1. Okay, so maybe you bought season one several years ago and then spent more hard-earned cash on this year's season two release. Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition is really what belongs in your collection, though. With all 29 episodes of the series, the original pilot film, the overseas pilot, and a ton of new extras, this package sets the new gold standard.
1.5. Oops! When making up our nominations list, Heroes: Season 1 was accidentally left off. Packed with extras and meticulously designed, this set deserves to be an Essential, so we're jamming it in between #1 and #2. Give this comic book inspired series a try and you'll soon be hooked.
2. All good things come to an end. In I Love Lucy's case, it's with I Love Lucy: The Final Seasons: 7, 8, & 9, a collection of one hour episodes of the classic sitcom along with a neat selection of extras-including color footage of the Ricardo apartment secretly filmed by an audience member with a home movie camera.
3. "The Little Kicks." "The Pothole." Yada, yada, yada. The penultimate season of Seinfeld finds the series at the height of its comic creativity. Plus Seinfeld: Season 8 includes its usual supersized collection of extras.
4. In a season that brought quite a few worthy new shows to out TV screens, Ugly Betty: The Complete First Season has to be the most addictive. Funny and heartfelt, the series features snappy writing and an outstanding cast led by the incomparable America Ferrera. Ugly? Far from it.
5. Catch a wave with Hawaii Five-O: The First Season and Hawaii Five-O: The Second Season, the hip late 60s cop show that features propulsive music, hip camera angles, and great scenery. Season one even includes a documentary remembrance of the series.
6. Don't you have Not Just the Best of The Larry Sanders Show yet? If not, for shame! The show is funny, the extras are plentiful, and Garry Shandling is brilliant.
7. It's safe to say that Cagney & Lacey: Season One with Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly changed the course of television history, following a pair of female NYC detectives struggling to make a living in what was considered a man's profession. Paired with a two-part featurette, this set should appeal to fans of gritty cop shows like Hill Street Blues.
8. Speaking of cop shows, be sure to get your hands on The Untouchables: Season 1, Volume 1 and The Untouchables: Season 1, Volume 2, a violence-filled look at gangland life through the eyes of incorruptible crimefighter Elliot Ness.
9. Norman Lear gave us many groundbreaking sitcoms throughout the 70s, a couple of which received their DVD debuts this year. Maude: The Complete First Season follows the fiery-tongued liberal cousin of All in the Family's Edith Bunker as she inflicts her views on her dogged husband Walter, her divorced daughter Carol, and her snappy maid Florida. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman: Volume 1 is a downright weird soap opera parody in which waxy yellow buildup and hostage crises hold the same weight. Neither show is for all tastes, but both are extremely funny.
10. Chances are you've never heard of the British sketch comedy Man Stroke Woman: The Complete First Series. Give this disc a spin and get ready to laugh. The humor is irreverent, gross, and bawdy-and chances are you'll be quoting it to your friends.
1. "The Sponge." "The Soup Nazi." "The Rye." In Seinfeld: Season 7, the series hits a creative peak. Paired with featurettes, bloopers, and other great extras that take viewers behind the scenes of their favorite episodes, this is a must-have set for TV fans. But beware - you'll never want to lick an envelope again!
2. Some fans complained about the direction taken by Lost: The Complete Second Season, but c'mon! The is-he-or-isn't he Henry Gale? The shocking deaths of characters old and new? Season two packs more thrills into its twenty-four episodes than many series manage in their entire runs. And once again, this extraordinarily well-produced DVD set actually enhances the experience of watching this addictive show.
3. Hill Street Blues: Season One and Season Two absolutely broke the mold of TV cop shows. Other series have since attempted to mimic its mix of the personal and professional lives of officers at an inner-city police precinct, but none have done it better than the original.
4. HEY YOU GUUUUU-UUUYS!!! One of the greatest kids' shows of all time finally arrived on DVD this year in not one but two collections: The Best of The Electric Company and The Best of The Electric Company: Volume 2. Not only will you love revisiting favorite characters like Easy Reader, DJ Mel Mounds, Jennifer of the Jungle, J. Arthur Crank, Letterman, Fargo North Decoder, Paul the Gorilla, and Spider-Man, you'll also get a charge out of each set's neat-o extras.
