x-files

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow. It's a complete series extravaganza!

• The Andy Williams Show - Best Of
• The Bob Hope Show - The Ultimate Collection
• The Captain and Tennille - TV Specials
• The Colbert Report - Best Of
• The Cosby Show - Season 5 and 6
• Doctor Who - Series 3, Story #123 and 124
• Flight of the Conchords - Season 1
• Full House - Complete Series and Season 8
• Gilligan's Island - Complete Series
• House of Venus - Season 1
• King of Queens - Complete Series
• Martin - Season 3
• McLeod's Daughters - Season 4
• The Munsters - Scary Little Christmas
• The Pink Panther Show - A Pink Christmas
• Project Runway - Season 3
• Seinfeld - Complete Series and Season 9
• Sesame Street - Old School Vol. 2
• The Tonight Show - Heeere's Johnny: The Definitive DVD Collection
• Wildfire - Season 2
• Wings - Season 5
• Wonder Woman - Complete Collection
• The X-Files - Complete Collection Edition

Here is the total number of full episodes I have watched of the X-Files: one. It's not because I thought that the writing was poor or the acting was worse than what's normally seen at a 5th grade play. No, it was because the episode I saw freaked me out so much that my initial thought was 'If they're all like this I'd rather watch paint dry'.

You can probably guess what episode I'm talking about. If not, let me refresh your memory. The episode was entitled 'Home' and it aired during the fourth season of the series. It started out fairly benign: Scully and Mulder are brought in to investigate the discovery of a newborn corpse with numerous birth defects that was buried in a shallow grave. As the episode went on, though, it got increasingly disturbing as we found out that the newborn was the result of generations of inbreeding from a family who wanted to reamain "pure".

So let's say you had an extra $900 lying around and you really loved science fiction shows. What DVDs would you buy?

Amazon is making your decision a little bit easier for you. They have a special bundle for sale, nine different FOX/MGM shows at 49% off. OK, it's still a little pricey at $900 (you could probably put that money toward your rent), but look at what you get: the Buffy, The Vampire Slayer Collector's Set, The Angel Collector's Set, The X-Files Ultimate Collection, all ten Stargate: SG-1 seasons and all three Stargate Atlantis seasons, all four seasons of The Pretender (plus the movies), all three seasons of Roswell, both seasons of Dark Angel, and Firefly: The Complete Series. Holy crap!

Aw, this is sad news: longtime Match Game panelist Charles Nelson Reilly has died at the age of 76.

Of course, he was known for a lot more than that. He won a Tony Award in 1962 for his work on Broadway in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Reilly was also an acclaimed director, directing such plays as The Belle of Amherst and The Gin Game. He also directed several episodes of the TV show Evening Shade. He was a regular on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and appeared on many other shows, including Hollywood Squares, Love Boat, Nanny and the Professor, Lidsville, Here's Lucy, Love, American Style, Amazing Stories, Family Matters, The Drew Carey Show, SpongeBob SquarePants, and The X-Files.

He died of pneumonia in Los Angeles on Friday.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Check out Oprah Winfrey doing some improv with the gang from Thank God You're Here.
• What do Zach Braff, Rob Lowe, Paul Rudd, Claire Danes, and Amy Adams have in common?
• Whitney Matheson has a quick interview with SNL/30 Rock star Jason Sudeikis.
• For some reason, Erik Estrada got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame yesterday.
• X-Files star Gillian Anderson doesn't like television.
• TV Guide.com's Ken Fox catches Avril Lavigne on Letterman and calls her a fraud.

Welcome to TV Squad Lists (formerly 'The Five'), a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.

Since I've already done a list of the greatest police detectives and the greatest private eyes, the next list is a natural: Greatest Spies and Agents!

The guidelines for this list? A spy that worked for an agency or someone that worked in an official governmental capacity, such as the FBI or CIA. Here we go:

1. Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott (I Spy): These two guys weren't only resourceful, but they were the coolest cats around. Robinson and Scott were spies, but they travelled the world working on cases disguised as a tennis pro and his trainer. How awesome is that? The show was filmed on location (you hardly ever see that), and a lot of the dialogue was improvised and casual. Great theme song too.

Former TV stars don't fade away, they just get new gigs on hip new shows on cable.

David Duchovny, Agent Fox Mulder of X-Files fame, has just signed on to star in a new comedy for Showtime. He'll play a writer named Hank Moody who is divorced with a 16 year-old daughter. He's not only still in love with his ex-girlfriend, played by Natasha McElhone of Solaris), but he has a lot of addictions too. The show will premiere this summer and be paired with another quirky show, Weeds. There's no title yet, though the pilot was titled Californication.

This might be the series that finally makes me get Showtime. Oh, this and This American Life.

Here's some news to add on to our Holiday Loot spending guides we've been posting: Amazon is having a huge sale on FOX DVDs, some of them as much as 50% off. So now you can get those cool DVDs you asked someone to get you for Christmas but didn't get because someone got you socks or a McDonald's gift card instead.

For example, you can get the first season of Bones for only $24.97, which is 50% off the list price. A fan of Arrested Development? You can get the third season for only $18.00! You can also get seasons of The X-Files, M*A*S*H, Angel, and other titles. Of course, if you're already a fan of these shows you may have already bought them when they first came out. But I know a lot of people (like me) don't always buy the DVDs when they first go on sale. Unless it's the complete seasons of shows like The West Wing and The Twilight Zone, and then I go nutty.

Amazon always has discounts on their items, less than you'd pay in the store, but these prices are even bigger discounts than usual so it might be a good time to beef up your collection.

[via TVShowsOnDVD]