Here are a batch of new DVDs that will be on shelves Tuesday.
TV series
"Family Ties: The First Season" (CBS/Paramount, 1982-83, four discs). Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton was the breakout star of this funny and warm sitcom that reversed the usual ploy — here the parents (Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross) are liberal former hippies and Fox is their ultraconservative teenage son who's a fan of Richard Nixon.
But this is really an ensemble show, and the entire cast is great, including Justine Bateman as Alex's dim-bulb sister who has embraced pop culture, and Tina Yothers as their young sister, Jennifer, a tomboy.
Smart and funny, and sometimes with a more serious bent, the show is very much about the Reagan era and the giving way of '60s idealism to corporate greed. And it holds up very well in the 21st century.
This first season is before Gross grew his trademark beard, and Baxter is billed as "Meredith Baxter Birney," before her divorce from David Birney saw her return to her maiden name.
Extras: Full frame, 22 episodes
"Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Season Two, Volume Two" (Fox, 1965-66, three discs, 29.98). Here's the second half of the second season of this sci-fi underwater thriller about adventures on board a nuclear submarine, with David Hedison and Richard Basehart. By this time, the show was getting campier, but it's still fun.
Extras: Full frame, 13 episodes, featurette, photo gallery
Vintage movies
"The Alice Faye Collection" (Fox, 1937-43, not rated, b/w and color, four discs, $19.98). Blond, bouncy Alice Faye was a big musical-comedy star for Fox in the late 1930s and '40s, and these four vehicles show her off in grand style.
—"On the Avenue" (1937, b/w, deleted scene, audio commentary, featurette, photo gallery) features Faye as the other woman, a show-biz ingenue who becomes interested in stage star Dick Powell primarily because socialite Madeleine Carroll wants him. Fun Irving Berlin songs and the comedy of the wacky Ritz Brothers and Joan Davis (as in "I Married Joan") liven this one.
—"Lillian Russell" (1940, b/w, featurette, photo gallery, trailer) was an English stage star known for glamour and excess, and Faye plays her to the hilt in this typical Hollywood biography laced with songs. Henry Fonda and Don Ameche co-star. (Home-video debut.)
—"That Night in Rio" (1941, deleted scene, featurette, photo gallery, trailer) has Faye teamed with Ameche again (he does two roles!) in this musical comedy, playing a married couple in South America with mistaken-identity problems. Carmen Miranda provides a great deal of the fun.
—"The Gang's All Here" (1943, deleted scene, audio commentary, featurettes, photo gallery, trailer) has Faye as a chorus girl with dreams of stardom in this Busby Berkeley musical extravaganza. Edward Everett Horton provides comedy, Benny Goodman sings — but it's Carmen Miranda who steals the show (and is the focus of the bonus features).
Extras: Full frame
Straight-to-DVD
"Fifty Pills" (Echo Bridge, 2006, not rated, $26.99). Lou Taylor Pucci has the lead role in this frantic comedy, as a nerdy college kid whose roommate coerces him into selling drugs for profit. Kristen Bell — TV's "Veronica Mars" — is on hand as his would-be girlfriend who's disappointed in him. But the script is routine and vulgar and the cast can't overcome its weaknesses.
Extras: Widescreen
"Night of the Living Dorks" (Anchor Bay, 2004, not rated, $19.98). Dark, gory spoof of zombie flicks from Germany is no "Shaun of the Dead," though it does have a few chuckles in between tasteless gags.
Extras: Widescreen, in German with English subtitles/English dubbed, deleted/expanded scenes, featurettes, trailer
"Dead Mary: Unrated" (Peace Arch, 2006, not rated, $24.95). Echoes of "Evil Dead" reverberate in this yarn about a group of friends at a lakeside cabin who awaken an evil spirit. Yawn, and, occasionally, yuck.
Extras: Widescreen, featurette, music video
Children's shows
"What's New Scooby-Doo? Complete First Season" (Warner, 2002-03, two discs, $19.98). Various episodes have been collected on single discs, but now the full first season of this popular animated show is released in a set.
Extras: Full frame, 13 episodes, bonus episode: "A Scooby-Doo Valentine," bloopers
"Curious George: Zoo Night and Other Animal Stories!" (Universal, 2006, $16.98). This is the PBS series adapted from the books about the mischievous monkey and the Man in the Yellow Hat, narrated by William H. Macy. Episodes are "Zoo Night," "Curious George's Bunny Hunt," "Bee Is for Bear," "Curious George's Home for Pigeons," "From Scratch," "Curious George, Doc Counter," "Squirrel for a Day" and "Curious George Discovers the 'Poles."
Extras: Full frame, eight episodes, interactive games; DVD-ROM applications
E-mail: hicks@desnews.com