It was originally supposed to come out last week but for some reason was delayed. Barring further delays, today you can pick up The Donna Reed Show: The Complete Second Season, containing all 38 episodes from the 1959-1960 season. The show ran for a total of eight seasons on ABC and at the rate of one season a year you’ll be able to complete your collection of The Donna Reed Show by 2016. Unless, of course, multiple seasons are released in one year. Anything’s possible.
Also out today is The Judy Garland Show, Volume One. The variety show, which ran from 1963 to 1964 on CBS, produced a total of 26 episodes. Between 1999 and 2003 or so, Pioneer Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in a smattering of volumes and in two large boxed sets. All of these are now out of print.
The DVD out today from Infinity Resources contains the first two episodes of The Judy Garland Show; an additional twelve volumes will cover the remaining 24 episodes. The episodes have been remastered and included as extras are some outtakes. I believe Pioneer remastered their releases as well so it might be interesting to see a comparison. The only footage from the show that I’ve seen came from appeared to be a grainy, multi-generation VHS dub several years ago. Anything would be an improvement from that.
Finally, Alpha Video is releasing three new public domain titles today, including The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, Vol. 4 and Golden Age of Television, Vol. 8: Kelly/The Machine Calls It Murder, which contains episodes of Kraft Television Theatre and Sunday Mystery Hour.
