I’m all about my cartoons and these two are just the tops. Cooler than the SuperFriends (sorry, I know!) and so not just for kids, their fourth seasons just dropped this week on DVD and they are bangin’! Check out the anime awesomeness of Titans for an example of how classic tales can get kicked up a notch.

How I Met Your Mother OK, so this is the show that really got me started on my whole TV on DVD kick. The Smallville and One Tree Hill sets hooked me on those particular shows, but HIMYM is the one that made me think ‘hmmm, I wonder what other shows are out there that I’m missing the boat on.’ Plus, it showed up just as my Friends withdrawal really took off and made it all better by being a) high-larious and b) the only CBS sitcom at the time that didn’t feature a schlubby guy, his sassy and too-sexy wife and the words “Raymond” or “Queens.” Oh, and Neil Patrick Harris wants to be my best friend, I can just tell.

Family Guy It’s not even right how funny this freakin’ show is. Every set that’s on shelves now is a bundle of politically incorrect, equal-opportunity offensiveness served up with not a single care in the world by Seth MacFarlane. It’s like The Simpsons’ trashy cousin and it gets away with more than I could ever imagine. On DVD, even more, since Standards & Practices has no sway. And if you think I’m joshing, please, for the love of all that’s holy, take a look at Drew Barrymore’s first appearance as Brian’s mentally challenged pounce toy, Jillian. Stewie has a line that made me snort latte.

SportsNight Before Aaron Sorkin filled The West Wing with rapid-fire Oval officers throwing quips around like we understood half of those obscure political references , he gave ABC one of the smartest sitcoms in recent years. And then the network botched it big time. Barely eeking out two seasons, the complete series is available in one set and it’s delicious. A pre-Six Feet Under Peter Krause, Felicity Huffman before anyone knew how amazing she was and Robert Guillaume as a producer so commanding, you almost forget you’re watching the man who was Benson.Just take it slow going through this collection. All the Sorkin-ized speedy dialogue gets a little exhausting.

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist Oh my god, how great was this cartoon?! Back in 1995 when Comedy Central unleashed their Squigglevision cartoon on the viewing world, I think I may have been too messed in the head to get what was what. Now, thanks to the splendid Complete Series set that came out this week, I have been able to catch up and finally, I get it! Between Jonathan Katz’s deadpan delivery, Sarah Silverman’s sister Laura as his secretary and the crazy animation, this is definitely something anyone with a bent sense of humor is gonna be needing under the tree this year.

Melrose Place Season Three...Five words, kids: Kimberly. Blows. Up. The. Building. Oooh, and three more! Off. The. Hook. Dag, that season finale is still how I judge other primetime soaps’ “event” episodes. And so far, not many of them have measured up. Although I have high hopes for this weekend’s Desperate Housewives tornado.

OK, so that’s it. I have to go figure out what appetizer I’m bringing to my brother’s for dinner on Thursday. Have a great turkey day and we’ll catch up with Josh Schwartz and The O.C. next week.

Until then, don’t hog the remote. And be grateful for what you’ve got!

Still feeling grateful folks. I can’t help it, it’s this month. Ya got Thanksgiving coming up, the weather’s finally changing (although this Philly humidity is total bullshizz) and the DVD coffers are filled to the rim with causes for celebration these days.

And with this TV writers’ strike shaping up to suck long and big, having a few great DVDs to keep your flat-screen toasty is never a bad thing. Especially if the DVDs themselves are bad-ass weirdness like this week’s basket of goodies.

First up, and huge props to the geniuses (geniui?) at Paramount Home Video, is Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition. Oh, holy Log Lady, is this set stellar! Not only package-wise, but also in what's going on inside the sleek box. 10 discs, including the pilot that was woefully absent from the original first-season set, and oodles of extras on the making of the show that confused so many of us between 1990 and ’91. Trust me, as soon as you see poor plastic-wrapped Laura Palmer’s blue lips and hear that uber-offsetting theme song, you’ll be feeling as funky as a dancing dwarf on peyote...and you’ll like it. You’ll also lose hours to the previously unaired European version of the pilot (with a perfectly David Lynch-ian resolution to Laura’s murder) and the bonus bits, but that’s cool, because it’s been a long time since any of us saw Kyle MacLachlan’s SNL spoof or Lara Flynn Boyle as a woman of healthy proportions.

Oh, and for you Reaper fans, this here’s where Ray Wise learned to be the devil. That alone is worth the pennies.

