June 2015: The Month in Home Media

The Month in Home Media is a monthly column highlighting short-lived or rare television series, specials, miniseries or made-for-TV movies released on DVD or Blu-ray during the previous month, as well as recent additions to streaming services like Warner Archive Instant. The releases discussed in this column are encoded for Region 1 use in the United States and Canada. The Month in Home Media is published on the first Thursday of each month.

June 2015 was a bit slower than May, with only a handful of complete series releases: The Bold Ones: The Senator (NBC, 1970-1971); Jericho (CBS, 1966-1967), and Young Hercules (Fox Kids, 1998-1999). There were no new streaming additions this month.

DVD/Blu-ray Releases

The Bold Ones: The Senator – The Complete Series (TV Series, Timeless/Shout! Factory, DVD)
This 3-disc set includes the March 1970 pilot telefilm to The Senator as well as all eight episodes that aired during the 1970-1971 season as part of NBC’s The Bold Ones. There is also a new interview with star Hal Holbrook, an interview segment with Holbrook from a 1971 episode of The Dick Cavett Show, plus an anti-drug PSA featuring Holbrook. A review of the set can be found at DVD Verdict while an in-depth examination of the series can be found at the A.V. Club. According to posts at the Home Theater Forum, all but one of the episodes appear to be edited syndicated versions.

Jericho: The Complete Series (TV Series, Warner Archive, DVD)
No, this is not the post-apocalyptic drama that ran for two seasons on CBS from 2006 to 2008 (that series is already on DVD). This is the World War II spy drama that ran for 16 episodes on CBS during the 1966-1967 season. It starred Don Francks, Marino Mase, and John Leyton. The series is also available for streaming via Warner Archive Instant. Manufacture-on-demand.

That Show with Joan Rivers (TV Episodes, Synergy Entertainment/Topics Entertainment, DVD)
You get 29 episodes of That Show with Joan Rivers in this 4-disc set. The weekday talk show aired in first-run syndication during the 1968-1969 season. A 3-disc was released in February 2012 containing 18 episodes; Hulu currently has 65 episodes available for streaming. I’m not sure whether this new collection contains episodes not available in the earlier set or on Hulu.

Young Hercules: The Complete Series (TV Series, Shout! Factory, DVD)
I usually don’t cover Saturday-morning children’s programming but I remember watching the occasional episode of Young Hercules and it did only air for one season from 1998 to 1999 on Fox Kids. A spin-off of the popular syndicated action-adventure series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Young Hercules starred Ryan Gosling as the title character. This 6-disc set includes all 50 episodes (but not the pilot telefilm that starred a different actor) as well as a featurette about writing for the series.

DVD/Blu-ray News

NBC only aired 15 episodes of The Michael J. Fox Show during the 2013-2014 season, leaving 7 unaired. On July 7th, Sony will release the entire series on DVD through its manufacture-on-demand program so fans will finally have a chance to see the unaired episodes (TVShowsOnDVD.com).

Streaming/Downloads

There were no new additions to Warner Archive Instant or Hulu. Warner Archive Instant has removed The Lieutenant and the four Man from Atlantis made-for-TV movies.

Hit the comments with any news about upcoming DVD/Blu-ray releases or additions to streaming services.


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2 Replies to “June 2015: The Month in Home Media”

  1. It looks like there’s some overlap between the 2012 and 2015 That Show with Joan Rivers sets – 4 or 5 episodes. While the 2012 set has the first 18 That Show episodes in chronological order, this new set is more of a representative sampling from the entire two seasons.

  2. Warner Instant Archive hasn’t added much in about 5 months, the latest films added (6 in total) were made in Hong Kong and are from the 90’s. They didn’t even have a 90’s section when I was a subscriber. My guess is that they take away and don’t replace. Bad streaming service!

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