Fans of “The Love Boat” have been waiting eight years for the third season to follow the second season on DVD, and it’s finally in release this week for fans of the 1970s-’80s staple.
“The Love Boat: Season Three, Volume One” (CBS/Paramount, 1979, four discs, 16 episodes, promos).
“The Love Boat: Season Three, Volume Two” (CBS/Paramount, 1980, four discs, 11 episodes, featurettes, promos). Set aboard a luxury cruise ship, this hourlong sitcom features a revolving door of celebrity guests (this season includes Donny Osmond, Hayley Mills, Eve Arden, Pam Grier, Gale Storm, Helen Hayes and Don Knotts, among many others).
Each episode features three or four separate romantic-comedy stories with guests, interwoven with the high jinks of the crew (Gavin MacLeod, Bernie Kopell, Fred Grandy, Ted Lange and Lauren Tewes). The first season came to DVD in 2008, followed the next year by the second season. So this season has been a long time coming, but fans will just be glad to have it, even though it’s in two volumes (and is therefore more expensive).
“I Love Lucy: Superstar Special #2” (CBS/Paramount, 1955, color and b/w, two episodes). The latest collection in this DVD series of colorized episodes of the groundbreaking sitcom are “Lucy Visits Grauman’s” and “Lucy and John Wayne,” which are actually one two-part story. In the first, Lucy and Ethel (Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance) steal the cement slab in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater that has John Wayne’s footprints, and in the second, Ricky (Desi Arnaz) calls Wayne to help keep the ladies out of jail. (The original black-and-white versions are also here.)
“The IT Crowd: The Internet Is Coming” (MPI, 2015, audio commentary, featurette). A British sitcom that occasionally reached hysterical peaks of madness, this was a pre-“Big Bang Theory” series (2006-10) about two computer nerds (Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade) and their tech-illiterate manager (Katherine Parkinson). The show ended after four seasons (and just 24 episodes) with the promise of a fifth season, which instead became this belated double-length special. Unfortunately, it plays like a padded, weaker episode of the show. It’s watchable but never achieves the zesty comic heights often reached by the series.
“16 for ’16: The Contenders” (PBS, 2016, two discs, eight episodes). The election campaigns of previous presidential candidates are examined in these hourlong documentary episodes with an eye to their influence on the present, from “Chisolm and McCain: The Straight Talkers” to “Bush and Obama: The Master Strategists.”
“The Code: Season 2” (Acorn, 2016, two discs, six episodes, featurette). The second season of this Australian thriller series has the Banks brothers (Dan Spielman, Ashley Zukerman) facing extradition charges for events from the first season until they are called on to investigate a pair of murders that involve a fugitive computer hacker (Anthony LaPaglia). Sigrid Thornton, of the two “Man from Snowy River” movies, co-stars. (No word yet on a third season.)
“American Experience: The Battle of Chosin” (PBS, 2016). The Battle of Chosin was the first military clash of the Cold War. In November 1950, as U.S. Army fighters, U.S. Marines and United Nations troops were pushing back North Korea’s invading army to protect South Korea, they were surrounded by 85,000 Chinese soldiers. The ensuing conflict is detailed in this two-hour documentary “American Experience” episode.
“Peanuts By Schulz: Snoopy Tales” (Warner, 2016, two discs, 32 episodes). The Peanuts animated series is comprised of seven-minute segments, and the 32 gathered here revolve around Charlie Brown’s beagle, Snoopy, including interactions with Woodstock, playing tennis, learning how to fetch a ball and his flights on his dog house/Sopwith Camel in pursuit of the Red Baron. This is a French-American production that aired here on the Boomerang and Cartoon Network cable channels.
“Odd Squad: The Movie” (PBS, 2016). This feature-length (65 minutes) TV special has the Odd Squad going out of business when a new organization, Weird Team, shows up with a gadget that fixes any and every odd problem. But in reality, it’s just covering up problems, which leads to an infestation of creatures that are too much for Odd Squad alone to handle. Can the two teams work together?
“Adventure Time: Islands” (Cartoon Network/Warner, 2017, eight episodes). Finn and his adopted brother Jake, a shape-shifting dog, along with Susan Strong and BMO, embark on a quest to cross the ocean, where they discover new islands and encounter strange creatures. “Islands” is the title of this animated miniseries of sorts, which is comprised of the final eight episodes of the eighth season (which are also currently being shown on the Cartoon Network cable channel).
Chris Hicks is the author of "Has Hollywood Lost Its Mind? A Parent’s Guide to Movie Ratings." He also writes at www.hicksflicks.com and can be contacted at hicks@deseretnews.com.