Moving on to something just as odd and oddly entertaining, we have a quartet of Captain & Tennille releases culled from their 1978-79 variety specials. Now before ya’ll laugh, remember that these two were like the Jay Z and Beyonce of whitebread piano pop back when Daryl Dragon’s nautical hats were moderately acceptable. Honestly, they kind of rocked and Toni’s voice remains one of the few sounds of the ‘70s I can handle. Plus, these shows were a HUGE part of my kidhood, since Helen the beloved mother grooved to the sounds of these Muskrat lovers, so I take great comfort in Toni’s sisters Louisa, Jane and Melissa joining her and the Pointer Sisters for “O Holy Night” on “The Christmas Show” set. However, it’s the “Songbook” collection that is the real deal for anyone looking for a taste of dated joy. No skits, just ditties and Ella Fitzgerald. And if you need a dose of “WTF,” please, by all means, grab the “In Hawaii” set and feast on David Soul’s oceanfront performance of “Tomorrow’s Child.” It needs to be seen so people know what I'm talking about, mmmkay?

Speaking of WTF (but not really saying it because this is a family-friendly site), there is the awesomeness that is the third-season release of Most Extreme Challenge Elimination. This business cracks me in half! It’s like Jackass meets Manga, crossed with the adopted Japanese baby of Fear Factor and Dog Eat Dog. Hilarious only begins to touch this modified version of Japan’s game show Takeshi’s Castle that pits teams of hapless jump-suited contestants against the strangest obstacle courses this side of Ferris Bueller’s sprint through his neighbors’ backyards. Personal fave: the surfboard of death, mostly for the sight of players slamming their wedding tackle into a rotating phalange. Ironically, the game’s “field marshal” is named Captain Tenneal (see above in case you’ve forgotten already…I would imagine short-term memory loss is something a lot of EMX fans have in common, you know?)

And finally, something I cannot love enough: the long-awaited and well-worth-the-wait first volume of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones. Another homerun from Paramount Home Video, this 12-disc opus (the first of a planned three-piece collection) is one of those sets that’s as splendid as the George Lucas-produced show itself. And even though only 44 episodes of the feature films' prequel series were created between 1992 and ’96, they were by far some of the smartest, most exciting hours to hit TV until that Lost pilot crashed down and rewrote how adventure could be done on the small screen. And don’t even get me started on how good Sean Patrick Flanery is as the post-pubescent Indy. Dude should call Christian Bale and ask how he got the career he was supposed to have. I don’t even mind the eps with little Corey Carrier playing the pre-teen adventure, either—which is saying a lot, since children on non-Nickelodeon television usually give me the willies—because the whole deal is just that primo. I mean, really, over 36 historical docs on the real-life figures featured in guest roles throughout the show’s run and an interactive game? It’s like a gigantic lavish reward for waiting so patiently for the set to finally show up!

And now that all of these treats have, maybe you should go treat yourself. Bettter yet, pick some up for those loved ones who love TV. The holidays are around the corner and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love hearing that they give the best gifts, huh?


Next week: How do I love The O.C.? Let me and Josh Schwartz count the ways!

Until then, don’t hog the remote and remember to love your DVD player. It’s gonna be working overtime if this strike keeps going.

OK, first off, how fun was last week’s interview with Joss Whedon? You guys went to town on that one. Honestly, I haven’t taken that many hits since high school, if y’all know what I mean.

Which brings me to this week’s bidness. Being November, the month of Thanksgiving, I’ve decided to devote each of the next four columns to shows I am grateful to have on DVD. And since high school is on my mind these days—just had my 20th class reunion last weekend (and let me tell ya, we still look good!)—the first batch are all shows from back when the Bonner boys were wearing our Capezio jazz shoes, thin leather ties and trying to understand why all the Prendie girls thought their massive Aquanetted walls of hair and liquid eyeliner looked good. So for Jerry Leyden, Chuck Wurzbach, Art Hoath and the rest of the crew, I offer you the best of the Class of 1987!

The Cosby Show By its third season, Denise was just about to show off her Angel Heart (and more), Rudy was miles away from the intersection of cute and annoying, and none of us had yet realized that Bill Cosby’s sweaters were the ugliest things this side of my sister-in-law’s embroidered ski-slope sweatshirt. In other words, it was still brilliant. And happily, if I recall correctly, it remained that way until Cliff and Claire waltzed off the set in the series finale, like 100 years later. As for the Season 3 set, all I have to say to you is this: Gilbert Gottfried crushing Cliff’s chances of haggling with a car dealer in “Say Hello to a Good Buy.” Daawwwkkktaaahh Huxtabuulllll! That’s good stuff, right there.

