DVDS OFFER TV FANS WIDE WORLD OF SERIES.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

From Hawkeye and Trapper on ``M*A*S*H'' to Ozzy and his clan on ``The Osbournes,'' a wave of television shows from past and present will hit store shelves in the coming months in DVD format at a dizzying pace, giving the booming home-video industry yet another major boost.

Industry leaders said Thursday that boxed sets of TV shows are now dominating sales charts in what already has been a breakthrough year for DVD sales. Everyone from baby boomers nostalgic for the antics of Lucy Ricardo and the adventures of Mary and Rhoda to rabid fans of more current shows like ``The Simpsons,'' ``Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ``Sex and the City'' are building collections of their favorites.

``When we designed DVD, we were thinking movies, but the more you think about it, it also lends itself to television because you can put the whole first season on two discs or multiple episodes on a DVD because of the compression,'' said Benjamin S. Feingold, president of Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.

What makes the DVD sets more appealing to consumers than VHS boxed sets, industry experts say, is not only the improved visual and sound quality and bonus materials, but the shelf-space factor: An entire series that would have taken a few feet on VHS takes only a few inches on DVD.

The DVDs also give consumers the opportunity to see entire seasons of pay-cable shows such as ``The Sopranos'' and ``Sex in the City,'' which receive widespread media attention and multiple Emmy nominations but have not been seen by approximately 70 percent of the public.

The DVD industry, only 5 years old, is poised to sell its billionth DVD this summer, reaching that milestone in roughly half the time it took VHS. More than 16,000 titles are now available in the DVD format.

The new wave of television shows on DVD is far-ranging. For example: Fox Home Entertainment is releasing the first season of ``24'' on DVD before the series even starts its second season, while the classic ``Mary Tyler Moore Show'' is going on DVD for the first time more than 30 years after it first aired.

Other recent or future titles include ``The Sopranos: The Complete Third Season,'' ``The Outer Limits,'' ``Farscape,'' ``Stargate SG-1,'' ``Dark Shadows'' ``The X-Files: Season Six,'' ``Malcolm in the Middle: Season One'' and a DVD collection of the short-lived Fox series ``Get A Life'' starring Chris Elliot.

``Now the whole barn door is open and everybody is putting everything out,'' said Scott Hettrick, editor of Video Business, an industry trade publication. ``This is all found money for the studios, a very lucrative way for them to exploit the catalog of TV series sitting on their shelves.''

Warner Home Video has enjoyed major success with its DVD set of the first season of ``Friends'' and on tap for future DVD release are the second season of ``Friends,'' (Sept. 3) ``The West Wing'' and ``South Park'' as well as lesser-known series with strong followings - such as ``Smallville.''

``This thing has really taken off over the last 18 months brought on by HBO with 'The Sopranos.''' said Doug Wadleigh, Warner Home Video's vice president of special interests. ``We followed up with 'Friends' and this showed what the market for episodic (content) could be. A lot of studios have really jumped on the bandwagon and released a lot of content into the market fairly quickly.''

Universal Studios Home Video announced this week that the complete first season of the 1970s cop series ``Baretta,'' starring current murder suspect Robert Blake, will be released on DVD in October along with a separate ``Best of Baretta'' DVD. In addition, the studio will unveil a six-disc set of the first season of ``Law & Order,'' now in its 13th season on television.

Universal also disclosed plans to release the following shows sometime this year or next: ``Battlestar Galactica,'' ``Sliders,'' ``Quantum Leap,'' ``Dragnet,'' ``Emergency,'' ``Magnum P.I.'' and ``The Rockford Files.''

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment recently entered the television DVD fray with the release of ``All in the Family,'' ``Sanford and Son'' and ``The Jeffersons.'' It will release early seasons of ``Mad About You'' in October and, later, ``Dawson's Creek.''

Reality television shows are also fast becoming DVD favorites, with the first two seasons of ``Survivor'' receiving DVD treatment. Last month, Miramax Films entered into a multimillion-dollar deal for a DVD/VHS release of MTV's ``The Osbournes.'' Also on the reality front, Warner Home Video is releasing ``The Best of The Bachelor'' next month, which Wadleigh said is the studio's way of continuing to experiment with this growing genre.

``TV episodic is really an uncharted territory,'' he said. ``We are putting our toe into the water to see what consumer reaction will be. 'The Bachelor' falls into that. It has tremendous audience, strong ratings week after week and what we love on the DVD side is that it had a ton of footage never broadcast to viewers.''

What the studios have quickly discovered is that any show with a strong following makes a good candidate for the DVD treatment with fans of those shows seemingly eager to own every single moment of every single episode.

``Obviously, you are looking for a program that has broad mass appeal like 'Friends' and 'The West Wing,''' Wadleigh said. ``But there are others that don't attract such a large audience like 'Babylon 5' where the audience is very passionate. You see that in some of our competitors like 'Dune,' 'Farscape' and 'Buffy.' All have proven you can take programs and make them into a successful DVD franchise.''

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TV FAVES OLD AND NEW ON DVD

SOURCE: Daily News Research

Jon Gerung/Staff Artist