5. Lucy gets her head stuck in a loving cup and the Ricardos and the Mertzs move to Connecticut in I Love Lucy: The Complete Sixth Season, the final regular season of this legendary series. The episodes look beautiful on DVD, and the extras - including commentary tracks, production notes, and lost footage - help to solidify our appreciation of the classic sitcom.
6. The Dick Cavett Show: Hollywood Greats is packed with interviews of stars and directors, including Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire, Bette Davis, Groucho Marx, Debbie Reynolds, Kirk Douglas, John Huston, Marlon Brando, Robert Mitchum, Orson Welles, and Alfred Hitchcock. Hepburn rearranges Cavett's studio and talks about her days as a cat burglar, Astaire performs a jazzy dance number, and Welles turns the tables on his interviewer. Reminding us of a time when stars were stars, this is must-see viewing for all fans of classic films.
7. Remember when the networks hadn't yet given up on children's programming? Saturday mornings are now filled with news shows and series borrowed from cable. Luckily for us, 2006 brought the release of several Saturday morning favorites from the '70s and '80s, including Groovie Goolies: The Saturday "Mourning" Collection, Ark II: The Complete Series, Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series, and Journey Back to Oz: Special Edition. The shows will appeal to the kid in you while the many extra features included with each set will satisfy your grownup needs. So grab a bowl of Cap'n Crunch and program your own Saturday morning TV fun!
8. Don't you worry, never fear. Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume Four is here. Yep, Warner Bros. has done it again. With sixty classic shorts featuring Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang plus a bunch of high-quality extras, you're guaranteed to have 24 carrot fun!
9. Okay, so there are no extras, but just having The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The Complete Third Season and The Complete Fourth Season on DVD is extra enough. Over the course of two seasons, Rhoda moves back to New York, Georgette becomes a regular (irregular as she may be), and Happy Homemaker Sue Ann Nivens sets up house at WJM.
10. This wildly inventive series takes on The Taming of the Shrew, It's a Wonderful Life, and Billy Joel's "Big Man on Mulberry Street" in Moonlighting: Season Three. Enjoy it while it lasts, though - the series pretty much experiences a lunar eclipse after this season.
1. The best new drama of the year becomes the best DVD of the year with Lost: The Complete First Season. The evocative menus, informative featurettes, and other great extras actually make the series better, a rare feat in the world of DVD.
2. "The Bubble Boy," "The Contest," "The Pick," "The Puffy Shirt" - hilarious episodes like these (all restored to their original network lengths), along with featurettes, bloopers, and other great extras, make Seinfeld: Season 4, Seinfeld: Season 5, and Seinfeld: Season 6 must-haves, even for those of us who have seen them a million times.
3. Head off to Hollywood and Europe with Lucy, Ethel, Ricky, and Fred in the greatest seasons of the greatest sitcom of all time. I Love Lucy: The Complete Third Season, The Complete Fourth Season, and The Complete Fifth Season restore the episodes to a beautiful black-and-white sheen that undoubtedly looks better than in initial broadcasts. Toss in some historic extras and you have the makings of boxed sets no TV fan should be without.
4. Back in the 1980s, viewers often had to wait weeks to see Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis in a new episode of the hip, inventive detective series Moonlighting. Now, thanks to the release of Moonlighting: Seasons One and Two, we can watch twenty-three episodes in a row if we want to, including the outrageously entertaining pilot movie. Commentary tracks, featurettes, and original promos add to the fun.
5. Apparently, good things do come to those who wait. The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The Complete Second Season arrived in stores almost two and a half years behind schedule, but fans stopped complaining when they saw the pristine transfers and excellent extras.
6. That wascally wabbit and his pals return in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume Three, another four disc collection of sixty classic Looney Tunes shorts paired with countless extras. The shorts aren't necessarily as legendary as some of those in the previous volumes, but this set still packs in more than its share of entertainment value.
