• "I Love Lucy: The Complete Fourth Season" (CBS/Para-mount, 1954-55, not rated, $54.99, five discs). This is the season that Ricky (Desi Arnaz) took Lucy (Lucille Ball) and the Mertzes (Vivian Vance, William Frawley) to Hollywood, allowing for celebrity-guest appearances galore.
The most famous are by William Holden, who tries to light Lucy's cigarette but instead lights her false nose, and Harpo Marx and Lucy (subbing for Groucho) in a hilarious replication of the mirror sequence from "Duck Soup." Van Johnson, Rock Hudson, Richard Widmark, Tennessee Ernie Ford and more are also here.
Extras: Full frame, 30 episodes, bloopers, restored music, making-of audio featurette, original openings, original animated transitions, production notes, five audio episodes of "My Favorite Husband," language and subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters.
• "Gilmore Girls" (Warner, 2002-03, not rated, $59.98, six discs). Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel are back as mother and daughter Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, quick with a quip and involved in goofy small-town soap operas in this witty, very funny show.
The stories in this third season continue Lorelai's tenuous relationship with her parents (Kelly Bishop, Edward Herrmann), see Rory graduating from high school and preparing to enter college, and have both still looking for romance in all the wrong places.
Extras: Full frame, 22 episodes, deleted scenes, making-of featurettes, subtitle options (English, French, Spanish), chapters.
• "Touched By an Angel" (CBS/Paramount, 1995-96, not rated, $54.99, six discs). The second season of this made-in-Utah faith-promoting series brings John Dye onboard as Andrew the Angel of Death, who assists angels Monica (Roma Downey) and her supervisor Tess (Della Reese) in helping people get through a variety of soap-opera dilemmas. Guest stars include Maya Angelou, Natalie Cole, Hal Linden, Cindy Williams, Stacy Keach and Kathie Lee Gifford.
Extras: Full frame, 22 episodes, language options (English, Spanish), chapters.
• "Joan of Arcadia: The First Season" (CBS/Paramount, 2003-04, not rated, $54.99, six discs). Here's another good-hearted show with characters who express an open belief in God, although this one is definitely more quirky. Amber Tamblyn stars as a high school girl who talks to God (who appears in various character forms — some quite unexpected), and whose family has problems of their own (Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen co-star).
Extras: Widescreen, 23 episodes, audio commentaries (on select episodes with cast and crew), making-of featurettes, photo gallery, chapters.
• "Star Trek Enterprise" (Paramount, 2001-02, not rated, $129.99, seven discs). This final entry in the multiple "Star Trek" series (well, until the next one) was a bit of a disappointment for fans and critics, but this first season is pretty good — set 100 years prior to Capt. Kirk and the gang in the original show. Scott Bakula stars, and Jolene Blalock is this show's Vulcan. As fans expect, there are also plenty of bonus features.
Extras: Widescreen, 25 episodes, audio commentary (on premiere episode), text commentary (on three episodes), making-of featurettes, interviews, deleted scenes, bloopers, chapters.
• "Have Gun — Will Travel: The Complete Second Season" (CBS/Paramount, 1968-59, not rated, b/w, $44.99, six discs). More half-hour black-and-white Western adventures with Richard Boone excellent as Paladin, an Old West gunslinger with compassion. This second season boasts some top-notch guest stars — Vincent Price, Suzanne Pleshette, Charles Bronson, Harry Morgan, Morey Amsterdam, Lon Chaney Jr., etc.
Extras: Full frame, 39 episodes, text information on stars and various episodes.
• "The Carol Burnett Show: Let's Bump Up the Lights" (CBS/Paramount, 2004, not rated, $19.99). In front of a live audience, Burnett, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner sit around in director's chairs and reminisce about the 11-season variety show and offer more clips and bloopers in this follow-up to the 2001 special "Showstoppers." Great fun for fans of the show.
Extras: Full Frame, chapters.
• "Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines: The Complete Series" (Warner, 1969, not rated, $34.98, three discs). This is Hanna-Barbera's spinoff series from "Wacky Races," with Dick Dastardly (Paul Winchell, perhaps best known as the voice of Tigger in Disney's early "Winnie the Pooh" cartoons), who flies a World War I plane, and his co-pilot, a dog named Muttley (voiced by Don Messick, who also did Scooby-Doo).
Extras: Full frame, 17 episodes, audio commentaries (on two episodes), making-of featurette, language and subtitle options (English, French, Spanish), chapters.
• "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop: The Complete Series" (Warner, 1969, not rated, $34.98, three discs). Paul Lynde provides the chief villain's voice here, as Penelope Pitstop marks another spinoff of "Wacky Races." She's a feisty heroine in stylish go-go boots, pursued by Sylvester Sneekly (alias the Hooded Claw).
Extras: Full frame, 17 episodes, audio commentaries (on two episodes), two making-of featurettes, language and subtitle options (English, French, Spanish), chapters.
• "Ed, Edd n Eddy: Volume 1: Edifying Ed-Ventures" (Cartoon Network/Warner, 1999, not rated, $14.97). This Cartoon Network show about a crude but generally good-natured trio of kids has a following, thanks to smart dialogue (but not the kind you'll want your kids repeating much). Beware of cartoons described as outlandish.
Extras: Full frame, six episodes, making-of featurettes, music video, bonus cartoon: "The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy in Nursery Crimes," subtitle options (English, French, Spanish), chapters.
• "The Golden Blaze" (Warner, 2004, not rated, $19.98). This animated film is about two African-American schoolboys whose intense sparring eventually brings their fathers into the fray, which takes a strange twist when the fathers develop superpowers after an accident.
Extras: Full frame, chapters.
• "Dora the Explorer: It's a Party!" (Nick Jr./Paramount, 2005, not rated, $16.99). Dora and friends encourage Spanish-language and math skills in this set. The episodes are "Daisy, la Quinceanera," "The Bit Pinata," "Surprise!" and "The Fix-It Machine."
Extras: Full frame, four episodes, chapters.
E-mail: hicks@desnews.com