Andy and Opie can be found on DVD

A wide variety of TV series have come to DVD this week, led by a rerun staple.

• "The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete First Season" (Paramount, 1960-61, not rated, b/w, $38.99, four discs). Although many episodes of this show are available on a variety of video labels, this is the first time an entire season has been collected in one box set.

It begins with the pilot, as Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) has been elected sheriff of the small Southern town of Mayberry. Andy is a widower, raising his young son Opie (Ronnie Howard), and in the pilot, Andy's Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier) moves in to care for the lad. But Opie has trouble warming to her because he misses his previous sitter.

Each episode is sweet and warm, and some are also quite funny in a soft, easygoing way. It's the kind of gentle comedy we don't have anymore, and it's a nice diversion from the loud din of modern entertainment.

My only complaint: The awful laugh track.

Extras: Full frame, 32 episodes, chapters.

• "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: The Complete Epic Series" (Universal, 1979-81, not rated, $89.98, five double-sided discs). Gil Gerard stars in this short-lived show, which made its debut with a theatrical film in 1979, followed six months later by the series. (The film is included in this set.)

Gerard is Capt. Buck Rogers, an astronaut whose ship goes missing in 1987. Buck winds up frozen, and when he awakens, it's 500 years in the future, and Earth has decidedly changed. So Buck links up with a humorless but beautiful major (Erin Gray) and they spend much of the series battling the Draconians, led by evil Princess Ardala (Pamela Hensley) and her henchman (Henry Silva). In later episodes, you'll see that the abbreviated second season brought some stark changes to the format and supporting cast, including the addition of British character actor Wilfred Hyde-White.

The show is campy fun — in a "Battlestar Galactica" kind of way (both are from producer Glen A. Larson) — with deadpan performances and frequent attempts at humor (mostly thanks to Buck's wisecracking slang), and as it came out right after "Star Wars," there's a comic-relief robot named Twiki (a combination of R2D2 and C3PO).

There are also lots of guest stars, and stars-to-be, in various episodes, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Roddy McDowall, Dennis Haysbert, Jerry Orbach, Ray Walston — and in a performance that gives new meaning to over the top, Jack Palance.

Extras: Full frame, theatrical pilot film, 31 episodes, subtitle options (English, French), chapters.