If you read my July review of the Roku streaming video box that delivers Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand and dozens of other viewing choices, you may want to jump on a new price cut for the amazingly handy little box.

The Amazon deal of the day price I was touting back then has just been made the regular price for Roku's top-of-the-line HD-XR model. At $100 now, that's a $30 savings.

Roku's other two models have dropped in price, too. The plain HD player, which streams at wireless-G speed rather than the speedier wireless-N dual band, goes for $70 (was $100). The SD box for standard-def hookups is now $60 (was $80).

Click here for info/purchase on all three Roku models.

This is an especially great solution for that bedroom, office or kitchen, where you can't use or don't want a big component box. (The Roku box is smaller than the wireless router you will need to use it.)

Be aware that the streaming features once dominated by Roku are now available in the latest HDTVs, Blu-ray players and gaming systems, too. So if you're in the market to update one of those in the near future, you might not need Roku.

But this device is one of the easiest to hook up and use, and Roku is rapidly adding program providers to broaden its video (and audio) streaming selections.

We mostly use ours for Netflix, though -- unlimited streaming for a minimum $9 monthly subscription -- and we suspect that's what others do, too.

Andy Dehnart at RealityBlurred.com also reports this week on a CBS challenge to his posting of this hush-hush material.

A few Survivor contract highlights:

Contestants can't have their own web presence during competition, and preexisting sites must go "under construction." The network can register a web domain in the contestant's name "in perpetuity." Players can never write a book about their experience. (Yes, "never.") All family members have to sign their own agreements.

And you'll be shocked! shocked! to learn Survivor contestants have to allow themselves to be portrayed "with such liberties and modifications as CBS determines necessary," including "fictionalization" and "dramatization" of themselves, perhaps to "humorous or satirical effect" or "an unfavorable light."

Take a look, and see why it's always "reality" TV to me.

Wanna watch Weeds, but don't have Showtime? Maybe you've got TV Guide Network.

They're running a 4-episode preview up against the Emmy Awards (Sunday 8-10 p.m. ET on TVGN), teasing their regular repeat run starting in September.

Meanwhile, Showtime continues its premieres of Weeds Season 6 episodes Mondays at 10 p.m. ET, featuring guest stars Linda Hamilton and Richard Dreyfuss.

And of course, the first 5 seasons of Weeds are out on DVD and Blu-ray.

(The high-def release is definitely worth it -- Weeds shooter Michael Trim just won the Emmy for half-hour series cinematography.)

"Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"

We quote the inimitable Mae West to make a point about the new TVWW:

You never know what you'll find down below.

This is now a more dynamic web site, with elements all over the page changing on a regular basis.

Not just David's daily Best Bets and not just the blog columns, but lots more down the page, too:

VIDEO WORTH WATCHING - embedded clips from TV old and new

TV WORTH BUYING - pithy leads on cool DVD sets, TV books and other tube-related fun

NEW THIS WEEK - Tuesday DVD releases (hover your cursor over each photo for description)

LINKS - including the unending cavalcade of weird, wild and informative web pages rotating into that bottom surprise, RANDOM LINK AMAZEMENT!

Visit daily to discover what's new.

Even the ads will be changing up on a regular basis. Please check them out to support the site -- help us build it bigger, better, smarter, sillier, however you like your TV best.

As for us, we like it every which way.

We think Mae would approve.

Enough with the wacky packages! Building a TV DVD library is starting to require building special shelving to hold all the strangely shaped boxes, heavy Lucite containers, enormous hardcover "book" sleeves, and "collectible" packaging of jumbo 3D plastic Bender heads and Cylon helmets.

Latest in the good-luck-storing-this sweepstakes is this week's release of Lost: The Complete Collection. My Blu-ray set came inside an 11x13x4 trapezoidal pyramid box that weighs well more than my laptop. To get to the discs entails a dozen steps of stripping away outer boxing, paper promo wraps, stiff board tops and inserts, an episode guide booklet, and yet another sleeve that encases the actual season sets.

That cardboard sleeve is at least shelvable on its own -- though it's still non-standard at about 10 inches high (most DVD boxes are 7 inches high). And if those season sets seem awfully slim inside its sleeve's 2 1/2-inch width, it's because they're cardboard foldouts where the discs are slipped inside those hated slots that scrape against them as they're removed and reinserted.

