Welcome to the Sixteenth 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

This challenge begins at dusk on New Year's Eve 2025 (so you can count TV countdown specials) and concludes at dawn 1 February 2026.
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
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.

Just got Paramount+ so I’ll be binging some Star Trek.

I haven't watched much of anything in the last few weeks, but will probably watching some MST3K maybe in this challenge. I have a bunch of shows i still need to get through, Maybe some All in the Family in memory of Rob Reiner as well. I haven't really decided, have lots of shows to get back into.

I want to see how much of Babylon 5 I can watch before the Oscar Challenge begins.

Just a reminder that the challenge starts tomorrow evening. That being the case, don't forget that any new year programming watched for the Holiday challenge is eligible for double credit.

I hope some people got some box sets that they can break into next month.

I may not have gotten any box sets for Christmas, but a couple months ago I did manage to come across a box set of the complete original series of Yu Gi Oh!. Even the first episodes waste no time with lore exposition.

I am only on Disc 2 of Season 1, and just now watched the Yami Bakura episode. The Shadow Game explained a lot about the Millennium Items. It kind of shows why I think I have always enjoyed the video games. I enjoy card games, but Yu Gi Oh, the anime is so much more.

I need to sit down and tackle that. I’d have to do it through the TV, action, MYOC, and sci-fi challenges. Kinda like when I did Buffy, but I also had the horror month for that.

I "need" to do a rewatch of that one. I upgraded to BR when that came out - well worth it and far superior to the butchered WS on the DVD release.

I can't give up my DVDs because the boxes are signed by some of the cast but I did obtain the digital BR versions so that's what I'm bingeing. I think I can actually finish it before classes begin next week: once the show hits its stride, I can't stop watching.

Last month I watched all 6 seasons of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Of course I had to tail end that with Xena: Warrior Princess, which aired concurrently with Hercules for much of its run. At this point I'm in S5, a season I didn't watch much during its original syndication run as it had somewhat gone off the rails for me by then (and this is a first time viewing of the entire series since the original syndication airings). I always had a higher opinion of Hercules but during that viewing rediscovered it, too, went south in its last couple of seasons.

I have the DVDs then bought the digital SD followed by the digital HD. And I haven’t even watched the show except the first few episodes a couple times.

Kinda annoying that all the movies aren’t on digital.

I even watched the full DVD set of Crusade figuring that would give me a taste of B5 without the lengthy commitment.

It's quite annoying that the movies aren't on BR. They're not exactly necessary but *are* interesting parts of the story.

With the talk of B5, I'm reminded that I do have digital copies of, I think the first three (possibly 4) seasons . I believe I have up to and including the first season of Sheridan.

I still remember how surprised I was when I first watched that Delenn didn't have hair. I came into the series late during its first run.

i did a rewatch a few years back but stopped for some reason in S3. It's an amazing show, i need to get back to watching it again. I have so many shows to watch though. I've been watching a bunch of My 600-lb Life, its a real good comfort show. I finished S1 of It's Florida, Man. It was...decent but i dunno. Sometimes it just tried so hard to be funny i guess, it just didnt work.

I've been watching shows related to MST3K like Cinematic Titanic and Rifftrax. With CT, it came out around 2008 or so and you could actually buy a dvd and download the dvd files itself from a service called EZTakes. But i guess at some point it shut down so you cant redownload them or anything anymore. Luckily, you can find most of them on Amazon and other places. With Rifftrax, i've been watching one's i've seen before and some i've never seen. Birdemic is a classic, just such an awful movie. I also liked the two David Carradine disasters Future Force and Future Zone.

I'm down to the last few episodes of Xena and am reminded almost every other episode why I mostly stopped watching the series sometime in S5 during its original run. I really feel that the writers just ran out of ideas. The whole Odin cycle was pretty half baked plus overly long which is followed by "You are There" - a "parody" of an old 60s series (that wasn't funny in the least) and then a few episodes later gave us "Send in the Clones" - a truly bad bit of "creativity" on display (IMHO one of the worst episodes of the series). And I thought the last couple of seasons of Hercules were just not well done... I think I owe it a small apology.

**UPDATE**
I finished Xena and can't see myself ever watching S6 again. Overall it was the least enjoyable season with an ending that was just plain bad. As in Happy Days' "Jump the Shark" bad. That season makes the last two "lesser" Hercules seasons look like Emmy material in comparison.

Just about the halfway point of the Challenge. I hope everyone is getting in the watches that they planned.

I found some nice things on YouTube like full playlists of Saturday morning cartoons complete with era appropriate commercials. Right now I also am watching a playlist of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet ​​​​​, Season One.

After completing Xena I moved to Mission Impossible 88/89. This was introduced during the writer's strike of those years and began its life using reshot scripts from the original series. Those were the better episodes of the series though not as good as their originals. Overall it's not quite as good as the lesser seasons of the original series and generally suffers from lesser writing, acting, directing, and effects work. And it's still fairly entertaining. In spite of that, it's another of the "I'll probably never rewatch it." series I own. I'd rather spend the time rewatching the first 5 seasons of the original series.

