TV NEWS ON APRIL 7

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Welcome to this incredibly busy edition for Digital Digest! After last week's sad and almost depressing week with very little news, this first week of April brings us plenty of news. And we have a VERY special review this week which will probably catch most people a bit off-guard, with our review of Revelation Films release of L.A. Law - Season One (yes, you heard us right, L.A. Law). It's actually a release for the United Kingdom, but there are some unique aspects of this release which have brought it to our attention. So let's get started!


DIGITAL NEWS

As mentioned, our review this week is for the United Kingdom release of L.A. Law - Season One. The six disc set was released in January of this year in the UK by Revelation Films. Naturally, if you are in the United States, you are not going to find this release at your neighborhood Target or Walmart. But this release, which is also the very first release of the series on DVD anywhere in the world, is more relevant to everybody than it may initially appear to be. Many times in the past, we've discussed playing foreign DVDs (as the case in the UK would be, region 2) on DVD players in the United States. However, this release of L.A. Law, as was discovered by many fans across the globe after purchasing the set, actually lacks any region coding. Even though the packaging indicates that it is a region 2 release, it will actually play on ANY DVD player without any issues! You can actually even purchase this release in the United States from amazon.com, so that you don't have to pay for international shipping, by going here.

Of course, the DVDs playing in any region sounds fine, but you may be thinking that only the first season has been released, and there is no guarantee that any future seasons will ever be released. But... you'd be wrong! L.A. Law - Season Two is already scheduled for a release on May 7. And if that isn't enough, there are more seasons on the way beyond that. In fact, between now and the end of 2013, all seven of the remaining seasons are scheduled for release! According to information from the UK DVD retailer Play.com (note: if you are not in the UK, you can not order from this site... while they do provide useful information, they do not seem to allow international orders), the anticipated release dates for seasons 2-8 (the remainder of the run of the series!) are as follows:

Season 2: May 7, 2012
Season 3: July 9, 2012
Season 4: October 8, 2012
Season 5: January 7, 2013
Season 6: April 8, 2013
Season 7: July 8, 2013
Season 8: October 7, 2013

Of course, there are some caveats about these upcoming releases. First, we don't know for certain that these release dates won't change. Although they are scheduled, and many already even have cover art, anything is always subject to change. Second, even if these releases do come as scheduled, there is absolutely no guarantee that they will be region-free, as the first season was. It is entirely possible that the release of the first season as a region-free release was just a fluke, as the packaging even indicates that it is a region 2 release. But we certainly hope that either it is region-free, or at the very least, somebody finally gets this classic series out in the United States!

We still aren't done with our talk about releases from Revelation Films, though! Note, for the following releases, we honestly just don't know if these are region-free like L.A. Law is or not, but we provide this information for those who may be interested. The studio also released Doogie Howser, M.D. - Season One in January, which was released by Anchor Bay several years ago... but like most other Anchor Bay releases, it is now out-of-print. But now, you can get not only the first season of the series, but according to Play.com, the remaining seasons (2, 3, and 4) are scheduled for May 7, August 6, and November 5! The studio also release Chicago Hope - Season One approximately a month ago, which is another series which has never been released in the United States. Needless to say, the remaining five seasons of that series (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) are... you guessed it... already scheduled! Release dates for those are June 4, September 10, December 13, and the remaining two seasons are scheduled in 2013 on March 11 and June 10.

Before we move on to our other news on our own side of the Atlantic Ocean--and believe me, there is a ton of that this week as well--we have one more bit of news about ANOTHER release from Revelation Films in the UK! And this one is a sitcom which Americans have been wanting to see for quite some time. The sitcom Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place is set to be released in the UK (but remember, you can always purchase it online and watch it in the US if you have a region-free DVD player... hopefully these will be region-free without needing a special player, as L.A. Law is) over the next few months. Needless to say, Play.com has tipped us off to release dates for that series, and once again, every season has been scheduled, with release dates of April 23, July 9, October 8, and the final season comes in just after the beginning of the new year on January 7. All in all, there are a ton of great releases coming from this studio, many of which we have never seen in the United States. If we find out about more releases from this studio, and I have a feeling that we will, we'll let you know!

Now to move on to the United States, where there has been a LOT of news floating around everywhere! CBS Home Entertainment is bringing some new releases of some of our favorite classic dramas to DVD on July 3. First up is the primetime '80s soap opera Dynasty, with Dynasty - The Sixth Season, Volume 1 and Dynasty - The Sixth Season Volume 2. Another favorite is released the same day with Mannix - The Seventh Season, which is extra special since many of the episodes from this season have never aired in syndication. The third release (or pair), though, is the most surprising, since it is a release of a series which appeared to be abandoned... but low and behold, it isn't! We'll also see on July 3, we'll see The Streets of San Francisco - Season 3, Volume 1 and The Streets of San Francisco - Season 3, Volume 2. Hopefully, we should have reviews of all of these releases sometime in June!

So, this brings us to our final batch of release news... and believe me, we aren't even trying to just fill up space, because the news which we have yet to bring you so far is still news which would normally be worthy of top-billing if we didn't just somewhat randomly pick the order to bring you all of this great news this week. Shout! Factory is planning some major releases in July as well as they complete Designing Women on July 17 with Designing Women - The Final Season. But Shout! is also bringing out some new stuff in July which is guaranteed to excite our readers, as they pick up the DVD rights to the classic sitcom Diff'rent Strokes! The classic sitcom, which many (including myself) assumed to be abandoned, is finally going to be continued with Diff'rent Strokes - The Complete Third Season, which is also set to be released on July 17. Now, will the studio also get back to releases of the spinoff of the series, The Facts of Life? We hope so, but so far, there is no word. Also, on July 31, we'll be seeing a series which we tend to not cover as much, but we know it is a huge pop-culture classic, with Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids - The Complete Series!

Our final piece of news--and we only make this our final piece of news because it is something that has been reported on already--is that release dates have now been announced for the first two seasons of The Big Bang Theory on Blu-ray Disc. On July 10, look for Blu-ray releases (the DVD releases have been released long ago, obviously) of The Big Bang Theory - The Complete First Season and The Big Bang Theory - The Complete Second Season.

For the naysayers out there claiming that home media is dead, the news this week certainly seems to indicate quite the opposite. In our two years of Digital Digest, this has probably been one of the busiest weeks of news we've ever seen!



UPCOMING WEEK PREVIEW

Tuesday (April 10) is not nearly as exciting of a release date as our news has been this week, but we do have a few great releases, including Laverne & Shirley - The Fifth Season (our review) and Adam-12 - The Final Season (our review). Other releases for Tuesday include Logan's Run - The Complete Series and the completion of the classic anthology series Night Gallery with Night Gallery - Season Three. Finally, if you are north of the border in Canada, there is a release of ALF - The Complete Series, but we really don't know if this set is any different from the US release or not.