So here's the ongoing argument -- cool packaging for collectors vs. practical, safe access for people who actually, call me crazy, want to watch the discs they just paid $200 for. And it's not like it's impossible to create a snazzy package while still protecting the program content inside and making it accessible. Homicide's original full-series file drawer with metal handle comes to mind, along with Get Smart's credits-echoing fold-out doors. Even Family Guy's toy-stuffed Freakin' Party Pack holds all its poker chips, cards, and ping pong gear in a plastic lunch-style box that still fits on a normal DVD shelf, and the discs themselves are compactly and safely enclosed in the kind of cloth zip-around case you buy to keep CDs in the car. Seinfeld's oversize full-series refrigerator, for that matter, opens to reveal two small square book-page packages you can easily stow on a DVD shelf while keeping the collectibles elsewhere.

At least my new Lost discs came easily out of their slots, unlike say, The Shield, where more than half of my full-series discs not only had to be pried out of the slots but also cleaned of glue globs from a package that seemed to start disintegrating the moment it left the factory.

You'd think pricy, splashy full-series sets would be the place where DVD and Blu-ray distributors would want to showcase their product. But more often than not now, they're flimsy packages that are unwieldy to actually use, at best, and downright damaging to their contents, at worst. The original Battlestar Galactica Blu-ray package remains the poster-boy nightmare here -- designed for a big wow factor at gift-giving time, without really any thought given to storing the enormous cubed box, being able to shelve the seasons separately or, heaven forbid, getting discs in and out of those moving box parts and cheap sleeves to watch them.

A cynical soul might say that's because the studios are "double dipping." They expect diehards will already own the season sets. They want us to buy the "collectible" package, too -- but not to actually use it, which might mean we'd sell our separate seasons on eBay or something, thereby cutting into sales. Better to craft something designed mainly to look swell on the shelf -- if you can find a shelf to fit it -- while encouraging fans to keep those previous sets for actual viewing.

Perhaps the wackiest thing about full-series Lost is that its sole new on-disc content is a bonus disc of truly fine documentaries: Cast and crew emotionally ponder their time together and in Hawaii shooting the show; the prop master walks us through story history by displaying episode elements like Faraday's journal or "the squirrel baby"; and fans around the world are shown embody the global phenomenon. But this bonus disc is nearly impossible to find. It's not in any of the season sets. Or the guide booklet. It's "hidden," and I had to brave "breaking" my package to find it. (Not telling you. Enjoy the cheap thrill.)

How many buyers of this package won't even know the disc is in there? So how crazy is that?

Don't get me started on other "innovative" package ideas -- discs in construction paper sleeves inside the plastic box (at least Wiseguy and other new Stephen J. Cannell releases from Mill Creek boast a wildly low price), or stacked naked on flimsy plastic spindles (Sony complete-series sets like NewsRadio and Soap). Overlapping discs -- like those on Adventures of Superman, Lois & Clark and Smallville (strangely enough) -- also drive me bonkers.

You've probably got your own tales to tell. But we shouldn't have to tell them when we've shelled out hundreds of dollars in tribute to our affection for shows as re-watchable as Lost, The Sopranos, The Shield, Battlestar Galactica or Futurama.

Click for info/purchase options for Lost: The Complete Collection.

It's that most wonderful time of the year. Okay, maybe second most wonderful time, behind Christmas. (You know how I am about Christmas.)

It's time for the Little League World Series, which has become such a viewing favorite at our house that we forego weekend activities during the final two weeks of the annual youth baseball extravaganza from Williamsport, Pa.

You don't have to be sports fans like us to enjoy all the hoopla -- like the player introductions, where gaggles of 12-year-old boys wearing braces (and standing a foot taller or smaller than their teammates) shyly squeak or lisp their names and who their favorite players are. Or the on-screen graphics, listing each guy's favorite movie star, song, food or personal quirk. Or the cutaways to the stands, showing proud moms and dads, not to mention bare-chested tweens covered in body paint trying to prove they can be just as dumb-ass about sports as the grown-ups.

