Hey, Warner Archives!

A few years ago, when my wife and I lived in Florida, our cable package included the GoodLife Network. This channel specialized in old TV shows and Rascal scooter/men's enhancement product commercials. But one night a week, they ran a spy night (I Spy, The Avengers and The Persuaders) and on another, it was Warner Brothers private eye night, with back-to-back episodes of the "shared universe" P.I. shows 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye and Surfside Six. (No Bourbon Street Beat, though. I wonder why?) 

Anyway, although my wife can be kinda picky about old television shows, we both enjoyed 77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye a lot. The shows were stylish, witty and featured fun ensemble casts and charming leads.

I'd love to have them all on DVD, but they've never been released on disc. I was talking about it with Brandi the other day, and it occurred to me that these shows would be ideal for the Warner Archive manufactured-on-demand DVD program. Like the many Hanna-Barbara cartoon shows that they've been issuing in complete series sets, the WB private eye shows would probably only be of interest to a comparatively small group of fans - but those fans would certainly be willing to pay to have them in authorized, complete season/series sets. They just started putting out The F.B.I. on DVD, so, obviously, they're not opposed to releasing some of their live-action TV back catalog.

I know I would collect them, if affordably priced. Anyone else out there want to see Warner Archives pull these great shows out of the vault?

Remembering Peter Cushing

Remembering the late, great Peter Cushing on his birthday. He was born on this day in 1913. Whether he was playing Van Helsing, Frankenstein, Doctor Who, Grand Moff Tarkin or Sherlock Holmes, Cushing was always a delight to watch.

CHUCK NORRIS KARATE KOMMANDOS

My review of this awesome 80s animated series is now posted at DVD Late Show, but I just had to share this video here. Enjoy!

THE BIG BANG Giveaway @ DVD Late Show

Every once in a while, I get the opportunity to give away free DVDs over at my DVD Late Show review site. Right now, I'm running a one-week contest with the prize, courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment, being the new nuclear noir, The Big Bang, starring Antonio Banderas, Sam Elliot, Autumn Reeser, Thomas Kretschmann, William Fictner, and Delroy Lindo.

I'll be reviewing this quirky, stylish Raymond Chandler homage on the Late Show site shortly, but I wanted to direct your attention to this contest, just in case you don't visit the Late Show regularly (and I really wish you would - over the past couple of weeks, I've posted reviews of Queen of Blood, The Terror on Blu-ray, The Dorm That Dripped Blood, The Great Scout And Cathouse Thursday and Daughters of Satan, and I've got The Big Bang, The Ambulance, Dementia 13 and Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos coming up soon! ).

Anyway, here's a LINK to the DVD Late Show Contest Page, with complete details on how to enter to win this disc. Be sure to follow the instructions carefully - a lot of people don't send me their names and addresses, and then I have to discard their entries. (Gotta have some rules, right?) Good luck!

Free Comic Book Day!

Today is Free Comic Book Day at participating comic book stores around the country. Unfortunately, I won't be able to participate this year, but I encourage every comics fan to head out to their local comics retailer, and bring a friend along!

There are a lot of great-looking giveaway books this year from all the major publishers. I'm particularly enthusiastic about the Civil War Adventure comic from my pal Chuck Dixon and artist Gary Kwapisz - which features action-packed historical tales of the American Civil War... and the all new Richie Rich comic from Kizoic/Ape Entertainment. It's an exciting new, action-adventure-oriented update of the classic comics character, and a perfect introduction to comics for young readers. 

And don't worry that your kids won't know who Richie Rich is - the same comic includes a Kung Fu Panda adventure, based on the Dreamworks animated movies. Both stories look great!

If historical tales and kid's comics aren't your thing, don't worry. Marvel offers the ever-reliable Spider-Man, DC has upcoming movie star Green Lantern, IDW offers Joe Hill's Locke & Key, and Archie Comics have, well, Archie (& the gang)! So drop by your local store today, and check out all the free comics goodness!

New Blog: Movie Poster Vault

My wife and I love movies... and movie posters. And I thought it would be fun to collect scans of amazing movie poster art on a site for our own enjoyment. But we wanted there to be some sort of unifying theme, so we decided that we would only post the theatrical posters for movies we actually own on DVD, Blu-Ray or Laserdisc. As we possess over 3,000 titles... and counting... this may take a while. Especially since we only post a batch of posters to it every once in a while.

If you've ever been curious about what my video collection looks like, well, the Mills Movie Poster Vault should give you an idea of the variety of films that my wife and I (though most of the posters so far are from movies that are more "mine" than "ours.") have collected. 

I probably should have set it up on Tumblr, since it seems to be a more image-oriented service, but I'm used to Blogger, so I set it up there. Check it out if you're interested.