You *were* being sarcastic, were'nt you? If not then I guess I may be in the minority. I *hate* "clip shows" as they generally show a singular lack of creativity and laziness on the part of the writing staff and/or an edict from the Producer to cut costs on a few episodes. I'd rather see a "bottle show", even if done poorly, than a "clip show". I disliked seeing one of these air even in the days of limited reruns of a show.

That's a very interesting page. I like the segments indicating audience reaction on some, especially Seinfeld. I was among those who were incensed at the season finale because it was just another lame "clip show". Clever, yes, but certainly not worthy of a series finale. It's been so long since I've seen it that I'd forgotten Leave it to Beaver ended with a clip show. It was interesting to read in that page that LITB was perhaps responsible for this becoming somewhat popular (if not with viewers then with production staff).

BTW, Best Buy has an assortment of TV shows for $9.99 apiece right now. I don't recall what all was in there, but I know they had Cheers Season One and two different seasons of Night Court (2 and 3, maybe?). Pretty sure Sanford & Son was another included series.

I'm the worst deal reporter on this forum.

Yeah, that was my sarcastic voice! I am not a fan either. I ended up watching the M*A*S*H one as it was easiest to find in my collection and I had forgotten how bad it was. I understand how they came about, but it is so not necessary in today's day and age where the people who care either buy the season on DVD or go online to catch up!

These are also on sale at Amazon (PM?):

Cheers - S1 $9.99
Night Court - S2, S3 $9.99 each
Night Court - S1 - $7.49

Now if Warner would just release the further seasons of Night Court on pressed media I'd give them a closer look. As it is these 3 seasons have been priced this low or lower for the past few months making it appear they are attempting to clear old inventory and push them to the MOD program as they've done with many, many films.

Don't know about in the store (the site doesn't offer the store pickup option for these but I've frequently found such sets in the store at the same price anyway) but BB online also has seasons 1-3 of Remington Steele for $9.99 each. Amazon has S2 for that price (S1 & S3 are higher).

I'm trying to figure out a good Bones episode to use for the "Will they or won't they?" check mark. I've gone through the episode listings, but they tend to focus on the case the team is working on rather than the sub-plot of Booth/Bones. Can anyone think of a good episode for this? Or could I just use a random since this was pretty much an ongoing thing for 4 seasons?

I gotta give props to Mill Creek. After I tweeted my frustration that my Sherlock Holmes DVD set had become defective, they instructed me to contact their customer service rep. Even though I noted that they had already replaced one Sherlock Holmes set for me, they sent another set that arrived today. This collection includes all 39 episodes of the 1954-55 TV series, plus eight assorted Sherlock Holmes movies! Now, I just have to hope it all plays properly...

Congratulations. Props to Mill Creek for good customer service.

Awesome! Glad to know that there still are good companies out there!

Well, with my "Lone Ranger" episodes from 1949, I've now seen shows from every decade from the 1940s to the 2010s:

1940s: The Lone Ranger
1950s: Dragnet
1960s: Speed Racer (Japan)
1970s: Police Story
1980s: Shadow Warriors (Japan)
1990s: The Kung Fu Master (Hong Kong)
2000s: Firefly
2010s: Power Rangers Super Samurai

And something from three countries: U.S., Japan, Hong Kong.

I watched the Lone Ranger origin episode and it resonated with me in the same way that any version I see of the Superman origin story resonates with me. These things are deeply embedded in my cultural DNA.

I'm missing something from the 30s, 40s and 50s, but have enough to pass the checklist. If I come across something, I'll watch it, but I'm getting a bit burnt out from all the TV. Movies are calling my name again! I only have one more check list item and I'm done with that. I'll have watched all the genres except Paranormal, Satire and Horror, though I could pop an episode of Buffy in and that'd cover 2 of the 3.

My countries were US, Canada and UK.

I have to say, I don't think I've ever watched a full episode of the Lone Ranger. Never really had a chance to. It wasn't shown on TV, so while I know the basics, I don't know anything really about it.

Star Trek is my family's favorite. My dad watched the TOS with my brother was a toddler at the time when it aired originally and when TNG came on, we'd watch it as a family. DS9, too, somewhat, and even Voyager. The only one we didn't watch as a family was Enterprise. Dad raised us right, as Trekkies!

Got some movies planned for the overlap with the Academy Award Challenge, as I own Star trek First Contact, and I just ordered 1-6, so I'll be able to watch, 1, 4 and 6 as well for the challenge. I also own the 2009 reboot, but that wouldn't really count for the TV Challenge, would it?

Yeah, it's fine. If we want to get nitpicky, Nimoy is in it as Spock which establishes a direct connection with the original series. Otherwise, though, the reboot is no different ultimately than any other alternate universe episode of the franchise, except they don't get back to the original timeline by its conclusion.

what would qualify?

titles that come to mind would be

Last Emperor (expanded tv cut)
Dune (expanded tv cut)
Fanny and Alexander (expanded tv cut)

others .. ??

Well, I officially finished the checklist tonight. I might add a couple to the optional ones by the end of the challenge, but I think I'm going to be slowing down TV wise. I have a few movies I want to watch that wouldn't apply and may just switch to them.