And let's not overlook the lineups' fun name game, counting duplicates to recall the trendy monikers of 1997. (Don't bother, I know from the prelims: Tyler, Jacob/Jake and Dylan/Dillon.)

Our fondness for the Little League World Series dates to the day we brought home our first big-screen high-def TV set five or six years ago, hooked it to the cable box (at a time there were only a handful of HD stations), and went channel-surfing for HD -- landing on ESPN/ABC's high-def LLWS coverage live from Williamsport.

We could see every green blade of grass! Every face in the stands! Every speck of dirt on the uniforms! Every pimple! Clearly! Wow!

So we have an emotional attachment to the Little League World Series in more ways than one. Forgive us. Join us. You won't be sorry.

Games for the final 8 American and 8 international teams start round-robin fashion in double-elimination preliminaries Friday afternoon (Aug. 20) on ESPN, and run all week, including some telecasts on ABC.

(Complete TV schedule here.)

The finals are next weekend -- U.S. and international championship games on ABC next Saturday (Aug. 28), with the third-place and world championship games on ABC next Sunday (Aug. 29).

ESPN3.com streams the games. And both stadiums in Williamsport have webcams.

Here are the event sites from ESPN and Little League.

Vintage (and not-so-vintage) shows are showing up in the strangest places. TV Guide Network, Reelz, Centric, Gospel Music Channel and other unlikely archives are airing encores of faves from the '80s to last year. Since there's nothing we love better than digging through the listings rubble, here's the result of our latest exercise in TV archaeology . . .

Curb Your Enthusiasm and Ugly Betty are the biggies at TV Guide Network, which knows its days of scrolling listings must end in favor of actual programming.Betty encores three times weekdays (noon, 5 and 6 p.m. ET), with weekend afternoon marathons. Curb is even cooler. Because the episodes run long for commercial TV -- HBO's original airings didn't have to leave room for ads -- TVGN has gone the extra mile to air each episode in an hour slot, Monday-Thursday at 10 p.m. ET. They've produced new interviews and cast conversation delving into Larry David's world of manic misanthropy.

Reelz is now supplementing its feature-film news/clips/commentary with two 2000s bellwethers -- NewsRadio (7 and 7:30 p.m. ET daily) and Ally McBeal (3 and 4 p.m. ET weekdays).

Centric rolls out the '80s with the fashion-forward cops of Miami Vice (most days at 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. ET) and the live-action cartoon The A Team (a crazy quilt of times, but check daily listings at 4 a.m., 7 a.m., 9 p.m. and midnight ET).

GMC is less gospel music these days than vintage family-friendly shows like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (weekdays at 4, 5, 6 and 7 p.m. ET), Highway to Heaven (weekdays at noon and 1 p.m. ET, changing the week of Aug. 30 to 9 and 10 a.m. ET and 1 and 2 p.m. ET), Sue Thomas, F.B.Eye (weekdays at 3 and 8 p.m. ET, changing Aug. 30 to 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET), and Early Edition (weekdays at 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET).

For that matter, did you know IFC is spotlighting Judd Apatow's 1999 fave Freaks and Geeks (Monday and Friday at 11 p.m. ET, Sunday 10 p.m. ET, with a Sunday marathon Aug. 22 noon-4:30 p.m. ET)? [Photo at top.]

In other words, check out those interactive listings from your cable/satellite/phone TV provider. You never know anymore where you'll find some TV worth watching.

In conjunction with Tuesday's release of Season 4, there's a great deal on Seasons 1-3 at Amazon.com.

Their deal of the day for Aug. 17 brings you all three seasons on DVD for $50 (Amazon usual cost over $75) and on Blu-ray Disc for just $70 (usually over $110).

Dexter is a show that looks especially superb on high-def BD, with all those gorgeous Miami locations and stylized visuals.

Buy Tuesday for the deepest discount. Click here.

Jason Clarke plays the northeast politico, with Jason Isaacs as his criminal brother, each of whom is working in his own way to build power in the Irish Catholic precincts of Providence, R.I.

Filmed evocatively on location, Brotherhood runs through drugs, affairs, crime capers, political corruption and, always, family relationships with unflinchingly adult honesty. (Sex and violence not for the squeamish.)

Grab Brotherhood here at Monday's super-discount.

