It’s called “marathoning”: the practice of watching an entire television series start to finish, over a weekend, perhaps, sometimes with food and drink appropriate to the theme, on DVD. With these gift ideas, you can curl up with a fellow fan, commit to back-to-back episodes around the clock and set your own marathon pace. Each set offers extra features, and you don’t even need to be in training:
Saturday Night Live
The Complete First Season
Imagine a time when “Saturday Night Live” was actually funny – and totally novel. The first season – all 24 episodes from 1975 when John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman and Garret Morris debuted as the Not Ready for Primetime Players – is available on DVD at last, as an eight-disc set. With hosts including Richard Pryor and George Carlin and musical performances by Patti Smith, Simon & Garfunkel and Jimmy Cliff. $69.98.
Six Feet Under
The Complete Series
Dearly beloved, the grass-topped set of “Six Feet Under: The Complete Series” represents the season’s best-conceived DVD set packaging. The 63 episodes inside aren’t bad, either, thanks to creator Alan Ball and a fine cast including Peter Krause and Rachel Griffiths. The finale is arguably the best in recent TV history. In addition to commentaries and features, the set includes two soundtracks full of pleasing oddities. $279.99
M*A*S*H
The Martinis & Medicine Collection
Only the greatest anti-war treatise in pop culture history, this 36-disc “M*A*S*H” collection offers more than the TV classic. Additionally, the late Robert Altman’s 1970 movie is part of the deal, along with features and an unproduced episode script. $199.98
Homicide: Life on the Street
Complete Series Megaset
Andre Braugher and creator David Simon have gone on to possibly greater glory, but “Homicide: Life on the Street” remains their original, much lauded network TV classic. The 122 episodes are packaged with three “Law & Order” crossover episodes, plus the “Homicide” movie. $299.95
The West Wing
Complete Series Collection
“The West Wing” box set reveals screenwriter Aaron Sorkin at his most brilliant and, later, at his most frustrating. From 1999-2006, the series held hardcore fans rapt, although complaints about the weak 2003 season were spot on. With the usual features. $299.98
Alias
The Complete Collection
This set, which covers all five seasons, comes with a hardbound book purporting to make sense of the convoluted spy series. Jennifer Garner and her wigs are fun to watch, even if we’re confused about the plots. A secret compartment in the Rambaldi box – included! – offers an extra disc. $199.99
Edward R. Murrow
The Best of Person to Person
This set recalling the legendary newsman, hosted by CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer, features interviews with JFK, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Liberace. The three-disc set ($39.98) is not as profound as last year’s “The Edward R. Murrow Collection,” a four-disc set including live broadcasts from the London Blitz, the best of “See It Now,” his challenge of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, his debunking of the Red Scare and the landmark 1960 “Harvest of Shame.” $59.95.
Deadwood
The Complete Seasons 1 & 2
Viewers are immersed in the literally dirty and foul-mouthed world of the Dakota Territory in 1876 in this DVD set. “Deadwood” didn’t last long on HBO, but fans know those were a rich and glorious couple of seasons. The series comes in a six-disc set. Additionally, a nicely illustrated hardback book, “Deadwood: Stories of the Black Hills” (Bloomsbury), by series creator David Milch, offers discussions of the show’s themes – profanity, whiskey and sex – and actors’ views of their characters. DVDs, $199.92; hardcover book, $29.95
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
