Series that you went into cold on DVD

Cafe Society
21

I’ve watched lots of series when they first aired ‘live’* on the tv including CHiPs, Hawaii Five-O (the original), Moonlighting, Deadwood, The Sopranos, The X-files, Red Dwarf, Hart to Hart, Twin Peaks, Friends, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder (Slackbladder :p), Married with Children, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Absolutely Fabulous, Neighbours, Quantum Leap, Fraiser, Cheers, Hill Street Blues, Fresh Prince, Golden Girls, the A-Team, Magnum, the Cosby Show, Only Fools and Horses, Spaced, Six Feet Under, The Office, Battlestar Galactica (the original), The Simpsons (not all of those), Father Ted, Prisoner: Cell Block H, The West Wing, Extras, Mr Bean, 'Allo 'Allo, Columbo, Lost, Northern Exposure, Da Ali G Show, Knight Rider … I could probably go on which is a little depressing; I used to watch too much tv.:eek:

I heard about ‘The Wire’ so got it and dropped it half way through episode 3. I’d just finished watching the Sopranos on dvd (after catching the first series on tv, years before) and must have been spoilt. I rarely watch tv now, anyway, as I think I’ve seen enough.

*In the UK

22

I bought the season 1 set of HBO’s Game of Thrones without seeing any episodes. though I may have watched clips on the net. I did read the books though, so I’m not sue if that counts.

Brian

23

The ones we own:

VHS - Red Dwarf. I had never heard of it, rarely watched PBS, and my (new at the time) boyfriend suggested I watch it, I wasn’t interested. I ended up watching all 8 seasons in less than 2 days. It’s still my favorite TV show ever and I have it on DVD and those original tapes that my boyfriend recorded.

VHS - Babylon 5. Another suggestion by boyfriend. We ended up getting all of that on DVD too and we still watch the entire run at least once a year.
DVD - Arrested Development, Captain Scarlet, Barney Miller, The Muppet Show. I had actually never even heard of the first 3 before my boyfriend insisted on buying the DVDs and I had heard of the Muppet Show but had never seen any of it.
Every single one of those shows, whether VHS or DVD had me hooked before the first episode ended.

Thanks to Netflix:
The Flash (don’t make fun), Tales of the Gold Monkey, Rosemary and Thyme, Midsomer Murders, Case Closed, Jonathan Creek, The Critic, The Young Ones, Father Ted.

24

Firefly

Farscape

Numb3rs

25

A bunch, usually because they go on sale for $10-15 and it’s hard to say no to that kind of deal. Off the top of my head:

Dexter
The Big Bang Theory
Breaking Bad
Dead Like Me
Sports Night
The Sopranos

26

Weeds. I had heard it was good and liked Mary-Louise Parker, so I rented the first season DVD. We finished the entire first season in two days and became major fans (though it started falling apart after they left Agrestic (shit) Majestic.

Not on DVD, but on Hulu: Misfits. The first two seasons were amazing.

27

Well, I guess there WAS something endearing about a guy coming to kill and/or rob you whistling “The Farmer in the Dell.” :cool:

I was sucked in immediately to The Wire reruns when I ran the first episode of the series On Demand. The opening scene is McNulty sitting on the steps with one of the street-level mopes in Barksdale’s crew. They were discussing the street name of a kid shot and killed earlier in the evening. The dead kid’s name was Snot Boogie.

Enjoy the opening scene of The Wire, Season 1, Episode 1.
OZ, i found the first season DVD set in the library.

The Sopranos I found searching for something to watch one night in HBO’s On Demand section on my cable. The Sopranos was already in its 4th season and I’d never watched it and barely recognized the title. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit I thought the show was about singers.

28

Someone loaned me the box of Firefly. Been hooked ever since.

Bought Season One of Justified on a whim at target. Fan for life.

Sam for Sons of Anarchy.

29

Old Adam-12 is the same way, at least for the San Fernando Valley. It’s amazing how much stuff I see on that show is still there. Dragnet is mostly Universal backlot, but you can play “Spot The Munster’s House.”

30

I’ve just put in the DVD of the original BBC series Quatermass and The Pit. I saw the Hammer Film a long time ago, but never the series that inspired it. I’ll have to come back later to give my impression.

