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.
The first month of the new year was a relatively quiet one. Recent obscurity Forever (ABC, 2014-2015) was released on DVD in January, as was the slightly older Legend (UPN, 1995). Also, Warner Archive Instant added the 1972 pilot telefilm to The Delphia Bureau to its streaming collection.
DVD/Blu-ray Releases
Forever (TV Series, Warner Archive, DVD)
Forever ran for 22 episodes on ABC during the 2014-2015 season but wasn’t renewed due to low ratings. Ioan Gruffudd, Judd Hirsch, and Alana de la Garza starred. The 5-disc set contains all 22 episodes as well as deleted scenes. Manufacture-on-demand.
Legend (TV Series, Mill Creek, DVD)
This short-lived western adventure series ran on UPN for just 12 episodes between April and August 1995. Richard Dean Anderson and John de Lancie starred. The 2-disc set includes just the episodes, no bonus features.
DVD/Blu-ray News
Mill Creek has shifted the release date for Dinotopia, which the network is reissuing on DVD. The 3-disc set will be out on March 1st rather than March 15th. The short-lived ABC series was originally released on DVD back in 2002 but that set is long out-of-print (TVShowsOnDVD.com).
Streaming/Downloads
Warner Archive Instant added The Merchant of Death to its streaming collection. The telefilm aired on ABC in March 1972 and served as the pilot for The Delphi Bureau, a segment of the network’s wheel series The Men. The telefilm was released on DVD in March 2014 but to date the other eight episodes remain unavailable.
Saved By The Bell: The College Years, the prime time sequel to NBC’s popular Saturday morning sitcom Saved By The Bell has been added to Hulu’s subscription service where you can stream all 19 episodes.
Hulu also added 38 episodes of The Merv Griffin Show. They’re available for free.
Finally, Hulu added all 78 episodes of MyNetworkTV telenovela Fashion House in December 2015. It was one of the first two shows aired by MyNetWork back in 2006 when the network launched. The other was a telenovela called Desire. Fashion House aired Monday through Friday with Saturday highlight specials. A total of 62 regular episodes were aired and 12 Saturday highlight specials, plus four recap specials. All 78 episodes are available for free. I believe this is the first time any of the MyNetworkTV telenovelas have been available since they originally aired.
Hit the comments with any news about upcoming DVD/Blu-ray releases or additions to streaming services.
