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— by Carl Davis
In an age when entertainment-viewing options are growing ever more abundant — Tivo, Netflix, iPods, Xboxes and on and on — television is finally catching up, with classic shows getting the sort of DVD treatment once reserved for blockbuster films. Take "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," for instance. Running for 144 episodes, "Buffy" followed the titular heroine's journey as she grew to accept and even embrace her role as a bubbly blonde teenager who also happened to be "chosen" to hunt and kill the undead. Over its seven seasons, "Buffy" cemented its place as a television classic and was recently celebrated in a 40-disc (yes, four-oh) box set, "The Chosen Collection." Here are some more great TV series currently enjoying deluxe-DVD status.
 "Lost" (2004-2005)
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"Lost" creator J.J. Abrams knows a thing or two about creating a pop-culture phenomenon: He was the brains, after all, behind both "Felicity" and "Alias." Last year, while "Desperate Housewives" could barely keep up with its own hype, "Lost" was slowly building a dedicated following, acquainting us week after week with the survivors of a mysterious plane crash and insinuating via various plot devices that this particular group of people was brought to the island for a specific, as-yet-unknown purpose. The enormous cast includes a troubled Everyman, Jack (Matthew Fox); a perpetual bad boy, Sawyer (Josh Holloway); a deadly beauty, Kate (Evangeline Lilly); a washed-up rocker, Charlie (Dominic Monaghan); and the enigmatic Locke (Terry O'Quinn), to name a few. With the DVD set the show's fans can catch up on the characters' back stories and dive into extra features to learn more about the series.
"Deadwood" (2004-2005)
Since the debut of "The Sopranos," HBO has become the source for mature, cutting-edge television. Case in point: The raw, re-imagined TV Western "Deadwood," set in an illegal settlement in the frontier Dakota Territory shortly after Custer's "last stand" in 1876. Created by David Milch (the man behind "NYPD Blue), "Deadwood" embraces the simple morality tales of the genre, but Milch has crafted characters who take sides only when it suits them. He also let audiences know that this wasn't their grandfathers' Western by introducing legendary cowboy Wild Bill Hickok (Keith Carradine) as the main character, only to kill him off in the fourth episode. At the heart of Deadwood, both the show and the town, is the Gem Saloon and its owner, the Machiavellian Al Swearingen (Ian McShane) who does his best to keep the West wild. With a wealth of historical info as well as commentaries and featurettes, these "Deadwood" DVDs are worth a visit.
"Nip/Tuck" (2003-2005)
This award-winning series is among the F/X network's most satisfying offerings. Created by Ryan Murphy, who also created the smart, satirical 1990s' high school series "Popular," "Nip/Tuck" uses plastic surgery and a repeated instruction, "Tell me what you don't like about yourself," to chronicle the days
and nights of Miami surgeons Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon). Each one of their patients reveals something about his or her life that causes the doctors to re-examine their own seemingly perfect lives — Sean is happily married, while Christian is content to use his money, status and looks to sleep with as many beautiful women as possible. Of course, much more is happening beneath the show's shiny, flawless surface and the writers continually introduce disturbing and bizarre plot elements — e.g., a Colombian drug lord smuggling heroin inside breast implants — to keep things popping. The box set features deleted scenes and featurettes, including one detailing the makeup effects used for the show's gruesome surgeries.
"The O.C." (2003-2005)
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For those who have written off "The O.C." as a mere update of rich-Cali-kids shows like "Beverly Hills 90210" or "Melrose Place," think again, as creator Josh Schwartz has infused the adolescent soap opera with liberal amounts of geek chic, indie-rock-speak and comic book cachet. "The O.C." is also a place to hear new,
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hip songs, with bands like Beck and the Beastie Boys offering up tunes and onscreen performances by The Killers, T.I. and more. In the well-to-do Cohen family, father Sandy (Peter Gallagher) is a socially conscious public defender, mother Kirsten (Kelly Rowan) works for her father's real estate company and teenage son Seth (Adam Brody) is a comics-obsessed high-schooler. As a result of Sandy's work, outsider Ryan (Ben McKenzie) is brought in to live with the family, shaking up the status quo at elite Harbor High and exposing the warts-and-all nature of the SoCal upper crust. The show's DVD sets are loaded with extras including commentaries, "The O.C. Music Guide," deleted scenes and more.
"Battlestar Galactica" (2003-2005)
Forget everything you know about the campy 1970s' show "Battlestar Galactica," which even series creator Glen A. Larson admitted was just the musty TV Western "Wagon Train" set in space. Here, writer Ron Moore offers viewers dark, intelligent commentary on the state of our world in the guise of a mature science-fiction show, proving that with sophisticated storytelling, a sci-fi series can attract a grown-up audience that doesn't live, literally or figuratively, in mom's basement. Set during the climactic era of the 100-year war between the Cylon robot empire and their former masters, humanity, 50,000 survivors have taken to the stars hoping to find salvation on the fabled planet Earth. The DVD set includes the 2003 miniseries which introduced the new series, all 13 episodes of the first season, commentaries and more.