31

Mercy
Trauma
October Road
What About Brian

…and I liked them in that order too.

32

I’ll assume “DVD” also includes Blu-Ray

I had seen a couple of episodes of Mad Men (very late to the party, like 2009 or 2010) and thought it was great. So I headed down to Best Buy to buy the first two seasons on Blu-Ray. While I was there, I was in a buying mood, and saw Breaking Bad, season one. I know absolutely nothing about Breaking Bad other than:

[ol]
[li]The lead character was the dad from Malcolm in the Middle (and I did like him there)[/li][li]The critics were all raving about it[/li][/ol]
So I bought it, and then it sat on my shelf for a week or two while I got through Seasons 1-2 of Mad Men (which were absolutely magnificient)

The next weekend, I finally peeled off the wrap of Season 1 of Breaking Bad, and said, “hey, let’s give this a shot”.

Holy…farking…sheet.

I was rapt from ep 1; but ep 3 ("…And The Bag’s In The River") had me absolutely pacing, gnawing my nails, terrified yet fascinated with the tension. I was fully hooked from then on.

Walt getting to know Krazy-8 in Jesse’s Aunt’s basement, bonding with him, then…well, you know. This was Krazy-8’s last episode.

Yeah, I should have been on this series earlier. But holy fark, what a magnificient series to stumble into late. So great.

33

Alias with Jennifer Garner. Several friends having been raving about it to me. I saw a used Season 1 on Ebay cheap and recently bought it. I’m through ep4 so far. It is a really good show. I can’t believe I never heard about it when it was on TV.

Clue me in, (no spoilers) does it jump the shark in the later seasons? Should I stop buying the dvds at a certain point?

Nice seeing that Jennifer had a really good career in acting before marrying Affleck and making babies. She really kicks ass in Alias.

34

The Battlestar Galactica remake, based on a friend’s recommendation. I caught up to the broadcasts in short order.

HBO’s Rome. Well worth the higher-than-average price that HBO discs usually command.

Deadwood. Also well worth it.

MASH*, based on a recommendation from someone wearing a MAS*H shirt. I never got her name. Great show.

Monk, which I enjoyed for two or three seasons. Then I lost interest.

Arrested Development didn’t grab me, and I only watched a few episodes. I intend to give it another chance someday, though.

Mad Men. Check plus.

Breaking Bad, if you count Netflix. I wish that Netflix would get more seasons of it.

35

Don’t know that it jumps the shark per se, but it did get a bit, shall we say “strange”? towards the end.

I’m waiting till I clear off a bit of my credit card so I can start buying Mad Men, I’d never seen it before until season 5 appeared on a channel I can watch, loved it.

36

Smallville. Saw an episode or 2 and bought Season 1. I wouldn’t say I was “red hot” about it, but I thought it was well done and bought several seasons’ worth.

Frasier. Again just casually familiar with it and got hooked. Great show, one of the best sitcoms ever IMO (despite Frasier and his brother somehow, who in real life wow would I hate).

37

New Tricks, British crime drama, top ratings over there for years. 3 old cops come out of retirement under a disgraced female Inspector to reopen cold cases. I love the various Brit crime dramas but had never heard of this one until someone I follow on Twitter mentioned writing an episode for it. They are working on Series 9 right now I believe, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

38

The first episode of Mad-Men I ever saw was the season 1 finale; that was enought to get me to buy the DVD set. The only other TV box sets I’ve purchased (as opposed to rented) cold are Clatterford (aka Jam & Jerusalem) because I’m a big fan of Dawn French & Jennifer Saunders (I didn’t realize they weren’t the main characters, but still loved the show) and Are You Being Served? Again! (aka Grace & Favour), becuase I’m a fan of the original series and it was on sale.

39

My wife and I were in a DVD store, and bought Wonderfalls based solely on the synopsis on the back. We’ve forced all of our friends to watch it since. It was only 13 episodes, but the story arc wrapped up nicely, making it feel like a finished piece, and just bizarre enough for our tastes.

40

I purchased the #2 and #3 releases of McHale’s Navy, and 2 discs into #2, starting on the 3rd disc, I’ve already taken a liking to it. It seems as if it will become a treasured favorite of mine.