Cheers Another one of the Thursday night dynamos, the fifth season collection comes packed with two things every other show should be jealous of: the funniest Thanksgiving food fight ever and an abundance of Bebe Neuwirth’s Lilith Sternin. Like M*A*S*H was for our dads, this may be the sitcom we late-30somethings watch over and over again without getting bored.

Family Ties What would we do, baby, without Michael J. Fox’s chronically capitalist Alex P. Keaton? My senior year was all about the as-yet-unreleased Season 5, but Season 2 just hit the shelves last month and I think I watched the entire thing in about a day and a half. Seriously, I lost a weekend. And you know what? No shame! Because buried in this one is “A Keaton Christmas Carol” and Tina Yothers will never be better than when she was a dirt-selling street urchin scrooged over by her own brother. Plus, there’s the Alex-on-diet-pills episode and he so worked that crazy years before Kelly Taylor over-Dexatrimmed. Sha la la laaaaah.

The Golden Girls It's Sex and the City with support hose. Try and say something bad about this one. I’ll cut you.

Dallas Confession time: I never watched much of this show when it was on. In the Holbrook house, it was Dynasty or nothing. So imagine the glee I get from catching up with J.R. and company one set at a time…at my leisure! And while they have yet to get around to releasing the Bobby-in-the-shower shizz that was all the talk when I was prepping for Senior Week 1987 down in Wildwood, Season 7 dropped this summer and if ya loved the oily Ewings, you know that this is the year good old Bobby supposedly “died” and went to cliffhanger heaven.

Full House Laugh now, but this embarrassing gem, which didn’t actually show up until the fall of ‘87, ran for 8 seasons, gave us more Dave Coulier than we deserved and unleashed the Olsen twins on the world. And don’t even get me started on the Stamos mullet. House rocked, plain and simple, mostly because it was plain and simple. Sadly, we’ll never see a silly family comedy like this again, unless it’s being spoofed, so my suggestion is to go hit the CoinStar and grab the Complete Series Collection that was released yesterday.

Miami Vice Every Friday night, that damn Jan Hammer theme song was playing as I headed out to either a party at Maria Plower’s house or a trip to Mike Golden’s parents’ Mexican restaurant (R.I.P., Taco House!) But for all the dated pastels and pushed-up sleeves, the MTV-ized magic remains whenever I dip into one of the individual season sets for a shot of Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. Next week, a Complete Series release is set to make a splash and it’s OK to want it. This was our cop show…and I have pictures of dudes in Vice-inspired prom tuxes to prove it.

Moonlighting My friend Joe McB. has a very um, pubescent fondness for this detective dramedy, but I’ll forever adore Moonlighting because the late Helen Holbrook loved it. “Oh, that Bruce Willis…there is just something about him!” What can I say, my mom was weird. It did, however, have the best dialogue I’d ever heard and all of the seasons available on DVD crackle with the chemistry between Maddie and David that made other TV couples look like punks. Even better, I just got to interview Cybill Shepherd for new issue TV GUIDE (page 84, if you’re wondering) and she was sooooo much cooler than you can even imagine. Extra points right there, folks!

Next week: More headtrippin’ down memory lane for classic DVD delights you can help but give thanks for. Until then, don’t hog the remote!

Oh! And check out this One Tree Hill coolness so y'all can get up to speed for the new season...and December's Season 4 release!
http://cwtv.com/thecw/fastforward

Awww, yeah. It’s finally here! Right in time for Halloween, one of TV’s best vampire series ever is sinking its fangs into the shelves with Angel: The Complete Collector’s Set. It’s like a David Boreanaz bender! And just like I promised, here’s some supernifty insight from series creator, executive producer and master of the Whedonverse, Joss Whedon, about our favorite soulful bloodsucker. (Yeah, I have the coolest job in the world. I know.)

Thanks so much for taking the time to talk. I know you have a lot going on.
Hey, it’s my pleasure.

So Angel the Complete Series…this is a big deal!
It is for me, just because I actually use my complete Buffy series all the time. [Laughs]

Yeah, right? I think a lot of people do! Is there anything new included with this collection that’s not in the individual-season sets?
Um, well there isn’t anything that I got to do with this set that I didn’t get to do with the series itself, because this is the series itself.

No extras or anything?
Nah. You know, when they did the Buffy set, they did this sort of round-table discussion… but they didn’t do that with the Angel set. I think they didn’t really come to it 'til so far down the line that everybody had scattered. They’d disappeared into Bones. [Laughs] So it really is just the series, but because so many people are just discovering Buffy now on DVD, this is a great thing to have. And the series gets so entwined in itself that it’s really nice to have it all in one place.

