The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the FRED Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
(Please support FRED by using the links below to make any impulse purchases – it helps to keep us going…)
When it comes to kitchen sink filmmaking, the grandmaster of them all is Stanley Kramer’s larger than life comedy It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Criterion, Rated G, Blu-Ray-$49.95 SRP), and it’s been given a fitting treatment from the fine folks at Criterion, who have not only beautifully remastered the theatrical version of the film for high definition, but have also crafted the most extensive restoration yet of the long-missing extended road show version of the film, which while still incomplete, is as close as we’re probably ever going to get. Bonus features include a brand new documentary, an audio commentary on the extended cut, and much more.
You could never do a show like Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$249.95 SRP) today. A daily serialized play on soap opera tropes, its sly satire was only made possible by the fact that it was also the brainchild of TV powerhouse Norman Lear. And thanks to the miracle workers at Shout Factory, you can now own all 325 episodes in one massive box set packed with bonus features, inclu8ding featurettes and a handful of episodes from its brilliant spin-off assault on middling talkshows, Fernwood 2 Night. Here’s hoping a Fernwood 2 Night box set is on the way.
After the spectacular flame out of the blah-tacular Tobey Maguire Spider-Man franchise, it was a spectacular breath of fresh air to get Andrew Garfield as the friendly neighborhood Amazing Spider-Man (Sideshow Collectibles, $204.99), who has now been captured in eerily lifelike detail by those equally amazing artisans at Hot Toys. While I’m not fully sold on the changes made to the suit’s design, there’s no denying it is accurately reproduced in this fully-articulated figure, and the swappable Garfield head sculpt is pretty darn perfect. The figures comes with a handful of swappable hands, plus an assortment of webbing for recreating your favorite web-slinging poses.
After years in the wilderness, it’s nice to see Woody Allen continue his latter-day winning streak with his latest, Blue Jasmine (Sony, Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP), about the titular east coast socialite (Cate Blanchett) making a go at a new, less glamorous life in San Francisco in which she tries to reconcile her troubled past with her lower class future. Oh, and it has Louis CK. So, win. Bonus materials include a featurette and the cast press conference.
I’m still not entirely sure if I like Comedy Bang Bang (Anchor Bay, Not Rated, DVD-$29.98 SRP). I mean, I think I do… And then it just gets slightly more bizarre than actually funny bizarre, and I have to reconsider my position. Your mileage may vary. The complete first season set contains character audio commentaries, alternate interviews, supercuts, test shoots, and more.
If you’re looking for a pair of fascinating documentaries this weekend, the Smithsonian Channel is serving up the unsung heroes of the space program with Space Voyages (Smithsonian Channel, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP) and the unsung staff that make the President’s residence livable in White House Revealed (Smithsonian Channel, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP).
The fine folks at Mill Creek have a mighty batch of economy-priced TV collections for anyone hoping to dive in to some classic series on a budget, including Married With Children: Seasons 1 & 2 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), the uncut debut of The Cosby Show: Seasons 1 & 2 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), Just Shoot Me: Seasons 1 & 2 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), Dilbert: The Complete Series (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP), Charlie’s Angels: Season 1 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP), Bewitched: Seasons 1 & 2 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), Good Times: Season 1 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$9.98 SRP), and Wings: Seasons 3 & 4 (Mill Creek, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP).
Shout Factory has become the last great hope for many TV series whose DVD releases were cut off short of completion, as they turn their benevolence towards Sipowicz and Simone for the complete fifth season of NYPD Blue (Shout Factory, Not Rated, DVD-$34.99 SRP). The 6-disc set contains all 22 episodes, but sadly no bonus features.
Join Grover, Abby, and Elmo as they learns the ins and outs of sportsmanship in Sesame Street: Be A Good Sport (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP), featuring over 2 hours of thematically linked furry fun for youngsters.
Disillusioned by the direction he sees professional wrestling headed, Steve Scarborough decides to take matters into his own hands and founds the Platinum Championship League, whose origins and development are chronicled in the documentary The Booker (Indiepix, Not Rated, DVD-$19.95 SRP).
