DVDs That Ought To Be

In the not-too-distant past, it seemed likely that every movie and TV series known to man would eventually make its way to DVD. But now the explosion of streaming services seems to have killed that dream. Here are 10 TV shows that deserve to be on DVD but somehow missed the wave:

Strange Luck

It's hard to classify this show. Chance Harper suffers from extremely good and bad luck, all at the same time. Convoluted coincidences dog his steps in every twisted plot, leading up to a bizarre conclusion.

Disney's House of Mouse

Not the best of Disney's TV forays, but seeing the interaction between characters from different movies, each more obscure than the last, is something I never get tired of. Watching Jiminy's attempt at being Mickey's conscience, Cruella siziing up Beast's hide, and Capt. Hook making eyes at Maleficent make this series well worth owning.

The Eddie Capra Mysteries

Ellery Queen was a better show with better mysteries and better characters, but this is still a fun series. The cast has enough personality to keep you interested, and the stories are fair mysteries with real clues, providing real entertainment for armchair sleuths.

Wildside

At least this show got a VHS video release, but I'd sure like a DVD of these five quirky cowboys and they're slightly offbeat western adventures.

The Harlem Globetrotters

No, not Super Trotters. Not the Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine. The original Harlem Globetrotters cartoon featured the famous team traveling from stadium to stadium helping strangers, catching crooks, and generally having adventures. Oh, and playing basketball, too, possibly against a team of hillbillies, or kangaroos, or even blindfolded. It's a classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon at least as good as the more popular Josie and the Pussycats.

Salvage 1

Once upon a time, a junk man had a dream...a dream that began with a trip to the moon in a homemade rocket, just to salvage the equipment left by the astronauts. After that, the Salvage team went after a robot, a haunted house, an antique car with a secret, and just about anything else you can think of. The only DVDs so far available are of the few two-part episodes, which are, frankly, not the best of the series. The fact that there are five or so eps which were never shown on TV makes this show an even better candidate for DVD release.

Disney's Legend of Tarzan

The Disney animated Tarzan is a fantastic movie; the ape-man's further adventures as revealed in this series are also worth watching, especially for fans of the orignal Edgar Rice Burroughs novels, because many elements from those tales are used on the show.

Sword of Justice

Maybe this series about a playboy wrongfully accused of fraud who becomes a vigilante to avenge his wrongs is typical light '70s fare, but I sure liked it back then, and recently enjoyed an episode I found online. Besides, I think Bert Rosario is cute.

The Charmings

Snow White, Prince Charming, and family are transported to modern times in this fish-out-of-water comedy. The costumes, the Disney references, the miscommunications are all fun and, well, charming.

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

Another good Disney series that gives us the fictional tv show the Toy Story action figure comes from. Buzz has an interesting team of fellow Space Rangers and a rogues gallery almost as good as Darkwing Duck's. And speaking of DW...

...next week check out three Disney TV series that got short shrift on DVD.

By Whatsits Galore.

Glitches from Disney's Tarzan

Check out these mistakes from the Disney version of Tarzan:

After the baboon chase, the sketch magically appears in Jane's waistband.

Tarzan is surprised to learn there are other creatures like him. Does this mean that Kala told him he was her natural offspring? If so, all the other apes must be keeping the secret with her, since they all know she found him as a baby. On the other hand, if Tarzan knows he's a foundling, he must realize he came from parents like himself, and that similar creatures exist somewhere.

We know Professor Porter is eccentric, which is why he brings armchairs on his African expedition. But a grandfather clock? What could possibly be more useless?

On the trip back to camp, Jane has Tarzan stop swinging somewhere along the line so she can put her hair up. More...

Notes on the Dating of Disney's Tarzan

The Legend of Tarzan animated TV series gives some new insight into the dating of Disney's Tarzan. There are several indicators that may suggest an approximate year, but one reference is absolutely definitive: the sign on Dumont's trading post which states that it was "est. 1912".

Even allowing for the possibility of time passing between the end of the movie and the beginning of the series, this firmly places the characters in the post-Victorian world. How, then, can this date be reconciled with the clues in the animated feature? Jane's dress is clearly Victorian, and she anticipates meeting the Queen herself, who died in 1901. More...

Mangani: the Language of Tarzan

You may know that the word tarzan means white skin in Mangani. Tarzan is the only human being able to speak the language of the Great Apes...until now. You, too, can learn to speak like a Mangani. Whatsits Galore presents here a dictionary of Mangani words, direct from the novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which will prove beneficial to linguists and anyone else who may find himself in the jungles of Africa any time in the future.

African wildcat -- Skree

ant -- Kando

antelope -- Wappi More...

The Tarzan Equation

As longtime fans of the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, as well as Disney fans extraordinaire, we faced a dilemma: how would Disney's animated Tarzan feature stack up against the original novels? Would it be good Disney, but bad Tarzan? Or perhaps the other way around? Would it satisfy both the Mousketeer and the Tarmangani spirit in us? Here are the results of our musings. More...