On DVD: 4 Classic Television Series That Should Get a Second Life

Two of this week's classic TV releases on DVD truly span the spectrum from sublime to ridiculous, but they also whet the appetite for the many boob-tube treasures that still aren't available to a wide audience. Which long-forgotten television series should wind up with their own collector's edition boxed sets? Click ahead to find out.

Coming in under the "sublime" header is Evening Primrose (E1 Entertainment), a cult musical that's been rabidly awaited for years because it boasts a score composed for television by Stephen Sondheim. Falling after the unsuccessful Broadway run of Sondheim's Anyone Can Whistle and before his smash success with Company, Evening Primrose offers several sublime compositions and a lead couple winningly portrayed by Anthony Perkins (who would later collaborate with Sondheim on the script of The Last of Sheila) and Charmian Carr (who gets an "Introducing" credit here despite having played the oldest daughter in The Sound of Music a few years earlier).

The story -- about a department store where people hide away from the real world by pretending to be mannequins -- is something of a trifle, but with songs like "Take Me to the World," who cares? This lovingly-curated DVD comes with a very informative booklet (in which Sondheim obsesses over all of the piece's minor flaws) and revealing interviews with Carr and director Paul Bogart.

Firmly in the "ridiculous" camp is Legends of the Super Heroes, available exclusively at WarnerArchive.com. These two live-action prime-time specials (produced by Hanna-Barbera) have been long sought-after by Gen X comic-book fans, but they're better viewed as a nostalgic memory.

Granted, there's an undeniable appeal to watching actors dressed up as characters from DC Comics -- Superman and Wonder Woman were spared, but Batman, Hawkman, Black Canary, and an unfortunate made-for-TV creation called "Ghetto Man" are but a handful of the heroes and villains on display here -- but the end result is one of those only-in-the-'70s TV concoctions like The Paul Lynde Halloween Special or The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. Which will make this DVD must viewing for those with the right temperament, but a chore for the uninitiated.

The release of almost anything from the TV vaults, however, should be celebrated, in the hopes that we'll also get to see:

Batman: Yes, you can see Adam West and Burt Ward goof around as the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder on Legends of the Super Heroes on DVD, but you still can't get the iconic 1960s TV show where they first donned the masks. Rumor has it that ongoing rights issues between Warner Bros. (who owns the characters) and Fox (who produced the series) have kept this one in DVD limbo.

ABC Stage 67: The ambitious weekly series that gave us Evening Primrose also delivered the Emmy-winning A Christmas Memory (written and narrated by Truman Capote), documentaries about Bob Dylan and "Sex in the Sixties," an original Jule Styne-Betty Comden-Adolph Green musical, a production of Cocteau's The Human Voice starring Ingrid Bergman, and many more.

American Playhouse: This long-running PBS series featured some of the finest acting, writing, and directing talent of the late 20th century, with unforgettable broadcasts like John Malkovich and Gary Sinise in Sam Shepard's True West, and Susan Sarandon and Christopher Walken as shy theater nerds setting off sparks in Kurt Vonnegut's Who Am I This Time?, the latter directed by Jonathan Demme. But perhaps most pertinent to the now is the stunning Playhouse adaptation of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, a haunting filmed version of the Ntozake Shange "choreo-poem" that does everything right, which puts it in sharp contrast to the upcoming Tyler Perry disastro-palooza.

Out to Lunch: This barely-remembered 1974 special unleashed the casts of Sesame Street and The Electric Company onto the set of the ABC Evening News. Despite feature the Muppets (and guest stars like Carol Burnett, Elliot Gould, and Barbara Eden), it's been impossible to find for the last 36 years. But seven-year-old me remembers it being hilarious -- and even better than Legends of the Super Heroes was for 12-year-old me.