For Better or Werts : TV Worth Watching

DVD UPDATE: How many episodes should a TV season have?

The top TV DVD release out March 16 is Breaking Bad, and it's covered next door in the New and Recommended space. So please look over to the right on the home page. (Or click here.)

While you're there, take a look below that, at our Classics to Consider column, with its consideration of the DVD fate of The Amos 'n Andy Show. Still a political hot potato, this black-cast '50s hit may never see an official release.

Another DVD topic I've been meaning to address is something I've noticed in season sets for vintage series from 40-50 years back. They've got as many as 39 episodes per season, compared to today's 22-ish. (Or on cable, 13-ish.) The reasons behind the incredible shrinking TV season are dissected here by our thoughtful friend Jaime Weinman, whose must-read blog TV Guidance should be among your bookmarks. Jaime works for Canada's smart magazine Macleans, explaining everything from Jay Leno to the Metropolitan Opera's take on Tosca.

And they say tubeheads aren't literate.

More extensive DVD coverage here next week.

1 Comments

Rich said:

I noticed that season 3 of "Mad Men" (AMC) will be out shortly. They usually wait till July for that. What's awesome about "Mad Men" on DVD is that EACH episode gets one or two commentaries (each!) by the writers or actors. I got "Dollhouse" and woefully only a handful.

March 22, 2010 4:44 PM

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Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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