Blockbusters and Classics Fill DVD Holiday Bag

With the release of the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD in September, videophiles can now watch all the great blockbusters of yesteryear at home in widescreen, surround-sound glory. The studios have been ransacking their vaults for the past few years to cash in on the home cinema craze, and for the 2004 holiday season, they're starting to stretch. What's on tap for the rest of this year?

For starters, a famous TV show about nothing, a host of "low" classics in the cartoon genre and "high" classics for the art house film crowd. All are available for preorder online at Amazon.com.

Start with Seinfeld, well, the first three seasons at least. In case you don't have time to catch the ubiquitous reruns in syndication, DVDs coming Nov. 23 will include audio commentaries from the cast, deleted scenes and outtakes along with those behind-the-scenes features that usually aren't worth watching but could be here.

Now, before you go tearing down to the local video store to buy the whole collection, remember that the series didn't hit its stride until the third season, so you may want to wait for better seasons to come, yada yada yada. If, by contrast, you treasure every episode (and feel like Jerry and the gang don't have enough of your dough), you can also get all three seasons in a special $120 package complete with a "limited edition" script and replica salt and pepper shakers from the diner.

Other TV shows making their DVD debuts in coming weeks include Tim Allen's Home Improvement, The Golden Girls, The Andy Griffith Show and Star Trek: The Original Series.

Among the smaller classics that deserve a place in the DVD libraries of discriminating cinema aficionados -- and at least a rental by all the rest of you movie hounds -- the studios will be issuing Fanny and Alexander, Ragtime and Short Cuts.

Fanny and Alexander is often considered Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's most accessible work, and it's funny, too. Ragtime, starring James Cagney and Elizabeth McGovern and directed by Milos Forman, is a great period piece about love and crime set in early 20th Century New York City. And Short Cuts is Robert Altman's downbeat star-studded ensemble drama based on short stories by Raymond Carver.