7. Television's number one show arrives on DVD in Desperate Housewives: The Complete First Season. The series may not be as solid on second viewing, but it's still entertaining. Now if only the producers had included more worthy extras.
8. Arrested Development: Season Two may not be as outrageously funny as the series' first season, but it still has more laughs than most other sitcoms. The extras are also less substantial this time around, but how can you resist a series featuring a character who thinks he's a member of Blue Man Group?
9. Relive your lost youth with Kermit, Fozzie, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, and the rest of your furry friends in The Muppet Show: Season One. Then appeal to your current (semi-)adult self with the neat extras, including pop-up trivia tracks and the original pilot. The series hasn't aged one bit, and with guests like Juliet Prowse, Rita Moreno, Vincent Price, and Mummenschanz, there's something here for everyone.
10. Blink and you missed it when it played in 2004, but now that Wonderfalls: The Complete Viewer Collection is on DVD in a boxed set as colorful and quirky as the show itself, you'll get a chance to catch up on this minor gem - including the nine episodes that never aired on Fox.
1. What could be better than Freaks and Geeks: The Complete Series, a boxed set that collects all eighteen episodes of this critically acclaimed series along with tons of extras? Why, Freaks and Geeks: Deluxe Collector's Edition, of course, which contains two additional discs of fan-pleasing extras and is packaged in an incredibly detailed high school yearbook. Terrific series, terrific extras, terrific boxed set. Go ahead - embrace your inner geek!
2. Between airings on local broadcast channels and cable's TBS, you can probably catch reruns of Seinfeld at least 100 times a day on regular TV. So why spring for Seinfeld: Seasons 1 & 2 and Seinfeld: Season 3? Because these terrific boxed sets presents the series in a way you can't see them on ordinary TV: beautifully remastered in high definition, expanded to their original broadcast length, and supplemented by an incredibly thorough selection of extras. A show about nothing? You won't think so after watching these top-notch releases.
3. Boldly go where no man has gone before with Captain Kirk and the crew in Star Trek: The Original Series: Season One, Season Two, and Season Three. Well, some of you HAVE gone there before since all of these episodes were previously released in individual DVD volumes. Fun extras, innovative packaging, neat menus, and other cool features make these sets worth coughing up the extra dough.
4. Okay, so two shows occupy the fourth slot on our Essentials list. But I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show were filmed on the same studio lot, and each helped to define the decade in which it premiered. I Love Lucy: The Complete Second Season would be an Essential even if it just contained all of 1952-53 season's thirty-one episodes - including the birth of Little Ricky and Lucy's stint in a candy factory. The set becomes pure Lucy heaven with the addition of radio shows, original openings, lost footage, and other extras. And tripping over an ottoman never looked as fun as it does in The Dick Van Dyke Show: Season One, a beautifully designed release with a selection of worthy extras.
5. The extras in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume Two might not be as terrific as those in the first volume, but the shorts themselves are incredible. With discs devoted to Bugs, the Road Runner, Tweety, and entertainment parodies, this collection boasts more than its fair share of animated masterpieces, including "One Froggy Evening" and "What's Opera, Doc?".
6. Sometimes the critics are right - Arrested Development really is the funniest show on TV. But don't take our word for it, check out Arrested Development: Season One instead. This well-designed boxed set presents all 22 sidesplitting episodes of this criminally under-watched series. The episodes alone would make this a must-have, but the set also includes a wealth of entertaining extras.
7. If you only had room in your collection for one music DVD, you'd be hard pressed to choose between Elvis: '68 Comeback Special Deluxe Edition and Live Aid. Elvis presents the king at the height of his smoldering, black leather-clad glory. This three disc set includes not only the entire NBC special that reignited his career but also just about every bit of footage shot for the show. But the four disc Live Aid set meticulously documents the historic July 13, 1985 concert to fight world hunger. The complete concert isn't presented - in a spectacular oversight, some of the footage no longer exists - but this is still a wonderfully nostalgic who's who of mid-'80s pop, rock, and soul.
