More Info On Upcoming Spy TV DVDs

The excellent resource TVShowsOnDVD has had a lot of news lately on upcoming spy releases. Today, they follow-up yesterday's news item on The Wild Wild West: The Fourth Season with cover art and an official press release... which sadly seems to confirm that the reunion telefilms I mentioned yesterday will not be included.

They also report that Acorn Media will release the first season of Intelligence, a drama about Canadian spies, on April 29, 2008. The first season is 14 episodes and stars former Max Headroom and former Sherlock Holmes actor Matt Frewer. I don't know anything about his series or about the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), so my interest is definitely piqued.

Finally, the site did some digging to provide some answers about a wide release of Get Smart. I'd been wondering about this, because TimeLife's exclusive rights to the show were supposed to be for one year, starting last fall, and should have expired by now, yet we've still seen no sign of this show turning up in stores. According to TVShowsOnDVD, the exclusive window means only that other Warner affiliates (HBO Home Video in this case) can't sell it during that time, not that TimeLife will offer it in stores as soon as the window closes. When Get Smart is eventually released commercially, it will be via HBO and may not include the same extras as the TimeLife release or the same fantastic packaging. As to when that happens, that's up to HBO. My guess is they're waiting to tie in release of at least the first season (or maybe the whole series) with next summer's theatrical debut of the new Get Smart movie starring Steve Carrell. So fans who've been waiting patiently for a cheaper alternative to TimeLife will have to wait a little longer...