That’s a shame. I so enjoy useless deleted scenes.
[Laughs] I know we live in the age of extras, and there are extras that come with it, but there’s no spectacular skydiving sequences that weren’t there before.

Or musical episodes?
There could never be a musical episode of Angel. [Laughs] David is very large and I did not want him to beat on me.

I imagine this was a great excuse to watch your handiwork all over again.
Embarrassingly enough, I do anyway. Not all the time, but every now and then I go through phases. I’ll watch an episode and go, "Is this the cheesiest thing in the world, that I’m watching my own stuff?" There’s just stuff in here that I adore and honestly, a lot of it isn’t my stuff. A lot of it is Tim Minear’s or somebody else’s, so it can still sort of surprise me in a way that Buffy can’t, because I was overseeing Buffy much more strictly. It’s the show that I love because it kept evolving for five years.

It really did grow into something much deeper than just a spin-off.
You know, the idea was that it would be more than a spin-off. That’s why we didn’t do a spin-off until we had an idea that we thought was worth doing. But it took us a while to figure the best way to service that. We really did think it would be this stand-alone show, unlike Buffy. Then it evolved into the opposite of a stand-alone and became a mythological show. Which is very big now, but back then it was problematic… by the fifth year, they said "make it episodic again"! But by then we had enough characters that everything could come from them. And we had a great ensemble. The people we surrounded David with are the best actors and the best friends that I have.

Do you have a favorite episode or season?
The seasons are all fascinating to me. I did love Season 3 — I got to do my ballet episode. Season 4 is like one long episode, it’s like 24. It’s ridiculous how [serialized] the whole thing was, because we really weren’t doing that on purpose. It just kept happening. And then Season 5, of course, you know, they lowered the budget, we got Spike… all of those new elements caused it to be really fresh. I think for episodes, I do come back to "Darla," which is sort of the sequel to "Fool for Love" from Buffy. It has some of the best dialogue I have ever heard and some of the most perfectly twisted vampire logic.

Dru, Darla, Spike. They were hysterical in their thinking.
Well, there was always something behind it. It was never for an easy laugh… not that we were above a cheap laugh. But it was always an in-character cheap laugh. We always had tremendous fun with the logic of people who were dedicated to evil.

And those types of people are hard to find.
Yeah! The thing is, if you’re not living, you just have a different perspective [Laughs]

Are you still working on the comic-book follow-up, Angel: After the Fall?
The comic book is coming out based on some guidelines I gave them. Again, I’m not overseeing it the way I did the Buffy [comics], but yeah, there is a comic book coming out that I did sanction as sort of a "well, here’s what we would have done and here’s what you can do if you’re a comic book."

So what would you have done if you had another season? Or even just another episode?
Plummeted L.A. straight into Hell!

It’s not there already?
[Laughs] I knew that would be your response, but I like L.A. I’ve been an L.A. apologist for a long time. But yeah, the idea was that we were going to completely change everything without building a new set. We were just going to trash the one we had and make it postapocalyptic. So Brian Lynch, the writer of the comic, is taking that and putting it on serious steroids.

The apocalypse was really going to go down?
Oh yeah!

And who was coming out of that alleyway alive after the finale?
That I won’t say. But you can read the comic book.

Do you go to Comic-Con?
Every year.

Did you ever think, as a 10-year-old kid, that you would grow up to be someone who was so sought-out? That people would want your autograph?
Is there any 10-year-old who hasn’t? [Laughs]

That’s true. But your fans are so rabid.
Well, they’ve had their shots now. [Laughs] No, you always hope that, if you want to be an artist, that you’re going to touch people and they’re going to love you for it and it will be all sunshine and roses. But yeah, it has been different than I expected. A lot of that has to do with timing… the timing of having DVDs and the Internet and the idea of the writer actually entering the public consciousness. I fell into that at just the right time. The way I fell into an emerging network at the right time and then left just as they were going down. I’ve been lucky that way.

Yet you keep it pretty real.
The key is to not get all up in yourself. That’s why I stopped doing interviews for a while. I didn’t have anything new to say and I didn’t want to be the guy who has to hear his own voice. If I don’t have anything to say… you know, it can be a trap, let’s just put it that way. And you can go onto the Internet and read three people discussing you endlessly and think "Oh my god, I have the biggest fan base in the world!" [Laughs] And then your movie opens and you find out what’s really going on. [Laughs]

Speaking of movies, how is Goners going?
Um, it’s going. It’s not going as quickly as I hoped, but then again, it’s movies and that’s part of how they’re different from TV. The script has been done. And I have rewritten it…and have rewritten it again. It’s the kind of the world we live in.

