FUTURAMA!! BATMAN!! POPEYE!! REAPER!! ROCKFORD!! HOME MOVIES!! WEST!! COLUMBO!! HercVault!!

I am – Hercules!!

Futurama Movie III: Bender's Game, out today, marks a terrific return to form for the franchise. Read Herc’s Monday review here! (It’s also available in increasingly popular Blu-ray.)

The third volume of the complete compilation of “Popeye” theatrical shorts, Popeye 1941-1943 wraps up the series’ Fleischer era and segues into the Famous Studios years. From Amazon.com:

Disc 1 Problem Pappy (1941) w/ Poopdeck Pappy Quiet! Pleeze (1941) w/ Poopdeck Pappy Olive's Sweepstakes Ticket (1941) w/ Olive, Swee'pea, Bluto & Poopdeck Pappy (1941) Flies Ain't Human (1941) Popeye Meets Rip Van Winkle (1941) w/ Rip Van Winkle & Chico Marx. Olive's Boithday Presink (1941) w/ Olive Oyl Child Psykolojiky (1941)w/ Swee'pea & Poopdeck Pappy. Pest Pilot (1941) w/ Poopdeck Pappy I'll Never Crow Again (1941) w/ Olive Oyl The Mighty Navy (1941) - First true wartime themed Popeye. Nix on Hypnotricks (1941) w/ Olive Oyl & Professor I. Stare. Kickin' the Conga 'Round (1942) w/ Olive Oyl & Bluto. Blunder Below (1942) - Wartime themed. Fleets Of Stren'th (1942) - Wartime themed. Pip-eye, Pup-eye, Poop-eye and Peep-eye (1942) w/ Nephews Olive Oyl And Water Don't Mix (1942) w/ Olive Oyl & Bluto. Disc 2 Many Tanks (Fleischer) (1942) Wartime themed Baby Wants a Bottleship (Flesicher)(1942) w/ Olive & Swee'pea - wartime themed. You're a Sap, Mr. Jap (Dan Gordon)(1942) - first Famous Studio cartoon. Wartime themed, BANNED FROM TELEVISION. Alona on the Sarong Seas (Isadore Sparber)(1942) w/ Olive as Princess Alona & Bluto. A Hull of a Mess (Sparber)(1942) - Wartime themed Scrap The Japs (Seymour Kneitel)(1942)- Wartime themed, BANNED FROM TELEVISION. Me Musical Nephews (Kneitel)(1942) w/ nephews Spinach Fer Britain (Sparber)(1943) - Wartime themed Seein' Red, White 'N' Blue (1943) - Wartime themed, BANNED FROM TELEVISION Too Weak to Work (Sparber)(1943) w/ Bluto A Jolly Good Furlough (Gordon)(1943) w/Olive, Bluto, Twinkletoes & Nephews. - Wartime Themed. Ration Fer The Duration (Kneitel)(1943) w/ Nephews. - Wartime themed. The Hungry Goat (Gordon)(1943) - Wartime themed Happy Birthdaze (Gordon)(1943) w/ Olive Oyl & Shorty. Wood-Peckin' (Sparber)(1943) Cartoons Ain't Human (Kneitel)(1943) w/ Olive Oyl & Nephews. Popeye makes an animated movie using stick figures.

Paramount kept cranking out the theatrical shorts without the Fleischers until August 1957. The next disc could potentially hold the 36 shorts released between 1944 and 1948. At this two-disc-per-volume pace we should get a total of six or seven volumes before the theatrical shorts are exhausted. And even then, there are the 200 original King Features Popeye cartoons aired on TV in 1961 and 1962.

Unless I did the math wrong, Home Movies: The Complete Series saves us no money over the individual season sets. So the two new extras – a canvas book bag and a clapper – better be worth the extra $4 or so they’re charging. Whether you buy the seasons separately or in the new megaset, know that the series itself – semi-improvised in the fashion of “Dr. Katz” and “The Life and Adventures of Tim” – is brilliant and well worth the money.

“Reaper” began life with a terrific pilot, the best of The CW’s sophomore year, but the balance of the show’s first season never recaptured the big funny found in that first episode. The rest remained watchable – thanks largely to a horny succubus, a couple of guys from The State playing gay rogue demons, and “Twin Peaks” standout Ray Wise’s winning, avuncular portrayal of Satan -- but falls short of the classic status for which I originally believed it destined. To anticipate the question, “Reaper” begins its second season on the CW early next year.

Fraggle Rock: The Complete Series is controversial because it’s currently the only way fans can get hold of the series’ fourth and final season. Which bites if you’ve already bought seasons one through three separately.