I didn’t have cable for several years – which made no sense to anyone who knew me well. Being as dependent on television as I am for my emotional well-being, I managed my daily TV needs through generous friends and DVD rentals and purchases. Although I now have all sorts of fancy cable and DVR capabilities, I still haunt tvshowsondvd.com hoping that there will be news that Facts of Life (Season 4), Once and Again (Season 3) , Daria (Season 1), or Family (Season 3) is scheduled for imminent release.
During my last such visit, I found no information about the shows I covet, but I did learn that there are some great upcoming (Region 1) DVD releases.
First, Season 1 of 30 Rock will be released this Tuesday.
I’ve loved Tina Fey since Mean Girls, but only managed to watch a few episodes of 30 Rock. (I have, however, seen the “Blind Date” episode about 80 times – thank you free iTunes download!) The handful of episodes I did manage to watch were brilliant – including the “Rural Juror” episode, the Valentines Day episode, and the episode in which Jack co-opts Liz Lemon’s boyfriend. And the casting of Elaine Stritch as Jack’s mother…perfect! Needless to say, 30 Rock is going to the top of my Netflix queue.
One more picture of Tina Fey before moving on.
Also in the category of shows-I-intended-to-watch-but-didn’t, Brothers and Sisters is releasing later in the month (September 18, to be precise).
I know next to nothing about the show, but it features Rachel Griffiths and Patricia Wettig, and I’ve heard only good things about it, so that’s going in the queue, too.
Of course, there’s a lot more releasing this Tuesday: there’s Nip/Tuck (Season 4), The Office (Season 3), and the harmonic convergence of Desperate Housewives (Season 3) and The Real Housewives of Orange County (Season 1) . What particularly caught my eye, however, was Season 2 of Bosom Buddies.
Bosom Buddies is best remembered as the cross-dressing sitcom that gave Tom Hanks his start. It had all the predictable plots associated with cross-dressing; the difficulties of pulling off the charade, avoiding romantic attention from men, struggling with romantic attraction to women who think you’re a woman. And it had all the stereotypes – the blonde bombshell (Donna Dixon), the fat girl best friend whose lust is played for laughs (Wendie Jo Sperber), the sassy black neighbor (Telma Hopkins). But the show was fundamentally fun. And Holland Taylor played the boss at the advertising agency where several of the characters worked. But it’s not really the plot that’s making me wistful; this show actually triggered some early awareness and crushes for me. In my pre-adolescence, I found both Donna Dixon and Wendie Jo Sperber inexplicably compelling – and I was precociously attuned to the lesbian-ish aspect of characters who were pretending to be women trying woo actual women.
Actually, a lot of the September releases bring back my childhood and pre-adolescence. There’s The Gumby Show this coming Tuesday.
I have no crushes or lesbian associations with this. I just liked Gumby’s pony-pal, Pokey.
There’s Josie and the Pussycats on September 19th.
While I did not necessarily covet their “long tails and ears for hats,” I was aware that they were pretty much the only female-oriented cartoon when I was a kid (apart from Penelope Pitstop).
And most strikingly for me, on September 25th, Davey and Goliath, The Lost Episodes will be released.
There’s an element of therapeutic public humiliation in admitting how much I loved this show. While I’m sure it was the claymation and not the religion that drew us in, my brother and I (two little Jewish kids) could not get enough of this preachy, Lutheran morality play. But it wasn’t just us; references pops up sporadically in shows targeted at people my age. One of my favorite Friends moments involves a depressed Frank Jr. moping around Phoebe’s apartment watching an episode of Davey and Goliath. If you’re intrigued, check out video clips at DaveyandGoliath.org.