The nature of the beast.
Yes. And I think the operative word there is "beast"!

So there’s no casting in line yet?
Not really. I mean we’ve discussed it, but until the studio signs off on a script, that’s pretty much it.

Any chance there would be a role for Sarah Michelle Gellar in it?
Um [pause] I don’t know. Huh. I don’t think so. And that’s not exactly how it works. Obviously Sarah is a star… but I don’t know if it’s the sort of thing she would do or not — again, we haven’t gotten that far in the process. But you know, she sort of backed off from Buffy because she wanted to make her bones as other characters. Not that she wasn’t proud of what she’d done, and she should be, but you know, you want to sort of make your own way. So it would probably be the wrong idea. Although I love what Sarah can do. I think she has an amazing talent and we worked really well together for a lot of years, I have the same sort of thing: I want to prove that I can do this on my own and not make everything I do just a chance to have a reunion with my friends. That’s not to say I won’t have a reunion with my friends from time to time — I hope to. But the key is to keep an eye on the past, but at the same time, explore new territories.

Ironically, the new territories you explored are now all over the TV landscape. So many shows bear the Whedon stamp. Supernatural, Reaper...
I actually have a stamp, by the way.

You just walk around Hollywood slapping it on scripts?
Yeah. [Laughs]

Do you even watch these shows that would never have made it to air if it hadn’t been for your stuff?
I missed Reaper, which I wanted to see because everyone said it was cool. So now I have to go find a tape of it. I try to watch the new stuff… I watched Bionic Woman and I loved the Buffy-Faith fight at the end of the premiere.

Right?!
I think they even used the same roof. [Laughs] I’m being catty and silly, of course. That show is totally its own and it's much more Battlestar than Buffy, but yeah, you look for traces. There are times that people compare things to Buffy and you go, "Yeah, but… what’s the point?" Then there are times when they compare things to Buffy, like Veronica Mars, and you’re really proud to even be mentioned because their work was so tight. The only real downside to the Buffyverse is the extreme overuse of the term "The Chosen One," which I would love to never hear again. [Laughs] It has shown up everywhere. I think there’s going to be one on My Name Is Earl.

How fitting. You created a monster!
I appreciate that people are doing these shows because they’re fun, they’re what I love. But it’s more the way female characters are treated in the shows, in the way they can headline or take charge in a show that’s not necessarily a drama. That they’re taken a little bit more seriously in genre terms than they used to be. I don’t in any way take all the credit for that, but I like to think I was part of it. Every woman doesn’t have to be the damsel in distress. That’s more important to me than if it’s high school or has a supernatural element.

But you have to admit that you’re the best thing to happen to TV demons since Trilogy of Terror.
[Laughs] Dude, Trilogy of Terror rocked!

Seriously, though. Even Ghost Whisperer is going there. It’s going to turn out that the town is over some sort of Hellmouth.
Yeah, but it’ll be more of a Hellnostril to keep things fresh. Seriously, everything that I have done, someone did before me. It’s really how you mix it to make it your own and how much you look after it once it’s moving. How much you care about every episode. It’s not like I invented the wheel, I was just on it while it was turning.


NEXT WEEK: Thanksgiving month gets me thinking about what I'm grateful for (like all you DVD fans coming back for more!)

First off, let’s all say a quick one for the folks over in Malibu and San Diego. I don’t care who you pray to, they can use all the positive energy they can get right now, you know?

OK, so now that we’re only a week away from the greatest holiday (that doesn’t involve wrapping paper), it’s the perfect time to whip out the fondness for some of TV’s best Halloween episodes, which—look at that!—are also saluted in tvguide.com’s supernifty Halloween section! Some are funny, some are freaky, some are just damned frightening. But they all celebrate the season and are available on DVD, so they also therefore rock..

Buffy the Vampire Slayer—“Halloween” In the words of Marie Osmond, oh crap. Was this Season 2 howler from ’97 a blast or what?! The Scoobies and most of Sunnydale slip into cursed costumes from a shop run by Giles’ nasty crony and soon, the town is overrun by trick-or-treaters who’ve morphed into whatever they're dressed as. Willow’s a ghost, Xander’s a soldier and Buff’s a wide-eyed princess with zilcho slaying powers. One of the trazillion reasons to love this show and the first time we get a peek into Ripper’s shady past.

