BANACEK!! DROOPY!! ROCKFORD!! TICK!! LSH!! SAMURAI JACK!! M*A*S*H!! MUPPET SHOW!! HercVault!!

"There's an old Polish proverb that says, 'It's harder for the spider to catch the fly, than for the fly to catch the horse.'"
I am – Hercules!!

Banacek was a joke on the Polish joke, about a supersmart Polish-American who became very rich solving thefts no one else could solve. A post-“Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” pre-“A-Team” George Peppard proved exceedingly likeable as the cultured and easygoing immigrant’s son Thomas Banacek, always quick with a quip or one of his dad’s Polish proverbs. I’m also a big fan of the show’s supporting cast, which featured 23-year-old Christine Belford as the superhot rival investigator Banacek often bedded and always outwitted, and Murray Matheson as Felix Mulholland, a rare-book dealer who could be relied upon to know the few things Banacek did not. First-season guest-stars included a 24-year-old Margot Kidder as well as Khan associate Madlyn Rhue, Jessica Walter, Stefanie Powers, Stella Stevens, Broderick Crawford, Paul Gleason, Roger C. Carmel, Kevin McCarthy, Brenda Vaccaro, Pernell Roberts, Gregory Sierra, Penny Marshall, Mike Farrell, William Schallert and Ted “You Rang?” Cassidy. These originally ran from 1972 to 1974 as components of NBC’s Wednesday Mystery Movie wheel, so there are only eight TV-movies in each season. One hears this set (very disappointingly) does NOT contain “Detour To Nowhere,” the show’s pilot. And seemingly no extras. On the upside, $22.49 is a pretty sweet price for eight movies.

“The Rockford Files”, which got its start as a single NBC Mystery Movie, was deservedly nominated for 18 Emmys over the course of its seven seasons, but its fourth season was the only one to garner (no pun intended) the Emmy for outstanding drama series. The season premiere, written and directed by series mastermind Stephen Cannell, introduced James Whitmore Jr. as nerd P.I. Freddie Beamer, who assumes the vacationing Rockford’s identity. Cannell wrote 4.14, “The Attractive Nuisance,” about a guy who falls off Rockford’s roof then sues. He also wrote the two-part 4th-season finale, “The House of Willis Avenue,” which served as the second pilot for the “Ritchie Brockelman PI” series co-created by Cannell and “Hill Street Blues”/”L.A. Law” mastermind Stephen Bochco. (Despite the talent behind camera, the series – starring future Adam Sandler collaborator Dennis Dugan – only lasted six episodes.) “Sopranos” creator David Chase kicks in the scripts for: 4.5, “Dog and Pony Show,” about an ex-mental patient who thinks a top government spy is being held in a hospital against his will; 4.7, “Quickie Nirvana,” about a hippie who receives thousands from her corrupt employer; 4.8, “Irving The Explainer,” directed by James Coburn, about Frenchmen and Germans who come to Los Angeles in pursuit of a priceless painting; and 4.12, “The Queen of Peru,” about tourists who make off with the stolen diamond hidden in Rockford’s barbeque grill. Cannell and Chase co-wrote two episodes: 4.17, “Dwarf in a Helium Hat,” about a gangster who sets off a perilous series of events when he dials Rockford’s phone number by mistake. 4.20, “The Prisoner of Rosemont Hall,” about an investigation of an Arab prince that turns deadly. Isaac Hayes returns in 4.4 for his third and final appearance as Rockford’s irritable ex-cellmate Gandolph Finch. Gerald McRaney turns up as district attorney in 4.10, “Hotel of Fear,” about cowardly con man Angel Martin going into the Witness Protection Program. Larry Hagman’s in 4.11, “Forced Retirement,” about an undersea shenanigans involving a friend of Jim’s fabulous lawyer, Beth Davenport. Larry Linville stars in 4.13, “A Deadly Maze,” about Rockford becoming the unwitting subject of a behavior experiment. Finally, in 4.16, “The Paper Palace,” Rita Moreno won an Emmy for her first of three appearance as the oft-victimized Rita Capkovic. Must-have TV, I say.

Tex Avery's Droopy: Complete Theatrical Collection is not must-have TV because it is not really TV. This set happily contains none of the inferior Filmation made-for-TV stuff from the 1970s. It contains instead all 24 “Droopy Dog” MGM shorts made for the big screen between 1943 and 1958, including the 17 directed by creator Tex Avery himself. The shorts follow the adventures of a lethargic, seemingly timid but improbably mighty basset hound who never exhibits any outward emotion. (He was voiced by Bill Thompson, who played a very similar character, Wallace Wimple, on the phenomenally popular NBC radio proto-sitcom “Fibber McGee and Molly.”) Avery was a colossal, industry-altering force between 1935 and 1941 at Warner’s animation unit, where he played a leading role in evolving Bugs, Daffy and Porky’s personalities. He quit in a huff, balking at studio interference, and landed at MGM, which provided Avery bigger budgets and, more importantly, greater creative control. Droopy is the most famous and perhaps the most purely entertaining of Avery’s signature MGM characters, and helped demonstrate what the animator could do with fewer constraints. It is very very cool that we can own every “Droopy” cartoon Avery ever made (plus a “Droopy” documentary) for less than $20.

M*A*S*H: Goodbye, Farewell and Amen is a weird one, since this final movie-length M*A*S*H episode is available on the (cheaper) complete season-11 set already on sale. The real reason fans are shelling out $20.99 is the set’s second and thirds discs, which contain the many, many extras found on the $174.49 complete-series “Martinis and Medicine” collection issued last year.
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