Welcome to the Fifteenth annual TV on DVD* Challenge, couch potatoes! Why the asterisk? Because we allow TV content from any format--Blu-ray, digital, streaming, VHS, even over-the-air broadcast. Chances are good that some time since Black Friday, you've either received or treated yourself to a single season or maybe complete series box set that you're itchin' to get into, so here's your chance to rationalize doing that. We only have a few guidelines. Here they are:
The Guidelines

1. This challenge begins at dusk on New Year's Eve 2024 (so you can count TV countdown specials) and concludes at dawn 1 February 2025.
   
2. Eligible content is anything originally produced for television broadcast, including television series, mini-series, made-for-TV movies and specials (including, but not limited to, stand-up specials and music performances). Also eligible are movies that are directly part of the continuity of eligible content. For instance, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm counts, as it's part of the Batman: The Animated Series continuity, but Batman Begins does not, as it part of a different continuity
   
3. This is not a challenge pitting your final view count against anyone else's. You're fighting your own schedule and capacity for gorging on TV content. You are therefore welcome to count your viewing totals however you wish, as it will only matter to you. Count by episodes, count by run time, count by broadcast time (i.e., accounting for commercial breaks), whatever system appeals to you.

List Thread

I completely spaced out about this, thanks for making the topics this year. I haven't really thought about goals yet for this, although one i would have had i've already done by binging S6 of Virgin River. May watch Wagon Train and some other westerns. I did pick up an Apple tv+ free few month trial that lasts till end of February so i may finish watching Silo and check out some others on there.

I’ve been rewatching the 2010-12 series Body of Proof with Dana Delany as a Philadelphia medical examiner. One of the plot lines was a viral outbreak caused by a terrorist bio weapon. Good times.

Saw that Cartoon Network is finally releasing "Regular Show: the Complete Series", on dvd of course. Better dvd than not at all, though. It includes seasons 1-8 and the movie. Won't be available until next month so no love for the current Challenge.

Last month, I found several seasons of Dallas on clearance for $3 apiece at Half Price Books. I watched The Complete First & Second Seasons last week. I grew up watching it. It did a better job explaining my parents' divorce than either of them ever bothered to do. I remember gorging on reruns on TNN in '96, but haven't seen it since. What stood out most is that pretty much everyone is awful in various ways and it's a wonder the show found an audience at all. Even the best person in the lot, Miss Ellie, becomes suspect when you think about everything going on around her that she lets go unchallenged. Ray Krebbs is a good guy... provided you overlook his statutory rape relationship with underage Lucy. Larry Hagman was perfect as J.R. from the start, though. Truly one of the greatest TV actor/role pairing of all time.

The beginning of the show also focused a lot more on Pamela than I remembered. She's really our p.o.v. character, the one who calls out the Ewings for us. I didn't give Victoria Principal enough credit for how important her performances were to each episode.

This morning, I decided that I am going to spend Saturday mornings going through the cartoons of my childhood: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe; G.I. Joe; The Transformers; ThunderCats; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; and Batman: The Animated Series. My childhood actually ended before Batman, but it was the last animated show I really kept up with so I figured I'd include it. Once I finish He-Man, I'll slot in She-Ra, Princess of Power in its place. I watched the first episode of each series today -- first as presented on disc. Production and airdate orders are a mess. Here's what I observed:

1. My generation has no business complaining about anything made after our childhood for pandering to short attention spans. The first three are pretty much nothing but large scale fights with just enough exposition scenes between them to explain why the next fight is going to happen.
2. There's more trash talk than the NBA and NFL combined. Bad guys talk trash to good guys and vice versa. Bad guys talk trash to other bad guys. Good guys even talk trash to certain other good guys. Man-At-Arms busts Orko's chops. Snarf is loudly passive-aggressive about how all the ThunderCats treat him. Even Alfred razzes Batman.
3. ThunderCats is milder about trash talk, but primarily because we don't interact with the baddies much. It's about introducing the mythos. It opens with their planet exploding. Seems kinda hardcore. Also, for the first segment, they're all naked. It's hard to be sure until Jaga gives them all clothes and everything not covered clearly remains the same. Kinda wild.
4. The Turtles lean more heavily into comedy even than they lean into action. Pretty much all the dialogue consists of a set-up followed immediately by a punch line.
5. Something I've pointed out before but think is worth mentioning here: In Batman, they're using actual bullets instead of laser guns. That's a dramatic change.
6. Castles must have been a dime a dozen because everybody had one! I love that Destro calls Cobra Commander's fortress "ridiculous and melodramatic."
7. I'm pretty sure these cartoons are why I've always been suspicious of satellites.