After that I started Bonanza with S1 of that series. I never really watched this growing up, in spite of it being one of the top rated series of its time. I liked some of the other westerns better. When I worked in TV, the station I worked for ran Bonanza every afternoon and I would see occasional episodes between directing commercials. Those limited viewings convinced me it was a pretty good series - at least in the early years when Parnell Roberts was still on the show. I purchased 9 seasons of it on DVD and have watched S2 in the past but had skipped S1 due to it not being available at that time. Seemed like as good a time as any to watch that season. And it's been entertaining so far. I've not noticed as much of a reliance on stage bound exterior sets in this season like was done in later ones (at least as I recall from watching at work) though I have seen at least one "stock" scene repeated - the felling of a large ponderosa pine, and some rather obvious matte work to put Ben and the boys in a grove of trees. In one early episode it was Ben and the boys cutting it down followed by Ben's "after cutting we must plant a new tree" speech. A few episodes later it was a group of people cutting down the tree without permission (to use for timber to sell). So far I don't recall ever seeing any of these episodes in the past.

And I broke down and purchased copies of the Imprint BR releases of Bewitched S1/S2, S3/S4, and S5/S6. I started watching those yesterday and am quite pleased with the excellent quality of the transfers.

Bonanza is a really good show, ive seen the first 5 seasons or so. One of my favorite westerns. I haven't watched it in a few years, but its good fun, with a really good cast.

Myself, i've been getting back into Little House on the Prairie and Gunsmoke. Gunsmoke, especially the first 7 years is just so good. I've listened the majority of the radio show and it seemed like they used a lot of those scripts early on. I want to a full watch of Gunsmoke, but i think i only made it to S15 a while ago. There's just so many episodes lol. Little House has been fun to get back into, a very light show for the most part. Michael Landon and the whole cast is just so good.

I finished Season 1 of Dark Matter (2024). It was...fine. Nowhere near the scifi show from years back though. I'm not sure i'lll watch it when S2 comes out or not though. I also got through Season 1 of Sliders. I want to watch more, but not sure if i will in this challenge or not. It's a neat show, kind of like Quantum Leap. I've also watched a lot of Rifftrax, especially ones i havent seen before. Been a fun challenge so far!

The talk about Bonanza reminds me of towards the end of the series when Pernell Roberts left the show. I remember Candy being brought on board as a new ranch hand. What always struck me was, as I used to watch All My Children as a kid. When you are young, often you end up watching what your family watches. Anyway, I remember that Candy later went on to play the dual role of Adam/Stuart, David Canary.

I suspect that if I didn't know him, it wouldn't have meant anything to me.

I recently picked up the S13-S15 set for Gunsmoke. Only got it because I own copies of S1-12 and it was on sale for a very good price. I now enjoy it but really think I own enough though *will* pick up the last few seasons if they go on sale cheaply enough. I never much cared for Gunsmoke growing up and only developed an appreciation for it when I purchased the S1 DVD set on sale and watched it. I found it to be better than I'd remembered. I think a lot of that early opinion was simply due to oversaturation of westerns when I was a kid (late 50s/60s). By ~1962 I'd grown pretty tired of them and the seemingly cookie cutter scripts most had. I watched Bonanza some in those years but not that often - again due to western oversaturation. When I worked in broadcasting the station I worked for ran Bonanza every afternoon for a few years and I'd see bits and pieces between directing commercial production. I developed a "like it well enough" during that time so picked up the first 8 seasons on disc. Like with Gunsmoke, I'll get more *if* I find the seasons priced low enough.

Little House is another that station ran for a few years. While I'm still not that fond of it I *did* pick up BRs of the first 5 seasons. After that one I pretty much didn't care for the series at all as it got far more dramatic and maudlin as it went on. I prefer the more comedic early years and have no intentions of continuing that one no matter how inexpensive it might be.

I really like Sliders - until it kind of "jumps the shark" when it began to be more action oriented and more focus was given to the Kromaggs in the latter half of S3. Then it then left Fox to move to the SciFi Channel for S4/S5 (IMHO, Fox's meddling coupled with the move to SciFi Channel absolutely ruined it). It had started to go downhill in the second half of S3 but really plunged off the cliff in S4 onward. At that point, the eye candy called Kari Wurhr was what kept me coming back but then they lost me completely with the changes made when Jerry O'Connell didn't return for S5. The series had lots of issues - partly due to Fox wanting more "action" and also that most, if not all, of the writers had zero experience with SF and, if reports are true, had never even read any SF so had no base from which to work.

Pernell Robets left Bonanza at the end of Season 6 (the 1964/65 season) - just shy of halfway through the series run of 14 seasons. IMHO, those 6 seasons are the best of the series. It's just not the same after his character leaves. I'd never intended to collect Bonanza beyond S6 because of his absence but good sale prices changed that.

Given the weather, I've hunkered down for the day and been mostly blazing through Venture Bros. episodes and am now dangerously close to finishing off the series tonight. I had hoped to stretch it out for the whole month, but it's just been too good.

After all this B5 talk, I got The Lost Voyages and The Road Home in a Fanflix three for $12 sale. These aren't the "classic" movies: Lost Tales came out in 2007, and I actually watched it on DVD lol, and The Road Home is a 2023 animated film, which allows Bruce Boxleitner and Claudia Christian to reprise their roles without looking old.

Just a reminder that a movie eligible for the Academy Award Challenge can count for double credit, if it is tied in to a tv show. Eg: Star Trek (Only first 10), or the Star Wars films.

I've had a blast feasting on TV content this month. Spent quite a bit of time going through several shows that I never caught during the time they were on the air (House, How I Met Your Mother, Last Man Standing) while also re-visiting a few childhood classics and starting a rewatch of shows I love (Criminal Minds, The Office).

I may slow down for other things in February, but anticipate sticking with many of these favorites since I'm "mid-season" in several of them.