The second volume of the second season of History Channel’s Counting Cars (History Channel, Not Rated, DVD-$14.98 SRP) has arrived for those of you who have finally succumbed to History Channel Stockholm Syndrome and understand there is nothing there any more but these “reality” series full of people doing things in a “real” way. Bonus materials include 35 minutes of additional footage.
The latest in the line of quickie joke-a-second pop culture lampoons has come down the pike in the form of The Starving Games (Ketchup, Rated PG-13, DVD-$20.99 SRP), which takes on The Hunger Games, The Avengers, Avatar, Angry Birds and much more.
It’s hard to believe it’s taken this long, but the Doctor Who toy universe now has not one, nor two, but THREE new action figure sets featuring the arrival of Nicholas Courtney’s Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. The Claws Of Axos Collectors’ Set (Underground Toys, $57.98 SRP) features The Brigadier, Jo Grant, and Axon (in humanoid form). The Daemons Collectors’ Set (Underground Toys, $57.98 SRP) features The Brigadier, The Master as Magister, and Bok the gargoyle. And finally, The Three Doctors Collectors’ Set (Underground Toys, $57.98 SRP) features The Brigadier, Jo Grant, and a Gel Guard.
So there you have it… my humble suggestions for what to watch, listen to, play with, or waste money on this coming weekend. See ya next week…
-Ken Plume
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It’s because Warwick Davis is a brilliant actor and was such a delight in the guest role he had on Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant’s Extras that I looked forward to the three of them teaming up for 
The swan song of the great Douglas Adams’s tenure on Doctor Who was, for many years, never seen by the public. Due to an industrial action (strike), filming was never completed for the story, and it was shelved… Until many years later, the existing footage was resurrected with newly shot intros and context of the missing scenes provided by the story’s Doctor, Tom Baker. Now, 
While he’s certainly a more assured filmmaker by the time you get to 
If you still have friends who dismiss the ukulele as a beautiful, versatile instrument (the fools), let them have a listen to Jake Shimabukuro’s new album, 
It’s been a few months, so like the seasons and the tide, it was inevitable we’d get another release from the denizens of Bikini Bottom in 
You’d never guess by its title that 
There are plenty of documentaries about what’s wrong with the world. That’s why it’s wonderful to have a genuinely joyous documentary like 
After a routine traffic stop puts them on the wrong side of a vicious drug cartel, a pair of LAPD officers (Jake Gyllenhal & Michael Pena) do what they can to try and make sure they make it to the 
Nerdist guru Chris Hardwick gets his first solo Comedy Central stand-up special with 
The latest slickly-produced big-ticket history documentary from the reality show producers The History Channel focuses on 
Continuing to blend all kinds of stories from the comic book mythos, 
Scholastic continues to release their wonderful series of Storybook Treasures collections of fine children’s books, the latest being the collection 
It’s almost a year past the centennial of the doomed ship’s sinking, but the arrival of the Clifton Webb/Barbara Stanwyck 
Taken once, shame on you. 
Assassins, monsters, and sorcerers are no match for the threat that Morgana’s ambitions pose to Camelot in the fourth season of 
Our trio of aging pensioners age another year with 
The UK’s classy answer to CSI, 
The original, and superior, version of the monstrous roomie drama 
I am a sucker for feature film restorations that bring a film back from the brink, and Paramount has done truly amazing work on the first feature film to win the Best Picture Academy Award in 1927, William A. Wellman’s World War I aeronautical masterpiece 
Every once in awhile, the fine folks at Thinkgeek conjure up a specially-produced item that strikes just the right geek nerve, and such is the case with the 
Only on Adult Swim could you have 
When you think you’ve tapped an idea out, why not go back to the beginning? That’s the premise behind 
If you’d like a clear view on just how conflicted the History Channel is when it comes to presenting fact and fiction, their latest batch of releases is a perfect representation. In the good column are the exploration of the last ice age, 
The Muppets of Sesame go superheroic in their latest DVD – 
It may be difficult on the wallet, but I like MGM’s batch dropping of high definition catalogue titles, particularly as this wave contains the Hitchcock films 
MGM has also released another clutch of their limited edition MOD titles, this time including the white water rafting Animal House flick 
Scholastic returns with another pair of Storybook Treasures releases – 
