Another year is upon us alas. Did you know that marking December 31 as the end of the year has no basis in historical, astrological, celestial or lunar importance? It’s arbitrary. Kind of like the decision to release really bad TV shows one numb-skulling season at a time.

Dallas: The Complete Fourth Season (Warner) One of the finest self-referential jokes in the history of the medium is the fact that Bill from Freaks and Geeks is a huge Dallas fan. This is the “who shot JR” season. The A Team: Season Three (Universal) A career nadir and zenith intertwined. I’ll let you figure out which is which. Archie Bunker’s Place: The Complete First Season (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) Sad All in the Family sequel. Bojangles (Showtime) Gregory Hines vehicle about the subject of perhaps the most depressing 70s song ever “His dog up and died… up and died.”; Brown Bunny (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) The blowjob is real. The alleged talent of its recipient however, seems a bit of a dry-hump to me. Diff’rent Strokes: The Complete Second Season (Sony) Imagine the look on the faces of network executives when told their diminutive star would never grow up. Halleluljah kidney disease! Knight Rider, Season Three (Universal) There was a season three? Lust for Life (MGM) Kirk Douglas tears through the Van Gogh biopic to general acclaim. Midnight Blue (Volume 2) Porn Stars of the 70s (Blue Underground) One of those Manhattan cable shows that gave gritty Jew Yorker producer types a forum to dumb down what Lenny Bruce once wise-assed. My Big Fat Greek Wedding — DVD letterbox (IFC Films) My parent just loved it.; Trail of the Pink Panther (MGM)  Blake Edwards shame — an execrable cash-in on Sellars’ legacy, using discarded footage. We Were So Beloved Interesting sounding doc about the German Jews of Washington Heights (First Run) Gendernauts (First Run) Call me old fashioned but I’m not sure kids thrive with two moms (in the words of Woody Allen, few survive one) Gendernauts thinks otherwise.

Picks
Afro Promo (Other Cinema) A collection of black film trailers spanning 1946-76  — a crucial transformation in the depiction of African Americans on screen. Repo Man (Universal) The cult classic returns with a Harry Dean Stanton featurette “The Missing Scenes.” Hill Street Blues (FOX) The earnest cop dramedy still pretty much holds up. Shot in the Dark (MGM) Apparently Peter Sellars was a major league prick. Add his name to Chaplin’s in the pantheon of comedic genius/assholes. The Champ (MGM) 1931 tearjerker about a kid and a boxer. Nighty Night: The Complete Series 1 (Warner) Delightfully dark Britcom about perhaps the most self-centered woman ever to grace the telly. Red Dwarf V11 (Warner) Another Brit entry — this sci-fi comedy features an astronaut whose been in stasis for three million years and shares the ship with a hologram and a Little Richardesque half-man half beast. Hilarious. Sam Peckinpah’s, The Legendary Western Collection Four brainy shoot-em ups led by Pat Garret and Billy the Kid (Warner)