twentysomething years ago, there was "thirtysomething"...

One of the most eagerly anticipated TV-shows-on-DVD releases hits stores today: the first season of thirtysomething, the ABC series that, beginning in 1987, examined yuppie angst. The tangled web of music rights is what has discouraged the series from being packaged until now... but now, as Diane Werts already has alerted us in her blog, Shout! Factory has made it a reality...

It's quite an artifact of Reagan-era television, as reflective, in its way, as NBC's The Cosby Show. Both shows presented people who were more affluent than the norm. Bill Cosby's program, though, was a sitcom populated mostly by blacks. ABC's thirtysomething, conversely, was a drama that, like Seinfeld and Friends after it, was overwhelmingly white.

The first few episodes of season one of thirtysomething are rather clumsy affairs: Everything is overwrought, overwritten and, for the most part, overacted. But starting with episode four -- a double-date dinner gone bad and re-enacted, Rashomon-like, from different perspectives -- this show began finding its footing, as well as its voice. Some scenes still irritated as others amused, but the percentage kept improving.

I'll have a full review of the DVD release later this week on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and you can read Diane's fine Newsday feature on the show and its cast and creators by clicking HERE.

Most important, perhaps, you can buy the set at a discount -- while still providing a small but much-appreciated kickback to TV WORTH WATCHING -- by clicking HERE.

And, coincidentally, guess what it costs to purchase?

thirtysomething dollars.