8. Who says sketch comedy doesn't age well? Actually, we do, but The Richard Pryor Show is the exception to the rule. This short-lived series caused much controversy when it was first broadcast in 1977 on NBC, and it has rarely been aired since. Thanks to this excellent boxed set, viewers can see all four funny-as-ever episodes and a wealth of extras, including deleted scenes, Pryor's original TV special, and a script of unfilmed scenes.
9. Being a teen can be tough, especially if your high school was built over the gates to Hell and you've been chosen to stop the beasties that come scurrying out. For seven seasons, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was able to effectively combine teen angst with monstrous scares, producing an emotionally satisfying thrill ride. As of this year, all seven seasons are on DVD. The Complete First Season is the logical place to begin, but prepare yourself - afterwards you'll have the uncontrollable urge to scare up the remaining 132 episodes.
10. In a welcome mini trend, a wealth of '70s kids' shows hit DVD this year. Who can resist After School Specials: 1974-76 and After School Specials: 1976-77, two collections of seriously silly morality tales in neat Trapper Keeper packaging? Or the magical weirdness that is Sid & Marty Krofft's H.R. Pufnstuf: The Complete Series? And don't forget about Freddie the Frog, Henrietta Hippo, Charlie the Owl and the gang in the sweetly funny New Zoo Revue: Season 1. These cool DVDs not only let you relive your childhood but also allow you to share those memories with a new generation.
1. The weird, wonderful world of David Lynch's Twin Peaks is given the deluxe treatment in Twin Peaks: The First Season Special Edition. Insightful commentaries, nutty cast interviews, descriptions of deleted scenes and tons of other cool extras combined with spiffy packaging and georgeous (albeit complicated) menu designs make this a must-have for fans of quality television.
2. Indifferent packaging cannot dimish the impact of I Love Lucy: The Complete First Season and its stellar contents - meticulously restored episodes, insightful behind-the-scenes extras, original radio shows that served as the basis of many episodes, and much, much more. Even better news: The Complete Second Season is on its way in early 2004.
3. Another classic with bad packaging, the Looney Tunes Golden Collection presents a dizzying array of extras along with a generous helping of Looney Tunes zaniness. Grab a bowl of sugary cereal, put on your footie pajamas, and plop yourself in front of the TV to relive The Bugs Bunny Show with the adventures of Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Elmer, and the entire Looney Tunes gang.
4. A classy show with a classy DVD boxed set, The Mary Tyler Moore Show: The Complete First Season features such terrific extras as vintage promos, Emmy Award clips, and a brand new 90 minute documentary on the making of the show. Buy this set and turn the world on with your smile.
5. The pure pop silliness of The Monkees: Season 1 has never looked better. This boxed set's record player design is sure to be a conversation starter sitting on your DVD shelf, but you'll probably be too busy watching the season's 32 episodes, hypnotically cool menus, and fun extras to actually speak.
6. How sweet it is! Fans will go "to the moon" over the well-designed boxed set of The Honeymooners "Classic 39" Episodes. If only Jackie Gleason's legendary sitcom "with the stars Art Carney, Audrey Meadows, and Joyce Randolph" had been paired with more deserving extras...
7. Cheers: The Complete First Season may have scant extras, but that doesn't diminish the appeal of Sam, Diane, Carla, Coach, and the rest of the gang at the bar "where everybody knows your name."
8. It's subversive fun for the entire family with Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends: Complete Season 1. From Cold War commentary to silly pratfalls, this set is instantly addictive and smartly stupid, this set has a high fun-to-cost ratio.
9. Though NBC's watered down and terribly miscast American version came and went in the blink of an eye, the brilliant British original lives on in Coupling: The Complete First Season, arguably the funniest show currently on TV.
10. It doesn't have a single extra, and the packaging looks as if it was designed on an Etch-a-Sketch, but the short-lived My So-Called Life: The Complete Series is a modern masterpiece that is sure to please drama fans. EDITOR'S NOTE: This refers to an out-of-print edition. For more information on the new extras-packed edition, click here.