I’ve been viewing the first set of Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends DVDs this week. I don’t mind the use of the second season opening titles (the syndication package was entirely presented as The Bullwinkle Show from when I was a toddler, so much of those episodes were “wrong” if you’re going to be a purist). The creation of the European syndication package doesn’t bother me (the reason why the Bullwinkle Studios/Classic Media DVD sets follow this pattern owes to the fact that General Mills owns North American broadcast rights to The Bullwinkle Show in perpetuity). I don’t greatly mind the digital substitution of the Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends logo apart from wishing the design was a closer fit to the Jay Ward house style. Like most cult TV DVD sets, this contains material that was scarce for a long time… now you can own it for buttons.

I was not previously aware of this, but Shout! Factory are releasing a DVD edition of Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video on 13 January 2009. TV Shows on DVD hadn’t mentioned it, and they’re compulsive.

Mondo Video was originally constructed to air during the Saturday Night Live timeslot and in some ways was everything the show pretended to be (since it was completely devised by Michael O’Donoghue, this should be self-evident). It only aired in syndication after a brief theatrical run; Michael Nesmith’s Pacific Arts released a home video edition more than twenty years ago. The history of the show itself is best told by Dennis Perrin’s biography. I was very fond of most of the show, which was more in the moment than Saturday Night Live was at the time (or would be in the next five years to follow).

Nothing seems to have come of the story that made the rounds a month ago about nine missing episodes from series one of Doctor Who being traced to Thailand. The story in the Telegraph really didn’t seem to contain news as such—targeted searches for missing episodes have been ongoing for years.

Like many tens of thousands of viewers, I was pleased to see this note on the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam:

Do note that my wife and I have decided to keep one of the litter (yay!) so we’ll likely have the webcam positioned in different rooms so you can tune in and watch the pup grow. :) Finally, the (Ustream) founders have generously offered to give each of the pups new owners a webcam ( …acceptance will be up to the decision of each individual owner… ).

Caroline and I have spent hours watching this Puppy Cam and it mystifies me that Animal Planet refuses to figure out how to make this kind of simple, gratifying presentation… apart from It’s Me or the Dog, it seems like every prime-time Animal Planet series is meant to disturb the viewer.

Koch Vision is releasing a complete series set of the ITC classic The Baron in March 2009. TV Shows on DVD posted the sleeve art earlier today. Koch could not have done a worse job had they been deliberately trying. The cover makes New Video’s rush jobs on A&ampE’s DVD sets look professional by comparison. The typefaces do not compliment one another. The angle of the word “THE” is not parallel to the word “BARON”. The shadow on Steve Forrest is not physically possible. The collage is horrible and conveys nothing of the show, because the concept is wrong (this is an ITC adventure series from the 1960s, not a pulp novel on film).

We bought the Network edition for my birthday last year and enjoyed every episode. Beautiful cover, correct logo, the right typeface and colour scheme and Sue Lloyd.