Did discover one of my Bones DVDs might be developing DVD rot. It's just on the edge and the episode I watched stuttered during the end credits only, so it might not be terminal, but not so happy about that! And, it's not even one of my "old" DVDs, but a relatively new one. I know I watched it when I first bought it (season 2, so a couple years now) and there were no problems-I would have returned it for a new one if there were. Probably just a random badly made disc.

I wondered this evening whether The Fugitive would count...

I've been looking around, and everything I've read says that there is no TV that survives from the 30s. Indeed, allegedly, the earliest surviving full US show is from 1948, and the UK doesn't have much from terribly earlier. So it falls to technicalities, tangents and asides, doesn't it?

Any suggestions?

I tried to get my kids hooked on Trek but neither was interested. The only one I don't care for is TNG.

The Lone Ranger started in the 40s.

The 50s are much easier:
Peter Gunn
Adventures of Superman
I Love Lucy
My Little Margie
Leave it to Beaver
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Adventures of Robin Hood
Dennis the Menace
Perry Mason
The Twilight Zone
Zorro
Maverick

to name a few off the top of my head... Here's a link to a Wikipedia listing for 50s TV shows . And one for 40s shows just in case.

I've got a question on completing the checklist. Does the movie I Spy qualify for the TV Movie item, or does that have to be a movie that originated on TV?

No to both, because they're not part of the TV series continuity. Same with the Mission: Impossible movies, The Untouchables, 21 Jump Street, The Dukes of Hazzard, Scooby-Doo, Starsky & Hutch, etc.

The movie doesn't have to have been produced for TV broadcast to count; it can be a movie that was made for theaters. It just has to directly connect with the TV show continuity and not just use the title/brand familiarity.

Just finished Buffy season 2! I can see why people say that the series really picked up this season. Buffy and B5 have been two shows that I've always wanted to watch, but I've stalled out twice on season 1 of B5. Buffy wasn't great in the first season either, but at least it was still fluffy and entertaining, and not a full season. B5 is just a slog, but I'll get through it someday and be rewarded by the good stuff afterward.

I've never watched The Walking Dead live (no pun intended) even though I have AMC. I watched the first two seasons on optical media timed to the horror or other challenges, though I had to finish season 2 for "no credit." This time I used my Amazon Black Friday credits to buy the half-season 3 and now will be able to watch the season 3 return.

I finished The Starlost a couple of days ago. It's a really interesting show/concept but the very low buget pretty much kills it by making it a easy camp target. It benefited from a couple of high profile guest appearances and had several well know bit players as guests. Other than that almost everything needed work with scripts, sets, and visual effects needing the most. Most of the scripts truly sounded like they were a first draft with *zero* cleaning up work done. Set pieces were recycled by simply putting up new wall hangings. A robot in one of the last episodes was truly epic in its poor design and construction. I've read that due to a writers strike the first few episodes were done without a "bible" for design and direction which lead to Ellison removing his name from and ultimately leaving the production. Because of this one was never created. It frequently shows. The use of video tape for production also hurt the series and contributes to its "cheap" look and feel. Overall it feels and plays much like that era's "made for PBS" or "local TV" type SF production aimed at kids. Still it's interesting and worth a watch for hard core SF fans.

Watched three featurettes on the second disc of Justified Season One and... I'm a bit unhappy with how Sony organised this: at least one is on the wrong disc.

The second - "The Story of Justified" - and third - a very brief introduction to the characters: "Justified: Meet the Characters" - should really have been put on as introductory features on the first disc, but I won't quibble about their being on the second.

However, the first - "What Would Elmore Do?" - while a very interesting interesting piece (it's always nice to hear show creators praise and cede points to the writer of the original short story) contains spoilers for the remainder of the season. Including the finale. So it should have been on the third disc and nowhere else.

I'm quite unhappy to have watched them while the disc was in, and now know (however roughly) what's coming in the last few episodes.

That's a bummer. I was watching the end of Buffy season 2 this morning and almost watched the Whedon interview for Becoming Part 1 before watching Part 2. I decided to be safe and watched it after I watched Part 2. It would have been OK as it turned out, but I'm glad I didn't risk it.

In general, I try to avoid bonus content till I've finished a season, but I have watched some of these interviews as I go because, as you say, it is inconvenient to go back to previous discs.

I watched three classic sci-fi TV episodes. All involve time travel and all were written by Harlan Ellison:

Star Trek: “The City at the Edge of Forever”
The Outer Limits: “Soldier”
The Outer Limits: “Demon with a Glass Hand”

The last two episodes are believed by Ellison to have been used by James Cameron as the basis for THE TERMINATOR (1984) and he threatened a lawsuit for plagiarism, with a settlement made out of court and an onscreen acknowledgement added on the film. Watching these two episodes now, it would seem like Cameron could indeed have gotten key ideas for his film from both of them.

Ellison used to write a TV review column for the L.A. Free Press and he compiled the columns into two book collections, “The Glass Teat” and “The Other Glass Teat,” two of the best books I’ve ever read about American television. I’ve bought both books twice in my life and each time lent them out and didn’t get them back. Now they’re out of print. The only copy of “Glass Teat” on Amazon is for $98.45. Used copies of the sequel can be had for considerably less.

^^^ Yes, it is often a bad idea to watch bonus features before you're entirely done with the season. It does suck when they put them on multiple discs; they should never be earlier than the final episode disc imo.