'Land of the Giants' Leads Aussie 'Unreal' Revival

Thanks to already highly regarded Australian DVD distributor/producer Madman Entertainment, recent statements on this site indicating the imminent demise of Unreal TV turn out to be premature. The exciting quantity (and quality) of  Madman U.S., U.K., and Aussie TV on DVD titles is breathing new life into this site (and is behind discovering the Australian URL for Unreal TV.)

One caveat is that some Madman titles require using an international DVD player in the U.S. The production descriptions list the format of the sets; those labelled either Region 1 or Region-free should play fine in a standard U.S. player. Your (sometimes humble) reviewer considers the $65 spent on an international Pioneer DVD player several years ago one of his best-ever purchases.

Unreal TV and Madman found each other through the recent review of the Madman DVD sets of the '60s U.S. fantasycom "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir." As that review explains, no U.S. company has ever released a DVD set of that really terrific series.

Poking around the Madman site soon reveals a plethora of other U.S. titles, such as seasons of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Murder, She Wrote." The Irwin Allen treasure trove is even more exciting.

This bonanza of entertainingly campy '60s scifi television series from the genius behind "Lost in Space" includes first and second season sets of the Allen series "The Land of the Giants." As the title suggests, the concept of this series is that a Robinson family style (complete with a Dr. Smith type character) group become "lost" in the titular hostile environment after the airplane/space craft hybrid vehicle in which they are travelling crashes. Their related challenges involve obtaining the materials needed to repair the craft and avoiding imprisonment and other challenges associated in finding the people and everything else around them absurdly supersized.

The following clip, courtesy of YouTube, of network television promos for "Giants" nicely conveys the fun and drama of the series,

The, now rare and outrageously priced, U.S. complete series DVD release of "Giants" is on the list of Top 10 all-time favorite sets in the Unreal TV library. However, the Madman sets comes at a much lower price than the one paid for that version and seems every bit of good despite not coming packaged in a replica cage from the series. This is one of many examples of the advantages of buying these sets overseas. It is also fully expected that future Madman releases of DVD series will, like "Muir," be of sets that have not been released in the U.S.

Anyone with questions or comments regarding this new chapter in the history of Unreal TV or Irwin Allen shows is welcome to email me. You can also connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.