This is why you need to read For Better or Werts. Sure, Bianculli will tell you about some critically acclaimed drama or some innovative comedy or some blockbuster movie. But look at the photo above. You need me for this.

Tonight's Shaq vs. (Aug. 10 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC) has the hulking basketballer trying magic with Penn and Teller. And showgirls. In Vegas.

Now this is summer entertainment.

Of course, I'll watch the bombastic Penn and silent Teller in anything, be it a magic show, a political debate or their delightfully spleen-venting Showtime debunk-fest -- which is, by the way, still running original episodes. This Thursday is actually the eighth-season finale (Aug. 12 at 10 p.m. ET on Showtime), in which the guys take down the current "pseudo-science and public gullibility" controversy over vaccinations. That comes on the heels of their fact-based common-sense docucomedy riffs on fast food, teen sex, self-esteem and other social lightning rods.

Previous Penn & Teller episodes are still watchable via digital cable's Showtime on Demand. You can also grab previous season DVD sets, or previous single episodes via Amazon On Demand or iTunes.

Fall season pilot episodes are always a dicey thing for critics to write about, because you never know what the networks will change before the show finally hits air. One year, an ABC sitcom actually changed a male character in spring's original pilot to a female character in the reshot fall episode that eventually introduced the series -- without alerting critics to the change. Oops.

(In an ideal world, critics would watch every single version of the pilot the network provided. But an ideal world would have 38 hours in the day to match the number of this fall's new shows.)

So now that critics are writing about the 2010 Hawaii Five-0 pilot's awful "update" of the show's iconic theme music, CBS has re-recorded the pulse-pounding tune to sound more akin to that of Jack Lord's original 1968 series.

The reboot's reboot sounds much better, restoring the brawny horns-and-percussion attitude of composer Morton Stevens' Top 10 hit from 1968, replacing a tinny electronic version that was probably supposed to feel more current and just felt more wimpy.

Let's see what they do with the visuals, however. Those were just as bad in the first pilot provided to critics after the May upfronts, layering pseudo-computer crosshairs over the images and glomming up the screen with multiple frames.

The 1968 Hawaii Five-0 credits sequence remains a thrilling piece of montage filmmaking, with images of Hawaii flashing and whizzing by in a dynamic promise of the scenery/action to follow in the location-shot show itself. It actually moves like a proto-music video, mirroring the music and maintaining interest every single second -- no, every single frame.

This sequence was "visualized" (that's the closing credit) by Reza Badiyi, who would become a busy director working on everything from Mission: Impossible to The Rockford Files to Police Squad! to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Sliders.

He's 80 now, but heck, bring him out of retirement and give him another shot. Anybody who could produce a minute of such brilliance that it's still thrilling 40 years (and 100s of viewings) later deserves the nod.

Now, the compare-and-contrast.

Here's the 2010 H50's early pilot credits sequence:

Here's the re-recording session for the more robust audio:

And here is Badiyi's 1968 masterpiece:

There are all kinds of TV worth watching, right? Eye-opening, mind-bending brilliance, insight and information. Sure. But also eye-opening, mind-bending, time-killing, camp-courting awfulness.

So long as you realize which kind you're getting yourself into.

With that caution in mind, be aware that Baywatch is back (Monday-Thursday nights at 2:30 a.m. ET on Comedy Central, with additional eps weekdays at 9 a.m. Aug. 9-13).

Yes! David Hasselhoff, Pamela Anderson, tight red swimsuits, slo-mo beach runs, and the crime-fighting craziness that made a brain-dead beach saga the known world's most-watched television program.

Only in America!

Some would argue that Baywatch is actually after all these years airing on exactly the right channel, one that wallows in laffs. And indeed, the show's late-night reappearance is a tongue-in-cheek promotion for Comedy Central's upcoming new Roast of David Hasselhoff (Sunday, Aug. 15 at 10 p.m. ET).

But why quibble? There it is. There they are. Enjoy.

And if you're really feeling frisky, get a gander, too, of Son of the Beach, FX's gleefully taste-free lampoon starring Tim Stack as a pastier lifeguard leader, doing his gosh-darnedest to make life safe for the citizens of Malibu Adjacent. Episodes of this unsung hoot only last a half-hour, and they're just as stuffed with boobs, pecs and gut-busting action.

