Time for a little TV/DVD news kids!

Eric Roberts, brother of Julia Roberts, who also played The Doctor's legendary adversary "The Master", in the 1996 Fox/Universal/BBC produced "Doctor Who The Movie", not available in the U.S. on video or DVD, will soon join ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston on NBC's Sci Fi hit "Heroes". Eccleston plays a new bearded hero blessed with invisibility named Claude, for Claude Rains, of course. He made his debut at the end of the Jan. 22 episode and will become a mentor to Peter. My favorite bit of TV news though, is the announcement that "McHale's Navy" (1962-1966) first Seasons' 36 episodes will soon join the ranks of some of my favorite old sitcoms like "Hogan's Heroes" on the DVD shelves. The release date is set for March 20, 2007 and is available at Amazon for pre-order. Seems a little pricey though. Since it's only four seasons I may wait for the boxset that will most likely be cheaper than buying the seasons individually. By the way, hope you waited on the "M*A*S*H" box set and saved a TON of cash over the individual season prices. This has to be one of the funniest sitcoms ever, primarily due to the interaction between Tim Conway (Ensign Charles Parker) and Joe Flynn (Captain Wallace Binghampton). DID YOU KNOW, that the original pilot for the show was a drama? "It was an episode of Fred Astaire's Premiere Theater (also known as Alcoa Premiere, formerly Alcoa Theater) titled "Seven Against The Sea", a World War Two drama about a resourceful group of stranded American PT boat crewmen hiding out on a South Pacific island controlled by the Japanese Navy. When an American lieutenant parachutes onto the island, the group's commander, Skipper McHale (Ernest Borgnine) is forced to make a choice - risk certain death to attack the Japanese and save American lives or continue life on the island where they've carved out a slice of paradise. The island natives provide some comedy relief, but for the most part the story is played straight." You can find screen captures and short video clips, along with the remaining text of the above description of the episode here. There is also a nice entry in Wikipedia for both the pilot and the series. Unfortunately it doesn't look as though the pilot will be included in the collection, hopefully it will be added to the boxset.