TV NEWS ON MAY 26

http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2012/05/digital-digest-harry-o-and-spenser-for.html Happy Memorial Day weekend, and welcome to Digital Digest! You could spend your weekend having a cookout in the sweltering heat or watching a bunch of cars going in circles a couple hundred times, but whether or not you do, you can start here, where we have all of your regular features (including a LOT of news, it has been an incredibly busy week), along with a review of Rookie Blue - The Complete Second Season (DVD/Blu-ray). Let's get going. DIGITAL NEWS As we've mentioned before, Warner Archive maintains a Facebook page where they regularly keep fans updated on everything that is "in the works." In the past week, a fan asked about the series Harry O, a classic crime drama starring David Janssen which aired on ABC for two seasons between 1974 and 1976, to which Warner Archive proudly responded with the following: "We're working on Season One of HARRY O right now. Hopefully we should have it ready in the next few months. Season Two will follow shortly thereafter." So there you have it! Not only is the first season of the classic series in the works, but in fact, both seasons appear to be on the way! It is also interesting to note that this classic series also featured Farrah Fawcett-Majors as the title character's next-door neighbor and on-again/off-again girlfriend, and the series was actually cancelled in 1976 by Fred Silverman in favor of a little series called Charlie's Angels, which (again) featured Farrah Fawcett-Majors. Interestingly enough, in the same post, the same person asked about the classic '80s series Spenser: For Hire, which was one of many crime/detective series starring Robert Urich (and let's not forget, even when he was on Soap, he was heavily involved in a case of crime/detective work!). As it turns out, this series is not in the works for Warner Archive, but the reasoning behind that is even better news for fans: "SPENSER is being considered for mass-merchant release, but if that doesn't pan out, we'll be happy to take up the cause for his liberation." So, it looks as if the series may not only be coming to DVD, but it may even be coming out as a mass-merchant release! And if it doesn't pan out, it sounds like Warner Archive will potentially take over. However, given the interest in '80s detective series, this one feels like one which would really work as a general retail release, so we're hoping to see some movement in this direction for this series. We'll let you know when we know more. Mill Creek also maintains a Facebook page where they give some solid hints of "coming attractions." While they haven't been giving quite as solid hints lately, some of their latest information has hinted that more Heathcliff DVDs are coming, but it'll be a while, perhaps in early 2013. We hope to have more information to follow up on this in the near future. A poster on the website Home Theater Forum brought out some details of some upcoming releases from Timeless Media Group (which was recently acquired by Shout! Factory), and it appears that TMG has a LOT coming up from MGM's vast library of series... though sadly none are sitcoms, and most are (as is common for TMG) westerns. The series included in the deal, per the information provided by the poster (and remember, this is not confirmed news, although the particular poster has developed a reputation for providing only reputable information) are: Bearcats! Tombstone Territory West Point Harbor Command Science Fiction Theatre Stoney Burke MacKenzie's Raiders Lee Marvin Presents The Lawbreakers Target Hopefully, we'll learn more about these acquisitions (and get some further confirmation) in the near future. We'll let you know when we do. A few weeks ago, Cagney & Lacey series creator Barney Rosenzweig finally released details of the upcoming release of the series on DVD. It appears that the truly complete series will only be made available in a limited run of 3000 sets. By truly complete, this means that this particular set will include every episode of the series from every season, along with all of the special features. These sets will even be autographed by Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly, and will be available sometime this summer. Later in the fall, a general release will be available, at a lower price. However, this set will not contain the first season, which was much different than the rest of the series (in fact, Sharon Gless' role of Cagney was played by Meg Foster in the first season). We've talked about international DVDs here several times, as sometimes you can obtain releases of series from the US which have never even been released, which you can watch if you import them to the US and have a region-free DVD player (note, most DVDs which you buy off the shelf at the store are NOT region-free, at least not straight out of the box). It has been almost a decade since Fox released Malcolm in the Middle - The Complete First Season, and there is little to no hope that we'll ever see future seasons in the United States. Fox stated shortly after the release that it was in fact a successful release, but music rights issues prohibited future releases (and considering that the series is not quite as popular now as it was when it was still airing new episodes, Fox perhaps shot themselves in the foot by missing that golden opportunity). However, in the United Kingdom, the releases are actually about to finally START, as Fabulous Films is set to release a region 2 version of the first season on June 4. That isn't a huge deal for Americans right now, as the region 1 version is still apparently in print and readily available, but this indicates that the studio has some commitment to the series, and there is hope that we may even see some future releases of the series, even if it does come from the UK. We mentioned a few weeks ago that Inception Media Group would be The Real McCoys - Season One in July, but apparently, we really missed out on the details of the deal that Inception Media Group made with distributor SFM and publicly announced nearly a year ago, news that even posters on our own message boards mentioned (but we failed to notice). The deal includes several SFM properties, including The Colgate Comedy Hour, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (which they have already released the first volume of), and of course, The Real McCoys. There is no word on what other series may be included, but SFM has an interesting array of some of the more "rare" series from the '50s and '60s. Finally, we have news of new additions to the online service Hulu. The service has recently added the first season of the classic series My Favorite Martian to the online streaming service, and it is available to watch for free! We haven't seen much in regards to new additions of classic series lately, so this is a very welcome addition to the service.