Ugly Betty—“The Lyin, the Watch and the Wardrobe” Honestly, not one of my faves from the Season 1 set. I mean, yeah, we get the whole subtext behind Betty’s butterfly costume, but for Mode’s sake, what fashion-mag employee worth their swag-closet access would think that a homemade burlap mess like that was a good idea? That said, Marc as Betty? Help me, Jeebus! I’m still laughing.

Smallville—“Thirst” A total Slayer spoof from Season 5, with Lana falling in with a coven of bloodsucking Met U. sorority girls led, appropriately enough, by a chick named Buffy. For anyone who has spent the past seven seasons going “Kristin Kreuk? Really?” this is proof that she can do a lot more than look desperate and straighten her hair.

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries—“The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula” Quite possibly one of my best childhood memories (don’t mock!), this cheesy poof that kicked off the anthology’s second season in 1979 was all TV could be. It’s a crossover, so we have Shaun Cassidy, Parker Stevenson and Pamela Sue Martin; it has Paul Williams and Cassidy singing, so it has awful music; and it was a two-parter, so there’s a cliffhanger that leaves us wondering if the baddies skulking around a rock festival at Dracula’s castle are art thieves or undead types. Oh, and there’s some serious Nancy-Frank flirty business going on.

Beverly Hills 90210—“Halloween” Come to the season 2 set for Kelly Taylor as a sexy witch, stay for Steve Sanders in full-blown Zorro gear beating down the cowboy who tries to cowpoke her. And just know that Scott Scanlon bites it in the very next episode!

How I Met Your Mother—“The Slutty Pumpkin” I love this show. Love it, love it, love it! We first met when I devoured the entire first season on DVD during a boring weekend when I think I hated all my friends for some reason. But the gang was there for me and this episode in particular, convinced me to stick with them. Ted’s annual attempt to find the gourd-attired chick he fell for years earlier leads him to the lamest Halloween bash in Manhattan, where Barney gets his playa on in an array of getups (Maverick from Top Gun? We should have known then that Neil Patrick Harris had something to tell us.) It’s sweet, silly and so what the holiday is like when you’re just a little too old to be playing dress up.

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special—It just came out on DVD and seriously, words don’t do it justice. Even the look a horror etched on my face isn’t enough to communicate the sheer WTF-edness of Roz “Pinky Tuscadero” Kelly, KISS, Margaret Hamilton and Witchie Poo from H.R. Pufnstuf camping it up with Lynde. I’m still not sure what’s more unsettling, the fact that Florence Henderson shows up to sing “That Ol’ Black Magic” in an outfit that would make Cher squirm or that the clearly needy Lynde thanks us at the end for making him feel “wanted.” ABC only aired this once and you can’t blame them. You also can’t turn away. It's truly the wierdest special this side of the Wookies' Thanksgiving debacle.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown—Best. Special. Ever. And I’ll stone anyone who says differently. Because I got a rock and I’m not afraid to throw it, ya hear?!

The Simpsons—"Treehouse of Horror” Every one of them is a gem, as long as you go in expecting one third of the annual trilogy to be a tad weak. Throw these in there with Chuck Brown and South Park’s “Pinkeye” episode from 1997’s first-season set, with the zombie outbreak and Cartman’s horrifically tasteless Hitler costume and you have the perfect animated attack on all things bump-in-the-nighty.


Next week: It’s all about Angel!

Until then, don’t hog the remote.

Wanna see something really scary?

Then wait for MTV to repeat their recording of Legally Blonde: The Musical, because that mess is all the proof you need that the Devil is alive and working. On Broadway, no less!

However, if you wanna see something scary-weird rather than scary-dreadful, then grab the third volume of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Wow, that dude is out there with a capital “Macguffin.” And based on these very cool episodes from the 1957 season of his CBS anthology, Hitch was also the man when it came to scoring serious talent.

Fresh off the bat, there’s Jessica Tandy in “The Glass Eye” as a spinster who falls for a ventriloquist. You’d think that would be creepy enough, seeing how anyone who talks to wooden dolls is scarier than Jason Voorhees on cheap trucker meth, but no. It gets way wilder after Miss Daisy starts to hang out with the object of her singular affections. Trust me, you almost feel dirty by the final credits.

Then there’s Jack Klugman and E.G. Marshall in “The Mail Order Prophet,” which is must-see for any sucker who’s ever clicked on an email offer to “Get bigger and go longer” t