Levin, Peter

Joan of Arcadia - The Second Season

For two years, CBS's Joan of Arcadia managed the neat trick of warming the heart, while keeping the gag reflex at bay. And for a family drama based around faith--and the lack thereof--preachiness was always in short supply. At the end of the first season, Joan (Amber Tamblyn) decides it's all in her head: God isn't really speaking to her. Over the summer, she attends a camp for troubled kids, and now she makes lamps. Her boyfriend, Adam (Christopher Marquette), is as confused as ever; he was just starting to believe her. While Joan questions God's existence, her mother, Helen (Mary Steenburgen), plans a return to the Catholic Church. To that end, she starts meeting with chain-smoking former nun Lilly (Constance Zimmer, Boston Legal) to help with her confirmation. Joan's father, Will (Joe Mantegna), older brother Kevin (Jason Ritter), and Helen must also contend with the lawsuit filed by the boy who caused Kevin's accident, while Joan's younger brother, Luke (Michael Welch), continues to see the surly Grace (Becky Wahlstrom) in secret.

New Arcadia arrivals include Will's controlling boss, Lucy (Annie Potts), Joan's "crazy camp" friend, Judith (Sprague Grayden), and enigmatic do-gooder Ryan (Wentworth Miller, Prison Break), who shares Joan's gift. Despite critical kudos and respectable ratings, Joan of Arcadia wasn't picked up for a third season, but its spirit lives on in such disparate shows as Medium, in which a woman communicates with the dead, and My Name Is Earl, in which a man goes around doing good deeds. This six-disc set features commentary by creator Barbara Hall, producer James Hayman, and writer Stephen Nathan. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Millions of people speak to God. What if God spoke back? Life just got a hell of a lot more confusing for teenage Joan Girardi who already deals with feeling out of place in her family : her police chief father her somewhat overbearing mother her geeky younger brother and former football star older brother now paralyzed. They'd never believe her if she told them that God is talking to her. Does Joan have a higher purpose on earth or are these strange conversations just in her head?Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097368889644 Manufacturer No: 888964

Joan of Arcadia - The First Season

Once in awhile a show comes along that breaks the mold. Most such programs fail, but Joan of Arcadia set out to do something new, beat the odds, and found an audience. Created by Barbara Hall (Judging Amy), it's a unique hybrid of My So-Called Life, The Commish, and--well, something different. Unlike CBS predecessor Touched by an Angel, faith creates more questions than answers (and God even has a sense of humor).

Joan (Amber Tamblyn) is an ordinary 16-year-old. Father Will (Joe Mantegna) is the local Arcadia police chief, mother Helen (Mary Steenburgen) is a teacher/administrator, younger brother Luke (Michael Welch) is a fellow student, and older brother Kevin (Jason Ritter, son of John Ritter) is a high school graduate who was paralyzed the year before. He used to be popular and athletic. Now he watches TV and builds models. In the pilot, God speaks to Joan for the first time, as a cute boy, and asks her to get a job. Once she's convinced He's really God, she does. Her action inspires Kevin to get one, too, and his process of rejoining the world begins.

As in Joan Osborne's theme song, "One of Us" (featured on two episodes), God will continue to appear to Joan in a variety of guises--even as a dog walker who looks like Russ Tamblyn (Amber's father). He'll often ask her to do things that make her uncomfortable, but she'll always learn from the experience and some good will always come from it. Unfortunately, she isn't able to talk to anyone about this or they'd think she was crazy, not even friends Grace (Becky Hahlstrom) or Adam (Christopher Marquette). By the season finale, faith will be replaced by doubt, setting the scene for the second season, in which Joan's faith will be restored. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

After patriarch Will gets a job as the chief of police, the Girardi family moves to the small town of Arcadia from the big city. Middle child Joan isn't happy, and her family, consisting of science nerd Luke, paralyzed former jock Kevin, and their perpetually flustered mother Helen, isn't helping. Joan finds herself talking to God, in the form of random people who give her assignments to help the people around her. Joan keeps following God's assignments, never sure if she's really speaking to him, or just going crazy!

Homeless to Harvard - The Liz Murray Story

Thora Birch (American Beauty) is Liz Murray: homeless at 15, Harvard undergrad at 19. Based on a true story, the Lifetime movie begins when her mother, Jean (Kelly Lynch), a schizophrenic with a substance abuse problem, is placed in a mental institution. Liz and her sister are left with their father, Peter, who is also a drug addict. When Jean returns two years later, she's clean, but has AIDS (and will soon start drinking again). When Peter falls behind on the rent, they lose their apartment. He moves into a shelter, the rest move in with Jean's abusive father. Liz hits the streets soon afterwards. Once on her own, she gets serious about her studies and her hard work eventually pays off. Homeless to Harvard earned three Emmy nominations, including one for Birch, while Lynch (Drugstore Cowboy) is just as believable as her kindhearted mess of a mother. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Liz Murray was raised in poverty by drug-addicted parents. Though they loved her, they were unable to care for her and Liz ended up living on the streets by the age of 15. Profoundly affected by her mother's AIDS-related death, Liz forced herself to look at her future and make some significant changes. Her prospects were dismal, yet she turned her life around by going back to high school. After earning her diploma in just two years, while still homeless, Liz won a New York Times scholarship for needy students, which enabled her to attend Harvard University.