Only here, that last attribute is intentional.

Below find a cool Son of the Beach featurette (I had actually forgotten its executive producers included Howard Stern). This show isn't on TV right now, but DVDs are for sale here.

It's here -- Turner Classic Movies' big annual month that daily devotes 24 hours to a single star. Wish I could say that August's Summer Under the Stars is one of my favorite cinephile events, but the truth is, I dread it.

The movie mix of TCM is what I love -- Sunday night silents, Friday night "underground" flicks, blockbusters followed by foreign films followed by early talkies followed by late-late-night R-rated frankness. But that's all out the window each August, when you just have to hope that some of your Hollywood faves are among the anointed 31, so that the month isn't a total loss.

I'm a Cagney nut, but Jim doesn't get a day this time. Neither does Cary Grant. Nor Carole Lombard or Barbara Stanwyck. While Greta Garbo doesn't get the spotlight, I'm happy to see her frequent costar John Gilbert (on Aug. 24), the under-appreciated silent star turned talkie tragedy, which at least brings a few silent flicks into the mix (along with a sound classic like 1933's Garbo-Gilbert Queen Christina, pictured at top). And Warren Beatty (on Aug. 9) interestingly bridges the studio system into '60s openness and on into his own '80s "auteur" years.

There's also the occasional cult pick, like Woody Strode (Aug. 5, seen above at right in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West Thursday at 10 p.m. ET) or early '30s shooting star Thelma Todd (Aug. 30). But there's no Gene Kelly, no Fred Astaire, not even an Esther Williams or Donald O'Connor.

Too many days are wall-to-wall taken up by people who just don't interest me that much. Certainly not 24-hours-much. Ethel Barrymore (Aug. 4)? Robert Stack (Aug. 16)?

So I make myself try to spot interesting films lined up under those (to me) uninteresting names. Barrymore is the reason for Wednesday's '50s Humphrey Bogart newspaper tale Deadline U.S.A. (Aug. 4 at 4 p.m. ET). And Stack's late-career lampoon in 1980's Airplane! (late Aug. 16 at 1:15 a.m. ET) sort of makes up for TCM not scheduling his immortal '40s comedy with Lombard and Jack Benny, To Be or Not to Be.

Ah, well, a good month to catch up with DVD and Netflix . . .

Though I'm a huge sports fan, there are still athletes and events I don't know anything about -- until I see films about them in ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series.

The Birth of Big Air just premiered in conjunction with the current X Games, and now I'm fascinated by high-flying BMX innovator Mat Hoffman, who reached astonishing heights in his Oklahoma backyard, but at astonishing cost.

Intimate gems like this are ESPN's gift to us for its 30th anniversary, distinctive documentaries from smart directors with a passion for subjects both small and epic, and this weekend offers a great chance to catch up. A five-hour 30 for 30 marathon Saturday on ESPN Classic showcases the range and idiosyncrasy of these films, which often tell us as much about other aspects of life as they do about the games people play.

(The Birth of Big Air isn't part of the marathon, but has its own repeat airings Friday night at 3 a.m. ET and Saturday at noon ET on ESPN2, plus Saturday at 1 p.m. ET and Sunday at 8 a.m. on ESPN U.)

Here's Saturday's 30 for 30 marathon, July 31 on ESPN Classic (all times ET):

12 noon -- Run Ricky Run, a preconception-challenging portrait of NFL running back, pothead and independent thinker Ricky Williams.
1 p.m. -- Guru of Go, recalling how coach Paul Westhead perfected a new run-and-gun offensive system with ill-fated college star Hank Gathers.
2 p.m. -- June 17th, 1994, a look back at a confluence of sports and society the night of O.J. Simpson's infamous "slow speed chase."
3 p.m. -- Straight Outta L.A., where director Ice Cube examines the intersection of the NFL Raiders' 1980s move to Los Angeles and the burgeoning of hip hop culture.
4 p.m. -- Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, tracing how the Indiana Pacers star turned into NYC's greatest sports villain.

