This week's new-to-DVD television programs includes a wide variety of old and new, led by a pair of sampler discs.
"TV Sets: Action Packed" (CBS/Paramount, 1966-2003, $14.99). This new single-disc series (a sort of starter kit to remind TV fans that these shows have been released on DVD) features pilot episodes from "MacGyver," starring Richard Dean Anderson as the resourceful spy who turns everyday objects into useful gadgets, and "Mission: Impossible," with Steven Hill (pre-Peter Graves) assembling the team (Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Greg Morris). Also, episodes of "NCIS" and "Walker, Texas Ranger."
Extras: full frame, four episodes
"TV Sets: Forever Funny" (CBS/Paramount, 1951-93, $14.99). As you might guess, this entry in the series features sitcoms, some of which are pilots and some just early episodes: "I Love Lucy," "The Honeymooners," "The Brady Bunch," "The Odd Couple," "Taxi," "Cheers," "Frasier." Not a bad way to spend an evening, chuckling at half-hour shows that were funny back before everything became quite so raunchy.
Extras: full frame, seven episodes
"Gunsmoke: The Third Season, Volume Two" (CBS/Paramount, 1958, b/w, three discs, $39.99). Dodge City's U.S. Marshall Matt Dillon (James Arness) continues to keep the streets safe for women and children in this classic Western. This is an especially good season of half-hour dramas, with Arness, Dennis Weaver, Amanda Blake and Milburn Stone in fine form as the characters that made them famous.
Extras: full frame, 20 episodes
"Cannon: Season Two, Volume One" (CBS/Paramount, 1972, three discs, $39.99). Big in both girth and voice, William Conrad is great as an L.A. private eye who used to be a cop, and who keeps up a lavish lifestyle by taking on big-money cases. Guests on these discs include David Janssen, Martin Sheen, Anne Francis, Cathy Lee Crosby and Dabney Coleman.
Extras: full frame, 12 episodes, promos
"Raising the Bar: The Complete First Season" (ABC, 2008, three discs, $39.99). Steven Bochco's latest courtroom drama is a cable-TV series about public defenders and district attorneys who treat each case like war strategy. Well done, though with Bochco you know it's also going to push buttons. Great cast includes Mark Paul Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben and Jane Kaczmarek.
Extras: widescreen, audio commentaries, featurettes, bloopers
"The Jetsons: Season 2, Volume 1" (Warner, 1984-85, three discs, $34.98). Fans of the futuristic cartoon show will recognize that this continuation two decades later is not quite up to the original one-season prime-time show of the 1960s, but it's still inventive and fun, with a few updates (by '80s standards) to the gadgetry.
Extras: full frame, 21 episodes, featurette
"The Mod Squad: Season 2, Volume 2" (CBS/Paramount, 1969-70, three discs, $42.99). Former youthful troublemakers Michael Cole, Clarence Williams III and Peggy Lipton continue to work the streets for police captain Tige Andrews in this second half of the second season. Guests include a mix of veterans and up-and-comers at the time: Sammy Davis Jr., Richard Dreyfuss, Margot Kidder, Edward Asner, Martin Sheen, Marion Ross, David Cassidy.
"Army Wives: The Complete Second Season" (ABC, 2008, five discs, $45.99). This well-written Lifetime cable-channel soap opera focuses on the spouses of five soldiers whose lives are in upheaval. Nicely played by a solid cast, led by Catherine Bell and Kim Delaney.
Extras: widescreen, deleted scenes, audio commentaries, featurettes, bloopers
"Sister Sister: The Second Season" (CBS/Paramount, 1994-95, three discs, $39.99). The reunited twins (Tia and Tamera Mowry) continue to cause sitcom problems for their adoptive parents (Tim Reid, Jackee Harry) in this tween series.
Extras: full frame, 19 episodes
"Rat Attack" (PBS, 2008, $24.99). Fascinating — but a bit hard to watch — coproduction of "NOVA" and National Geographic about the remote Indian state of Mizoram. There, a bamboo that blooms only every half-century attracts an explosion of the rats that feed on it — as they also destroy everything else in sight.
Extras: widescreen, printable materials
"The Spy Factory" (PBS, 2009, $24.99). This hourlong "NOVA" episode looks at the inner workings of the National Security Agency to ask if Americans really are safer since 9/11.
Extras: full frame, printable materials
E-MAIL: hicks@desnews.com