DVD Features:
Interviews:Interview with the real Liz Murray
Other:Inspirational message from Liz Murray

Family - The Complete First and Second Seasons

In the mid-'70s, Family was sort of the anti-All in the Family--dealing with the issues of the day, but far more sincerely and earnestly than Archie Bunker & tribe. In fact, the landmark series, which debuted in 1976 on ABC, quickly gained a following for its willingness to integrate controversy with a fairly typical upper-middle-class family. The Lawrences--headed by Sada Thompson as Kate and James Broderick (father of Matthew Broderick) as Doug--were close-knit but willing to face issues like infidelity, gay friends, alcoholism, divorce, and more--making it ground-breaking for primetime TV. The kids (divorcee Nancy, played in season 1 by Elayne Heilveil and replaced in season 2 by Meredith Baxter Birney; Willie, played by Gary Frank; and the heartbreakingly adorable Buddy, played by Kristy McNichol) knew they had mom and dad's support, even when the going got tough, and were there for each other when crises arose. And happily, the show's producers, which included Mike Nichols and Aaron Spelling, realized all this earnestness needed leavening with some humor. When Buddy is needling Willie for dance lessons so she can go to the Junior Jump with the babelicious Carl ("Hey, the Strawberry Shakes are playing!"), Willie balks. Then Buddy looks him square in the eye and says, "I need a personal triumph, Willie." She shoots, she scores. The show, which won Emmys for both Thompson and McNichol, boasts stellar writing and believable situations, and is still compulsive watchable years later. The boxed set includes all 28 episodes of the first two seasons. --A.T. Hurley

FAMILY is the hit dramatic series that explores the lives loves and hardships of a contemporary 1970s American family told with heart and humor. Originally given a six-episode run the show became a surprise hit in the fall of 1976 and won two Emmy® Awards for the second season. This groundbreaking series is a Mike Nichols production (Academy Award® winner 1967 Best Director The Graduate) created by Jay Presson Allen (Cabaret) and executive produced by the powerhouse producing team of Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg (TV's "Charlie's Angels" and "Starsky & Hutch").FAMILY follows the saga of the Lawrence family of Pasadena California - parents Kate (Sada Thompson) and Doug (James Broderick) and their three children: young divorced mother Nancy (played by Elayne Heilveil in the first season and by Meredith Baxter Birney in the second season) high school dropout Willie (Gary Frank) and young teenage daughter Buddy (Kristy McNichol). Notable guest stars include Willie Aames Helen Hunt James Woods and Tommy Lee Jones.System Requirements:Running Time 1288 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396156227 Manufacturer No: 15622

Starsky & Hutch - The Complete Third Season

Starsky & Hutch starring Pail Michael Glaser and David Soul is the epitome of the hip 70s buddy cop show. Season Three reacted to criticism about the hit series boundary-pushing violence by pumping up the serious drama. The 1977-1978 season tackled socially relevant themes like child abuse homosexuality and mental illness mixing issues with tire-squealing car chases gunplay and colorful recurring characters like jive-talking Huggy Bear (Antonio Fargas) and quick-tempered Captain Dobey (Bernie Hamilton). A dazzling array of guest stars including Danny DeVito Melanie Griffith Suzanne Somers Joan Collins and Philip Michael Thomas (TV s Miami Vice ) shared screen time with the two handsome cops who directed some Season Three episodes. The show s outrageous style and tongue-in-cheek humor now played alongside more serious story lines made STARSKY & HUTCH one of the most popular and innovative cop shows ever.System Requirements:Starring: Paul Michael Glaser David Soul Bernie Hamilton Antonio Fargas Running Time: 1130 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396101654 Manufacturer No: 10165

Starsky & Hutch - The Complete Fourth Season

A cop-buddy show, with two bachelor detectives, street-wise informants, and muscle cars.
Genre: Television
Rating: NR
Release Date: 17-OCT-2006
Media Type: DVD

Starsky & Hutch - The Complete First Season

In the rough-and-tumble, wildly entertaining world of Starsky & Hutch, impatient cops--anxious to join a foot race in pursuit of a villain--throw themselves out of moving vehicles and roll to a bruising stop. Undercover detectives Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson (David Soul), hardly imbued with the powers of Spider-Man, routinely scale walls, hop from rooftop to rooftop, and fling themselves down steep hillsides to stop bad guys from doing what bad guys do.

Two years before Hill Street Blues redefined the cop genre as a mesh of overlapping storylines and workaday frustrations, Aaron Spelling's Starsky & Hutch capped a five-year run (1975-1979) portraying LA's finest as madly heroic creatures of reckless determination and physicality. The Complete First Season reminds us how startlingly brutal this primetime series could be while maintaining a delightful, often incongruous, self-deprecating humor.