This sounds like a good plan Travis. Myself, I found a playlist of the entire series of Bravestarr on YouTube and have been working through that off and on. And regarding TMNT, last month I found the complete original series at Walmart for $30.

I am screenshotting that for posterity because I almost always only hear the opposite!

Because this thread has been so light so far, lemme throw out a question: What TV series do you love but for some reason don't have on physical media? For me, the top two are Homicide: Life on the Street and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Primarily, my problem is that when they were first released, season-by-season, they were out of my budget. When they were later released as complete series, they became much more affordable, but my spending budget seemed to scale down concurrently. Also, at some point, I wouldn't mind owning Burn Notice, Psych, and seaQuest.

The only series I’ve purchased on physical disc over the last 10 years are Game of Thrones, Banshee, and Strike Back.

I'm half-way through Castlevania: Nocturne (2025) and it is not disappointing. Too early to say if it betters Castlevania (2021) but, assuming it doesn't fluff the ending, at the very least it should stand on equal ground.

Mad Men. It's expensive, and the price never comes down. Psych isn't expensive, but I've just never pulled the trigger on that one.

Frank's Place and Remember WENN - Two that have *never* had a release. I'd purchase either "Day One" should they receive a physical release.

Re: Travis question. The first one is a box set of Land of the Giants in a box that looks like a cage for the little people. I actually used to have it but lost it in a move. And while I have it digitally, it's just not the same.

Another one is one that I don't believe ever had a physical release but the 2001 version of Transformers: Robots In Disguise.

That box for Land of the Giants is pretty cool... quite impractical, but cool and one of the better "collector" type cases I own. I should put mine on display for a while...

I just heard something on the radio that I thought may interest some people if they didn't already know. Duck Dynasty will be returning, with the same family and featuring the now grown children.

So you're saying that Si, Willie, Jase, and Jep *finally* "grew up?"

I got the Black Friday Peacock deal and am working my way through the fourth season of Yellowstone. I have so many series to catch up on, but it sure is easier to knock off the six- or eight-episode limited series on streaming services than tackle something with multiple seasons.

I've mostly been watching lots of My 600-lb Life and the 1995 revival of The Outer Limits. I've seem them both countless times but they are good comfort shows. Outer Limits was so good, i really liked how some episodes didn't end in a 'good' way.
I'm almost through all my goals for this years Challenge. I got through S4 of Gunsmoke and Alaska State Troopers. I also finished S7 and trying to get through S8 of Matlock.I never watched Matlock when i was young but i have enjoyed it a lot watching it now.

I meant to watch more westerns like Wagon Train but never really got around to it, although i did watch some of Death Valley Days

Well, that's it for me this year. As always, a very productive challenge, managed to get through a number of unwatched series. Top prize goes to season 1 of Fargo, and the complete series of The Deuce: opposite ends of the spectrum, but both were exceptional.

Thank you Shadokitty for the hosting duties.

And that it's for me as well. I managed to speedrun through S8 of Matlock and finish off the challenge with a couple of episodes of The Outer Limits 1995 revival. I echo Surfinhank with the thanks to Shadokitty! Until next year!

Well, thanks to the short TV seasons these days, I got through five new-to-me series: Barry, Watchmen, X-Men '97, Andor and Peacemaker. I enjoyed all of them, with Andor probably being my favorite - really looking forward to season 2 in a few months. I binged Peacemaker and never skipped that intro!

EDIT: And thanks, shadokitty, for running this!