TV series make another showing

Television series on DVD continue to be a cash cow for the studios. Though a lot of classic series, such as “I Love Lucy,” “Gunsmoke” and “Moonlighting,” and top-rated contemporary shows, such as “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost,” have made their digital debuts, so have shows that were perhaps best left forgotten. This week’s crop has both.

“Grey’s Anatomy -- Season One” (Buena Vista, $30) features all nine episodes of the ABC medical series that recently won the Writers Guild Award for best new series; regular Sandra Oh also won Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards last month for her work as a competitive intern.

“Grey’s Anatomy” was a midseason replacement last year that was given the 10 p.m. Sunday slot directly after “Desperate Housewives.” It quickly caught on with audiences and is consistently in the top 10. The show not only features interesting medical cases but also an attractive, talented cast and plenty of sex and romance.

The two-disc set includes commentary on the pilot with creator Shonda Rhimes and director Peter Horton and a separate track with cast members T.R. Knight, Katherine Heigl and Oh, a behind-the-scenes featurette and deleted scenes.

The clever improvisational comedy series “Significant Others” lasted two six-episode seasons on Bravo. All 12 are featured on the two-disc “Significant Others -- The Complete Series” (Shout! Factory, $30). The show revolves around three diverse and wacky couples at various stages in their relationships who go to marriage counseling. The digital edition features commentary on three episodes with effusive executive producer Rob Roy Thomas and co-executive producer Jordana Arkin.

After Nell Carter won a Tony Award for her performance in the Fats Waller musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ,” she came to Hollywood to star in the 1981-87 NBC sitcom “Gimme a Break.” Universal is releasing the first season ($35) of the comedy series that earned Carter two Emmy nominations and two Golden Globe nominations for her performance as the sassy housekeeper of a hard-nosed chief of police (Dolph Sweet, who died in 1985), a widower with three children. Because the laughs were seamlessly intermixed with pathos and heart, “Gimme a Break” holds up quite well.

The African American comedy series “Living Single” (Warner, $30) had a healthy run on Fox (1993-98) and won several Image Awards. The first-season DVD set features 27 episodes. The hard-working cast, including Queen Latifah, Kim Coles, Kim Fields and Erika Alexander, made the show a lot funnier than it otherwise would have been. The sole extra is a retrospective on the series.

Maybe camp value is the reason Universal has released the first season of the 1984-85 CBS comedy series “Charles in Charge” ($35). Scott Baio plays a college student who becomes a live-in housekeeper and nanny to a family with three kids. Willie Aames plays his best friend. The series was canceled after just one season and was resurrected in 1987 in a syndicated version that put Charles with a new family. The syndicated series lasted until 1990. The DVD set includes the first episode of the syndicated series.

Also new

“Saw II” (Lionsgate, $29): Blood and body parts flow freely in this sequel to the low-budget 2004 hit horror film “Saw.” In this outing, the madman Jigsaw imprisons several losers who must find their way out of a booby-trapped house before the lethal gas he has pumping through the vents kills them. Considering the gruesome subject matter, the commentary track with director Darren Lynn Bousman and actors Donnie Wahlberg and Beverly Mitchell of “Seventh Heaven” is surprisingly funny.

“Proof” (Miramax, $30): Although she received some of the strongest reviews of her career, Gwyneth Paltrow failed to earn an Oscar nomination this year for her gutsy turn in this adaptation of David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a troubled young woman who for years took care of her brilliant but mentally unbalanced father (Anthony Hopkins). “Proof” marks Paltrow’s reteaming with director John Madden, who in addition to directing the actress in the well-received London stage production of “Proof” guided Paltrow to a best actress Oscar in 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love.”

Extras include a behind-the-scenes “stage to screen” production featurette, a few deleted scenes and commentary from Madden.

“Zathura” (Sony, $29): Underrated fantasy film for kids based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg that tanked at the box office last November. Jon Favreau directed this fun ride about two squabbling brothers who find themselves in outer space when they play a vintage board game named Zathura that they find in the basement of their father’s house.

Extras include featurettes on the creation of the game and the use of miniatures as well as a look at the visual effects, the cast and a profile of Van Allsburg. Favreau and co-producer Peter Billingsley (who is best known as Ralphie from “A Christmas Story”) provide entertaining commentary.

“MirrorMask” (Sony, $27): Visually gorgeous and innovative fantasy from writer Neil Gaiman, director/designer Dave McKean and the Jim Henson Co. about a young woman (Stephanie Leonidas) who hates her life as a performer in her parents’ circus. When her mother (Gina McKee) falls seriously ill, the girl dreams she’s entered a surreal world ruled by a white queen and a black queen and inhabited by strange masked creatures.

The digital edition includes lengthy interviews with Gaiman and McKean, a look at the genesis of the project, a clever time-lapse look of one day on the set of the film and informative commentary from Gaiman and McKean.

What’s coming

Feb. 21: “Rent,” “North Country,” “Domino,” “The Weather Man,” “First Descent” and “Separate Lies.”

Feb. 28: “Walk the Line,” “Yours, Mine & Ours,” “Pride & Prejudice,” “The Ice Harvest,” “Where the Truth Lies” and “Three Extremes.”

March 7: “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” “Prime,” “Jarhead,” “Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Just Friends,” “Paper Clips.”