From the series pilot on, partners and best pals Starsky and Hutch work a fine line between predator and prey, relentlessly pursuing suspects while also snared by crime chieftains or short-sighted superiors. In "The Fix," Hutch's secret romance with the former girlfriend of a mafia boss (Robert Loggia) results in the lawman's kidnapping and forced addiction to heroin. Similarly, in "A Coffin for Starsky," a mad chemist injects the wisecracking cop with a slow-acting but lethal poison. "Jo-Jo," written by Michael Mann, finds our guys at loggerheads with federal officers over a dumb deal the G-Men make with a serial rapist.

The 23 episodes in this set are all fun, if sometimes shocking, viewing. Expect each character to take as much abuse as he dishes out. Still, the comic sight of Starsky and Hutch (in "Death Notice") trying to conduct business amidst busy strippers is well worth the surrounding violence. --Tom Keogh

Produced by Aaron Spelling (TV's "Charlie's Angels" TV's "S.W.A.T.") and Leonard Goldberg "STARSKY AND HUTCH" roared onto small screens in 1975 to become one of the most popular iconic series of the decade. This was TV's coolest buddy cop show fueled by full-throttle car chases offbeat humor colorful characters and a hip vibe. The hit series (1975-1979) followed streetwise undercover detectives Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson (David Soul) as they cruised around town in Starsky's red and white-striped Gran Torino battling thugs and hoodlums with the help of their gruff boss Captain Harold Dobey (Bernie Hamilton Blacula Scream!) and jive-talking informant Huggy Bear (Antonia Fargas Shaft Car Wash).System Requirements:Starring: Paul Michael Glaser David Soul Bernie Hamilton Antonio Fargas Running Time: 1173 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396006652 Manufacturer No: 00665

Starsky & Hutch - The Complete Second Season

Starsky & Hutch: The Complete Second Season proves the 1970s ABC series, in its sophomore year, both codified its earliest strengths while continuing to evolve into a sharper, wittier, and often darker show. Contributing to those improvements were the stars themselves: David Soul (who plays maverick police detective, intellectual, and health nut Ken Hutchinson) and Paul Michael Glaser (as Hutch's more impulsive, junk-food-junkie partner Dave Starsky), each of whom directed exemplary episodes in season 2. Series creators also struck a more entertaining balance between the comic and dramatic possibilities inherent in Starsky and Hutch's bluntly honest, fraternal relationship. A number of stories placed the guys in intentionally funny undercover situations: as garish gamblers in the two-part opener "The Las Vegas Strangler;" entertainment directors (named Hack and Zack) on a luxury cruise ship in "Murder at Sea;" gigolo-like dance aficionados in the playfully-titled "Tap Dancing Her Way Right Back into Your Hearts;" and, most amusingly, stunt men in "Murder on Stage 17."

Those are all good shows, and the duo often bicker within them, to great comic effect, like an old married couple. (Soul and Glaser's commitment to their schtick as well as their more emotionally raw collaborations is truly admirable.) But it's the relentlessly tougher episodes that prove each character's mettle and demonstrates the depth of Starsky and Hutch's mutual trust. Among these is the powerful "Gillian," in which Starsky discovers Hutch's classy new girlfriend is a prostitute and breaks the news to his shattered friend. Somewhat lighter but just as revealing is "Little Girl Lost," starring a young Kristy McNichol as an orphaned street urchin whom Hutch, lately in a misanthropic, anti-Christmas mood, takes into his home. Glaser's directorial debut, the harrowing "Bloodbath," gives Soul a lot of room for an intensely physical and psychological performance as Hutch scurries to find his kidnapped partner. Soul returns the favor with "Survival," in which Starsky desperately seeks his missing pal, trapped and slowly dying beneath a car wreck. All in all, a very good season, with (of course) Antonio Fargas still sharp as sidekick Huggy Bear. --Tom Keogh

Produced by Aaron Spelling (TV's "Charlie's Angels" TV's "S.W.A.T.") "STARSKY AND HUTCH" roared onto small screens in 1975 to become one of the most popular iconic series of the decade. This was TV's coolest buddy cop show fueled by full-throttle car chases offbeat humor colorful characters and a hip vibe. The hit series (1975-1979) followed streetwise undercover detectives Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson (David Soul) as they cruised around town in Starsky's red and white-striped Gran Torino battling thugs and hoodlums with the help of their gruff boss Captain Harold Dobey (Bernie Hamilton Blacula Scream!) and jive-talking informant Huggy Bear (Antonia Fargas Shaft Car Wash).System Requirements:Starring: Paul Michael Glaser David Soul Bernie Hamilton Antonio Fargas Running Time: 1240 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396062184 Manufacturer No: 06218

A Perfect Day

An author discovers fame when his book skyrockets to the bestseller list. But the trappings of his success challenges his relationships to his wife and daughter and it takes a visit from a mysterious stranger telling him he has 40 days to live for him to get his moral bearings back.System Requirements:Run Time: 91 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/LOVE & ROMANCE UPC: 043396225060 Manufacturer No: 22506

Queen Sized