"Firefly" (2002)
While creator Joss Whedon's name alone (he of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" fame) seemed to guarantee a sizable audience for this series, skittish network execs inexplicably aired only 11 of the original 14 shows. They further doomed the effort by showing episodes out of order, thus marring the carefully established continuity Whedon is known for. The story line, meanwhile, was compelling: Five hundred years in the future, the Alliance has defeated the Independents in a brutal civil war and now rules the galaxy with an iron fist. Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), captain of the Firefly-class starship Serenity, fought with the Independents and now lives his life as an outlaw. He and his crew find themselves in a desperate situation when they allow on board a mysterious doctor (Sean Maher) and his young sister, River (Summer Glau), who just happen (of course) to be fugitives from the Alliance. ("Firefly" aficionados were also treated earlier this year to the Whedon-directed feature film, "Serenity," which not only brought new fans to the fold, but garnered nearly universally rave reviews. The movie will be released on DVD on December 20.) This four-disc set includes all 14 episodes, as well as Whedon's commentaries, deleted scenes and "making-of" featurettes.
"The Office" (2001-2003)
Ricky Gervais' brilliantly inspired David Brent deserves a place in the pantheon of the comedic British Grotesque, a tradition that includes Basil from "Fawlty Towers," Patsy and Edina from "Absolutely Fabulous" and the entire town of Royston Vasey from "The League of Gentlemen." In fact, with "The Office" Gervais has created what can only be described as an anti-comedy, where the characters and situations are all-too-familiar to anyone who's ever held a white-collar job. Set in a fictional company, Wernham Hogg, and filmed in a mockumentary style, the show's cringe-inducing humor, thoroughly un-P.C. business practices and excruciating silences are priceless. Rounding out the Wernham Hogg staff are bootlicking toady Gareth (Mackenzie Crook) and beleaguered sales rep Tim (Martin Freeman), who hopelessly pines for the office receptionist, Dawn (Lucy Davis), who in turn is unfortunately engaged to the hulking warehouse worker, Lee (Joel Beckett). All 12 episodes, as well as the "Holiday Special," are here along with the documentary "How I Made 'The Office', " deleted scenes and David Brent's ludicrous music video for "If You Don't Know Me by Now."
"Family Guy" (1999-2005)
Seth MacFarlane's "Family Guy" was a natural successor to animated equal-opportunity offenders like "The Simpsons" and "South Park," but with one key distinction — "Family Guy" was canceled. The plug was pulled on the brash, non-sequitur-driven comedy midway through its third season due to low ratings, but
with its release on DVD the show found its audience and became the bestselling DVD of 2003. Just outside of Providence, Rhode Island, in the fictional town of Quahog, live the Griffins, a family unit so dysfunctional they make Homer and Marge's brood resemble a Rockwell painting. Dad Peter embodies the worst traits of every TV husband and father rolled into one; mom Lois sacrificed a life of wealth and privilege in order to marry Peter and raise their three children; son Chris is the oldest of the three kids, but you wouldn't know it from his slovenly ways and immature antics; daughter Meg is forever bowing under peer pressure and living in fear of how the world will perceive her; and Baby Stewie is a baby in name only, a madman who'll stop at nothing to get rid of his controlling mother and take over the world. Seasons one, two and three are already available and a third, fourth-season DVD set is due out before the holidays.
"Freaks & Geeks" (1999)
Writer/director Judd Apatow ("The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and the upcoming Jim Carrey vehicle "Fun with Dick and Jane") is a hot commodity in Tinseltown. But he had already attracted a following with this smart look back at growing up in the 1980s. "Freaks & Geeks" never sugarcoated its subject matter and instead treated its cast as genuine, complex human beings. The short-lived series centered around Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini) and her younger brother, Sam (John Daley), as they enrolled in a Michigan high school and came to terms with various cliques — namely, the "Freaks" (led by pre-"Spider-Man" hottie James Franco) and the "Geeks." Many felt that the show would never be able to make the transition to DVD due to the enormous amount of classic music used throughout the series, but after clearing well over 100 songs, a six-disc box set was released. In addition to all 18 episodes, some of which never aired, this impressive DVD set also contains 29 separate commentary tracks from the cast, crew, network execs and even obsessed fans, as well as deleted scenes and cast audition tapes.
"Seinfeld: Season 1-6" (1990-1995)
The brainchild of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David ("Curb Your Enthusiasm"), "Seinfeld" is syndicated so relentlessly there's a good chance that an episode is airing somewhere on the planet right now. With Seinfeld playing himself alongside insecure paranoiac George Costanza (Jason Alexander), ex-girlfriend
Elaine Benes (Julia-Louise Dreyfus) and nutcase neighbor Kramer (Michael Richards), the show follows the antics of four people so neurotic and self-obsessed that they'd surely hate each other if they weren't such close friends. "Seinfeld" got better with each passing season as the minutiae grew to positively
mountainous proportions, while the secondary characters (malicious mailman Newman, Jerry's insufferable Uncle Leo), everyday situations transformed into epic episodes (lost in a parking garage, waiting for a table at a restaurant) and countless now-legendary quotations ("Not that there's anything wrong with that," "Are you master of your own domain?") have become part of the pop-culture firmament. In addition to the standard audio commentaries by cast and crew, deleted scenes and outtakes, the DVDs also contain features on the show's creation, the development of George and Kramer from real-life counterparts and exclusive "Sein-Imations."
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Photos: Warner Home Entertainment
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