It's even better when the forgotten show arrives on disc with extras galore, to place it in context of time, tone and personnel as sharply as The Mothers-in-Law DVD does. Never mind forgetting the show itself -- who remembers that its long-lost laughs were produced by sitcom innovator Desi Arnaz and written by his I Love Lucy scripting mainstays Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis?

This history is brought out in the gleeful new 8-disc DVD set from the MPI folks, who've also been releasing such other Arnaz properties as Here's Lucy and Lucy & Desi: A Home Movie. These two NBC seasons totaling 56 color episodes (1967-69) have all the hallmarks of Lucy-style comedy -- simple yet effective setups, old-pro execution, and nicely miked audience laughter not much more raucous than that emanating from your own couch. There's plenty of physical comedy, and also social humor of the "crazy Cuban" kind, this time assigned to Ballard's uber-Italian "loudmouth" as she bumps heads with Arden's prim next-door WASP.

Their kids are negligible (one-time Gidget and beach-flick girl Deborah Walley, with who's-he hubby Jerry Fogel). But there's fun from husbands Roger C. Carmel -- yes, Star Trek's Harry Mudd -- and Herbert Rudley (married to Ballard and Arden, respectively). The extras tell us that after a promised raise was not forthcoming, Carmel quit, to be replaced during the show's final season by the less-than-ideal Richard Deacon (The Dick Van Dyke Show).

Ballard explains it all, in new featurettes and interviews, and she's boisterously sublime, as fans who's seen her since in anything from The Ritz to Due South can attest. But that's only the start of the bonus features. MPI adds the original unaired Mothers-in-Law pilot (with a different daughter), plus vintage behind-the-scenes footage (with commentary from Ballard, writer Davis and production exec Dann Cahn), cast commercials, promo spots, Ballard and Arden performances from vintage variety shows, and coolest of all, two unsold pilots produced by Arnaz around the same time.

The Carol Channing Show (1966) is a real sitcom curio, with the stage star mugging like mad as a hick invading New York to make it big in showbiz. It's from the same writing/production team as Mothers-in-Law (and even features Deacon), which is odd, considering how slowly and awkwardly it moves. But mostly its broad-playing star just isn't comfortable in this close-up medium.

The other show, Land's End (1968), was an hour adventure pilot shot in Baja California, with star Rory Calhoun rescuing a shipwreck survivor played by Martin Milner. But it's presented on disc in a truncated half-hour format once aired by NBC to burn off the pilot footage. Let's just say the hour adventure genre doesn't seem to have been Arnaz' forte. (If you can't spot the villain in about 10 seconds, you've never watched television before.) Nice scenery, though. And this oddity even includes its original commercials (Secret deodorant, Cameo soap and Prell shampoo "in the unbreakable tube!").

In other words, The Mothers-in-Law DVD set is a fine archive of a worthy show, its makers and its time -- an unsung gem that's well worth picking up at a bargain discount. While MPI's list price is $40, Amazon has it for $19 (as of July 28).

What other vintage shows are out there, just waiting to be rediscovered?

Also out this week:

Sgt. Bilko - The Phil Silvers Show: First Season -- Silvers' classic Army base scheming has previously hit DVD in best-of format, but let's hope this complete season launches a continuing season-set release pattern. Buyers of the previous best-of set will recognize commentaries, the unaired pilot (featuring Jack Warden), cast cigarette ads, and a color Lucy Show episode with Silvers among the extras.

Other new arrivals:

Stephen Fry in America -- On both DVD and Blu-ray, Hugh Laurie's old comedy partner (A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves & Wooster) tours the 50 states in London's traditional black taxi. He doesn't necessarily hit the highlights in these six hour shows, instead going lobstering in Maine, learning about witches in Salem, watching Oscars cast in Chicago, meeting Hmong in Minnesota, and encountering other beneath-the-surface Americana.

Being Human: Season 1 -- They're just your average modern-day British twentysomething roommates, except they're a hunky-guy vampire, a shy-guy werewolf, and a cute girl ghost (all of whom wish they weren't). This set includes the first 6 episodes, but not the earlier pilot movie with some different actors, so this BBC America show hits the ground running a bit too fast. On both DVD and BD. (Being Human is currently being "reimagined" for Syfy with a Boston setting featuring Sam Witwer, Meaghan Rath, Sam Huntington and Mark Pellegrino.)