There’ve been many, many attempts over the years, but I think we’ve finally gotten a definitive, comprehensive documentary about those 5 loveable English lads (and one American) in 
Haven’t you always wanted a monkey? Even if you don’t have a million dollars, you can still snag yourself a nifty little beanie version of Thinkgeek’s loveable mascot, 
Previously available only in the megaset, you can now get the recent documentaries Before The Flying Circus & Monty Python Conquers America in 
A surprising and welcome arrival on DVD is the first volume collecting 
Certainly not a household name like Ford, Hitchcock, or Capra but deserving proper attention is the work of writer/director Samuel Fuller, which is celebrated in the new 
While not up to the audio-visual oomph of a modern series, there’s something about seeing the “best you’ve ver seen it” of 
Kids today have no idea what seemingly-endless cartoon fun Saturday mornings used to be before the rise of cable and home video. For just a taste of what it was like, Warners has put together both 
It’s an interesting storytelling device, to present the machinations of the Battlestar Galactica finale from the side of the Cylons – I only wish that I cared about the show enough to be interested in 
Did you know that Barbara Stanwyck once had a TV show? Neither did I. But you can view the star-studded anthology series in the first volume of 
I was hoping the teaming of Woody Allen with Larry David would provide some kind of transcendent comedy, but 
Creepy kid genre? A surprisingly robust number of films. Add 
As I dug into the suddenly teenaged animated escapades of Tony Stark in 
Yeah, I’m sorry – I still can’t fathom what the appeal of the adventures of Peter Pan’s formerly jealous, vixenish pixie is to young girls, but I’m sure they’ll snap up the bland, CG 
There are many films from my childhood that I place upon a pedestal merely for sentimental reasons, despite glaring deficiencies in quality. You know exactly the type I mean. But then there’s 
There are a lot of low-cost portable video options out there, but there aren’t very many credit card-sized video players that will give you 2 GB of storage, a MiniSD slot, hours of playing time, AVI/MPEG ability, a built in external speaker, and included earphones for under $100. Well, ThinkGeek has got just such a 
Long a legendary cult tape often whispered about but rarely seen, 
In 1976, a group of British comedy and music luminaries got together for a benefit show to raise money for Amnesty International. In 1979, this charity gathering was rechristened The Secret Policeman’s Ball, and over the years would feature members of Monty Python, Peter Cook, Fry & Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, Pete Townshend, Neil Innes, Sting, Jackson Browne, French & Saunders, and many more. Long available in the UK, all of the classic Balls are now available in the US in the form of 
It seems like it’s taken years – because it has – but the we can now lay our mitts upon the eleventh and final season of 
Make the waiting for the next full season set a little easier with one of Nick’s holdover single-disc editions – 
He could be like battery acid in your ears, but the diamonds in the rough more than made it worth experiencing the comedy of Sam Kinison. He’s specials are finally getting the treatment they deserve with the special edition release 
All I could think while watching 
Warners has looked into the vaults and dug up four new-to-DVD flicks for their 
Okay, for the sole reason that it stars John Denver and John Rhys Davies, 
It did nothing at the box office, but 
Love is in the air – and Valentine’s Day is fast approaching – so it should be little surprise that Warners is releasing a 
Take Old School and make it about rock & roll dreams, and you’ve pretty much got 
Yes, I recall many a Saturday morning watching 
Paramount isn’t the only studio catching up on catalogue releases – Fox also brings their own basket of back titles to high definition with 
I admit it – with all due shame – I did watch at least the first season Blossom when it originally aired. In retrospect, I’m not sure why. It’s certainly your standard sitcom fare – except with a dancing Mayim Bialik. Am I being too hard on it? Well, you can judge for yourself with 
Another admission – there was a period when I read John Grisham novels. I’m not going to apologize – it’s a phase many go through, and then we move on. That means, however, that I’ve seen the quartet of films contained in the 
The second and final season of 
It’s not as good as he’s managed be lately, but 
Like Cops with even more junkies and dealers, Spike’s reality series 
Now that the classic specials have all gotten their due, the remastered edition treatment is turning towards the lesser of the Peanuts specials with 
One must marvel at the ability of 
Oh, Disney. What am I to do with 
Comedian Russell Peters delivers a one-two punch with a combo set of his stand up DVD and CD,