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When a television series becomes a full-fledged hit, creatively and/or commercially, a great deal of pressure is immediately placed on its showrunner, writers, and producers to keep their audience engaged. The trick for these creatives is to give viewers more of what they love while also keeping the show from growing stale -- but how to go about this has changed drastically over the years, particularly for sitcoms.

When people tuned into series like "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "The Odd Couple," and "The Bob Newhart Show," they weren't eagerly anticipating the next chapter in an ongoing narrative as they did/do with modern sitcoms like "Arrested Development," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage." While those older shows did feature characters attempting to achieve certain objectives over the course of several seasons, viewers generally kept coming back just to see superb comedic ensembles generate big laughs. And...

Hello, readers, and welcome to a new year of releases! We may already be well into the month of January, but this is our first official weekly Blu-ray and DVD recap of 2019, since last week was a quiet one on the home media front, and we already have a ton of titles to get excited for this Tuesday. If you happened to miss Hell Fest when it was in theaters last year, you can now catch up with Gregory Plotkin’s slasher on various formats, and as far as recent genre series are concerned, the first seasons of both The Purge and Castle Rock are making their way home tomorrow as well.

Scream Factory is kicking off another great year of releases with the Nic Cage thriller 8Mm, and Scorpion Releasing has put together a special edition Blu for Blind Date that cult fans are going to want to pick up.

One of our favorite writers, Dennis Cozzalio, is with us again for today's Saturday Matinee. Dennis, not coincidentally, presides over one of our favorite film blogs, Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule. The occasion is the premiere of Allan Arkush's commentary for John Landis' Animal House which will run this coming Monday. Dennis happened to be an extra on the film so we asked him to share his experiences. We're also pleased to present some rare production stills courtesy of Katherine Wilson, the movie's local casting director in Oregon. Enjoy! Eugene, Oregon, Fall 1977. I was a first-term freshman trying to squeak out at least a 3.0 Gpa my first time at bat at the University of Oregon. I had enrolled in the film studies department, officially proclaiming it my major, fully expecting to broaden my horizons by seeing a lot of films to which I had never had the opportunity to be exposed.

Bluto tells me that this is the best that Animal House has looked on home video and I have to trust him since he.s pre-med. The ultimate college party movie finally arrives in high definition so rev up the Deathmobile and go along for the ride. In 1962, Faber College freshmen Lawrence Kroger (Thomas Hulce) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst) are looking to pledge to a fraternity. The duo visit the big frat on campus Omega Theta Pi, Gregory Marmaland (James Daughton), the Omega president, Douglas C. Neidermeyer (Mark Metcalf), member and psychotic Rotc captain, make Kroger and Dorfman unwelcome in favor of more simpatico pledges like Chip Diller (Kevin Bacon). Kent.s brother was in Delta Tau...