Ed is another one of those shows that is being held up because of the music that they used in the show.  Over the years there have been some rumors about work being done on the DVD, but lately those rumors have become increasingly pessimistic toward any sort of release at all.

While everyone seems to want The Wonder Years, that is at least available on Netflix streaming.  The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of Ed, which is one of the best TV shows ever made.  It deserves a release onto home video.

Produced by Worldwide Pants, this show features Tom Cavanagh as Ed Stevens, a contracts lawyer at a high-profile New York City firm. Around the same time he splits with his wife (she slept with a mailman), he makes a single error in punctuation when going over a contract; and because of the resulting financial loss to the firm, he’s fired. Despondent, he heads back to his (small) hometown of Stuckeyville — ‘Anytown’, USA. There he realizes he’s been missed by a lot of friends whom he’s missed; and he sees Carol (Julie Bowen), the girl he’d adored in high school. Swept up in roiling emotions, Ed buys the local bowling alley on a whim, moves to Stuckeyville, and determines to win Carol’s heart. His horizons broaden as he settles once more in Stuckeyville, and the series itself settles into a charming, funny, often serious slice-of-life series focused not solely on Ed but on the lovable ensemble cast of people who live and work with him in Stuckeyville.

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Bandslam released last summer to very little fanfare.  In fact, the marketing of the movie was absolutely horrible.  Every trailer for it was worse than the last, and the film had been retitled a number of times.  For a while it was called Will and then Rock On and then finally Bandslam.  The title Will is the most fitting, however, as it really is about his character, and is told from his perspective.

I highly recommend that you get a copy of it.  Rent it, buy it, and spread the word to friends that you’ve discovered the best sleeper film of 2009.

You can read my review from when I saw it about nine days in advance of the release date: Bandslam Review

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This is the first entry of another column that I’m planning on writing somewhat regularly.  It’s pretty self explanatory, so I’ll just get right to the point.

The Wonder Years

Here’s a show that has many hurdles to overcome to ever be released on DVD and Blu-ray.  It is a fantastic show that deserves a great release with interviews and features galore.  The show would be an instant hit on DVD, and could potentially help to bring back some of the DVD market that has hit a slump with the current recession.  I think that the time to restore all of the footage should be taken to make the release worth owning.

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Turtles Forever – The mere premise of it was mind-blowing.  A feature length adventure featuring a team up of the TMNT team of the 80′s-early 90′s cartoon as well as the 90′s-early 00′s cartoon versions of the heroes.  When I first heard about it, I couldn’t believe what I was reading was actually coming.  Not only that, but I was surprised by just how soon it was going to be released!  It was originally going to receive a theatrical screening, but plans for that fell through.  Instead, it premiered on TV one Saturday morning.

There is no word of a DVD release yet, but the studio is working on it.  It was created as a direct-to-DVD feature film, but since the rights to the TMNT have been sold to Nickelodeon, there are issues that need to be tied up.

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It’s about time they re-released this.  No offense to Rhino, but the first release of this cartoon was just not up to par. It was a good and noble effort, but it was nothing to really write home about. The menu system left much to be desired, and the features seemed equally slapped together. Not to mention that the menu was so poorly designed, that it wasn’t until months later that I discovered some features that I didn’t even know were actually on the set.

This edition is from a different DVD studio called Shout! Factory. And they’ve pulled out all of the stops on this release. Not only that, but one of the features that they list for the set makes it well worth the upgrade if you’ve already got it: Restored to the original broadcast versions with a new stereo soundtrack created from the original audio.

Other features:

• Triplechanger: From Toy To Comic To Screen: The Origins Of The Transformers
• Printable Transport to Oblivion Script
• Rare PSAs
• Archival Hasbro toy commercials
• Limited Edition Autobot magnet inside

The release date for this set is June 16, 2009.